[LeviathanBlossom]

I'm in the camp that thinks this episode does feel solidly apocalyptic; even with the pacing issues (I didn't even entirely hate the flashback, if I'm being completely honest, although I would have ended it on Kenzaki's horrified expression at the deluge of O Hai New Undead sounds coming off the searcher), I think it sells pretty well how much Kenzaki has been boxed into a corner.

I am also in the camp that is ok with Mutsuki being fridged to sell the stakes of the story. He didn't get a Tachibana-esque hell of a finale, but I don't think he needed one - from the moment he tells Nozomi that he will definitely make it back to her, the viewer expects that he won't. He's a kid who's been through a hell of an experience (so much of which he brought on himself, ok, we know this) with his own personal triumph over his literal demons, and look what it's gotten him.

Watching these last three episodes a week apart Back In The Day involved a lot of "Are you freaking kidding me" that I couldn't actually shout at my television, because thin walls and neighbors, haha. Less stressful to watch them all at once, which I have done. A few times.

Also Back In The Day there was a fan trailer for the final episode that Appeared somewhere (where was it first? idk, it's been a long long time) that I remember really liking, and hey if it hasn't been hanging out on YouTube largely unnoticed for the last decade: