Crash Station
Member
Oh wait, I misread your post. I was thinking of... another mindblowing story arc.
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Summer 2012 Anime |OT3| Where All the Waifus Are Made Up and the Points Don't Matter
- Thread starter Branduil
- Start date
- Status
Oh wait, I misread your post. I was thinking of... another mindblowing story arc.
Humanity Has Declined End + Retrospective
Ultimately I found the ending to add something more personal to the entire show that sort of makes the whole thing easier to relate to. Now drawn in, I not only feel closer to the show but like I could get something back out of rewatching episodes of it, which isn't something I can typically say about any sort of show. The looping nature however adds something more substantive to the entire affair, and the sizable chunks of information that have been left blank leave something available to ponder over for those repeat visits.
I'm most pleased with how this show turned out. It's quite unique both visually and in style while coming packed surprisingly with endearing characters and relatable themes.
A rather fascinating show, somewhat unbounded by subject matter as it flirts around with all sorts of topics with more of a focus on tone as a unifying theme. And really, what a wonderful tone it is. The show is dark without ever being vulgar, absurd at times while indulging in a very piercing and analytical humor that offers both broad and narrowly focused satire.
Ultimately I found the ending to add something more personal to the entire show that sort of makes the whole thing easier to relate to. Now drawn in, I not only feel closer to the show but like I could get something back out of rewatching episodes of it, which isn't something I can typically say about any sort of show. The looping nature however adds something more substantive to the entire affair, and the sizable chunks of information that have been left blank leave something available to ponder over for those repeat visits.
I'm most pleased with how this show turned out. It's quite unique both visually and in style while coming packed surprisingly with endearing characters and relatable themes.
They just keep coming.
Hellsing321
Member
Chi's Sweet Home 1-18
Mother of god! Something so stupidly adorable surely can't be good for your health. *keeps watching*
Mother of god! Something so stupidly adorable surely can't be good for your health. *keeps watching*
Natsuyuki Rendezvous 5
This is such a weird request made by Rokka.
What arc were you thinking of?
This is such a weird request made by Rokka.
What arc were you thinking of?
Crash Station
Member
Agreed. The bluntness of twisted things along with the MC's attitude towards everything made the show a nice and pleasant watch. I want more fairy hijinks.
Humanity Has Declined 12 END
An incredibly funny, crazy, disturbing and yet ultimately touching finale for this fantastic series. There really isn't a single episode of this show I didn't enjoy, although I certainly enjoyed some more than others (1-2, 7, 9-12). I certainly can't wait for the BD bonus episodes.
An incredibly funny, crazy, disturbing and yet ultimately touching finale for this fantastic series. There really isn't a single episode of this show I didn't enjoy, although I certainly enjoyed some more than others (1-2, 7, 9-12). I certainly can't wait for the BD bonus episodes.
hosannainexcelsis
Member
I think it's footage from the actual arcade game.
So brave.
hosannainexcelsis
Member
Brave, insane. Same difference.
Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
Jinrui sounds like everything I wanted to get from Binbougami. If only nanoripe didn't make cheese out of my ear wax... 
Ultimadrago
Member
Crash Station
Member
Jinrui sounds like everything I wanted to get from Binbougami. If only nanoripe didn't make cheese out of my ear wax...
I hope you aren't dropping Binbougami before watching episode 7.
Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
okay fine one more episode
Hyouka fin-
however I think she was the weakest of the bunch. Chitanda as a character is fairly interesting to analyze because I remember some criticism of her character was that she was a Mary Sue. I definitely don't think that's the case as the show does ultimately point out her strength being a character flaw, that of her being an airhead. She really fit the role of the joke character in a way in that the staff was overblowing her curiosity in order to make a laugh. I would have liked to seen more of her serious side, that we can see in episode 20/21. Oreki is probably the character that has demonstrated the most growth in the show, being that of a loafer to somebody who actually participates in society. I'm not sure if I like the author's general message in his character though. I also wish Oreki was more fleshed out as the stuff in the Film arc was fantastic and I would have liked to see more on the part of him being knocked down emotionally. The show did a wonderful job depicting both the subtle changes as well as the bigger psychology components of the leads. I thought the side-characters were okay but the bulk of the show was geared towards the quartet.
