[Fish Sandwich]

Kind of a power move for an episode that climaxes with Glotta viciously cutting Dente down to have both another gag with him lying on the floor as though he were dead *and* a whole fantasy sequence where he gets gunned down by the authorities. (The latter of which is itself immediately followed by a shot of him flopping onto the ground again, no less.)

The gags *are* pretty funny, mind you! Despite the serious turn things take by the end, lighthearted antics are the bulk of the runtime this week, which is apparently right up the alley of director Shoujirou Nakazawa. Or so I've been informed, anyway. I'd like to believe I'm a pretty big fan of Nakazawa's work, but he's also still one of those directors on these shows that I can't readily describe the style of in any real detail. But like, that very first shot of Shouma? Lakia covering his face with that plate? Classic Nakazawa touches. I couldn't quite tell you exactly why, but those are classic Nakazawa touches... probably! At any rate, it's great to see him sneak on in towards the end to do a few episodes of Gavv.

I'd like to say I at least have a more firm grasp on the merits of the script here, but I think this is another case where I'm still not totally seeing exactly where everything is going just yet? I did enjoy a lot about the individual elements in the moment, though. Like, easy example, I'm not sure if Shouma finding out the real reason Dente was missing those teeth will be some important moment or not, but this one has that shot early on where Sachika has that conflicted look on her face about keeping a secret from Shouma... and it's like the same face Shouma would make sometimes when keeping secrets from Sachika and/or Hanto? The role reversal there is neat. It's amusing to think we've reached a point where Sachika is now *so* involved in all this Granute business that *she* has something she's keeping to herself. Gave me pause to consider just how much how much things have changed from where they were at the start.

Reacting to change is also Glotta's whole thing in this episode, of course, and I like the way the show has settled on differentiating her from her other siblings? She's had her relative lack of ambition thrown in her face recently, and it's nice how, through Dente, the show is able to frame that as more of a redeeming quality than a flaw, even though Glotta herself can't see it the same way. Their whole conversation is super interesting because Dente has the luxury of viewing Glotta as family rather than as a villain, and because he can speak to her with sympathy, it's a lot like those flashbacks with Siita and Jiip from Caking's debut, where -- without necessarily excusing their actions -- it gives you the perspective to consider how that oppressive household itself was maybe a greater evil than any single individual brought up in it.