[FreshToku]

I feel... weirdly torn. On one hand, its nice to see that this otherwise absurd and goofy show played the emotions in this episode so straight and sincerely. But on the other, it's also kinda borders on feeling out-of-character for everyone involved? At least, everyone's acting weird compared to what I'm used to, but it doesn't feel like the show is deliberately spinning it in a way where I'm supposed to think that they're being ridiculous (anymore than usual anyway).

Like it's sweet that Haruka and Shinichi clearly care about Tarou, but the way they talk about him in this episode had me going "Who??". I was shocked when that whole scene about them going "What would Tarou say now" wasn't a lead-up to a joke. This is the guy who nearly died while trying to come up with something good to say about his teammates!

While it's on my mind, maybe the most egregious case of monster running off screen I've ever seen. Hitosuki just starts jogging in the other direction, and Don Doragoku does not even take one step before saying "Ah, he escaped." You literally let him go!

Speaking of Don Doragoku, Jirou is maybe just insane?! I knew not to get attached to the idea of him being this 'underdog trying to be a hero' that last episode seemed to set him up as since I knew he was going to be transforming in this episode, but he just casually talks about executing his teammates because they're not up to stuff like it's nothing? Then again, I guess they're all insane because Haruku and Shinichi barely reacted to that statement (Shinichi even fully offering his life because he can't recite haiku! I was laughing at that scene but I have no idea if I should have been!) His 'introduction' does seem to be continuing into the next (few?!) episodes though, so I look forward to learning even more bonkers aspects of him.