Episode 5 sets the stage for what's to come next for Jess and Mister Pig. This blog post especially will contain a lot of notes on the changes the anime made from the novel, and there may be some vague future volume spoilers that hopefully aren't too apparent. There wasn't much new news announced this week, so the news section will mostly contain comments about the series' recent merch announcements and this episode's PV.
Episode 5 Thoughts
The episode opens with Jess, Celes, and Mister Pig arriving at the monastery ruins. They're greeted by the handsome guy that looked at Mister Pig last episode, and he suddenly lashes out at a hecklepon that was in the nearby vicinity, killing it. This quick battle scene was surprisingly well animated, so I'm quite hopeful for some of the future action scenes.
After the opening, we're formally introduced to the guy, whose name is Nott. He forces Jess to take off her green scarf and helps her put on the skin-tone-colored scarf he brought to make it easier to hide her silver collar. During this time, Mister Pig monologues a bit and has Jess and Celes agree to keep his identity a secret.
Following this, Jess enters the ruins alone and leaves her bouquet next to the broken statue located in the corner of the monastery before praying.
The scenes and main dialogue up to this point in the episode are mostly faithful to the novel, but they've been rearranged and some monologues/small actions have been cut in a way that makes the mystery aspect take a backseat. Here's a rundown of the changes:
- Nott originally followed the group and meets them at the forest trail entrance (which leads to the monastery), where he rudely makes Jess change her scarf. He also acts more obvious as someone who's fallen in love with Jess at first sight, as his eyes widened and his face blushed upon first seeing Jess' face, and he turns away when Jess looks back at him (this was shifted to after he helped Jess put on the new scarf, and didn't feel as natural of a trope).
- After changing Jess' scarf, Nott then leads the group to the Bapsas monastery ruins, where Mister Pig's observation monologue about the ruins was cut. Given that this won't be addressed, I suppose that's reasonable (at the cost of making Mister Pig feel less thoughtful). That said, I do like the anime's addition of the broken statue, as it does have some implications in the near future.
- Finally, the scene between Nott and the hecklepon occurs right as he's about to lead the group to the spring for Jess to wash Mister Pig. The fight was well adapted, but the anime did leave out Nott slotting in the red ristas for his twin daggers before engaging, and his comment that he always kills a hecklepon when he sees one; Mister Pig's monologue was also cut short, as he thinks Nott is bad news due to how he took out his anger on a supposedly harmless animal (the hecklepon) and deftly killed it, and then wonders if Nott holds a grudge against them.
There's not much to say with the Mister Pig brushing scene aside from how funny Matsuoka sounds, so let's move on to when the group returns to the inn.
The dinner scene with Jess, Nott, and Mister Pig on the side is handled well, with that element of mystery making a return as the viewers are given a few more pieces of the puzzle to the world.
After the evening scene with Nott locking the door and leaving Mister Pig outside, which I will not be commenting on, we get a quick scene adapted from a short story involving Celes lamenting about something as she places her lips on the mug that presumably Nott used earlier. It's an interesting way of shift our attention towards Celes and really begin characterizing her for the rest of the episode.
The essence of Celes heartfelt conversation with Mister Pig was retained from the novel, and I really enjoyed the slow-paced bgm being played here too; there were a couple small changes which I think were for the better in terms of the seriousness of the mood, but I very much disliked how they chose to reveal the truth surrounding Ys. Instead of Mister Pig reflecting on the conversations and events that he's observed since arriving at the village, which led to him deducing everything, the anime decided to have Celes deliver the important points herself. This was a perfect time to show off Mister Pig's intellect via a solo monologue, but the anime chose to sacrifice his characterization in favor of clarity to the viewers. One thing that did surprise me though, is the fact that the anime chose to show Ys' appearance during Celes' explanation; maybe it's just because I read the novel, but this has some significant story relevance which doesn't get addressed until a number of novels in, so...
Aside from this, there was another short monologue that was cut in which, after returning to Jess' room, Mister Pig starts strategizing. I feel like this would've been a nice, thought-provoking moment for viewers to wonder what he's planning.
The rest of the episode follows the novel fairly closely, so there's little more to write about, but I'll say this again: Matsuoka really knows how to vocalize Mister Pig's emotions where there's a lack of animation, especially when he had that slightly spiteful interaction with Jess when she woke up the next day.
News Update Section
Looks like the release date for the final light novel volume of Heat the Pig Liver has been announced. It's titled "Heat the Pig Liver (the nth time)" 「豚のレバーは加熱しろ（ｎ回目）」 and the limited edition will come with a B2 tapestry of a color illustration from volume 8. It's planned for a Jan 10 release date, just before the anime wraps up.
The limited edition preorder for vol 1 of the blu-ray/dvd release has closed, but the regular version is still available. If you want the all volume purchase bonus, you'll have to purchase the ¥7,700 / ¥6,600 version for the redeemption codes (you cannot mix and match between blu-ray and dvd codes, and it's limited to addresses in Japan, but you should be able to use a forwarding service), but if you just want to own the blu-ray/dvd you can order the cheaper ¥5,945 / ¥5,100 version. (Using Amazon JP links because of ease of international shipping)
The OP and ED album releases are less than 2 weeks away now (both on Nov 15). I'm sure some of you have heard of ASCA before, but Myuk only debuted in recent years and is very talented, so I recommend showing your support for her in any way that you can! You can find her covers on youtube, and she posts pretty frequently on Twitter X.
The december 2023 issue of Megami Magazine that went on sale on October 30 contains a pinup poster of Jess-taso.
This episode's preview dialogue between Mister Pig and Jess is quite funny, with Jess asking Mister Pig what "薄い本" meant from the previous episode, and concluding with her wanting to read one with the two of them as the subject. The term is a euphemism for doujinshi (mainly R18 ones). Also, the way Mister Pig says this episode's title (which is also the novel's chapter 2 title) with a stutter is very amusing.
The anime site was updated after this episode aired to include Rossi under the character list, and he's voiced by 高橋伸也 (Takahashi Shinya). He didn't get much of the spotlight this episode, but you'll see more of him soon enough!
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