Oh my god. This episode was just… incredible. It’s because of episodes like this that I still remain a fan of anime, even after watching hundreds of series. It’s series as this one that just keep me coming back, and make it all worth it.

The way this episode played out… it just allowed for the best way to show Mirai coming to understand that her brother is actually dead. We knew this for a few episodes by now, so it wasn’t the revelation or shock of his death that made this episode so powerful, but instead it was just Mirai’s character who carried this entire episode. Yuki’s illusion started to waver when Mirai met Yuki’s best friend. I think that at first, she was unconsciously confusing the two boys with each other, and therefore didn’t see the two of them at the same time at first, but eventually she did start talking to Yuki once she got used to his friend being there.

The sad thing wasn’t just Mirai realizing the death of her brother, but rather the subtle differences between the dead Yuki and the remains of the real Yuki: the things he wrote and did when he was still alive. It was really heart-wrenching to see how Mirai unconsciously tried to fit in her image of Yuki with the things he did, still refusing to admit that he was dead.

Whether or not this is realistic, I don’t know. I’m not a psychiatrist, I can only relate to what sounds plausible to me. Still, at the same time that doesn’t mean that there’s no gray area. Anime for me has always been a combination between fiction and realism, with the more realistic, or I guess that “believable” is the better word, usually being the most enjoyable for me.

A slightly spoilerific example, but excellent to illustrate the decision of the creators to insert a not-so-realistic plot twist in this series is Porfy no Nagai Tabi. It’s in many areas similar to Tokyo Magnitude: both feature two siblings, caught up in an earthquake, both feature a lot of realism, both involve travelling to get back to a family member you’ve been torn apart from, and both have females who were left with mental illnesses after the quake (in Porfy’s case, Mina loses all of her personality and memory).

Anyway, Porfy no Nagai Tabi was also incredibly realistic. Perhaps even more than Tokyo Magnitude because its length is nearly five times larger. However, when the final arc starts, a plot twist happens that’s in no single way realistic. There’s no way for something that convenient to happen. Does it ruin the anime, however? No. Instead, it really allowed the characters to get the best out of their development. With Tokyo Magnitude it’s the same: sure, we may not often see perfectly realistic illusions of our dead ones around us. But does that make this series any less incredible? For me, it absolutely doesn’t!
Rating: **** (Fantastic)

Aha, the calm before the storm episode. There’s nothing much to say about this one: it was as solid as usual, while the plot sets up for the big climax of this series, which is probably going to happen in the next episode. The past few episodes have really been able to very subtly build up to this finale, and I can’t wait to see how all of this has paid off.

So, in this episode Reiji first manages to convince Helen to leave Cal to him, because he doesn’t want to lose anyone else, however Helen in the end refuses to listen to him and decides to kill Cal off herself. It’s here where Reiji’s big weakness comes into play: his naivety. He believes with his heart that he’s going to be able to convince Cal to stop killing him, yet Helen who has the more realistic mindset sees no chance in that happening. The last she wants to happen is a dead Reiji, and so she chose for the option that would leave his life in as little danger as possible.

Scythe Master in the meantime also hasn’t been sitting still, when this episode introduces Vier, Funf, Sechs, Sieben, Acht and Neun. I’m not sure what they can add to the story at this point in the series, but it was only natural for him to put his experiments to a larger scale at one point.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

You know, for all I’ve ranted against this series for the past few episodes, this episode rocked. It did exactly what it’s supposed to do, and for the first time in what feels like a long, long time I’m excited about this series again. At the moment, there still is the danger of the love triangle taking up too much attention in the final two episodes for this series, but if the finale is just as this episode, it’s at least going to end with a good impression.

I’m glad to see that all the build-up paid off in the end. I was really beginning to give up hope on this series, but the impending destruction of both the earth and the moon turned out to be exactly what this series needed to get every character back on track. Incidentally, in this episode Dan also was entirely unconscious. In the end, he didn’t turn out to e the best main character. I really liked him at the beginning of this series, but his development got a bit dull and cliché as the series went on.

But damn, the eye-candy! Now this is the Satelight I remember again. The shots of the moon in this episode were absolutely gorgeous, but apart from that there were tons of other awesome shots and amazing eye-candy. I’m really glad to see that the creators of this series have been saving their budget for the final episodes. Now if only they can keep this up for the final two episodes!

But I still am very worried. I know Kawamori by now, he’s going to go for some sort of cheesy romantic climax in the end. By far the worst part of this episode was the point in which Rouge kissed Dan back to life (no, seriously) and Flora happened to run into them, watching the entire process. PLEASE DON’T FOCUS THE FINALE ON THIS CHEESY LOVE TRIANGLE!
Rating: ** (Excellent)