[ShyGuy]

Having now watched episode 3, I think this one was my favorite. It still had noticeable flaws, but I think the things it did right make up for it. In particular, Shinji's and Ren's scenes together were the clear highlight of the episode, just as they were in episode 2. It felt like a very natural continuation of where their development concluded originally, and I liked the role reversal of Shinji being the one to comfort his dying friend this time. Ren sacrificing himself for Shinji's sake was a great culmination of his relationship with Shinji and how much it had changed by the end of the original season, when he finally accepted that Shinji was a close friend.

That being said, while I liked their dynamic in that scene, from a plot standpoint it was handled kind of weird. It felt like there wasn't a good way to fit it in naturally, so it was decided to just have Asakura randomly run out from nowhere to kill Ren before dying himself. It also slightly undercut Goro's big moment, a scene I liked a lot since he finally got to carry out Kitaoka's will and avenge his own death from the first time around. But it felt like some of the weight of the moment was lost since Asakura just keeps going for a while anyway. But on the other hand I guess it's extremely in character for Asakura to ensure he takes down at least one more person before falling himself.

I also felt like Odin's inclusion was really forced and unnecessary, which is unfortunate because Odin is so cool and I was hoping to see him effectively utilized. But he just felt shoehorned in with no explanation and his presence only served to make things more confusing, especially since he says Yui's name as he disappears. The only thing that would make sense of that is if he's a Kanzaki puppet again, but then that doesn't make sense within either the story of this special or the context of the original season's ending. So it just really didn't work at all.

Ultimaltey I felt that this special as a whole was okay, but also had potential to be a lot better than it was. It had all the Inoue hallmarks I'd feared when I first read he was writing it: messy and confusing plot developments, characters behaving inconsistently, awkward pacing. It was far from his worst work, and did plenty of things right as well, but I just wonder how much better it could have been if almost literally anyone else had written it. I'm still glad we got it though, Ryuki was one of my favorite seasons so regardless of my issues with this special, it's awesome that it exists at all so many years later.