[DreamSword]

I never liked this two parter, really. And even now I still don't.

Like, I'm slightly more lenient on it than I was originally, because I can kinda see what the show is going for, but it doesn't really save it.

Sure, there are a handful of good scenes in here, but unfortunately the main source of those good scenes is also what ends up killing the entire experience. And that's Wakana.

Her turn really doesn't make a whole lot of sense whether you're looking at the plot or her as a character. Her reasoning of "I finally learned what my role is!" is so weird because, unless I missed something, she's never really had any sort of crisis of that sort, and later episodes that try to expand on what exactly she meant really don't help much of anything, if memory serves.

Meanwhile the whole "Raito is Terror Dad's' son" thing, like... I was so confused as to why that's treated as a twist when I first saw it, because I myself had put two-and-two together on that way beforehand and I just kinda figured the other characters had too the second that Saeko dropped his name. But apparently not.

This episode is also the primary source for why alot of us remember certain plot points being dropped way later than they actually are, I think. Because ideally, atleast for alot of people, around this time, this episode, where we get scenes like Akiko calling the agency a family and Wakana and Philip learning who Philip really is? It just makes alot more sense for scenes like Philip declaring Akiko and Shotaro to be his family from the casino episodes and Saeko revealing that Philip's' name is Raito to be happening at this point rather than during act 1 as they do. The huge break inbetween those episodes and now does not help things, is what I'm saying.

The episodes are basically prioritizing an emotional high over all else, and while I'm sure that worked great for some, for me it was a total miss.