This is what I’ve been waiting for. The episode that makes it all worth it. I don’t know where to start. The crescendo when they kiss, the wedding music in the background, the confession of love with the smile at the end. Ah, what a day to be alive.
This was much more of a callback to what I remember this show being about. The multiple choice decisions, Fraxinus pulling through as the op wingmen for Shido as he stumbles through the battlefield of love. He got a lot smoother though. I’ll admit that much. Like, even when he wasn’t making decisions, my boy Shido was putting on the moves. That whole date was probably the funniest sequence we’ve seen so far. Watching prim and proper Origami clash with her normally perverted and eccentric self. Also, Shido just knew where to take her because he knows her so well. I thought that was just one of many reasons as to why they are the one true pairing pretty cute. Nothing like an adult hotel and a weird aphrodisiac shop to get the mood going. I didn’t even know shops like that existed, although I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. It’s more like, I’m surprised they let two high school kids into the shop.
I really liked the reconciliation between light and dark Origami. The melding between the memories and, ultimately, accepting the burden of the sins she committed. I thought it was a bit weird that the next day she just becomes her old self again though. She had a personality from that world and I guess it was just… overwritten? That feels kind of cheap. Even if her reflexes were to always act like the original, the one who grew up with an extra year with her parents should have some input into the final personality. That was a bit of a bummer for me, but all’s well that ends well is the main point, I suppose. Glad to see the short hair back again though! And the episode really ended full circle. With Origami and Tohka fighting over Shido except this time there were more smiles.
Speaking of that, have we all just decided to scrap the original world? Coolio. Very cool beans. I’m down with that. I guess we’re just meant to assume that everything is exactly the same, even though we know it’s not. Why sweat the details though? Sure, there may or may not be a parallel universe where everyone is suffering and or already dead, but whatever man. Let us live our lives. Also, unless maybe it pops up next episode, where the heck is DEM?? Did they just get poofed along with the original world? Another small complaint I had, I really can’t stress enough that I did actually like the episode, was the art seemed to take a bit of a dip. I’m thinking of a few scenes in particular where it was blatantly obvious that it was just worse. They also did a few cool still frames of action shots though, so it mostly balances out.
The next episode is called “Make Shido Itsuka Swoon”. No idea what that entails, but it is the finale and I’m damn excited to see it.
Too bad that they are trying to cram a whole volume into a one episode. It would work better as two-part OVA (it would also lessen the need to rush things with previous parts of the story).