The visuals were fantastic and probably the best I'll ever see out of a television series. The extreme attention to detail, subtle lighting, interesting visual monologues, down to earth backdrops, and great use of DOF made this a wonder to watch. I am curious as to why they seemingly put forth such an insane effort on this show but it ultimately doesn't matter. The animators did a great job and this is ultimately something they should be very proud of. There were no dips in the animation level and it was consistent all the way through. There was little CG or visual shortcuts that I was aware of, something this forum loves to nitpick about. I also think some of the storyboarding was amazing as well, especially in episode 21.
As for the music itself, it was competent I guess. There aren't any tracks that really stick out in my memory in either a positive or negative manner. This is something of a personal preference but I prefer soundtracks that stick out on their own, such as the music in the recent Tron.
In short, I think this was a fantastic series that was weighed down by one thing, the mysteries. KyoAni did their damn best to make them interesting but there are only so many things you can do to spice up a teacher screwing something up in their notebook or why a teacher flipflopped between liking helicopters or not. It's not something I can recommend due to the extremely slow pace to anyone new in the medium but I think it's a masterstudy in a lot of areas.
A while ago, I stated that the directing in Hyouka was average, I was wrong on that. The directing has been pretty exceptional mostly in the aspect of subtlety. While other shows would have characters come out and state what their feelings, KyoAni instead used visual direction to represent that. It did what a visual medium is supposed to do. The show was very mellow in nature but compared to K-ON, I think this was handled in a better manner. I do think the show had flaws but it's relatively minor in the end. The pacing definitely lead to the slow side and there were certainly a few episodes that bored me out of my mind(6,7, and 18 stand out), but it was fine.
The biggest I have with the issue is the banality of the mysteries of themselves. They were either overblown or so miniscule in premise that it really hurt a good chunk of the show. The three that I thought were handled fairly well were the film arc, school festival arc, and the Valentine's Day arc. In all three though of these though, I was less interested in the mystery itself and more the consequences in regards to how it affected the characters. That's particularly why I don't like a lot of these stand-alone episodes in that the mystery itself is fairly boring and not only that, it didn't have an impact on the characters themselves. I think if there was a stronger effort to tie an emotional core to the mysteries themselves, I would have been more accepting of the anti-climatic mysteries. Now you could say that many of life's mysteries are boring in of themselves, it doesn't necessarily make it interesting to watch. I also think there was some overexplaining on the part of the mystery reveals, leading to rather boring segments which were also fairly obvious. A perfect example of that was in Hyouka 21
where Oreki took the time out to explain the whole situation even though it was obvious what had occurred. I thought this ruined the mood which had been building up.
As for the main characters, I thought they were fine I guess. Satoshi was probably the most interesting character of the group in that he did have serious emotional flaws and the show did a fairly good job at demonstrating them. I think the tragedy of his character is something that many people can relate to and I did like how the show took an extremely realistic, and somewhat sad, take on his issue. Mayaka wasn't that interesting of a character to me as it seems we're missing chunks of her backstory that explain her already present relationship to the two main leads. The School Festival Arc did atleast give some shades to her character
in that her aggressive behaviour also bites her ass
The visuals were fantastic and probably the best I'll ever see out of a television series. The extreme attention to detail, subtle lighting, interesting visual monologues, down to earth backdrops, and great use of DOF made this a wonder to watch. I am curious as to why they seemingly put forth such an insane effort on this show but it ultimately doesn't matter. The animators did a great job and this is ultimately something they should be very proud of. There were no dips in the animation level and it was consistent all the way through. There was little CG or visual shortcuts that I was aware of, something this forum loves to nitpick about. I also think some of the storyboarding was amazing as well, especially in episode 21.
As for the music itself, it was competent I guess. There aren't any tracks that really stick out in my memory in either a positive or negative manner. This is something of a personal preference but I prefer soundtracks that stick out on their own, such as the music in the recent Tron.
In short, I think this was a fantastic series that was weighed down by one thing, the mysteries. KyoAni did their damn best to make them interesting but there are only so many things you can do to spice up a teacher screwing something up in their notebook or why a teacher flipflopped between liking helicopters or not. It's not something I can recommend due to the extremely slow pace to anyone new in the medium but I think it's a masterstudy in a lot of areas.
