From these past three episodes, one thought has continually gone through my mind: whoever decided to add Yango as a character in the Nakiami arc was a GENIUS, and deserves a pay raise.

And the reason that Akiyuki got Eureka wings is to increase the likelihood of doujin crossovers. >_<

Anyway, I’ve been noticing that the opening and ending gain new meaning with every episode. With that, I was watching the last scene, where Nakiami is standing in Sannova’s gravestone circle, embracing a Hiruko. Do you think that she’ll end up becoming Xam’d at the last moment and fighting Kujireika?

@omo
I have a hazy memory of E7, but I don’t remember it being as slow-paced as this, perhaps because I marathoned most of it. At least it doesn’t feel like they’re truly dragging things out, it might just be our impatience as fans to get to the conclusion of all this build-up and perhaps that’s the mark of good storytelling.

I think it’s much faster than E7, though. At least, things are slow because we have 3 plot threads moving at once, and not just because 1 plot thread is really slow. I think this is why it wasn’t as bad as it was.

I think the whole Haru side of the story can squeeze into 1 to 2 episodes, from ep 14 onward. Akiyuki only really needed 1 episode for the same time duration but I guess they want to build up the Hiruken Emperor bit. And Yungo & EurekaNakiami can use at least 2-3 to build up Yungo’s relationship more.

There were a lot of scenes that were dedicated to minor tidbits, like Kakisu, Nazuna/Azami, Dr. Ryuzo, etc.

Looking forward, I think Haru’s sister is going to be a big part to match up the action at home with those minor characters. Maybe Ryuzo will end up working with Azami and the other Tessik doctor to that end.