[Fish Sandwich]

Hey everyone, guess what time it is.



Time for Woz's beauty sleep. As far as I know he doesn't have any exams to study for, so let's just give him some peace and quiet, okay?

This episode was another huge win for me. Zi-O is knocking it out of the park as far as its twists and turns are concerned lately, and I can't get enough of it. Once again, the more standalone aspect of the story (Kikai) is tied flawlessly into the ongoing plot, with the revelation at the end being particularly impressive. Sougo was great here and his interactions with Geiz gave me some awesome Gaim and Baron vibes with how they clearly have this strong mutual trust even though they're frenemies at best. For the most part I'm loving all the other characters again too.

Well, Lame!Woz is still a total question mark, but this episode has me a in a good enough mood to play the apologist and say Tsukuyomi's current trajectory is working. Just barely, mind you, but they did a better job here showing her thought process, and how her actions right now are primarily motivated by the fear of the bordeline omnipotence Sougo is reaching rather than any change in his personality. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, after all. I still don't like her all that much, but accusing the show of bad writing for this change is totally unfair in my book. To say she's pulled a complete 180 also shows a bit of a refusal to see any nuance in the situation. I mean, what are you guys always complaining about Geiz for again? It's possible to have conflicting feelings on things, and it seems clear to me Tsukuyomi's whole problem is that she doesn't know what to believe anymore.

At least right now, everything that's happened with her has been reasonably justified. Sougo has made ripping the timestream a new one into a regular hobby at this point, and while it's easy to sit here as a viewer, secure in the knowledge that he's literally the hero of the TV show he stars in, I think it's pretty understandable why seeing all this would freak someone out a bit even if they knew him personally. This episode's ending even suggests Sougo accidentally dreamed the entire problem of the last half dozen episodes or so into existence, which lends credence to the idea that this is no longer a question of his character.