Chet Rippo
Member
Binbougami ga! 9
Well, I'm glad they didn't try to make these two halves into full episodes by themselves. No weird melodrama either, so it was good. Momiji's friend is so much cooler than her. Definitely the most episodic feeling episode so far, but I think that's ok.
She finally made it!!
Stop being so moe Ranmaru.
Sleeve ripping not included.
Well, I'm glad they didn't try to make these two halves into full episodes by themselves. No weird melodrama either, so it was good. Momiji's friend is so much cooler than her. Definitely the most episodic feeling episode so far, but I think that's ok.
She finally made it!!
:cajun
Crash Station
Member
That was the first episode I found genuinely unsettling. One of the reason I loved the Krieg arc is it had not one but two events to change my opinion of the series.
Interesting.
Sanji's skeleton creeped me the fuck out too.
Crash Station
Member
With how massive the cast is, it's hard to just focus on Luffy. I think there's a good balance, which is why even Luffy haters can enjoy the series.
Though there is an extended period of time much later on where Luffy is the main focus, but most people that didn't already kind of like him by that point.
This is the arc that started to make One Piece good.
This is the arc that turned me over after the boring Usopp arc. I feel sad when people give up on One Piece before reaching Baratie.
I would like to revise an earlier statement. Jun Fukuyama is not just ready for Chunibyo. He is SUPER ready. And so are the four female leads.
(Incidentally, this picture and the previous one are from a preview event for the show in Kyoto last night.)
I can't help but laugh at Fukuyama every time I see this image.
Liking the new avatar /XX/.
I'm not following this show but admit to watching this new ending solely because of seeing who was involved here.
I'm not following this show but admit to watching this new ending solely because of seeing who was involved here.
A thousand nerds just cried themselves to sleep.
La storia della Arcana Famiglia 12 (END):
Twelve weeks ago, this show began by promising the battle tournament to end all tournaments. The stakes were high--Felicita, the protagonist, had to win the tournament in order to avoid being forcibly married off to the victor--and the show promised an abundance of well-dressed dudes with crazy powers desperately fighting each other in round after bloody round for the right to rule the damned MAGICAL ANIME MAFIA and to marry the don's daughter. I mean--an anime that's nothing but one long tournament arc--how freaking awesome does that sound? Well, there was just one problem with all of this after the promising first episode:
the tournament didn't begin in the second episode.
or the third.
Or the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, or eleventh.
But I held out hope. Every week, I told myself that this could be the week that the show turns itself around and becomes the furiously boiling cauldron of raw shounen passion that I just knew that it could be if it would only begin the damned tournament.
Instead, the show continued to veer in the most distant direction possible from what it had initially presented itself as--after each week with no tournament, it became increasingly clear that Arcana Famiglia was not going to be about fights, or even about the central conflict instigated in the first episode by the protagonist and her father's decree. Instead, is was a parade.
A parade of bishounens.
An interminable, agonizingly dull, insipid, lamely-pandering, creatively bankrupt, tedious and meandering parade of bishounens. The show is, in fact, a reverse harem, and while I quickly accepted that it would be fine to devote three or four episodes to fleshing out the participants in the tournament so that the battles would not exist in a vacuum without explanations for powers, personalities and motivations for the characters, and a sense for the favorability of their respective relationships with the protagonist and their potential wife-to-be, the character establishment phase did not end.
And not only did it not end, but it went at the pace of one character per episode.
And not only did it go at the pace of one character per episode, but the episodes served only to illustrate extremely simplistic archetypical qualities of the characters' one-dimensional personalities that were fully obvious within seconds of those characters' respective debuts in the first episode.
You see, there's Liberta. He's has the personality of a typical shounen protagonist, vacillating between wild boyish energy and determination as circumstances dictate. There's Nova--he's the serious one. Debito? Sarcastic and worldly. Pace really likes to eat. Gioli is a mad scientist. All of these facts took entire episodes to establish, and furthermore were established through the most utterly mundane means possible--one episode was devoted to Felicita and the boys chasing a cat. One episode was devoted to everyone playing with orphans. One episode was devoted to harvesting herbs in the forest.
After several episodes of this, given the dull characters and plot, the series became difficult to watch. Extremely difficult, even. I was severely tested. Even twenty-four minutes a week can become a long time when you're slogging through some of the most hellishly vapid brain-numbing ennui ever digitally inked and thrown on television. But I never gave up hope.
