[Enchilada645]

Rookie's growth is a fun thing to watch in this series, especially this episode in which we really see how far he's come since Episode 1, even if he's still got a ways to go obviously.

Speaking of the balance between comedy and drama though... I feel it comes down to a single thing that I feel Japan Media has more of a knack for than recent American Media... and that's just genuine sincerity in what it's trying to do and say to the audience.

It's like... with the way things are in some American Media, their attempts at comedy feel more like they're covering their bases for critics and trying to act cool when they're really showing how embarrassed they are. Meanwhile I've noticed a lot of Japanese media full on sincerely embraces whatever it wants to say and tries to do so in a serious manner. Especially Dogengers where you can see at a lot of points, it wears its heart on its sleeve.

Those are my thoughts why exactly stuff like this works in terms of tone and such.

Now to the interesting part... I was wondering what you were implying about Yuki cause the whole time I'm like "Wait what foreshadowing? What? Wait... are you assuming..." and then I realized you thought that Yuki was I-DOLL and I suddenly realize everything you were saying makes sense now.

It's interesting to see you make that connection because I admittedly didn't see it like that. That being said, kudos to I-DOLL though, she is scarily effective when it comes to fighting people.

Speaking of that scene in the warehouse with the cool impactful hook you mentioned, I also like that the snippet right before where you have the wide shot of them staring each other down. And you also the puddle right next to them reflecting themselves in the water. Really cool stuff.