[bluesparrow]

So far I've liked every episode more than the last, but this is the first one where the different tones kind of meshed well for me. The plamo familiars not being around didn't hurt.

The Phantoms, I realize they're the villains and therefore necessarily Evil, but they seem especially dickish in this show! They have to basically destroy the Gate emotionally to get them to produce their Phantom, and for the first time I really felt that come across. Rinko was just sort of having a bad day, but this kid Shunpei was just obliterated emotionally. Hellhound just crushed his world on live tv. Scumbag!

I think this works really well to kind of manipulate us into liking Wizard more and more. He's not just saving them, he's helping them. I can see why they're sort of gravitating towards him(beyond the cast-building aspect of that). He's basically a self-help guru, except instead of getting them to help themselves he's literally jumping inside them to destroy their inner demons.

So far we've only seen the robot dragon(does it have a name yet?) in the inner worlds of the Gates. I wonder if that's setting up something, like the Dragon breaking out into the real world. That's another aspect I like - as evil as the Phantoms are, they're kind of secondary to the demons inside the gates. In the few toku shows I've seen the danger from the MOTW seems mostly just talked about and basically exists so the hero can have a reversal at the battle's climax. You always know they'll be defeated because there's some bigger enemy around the corner they have to get to. The Phantoms are the same way, but the stakes continue being high even after they're defeated. The Phantom of the week may be defeated, but that's no guarantee Wizard will save the Gate. I'm wondering when we'll see that happen.