[Fish Sandwich]

And for this episode, it's finally the turn of the track that Die explicitly called the "best piece of music this show has done outside of the main theme" when talking about episode 6. It plays in this one as Wataru is explaining his dream to Kengo, which further explains why that scene went over so well for Die.

I mean, the scene and the music ARE both pretty good. Furthering what I was talking about with Wataru earlier, this is the stretch of the show where I really started to become endeared to the guy, and the sense of growth that comes across in that conversation encapsulates why. It's easy to take for granted, but remember that this dude couldn't even speak to other people back in the premiere. And now he's made a friend who, again, is just genuinely supportive and has this fantastic opposites attract kinda chemistry with him, and that bond has helped Wataru find a strength he didn't know he had. I feel like Kengo's character is so perfectly tailored to Wataru's whole fearful shut-in concept, because he's basically proof the world outside isn't always so scary. It's just nice to watch, you know? I like things that are nice.

And those visuals are pretty nice too, aren't they? Again, I've been skimming through the episodes to pick out the music, and this was one where even just quickly jumping around, I kept finding myself taken aback a little by how pretty the shots looked. That's all thanks to the work of our old friend Naoki Tamura (TV Asahi), who handled episodes 13/14 of Kiva, and – kinda sadly with this level of quality – only 13/14. It's good that Die is savoring that work while he can!