(Author’s Note: I’m traveling for the next few days, so post length and timing will be outside normal range.  Thanks for your patience.)

Here’s the thing about Dimension W: it passes the sniff test.  The series has integrity.  What I mean is that there’s a cause and effect relationship for everything that happens (which is ironic, considering that the premise is based on hugely fantastical sci-fi-entific principles).  Iwahara-sensei even explains stuff that he could really get away with not explaining, and that adds a tremendous amount of credibility to a highly incredible (and complicated) storyline.

Obviously the desire for a continuation is a regular part of watching these one-cour adaptations of ongoing manga, but there aren’t many series about which it’s more profound than this one.  It’s kind of cruel to flesh out such an elaborate story so intricately and then leave us hanging right in the middle of it.  I imagine we’re going to get something pretty credible given how good the anime staff clearly is, but it sure as hell won’t be a real ending.

The Genesis Coil is, obviously, the key to everything.  And as expected it’s an interesting melding of science, philosophy and metaphysics (much as the Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment, which was clearly an inspiration, is).  Genesis is so crucial that Mira’s programming doesn’t even allow her to remember anything which contains the word.  But Yurizaki cleverly guides her towards the truth by telling her to follow the coils, leading her to where he wanted her to be – Arastrea.  What’s not yet clear is just what Yurizaki wants her to do there.

I like this elegant notion that possibility is the key to everything – the fact that intelligent beings both contain and can observe possibility is the reason the transporter can’t work on them.  Most everyone’s role in all this slotted into place alongside Mira: Loser was in fact Julian Tyler, Seameyer was the mad scientist chasing Genesis who used the others as his lab rats with horrifying results.  Salva sees Genesis as the key to saving Loo – whose real body is back in Africa manipulating the mannequins we’ve been watching via a kind of V.R. immersion tank (there’s a wonderful moment when he admits his fear that Kyouma will reject him after being told the truth, and Kyouma shows us his most compassionate side yet).

The remaining mystery in all this is clearly Kyouma himself.  His timing is clearly impeccable – he’s been on Easter Island at precisely the crucial moment twice.  What happened to him after he took Genesis to the “smaller fragment” of Arastrea?  It’s interesting that in the heat of the moment he chose to listen to Sophia (who’s having a bad hair day now) over his commander – I’m guessing wisely, though the jury is still out.  It says a lot about the kind of man he is, and I’m thinking that whatever intermediate conclusion we do get in the anime version of Dimension W is going to be driven by him – Kyouma is clearly closer to the truth than anyone else.