Not even when the plot suddenly shifted to some bullshit about homunculi.
Not even when the show tried to gin up drama at the last minute by
.
Now that was some shit.
But it's over now, and you know why?
Because now, it's Episode 12.
The final episode.
And after my titanic feat of perseverance, it's finally time to reap my reward, because, at long last:
IT'S
TIME
FOR
THA MOTHAFUCKIN'
A WHOLE BATTLE SHOUNEN TOURNAMENT ARC CRAMMED INTO A SINGLE EPISODE. THAT JUST MEANS IT'S GOING TO BE TWELVE TIMES AS AMAZING AND ACTION-PACKED AS IT WOULD HAVE BEEN IF IT WAS SPREAD OUT OVER THE SERIES, RIGHT? RIGHT?!?!?!?!?
So, immediately as the episode begins:
They're jumping straight into this thing. Hellz yeah. This is going to be pure excitement. Three months of pent-up anticipation releases NOW. Onto the battles. Surely the other eleven episodes have been excruciatingly pedestrian in their animation so that they can make this episode an unparalleled feast of sweet sakuga. There's no way that they're going to let me down. I've been faithful.
Finally, the first battle. Felicita vs. Debito. Guns vs. knives! Classic! Oh man, it's beginning. WHOAAAAAA-
Wait. Th..........that was it? They skipped the entire fight? Well...uhh...I guess Debito wasn't exactly presented as one of the more promising candidates for Felicita's hasubando, so I guess it's okay if they skip his battle for comic relief. He was kind of a dick anyway.
Oh, okay, here we go. Pace's up next. This fight's gonna--
Uhh...okay, so they did it twice. Are we at least going to get one fi--
...
Well, guess what guys, I have no memory of your fight either because THE SHOW DIDN'T FUCKING SHOW IT.
bu....bubu....this is the Arcana Duello. The promised day. How could this happen? I don't understand. This was to be my recompense for the other eleven episodes of misery. Surely, surely, surely everything's still going to pan out somehow. One impressive fight scene at least. Please?
Oh, it looks like Liberta and Nova are going to fight. This'll be good at least, right? I mean, the show basically telegraphed this moment ten episodes ahead of time. They have the closest relationships with Felicita, they're the two prettiest boys in the show, they're rivals, both have a MUST BECOME STRONGER thing going on. And this is their dramatic moment--they both love Felicita and want to marry her, and it's finally the moment where they put their strength on the line and only one can advance. The tension! The turmoil in Felicita's heart. This clash of swords can only turn into something epic--
WAIT WHAT WAS THAT FLASH OF LIGHT WHAT'S GOING ON WHY IS EVERYONE SUDDENLY IN A BEDROOM
this can't be happening
the Arcana Duello is over and we DIDN'T EVEN GET TO SEE A SINGLE FIGHT ALL OF THE WAY THROUGH?
no, show, you can't do this to me. You just can't. I waited three months. I never stopped having faith. This is just too cruel. I mean, there are only a few minutes left but there's something left, right? I mean, Felicita won the Duello basically unopposed. She's now the Dona of the Arcana Famiglia. That means she chooses her husband now, right? I mean, the show has made it abundantly clear, now more than ever, that it gave zero fucks about the Arcana Duello in the first place and it was just a shitty reverse harem.
So, we at least get resolution to that, right? That one tiny consolation amidst the massive disappointment?
In sum, this show:
yeah...
Twelve weeks ago, this show began by promising the battle tournament to end all tournaments. The stakes were high--Felicita, the protagonist, had to win the tournament in order to avoid being forcibly married off to the victor--and the show promised an abundance of well-dressed dudes with crazy powers desperately fighting each other in round after bloody round for the right to rule the damned MAGICAL ANIME MAFIA and to marry the don's daughter. I mean--an anime that's nothing but one long tournament arc--how freaking awesome does that sound? Well, there was just one problem with all of this after the promising first episode:
the tournament didn't begin in the second episode.
or the third.
Or the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, or eleventh.
But I held out hope. Every week, I told myself that this could be the week that the show turns itself around and becomes the furiously boiling cauldron of raw shounen passion that I just knew that it could be if it would only begin the damned tournament.
