Well, in many ways that played like a finale. In fact, I’m guilty of not checking the episode count and with about a minute to go, I was pretty sure that was that. But given that the next ep is titled “Yes, There’s More” it’s pretty safe to assume the ride continues for another week.

I said a few weeks ago that this show was a tragedy disguised as a comedy, and I think that’s more or less turned out to be true. When the central conflict involves a character who wants only to die – and is willing to destroy a city to get his wish – that’s pretty heavy stuff for comedy. But you also have a hero who’s undead after being brutally and senselessly murdered, and a heroine who despises herself because she brings chaos and death wherever she goes. And a cast of characters who are basically together because they don’t fit anywhere else.

The issue of Ayumu’s status after blowing himself up was kind of a let-down – Haruna and Sera picked up the pieces and put him back together, though he did stubbornly refuse to wake up for a while. The real drama here was what came after – the confrontation with KotN and the resulting surprise. Sera had a chance to shine, being forgiven by her clan because she was the only one who could close the gates of the underworld KotN had opened to unleash his mega-megalo. Haruna got her masou shoujo mojo back after calling Dai-sensei for help. But it was really all about Ayumu and Yuu. My favorite part of the episode was when she made him turn away as she took KotN’s life at last – it says so much about her. In keeping with the morose tone of the show all she could promise him was “you’ll be unhappy” – but as long as it was with her, Ayumu could live with that. And yes, she did promise – Yuu has voice outside Ayumu’s fantasy at last, and as far as I can see it’s unknown (to me) 20 year-old seiyuu Midori Tsukimiya. I’m not quite sure how this works, as her very voice was supposed to carry the power of death – but she was blabbing away pretty good there by the end.

So our finale looks like a beach episode, a light-hearted romp to finish things up no that the drama has been sorted out. That’s still a fairly unusual choice, though a few shows have gone that way. As it happened, the preview mostly showed chibi-Yuu staring down the Dyson Air Multiplier – which was pretty damn cute.