This episode was absolutely amazing! Seriously, I was a bit pissed off at the sudden recap-episode, but the real 23rd episode was SO WORTH THE WAIT. I was already satisfied by the hilarious chase of Daiichi in the first half of the episode, but I still can’t believe the awesomeness of the second half of the episode.

I remember noting earlier how similar Haraken and Isako are, and this episode again confirms it, as Isako gets taken to the other side on her own will as well. The only difference here, though, is that she didn’t just do it to meet 4423, but it was also to piss off Nekome and protect Yasako and Densuke. With only three episodes left, how will Dennou Coil conclude? Will the final three episodes be just about finding Yasako’s grandfather and Nekome, or are there people who have been coiled away who are going to make some kind of appearance? The thing also is that Densuke is gone now too! He was “killed” by the humanoid illegals. How is Yasako going to get to her grandfather? I’m assuming that Nekome is going to play a role in this.

Also, this episode just rocked in terms of production-values, and it may be the most visually pleasing one of the entire series, while the rest of the episode was also among the best that this series has to offer. This really has been one amazing anime, but can the creators keep it up for the final three episodes? I definitely hope so!

I’m still surprised at how short the different arcs have become now. There are only three or four episodes for each one. Ah well, not that I’m complaining. It’s refreshing when compared to the thickly atmosphered first half of the second season, where the pacing was really slow. This episode marks the end of what I’d call the Seiga-arc, because it indeed turns out that he was using Shuurei all along.

The episode was as good as usual, and I really enjoyed it, but it also was one of these episodes with a lot of complicated talking, which led to me, not understanding 50% of it. If only the subs for this series weren’t coming out so slow…

Anyway, from what I understood, Tantan went to his mother, and Shuurei now has a job with Ki Kouki, and most of the other low-ranked officials that were with her found a position with Reishin, it seems. Kouki was quite a bastard, by the way. He called Shuurei all kinds of nasty stuff before offering her a job. The other things that went on at Tantan’s mother’s home were beyond me, though. I’m still not sure what Seiga was after, and what Tantan’s role was in it.

The end of the episode also shows some very interesting developments with Ryuuki, as small Riou appears right in front of him in the throne room. We also learn the identity of the guy who was behind the counterfeiting and the salt: it’s the noble we saw a number of episodes back, and complained about how the nobles are getting more and more insignificant.

Last episode featured a character related to Kuukai, this week it’s Yaya’s turn. This time, however, the character in question is much more talented to Yaya. The episode was enjoyable, and her case was built up well. But seriously, someone do something about the extreme predictability of this series. The script itself is nicely written, but whenever time gets spent on the storyline, this series provides nothing original. Random kid gets down-hearted, meets the teacher, hatches a batsu-chara, with Amu conveniently being in the neighbourhood, the character in question then utters how everything is impossible, only for Amu to shout “NO, you’re wrong!” and beam the batsu-chara back into its egg and the character has magically learned from his or her mistakes and has stopped being evil and down-hearted.

I have no idea how this could have happened. The director did some episodes of Noein and Boogiepop Phantom for god’s sake, two series which didn’t suffer from this problem at all. If I had to guess, then he’s being held back by the original premise of the manga and the guy behind the series composition. Even though the latter may have been behind the fantastic Kaze no Shoujo Emily, the other series he’s worked on are rather mediocre and often even notorious (Koi Suru Tenchi Angelique, Nanatsuiro Drops (which also sucked at its storyline attempts) and Ie Naki Ko Remi (the final old World Masterpiece Theatre Series after which this went down for ten years)). It’s a shame, the story has so much potential, but I feel like there’s too much holding this potential back.

Thankfully, the script was fun to watch. The story about ballet was nicely done, even though the animators couldn’t take it at times. ^^; I liked the focus on Yaya, and how she turned into more than a cheerful crybaby. I’m just a bit annoyed at how her chara-change turned her into a crybaby who can’t do anything. The “weapon” she threw had no affect on the Batsu-chara, so that Amu would be the only one to take her out.