[FreshToku]

Yeah! You happend to pin down exactly what it is that I liked most about this episode, and its that one conversation on that rooftop.

So there's two scenes between the two in this episode. Early in the episode where Sougo is pleading to Geiz Revive instead of fighting back. This one's a little eh to me and I feel bad for saying that, because it is a rather sad scene of Sougo risking getting killed instead of fighting his friend. However, he already had it explained to him that Geiz doesn't remember any of the stuff he's talking about and that there's a villain responsible for affecting everyone's memories. I hate to call a scene 'bad' just because a character is following their heart instead of logic (which is so often the case with Sougo) but I guess this scene's emotion didn't quite manage to land for me.

What did definitely land was the later scene, with Geiz asking about how he and Sougo could be friends, and Sougo happily telling him about their bizarre up-and-downs! I really, really liked it. The piano version of Over-Quartzer playing, Sougo happy when Geiz gets grumpy with him in that classic fasion, and Geiz can't help but be charmed as well. (Sorry to rob the scene of its magic...!) It's so good, and it makes me think that this show doesn't have nearly enough scenes of these two, or its main characters in general, just having these low-key conversations without involving plot machinations or whatever stakes are going on.

I honestly do believe that, at least in concept if not in execution, that the dynamic of Sougo and Geiz is as central to this show as say Sento and Banjou is to Build, but its just that Zi-O goes about it in a different way. There were like twenty different scenes in Build where Sento and Banjo boost one another up by demonstrating their perfect understanding of each other. And I liked just about all of them!

In comparison, Sougo and Geiz's building relation is significantly more gradual and understated, which makes sense since there was/is that looming threat of Sougo becoming Oma Zi-O looming over them. And it was only in the most critical moments where you may doubt whether they're really friends at all, like in episodes 16 and 28, does it all come bursting out in full force. While I might have liked more conventinal scenes between the main duo like you might see in Build, I also really liked how the show, intentionally or not, made this more subtle dynamic between them, and I think made those critical moments all the more powerful.