[AkibaSilver]

Speaking of R/B, R/B Episodes 11-12

So we're about halfway through the series, and this feels like a natural climax. The end of an arc, so to speak. Aizen is beaten, Katsu and Isa have proven their worth as Ultramen, and city is all good. Pretty standard stuff for a pretty standard (but still immensely likeable!) show. My favourite small detail was how the Minami's never even discussed Makoto's offer to go abroad seriously. Like, they make one joke about it, and that's it. Many other shows would probably press that a lot harder, have one sibling want to take it and the other want to stay, break them up. But their bond is stronger, and as clumsy and inept as they are at it, and almost unknowingly, they've become proper heroes.

But not quite. Because while 11 is the climax of the Makoto stuff, it dovetails almost instantly, no break, into 12, where the series seems to pick up a notch. I'm gonna miss Aizen (although he's not as dead as I first thought!), but new villain is certainly a lot more enigmatic. And also really old and/or a time traveller and/or a liar, if she really did know Oscar Wilde. Fun fact, I've had pizza in a room named after him. Anyway, hopefully this reduction in villain personality will allow development of out other new, absolutely massive plot development. Asahi. I never really got her place in all this, since as much a part of the family as she is, she never quite played into things fully. This time, though, she gets in on the secret, and you really get to see her bond with her brothers develop, and hey, maybe it's just me as an elder sibling who hasn't seen their family for the longest itme in ever, but it struck a nice chord with me.

Not that it matters, since as the end of the episode reveals, she's some form of cuckoo child, which... what a twist, but yeah, great last few parts!