Instead, the show continued to veer in the most distant direction possible from what it had initially presented itself as--after each week with no tournament, it became increasingly clear that Arcana Famiglia was not going to be about fights, or even about the central conflict instigated in the first episode by the protagonist and her father's decree. Instead, is was a parade.
A parade of bishounens.
An interminable, agonizingly dull, insipid, lamely-pandering, creatively bankrupt, tedious and meandering parade of bishounens. The show is, in fact, a reverse harem, and while I quickly accepted that it would be fine to devote three or four episodes to fleshing out the participants in the tournament so that the battles would not exist in a vacuum without explanations for powers, personalities and motivations for the characters, and a sense for the favorability of their respective relationships with the protagonist and their potential wife-to-be, the character establishment phase did not end.
And not only did it not end, but it went at the pace of one character per episode.
And not only did it go at the pace of one character per episode, but the episodes served only to illustrate extremely simplistic archetypical qualities of the characters' one-dimensional personalities that were fully obvious within seconds of those characters' respective debuts in the first episode.
You see, there's Liberta. He's has the personality of a typical shounen protagonist, vacillating between wild boyish energy and determination as circumstances dictate. There's Nova--he's the serious one. Debito? Sarcastic and worldly. Pace really likes to eat. Gioli is a mad scientist. All of these facts took entire episodes to establish, and furthermore were established through the most utterly mundane means possible--one episode was devoted to Felicita and the boys chasing a cat. One episode was devoted to everyone playing with orphans. One episode was devoted to harvesting herbs in the forest.
After several episodes of this, given the dull characters and plot, the series became difficult to watch. Extremely difficult, even. I was severely tested. Even twenty-four minutes a week can become a long time when you're slogging through some of the most hellishly vapid brain-numbing ennui ever digitally inked and thrown on television. But I never gave up hope.
Not even when the plot suddenly shifted to some bullshit about homunculi.
Not even when the show tried to gin up drama at the last minute by
making the don of the Arcana Famiglia terminally ill with magical wasting sickness, revealing that Felicita had the power to save him but was unaware of her power due to MAGIC REASONS, having her lose her memory in the process of her attempt to save him, and then revealing that, after the "resolution" of this story arc, her magic actually wasn't strong enough after all and that he was STILL ACTUALLY DYING
Now that was some shit.
But it's over now, and you know why?
Because now, it's Episode 12.
The final episode.
And after my titanic feat of perseverance, it's finally time to reap my reward, because, at long last:
IT'S
TIME
FOR
THA MOTHAFUCKIN'
A WHOLE BATTLE SHOUNEN TOURNAMENT ARC CRAMMED INTO A SINGLE EPISODE. THAT JUST MEANS IT'S GOING TO BE TWELVE TIMES AS AMAZING AND ACTION-PACKED AS IT WOULD HAVE BEEN IF IT WAS SPREAD OUT OVER THE SERIES, RIGHT? RIGHT?!?!?!?!?
So, immediately as the episode begins:
They're jumping straight into this thing. Hellz yeah. This is going to be pure excitement. Three months of pent-up anticipation releases NOW. Onto the battles. Surely the other eleven episodes have been excruciatingly pedestrian in their animation so that they can make this episode an unparalleled feast of sweet sakuga. There's no way that they're going to let me down. I've been faithful.
Finally, the first battle. Felicita vs. Debito. Guns vs. knives! Classic! Oh man, it's beginning. WHOAAAAAA-
Wait. Th..........that was it? They skipped the entire fight? Well...uhh...I guess Debito wasn't exactly presented as one of the more promising candidates for Felicita's hasubando, so I guess it's okay if they skip his battle for comic relief. He was kind of a dick anyway.
Oh, okay, here we go. Pace's up next. This fight's gonna--
Uhh...okay, so they did it twice. Are we at least going to get one fi--
...
Well, guess what guys, I have no memory of your fight either because THE SHOW DIDN'T FUCKING SHOW IT.
bu....bubu....this is the Arcana Duello. The promised day. How could this happen? I don't understand. This was to be my recompense for the other eleven episodes of misery. Surely, surely, surely everything's still going to pan out somehow. One impressive fight scene at least. Please?
