Anime

I've run out of superlatives to describe this series.

One of the things that really stood out to me from this episode is how much Makio and Asa have changed in appearance over the course of the series. Makio's has been a bit more obvious because she's grown her hair out, but her expressions have changed too - they've gotten softer and more open. Asa's a bit more subtle since she hasn't changed really notably physically, but particularly in her eyes you can see a sort of clarity that wasn't there before. Early on, she tended to look vague and distant and sort of blank, and she doesn't any more.

I love hearing her sing her song. I wish we could've seen the audition, but I'm not that surprised that we didn't. Broadly, one could say that the series is less focused on what happens and more focused on what the characters think and feel about what happens.

The evolution of her personal desert has been intriguing. Early on, I would've expected that she would eventually escape from it, but apparently rather than escaping, she's settled in and is in the process of making it a comfortable home.

And so on - as usual, there were so many fascinating, insightful, compelling little tidbits scattered through this episode that I could be here the rest of the day pointing them out.

When I first read the synopsis, I thought it was going to be some heavy drama with big gut punches, and I wouldn't mind if it were, because I'm into that. But I've loved how heartwarming this series has been instead, especially in the last few episodes. I was worried for a second about that scene on a platform, but fortunately it seems that Chiyo was only gathering the courage to get back to school, and we won't have some soul-crushing tragedy at the very end.

Only 1 episode left. I'm not ready for this to end yet...

This is a misnomer IMO, because it applies to all humans regardless of gender. Heck, I daresay it applies to animals that live in packs too.

Everything he said is about fitting in with the in-group a.k.a. tribalism.