That was a pretty good episode, though I’d somehow gotten my wires crossed and thought it was the finale. Imagine my concern at about the 18 minute mark – I was sure we were headed for the non-ending of all non-endings.

That surely must have set the series record for navel gazing – I counted six extended belly shots for Merry, and I may have missed at least one. Unfortunately this doesn’t help her any against Mistelteen – she’s still pretty much useless in the fight. Everyone is, really – but there’s a wild card now. Leon – apparently a kind of muma peacekeeper – had seen his friends all wiped out by Treesea. So he invents a gun that fires bullets made from the agony of dying muma, and powered by his own life force. In theory, anyway – if it works, that’s the hope of defeating Mistleteen. At least she didn’t run away in the middle of killing everyone this time.

Unfortunately this ep seems to have seen the death of Play – or at least the mortal wounding. Everyone else is still hanging by a thread and now only Leon is left standing – except for Yumeji, of course. He picks up Play’s sword and charges into battle as the ep ends. Brave no doubt, but foolish. What I wonder is, why don’t they go after Ijimia-sensei instead? Wouldn’t that put a crimp in Mistelten’s plans?