Oh, it looks like Liberta and Nova are going to fight. This'll be good at least, right? I mean, the show basically telegraphed this moment ten episodes ahead of time. They have the closest relationships with Felicita, they're the two prettiest boys in the show, they're rivals, both have a MUST BECOME STRONGER thing going on. And this is their dramatic moment--they both love Felicita and want to marry her, and it's finally the moment where they put their strength on the line and only one can advance. The tension! The turmoil in Felicita's heart. This clash of swords can only turn into something epic--
WAIT WHAT WAS THAT FLASH OF LIGHT WHAT'S GOING ON WHY IS EVERYONE SUDDENLY IN A BEDROOM
this can't be happening
the Arcana Duello is over and we DIDN'T EVEN GET TO SEE A SINGLE FIGHT ALL OF THE WAY THROUGH?
no, show, you can't do this to me. You just can't. I waited three months. I never stopped having faith. This is just too cruel. I mean, there are only a few minutes left but there's something left, right? I mean, Felicita won the Duello basically unopposed. She's now the Dona of the Arcana Famiglia. That means she chooses her husband now, right? I mean, the show has made it abundantly clear, now more than ever, that it gave zero fucks about the Arcana Duello in the first place and it was just a shitty reverse harem.
So, we at least get resolution to that, right? That one tiny consolation amidst the massive disappointment?
NOPE. Remember that subplot about Felicita not having THA POWAH to save her father from magical wasting sickness?
Well, she has a revelation. She can only gain the strength to save her father by...
...wait for it...
BY LOVING EVERYONE EQUALLY.
AND NOT EVEN IN A HAREM END WAY.
AAAAAAAAAAASJDGKHHHHHHHHHDKGHDFJGHFDJGGGGGGGGGGGGGGFJHDGJFDHJ NO FUCKING RESOLUTION TO ANYTHING WHATSOEVER SHE EVEN CEDES THE POSITION OF DON BACK TO HER FATHER SO THE WHOLE SHOW IS RIGHT BACK WHERE IT BEGAN WOWITSFUCKINGNOTHING.GIF ASDGCJ;BKMJFLHJFKKDFJJJJJJJJJJJJJFJKDKS
Well, she has a revelation. She can only gain the strength to save her father by...
...wait for it...
BY LOVING EVERYONE EQUALLY.
AND NOT EVEN IN A HAREM END WAY.
AAAAAAAAAAASJDGKHHHHHHHHHDKGHDFJGHFDJGGGGGGGGGGGGGGFJHDGJFDHJ NO FUCKING RESOLUTION TO ANYTHING WHATSOEVER SHE EVEN CEDES THE POSITION OF DON BACK TO HER FATHER SO THE WHOLE SHOW IS RIGHT BACK WHERE IT BEGAN WOWITSFUCKINGNOTHING.GIF ASDGCJ;BKMJFLHJFKKDFJJJJJJJJJJJJJFJKDKS
In sum, this show:
BUY THE GAME!
yeah...
Crash Station
Member
Whelp, looks like my shounen intuition was right. Glad I dropped it at 4.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Dude. lol
I suppose I should be happy that I bailed on the show.
Speaking of which, who will take the firehawk challenge of watching the first episode of every show next season? I can't do it, but someone must save us from all the anime!
Pugs are pretty played out.
I knew there was something up with that part, but I couldn't put my finger on it! I'll go back and rewatch it.
What a pimp. Total pimp.
Joe Molotov
Member
More like Arcana Dull-o, amirite?
Damn am I glad I dropped this show. I think I would have punched my screen.
Truly the real life Lelouch.
Dedication Through Light
Member
The pain felt when no one else liked/watched your favorite anime(s) of the season, Arcana was good people just had misaligned expectations for a Romance shoujo.
Thats difficult even considering I tried watching all the pvs but some were so awful I didnt even get through, and you know an anime is awful if you cant even make it through an 1minute30second pv.
Thats difficult even considering I tried watching all the pvs but some were so awful I didnt even get through, and you know an anime is awful if you cant even make it through an 1minute30second pv.
Hyouka 22
Others have already posted at length about the episode and show in general, but I'd just like to add that as far as single episodes of anime go this is one of the best I've ever seen. Although I could probably say something similar for the previous episode as well, they were both excellent stand alone episodes really.
Others have already posted at length about the episode and show in general, but I'd just like to add that as far as single episodes of anime go this is one of the best I've ever seen. Although I could probably say something similar for the previous episode as well, they were both excellent stand alone episodes really.
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