It’s fascinating that this sort of series loves Christmas episodes so much. I guess it sort of fits – any slice of life show is going to find holidays a natural outlet. Byakuya and Mira are certainly cute together but to be honest, they kind of make me rethink my view that Katsute Mahou Shoujo to Aku wa Tekitai shiteita would have been better at full length. A full episode of that would have caused thousands of diabetic comas. As is it was a relief to have Cat and F*ck Girl show up to give things a shuffle.

I don’t have a lot to say about Mira and Byakuya’s Christmas date to be honest. It went exactly as you’d expect, and thank goodness this series is as visually gorgeous as it is, because it needed every drop of that. It really does seem as if any and all pretense of this whole enemy thing has been  abandoned. And if these two aren’t a couple I don’t know what the hell they are. They’re not fooling anybody, and that probably includes each other.

The big leap forward came when Byakuya asked Mira to start calling her by name, and returned the favor. As we know that’s a big honking deal in Japan. But Kitty walks in just as the two of them are fully immersing themselves in it, and has the predictable reaction. He starts drinking in front of Mira as if it were nothing and Mira shows no signs of concern at the familiar’s presence. Cat doesn’t  even seem that bothered about the two of them dating (though if they do more than that it would impact his business model in a big way). Birdy and Hibina show up too, and the two familiars soon enough pass out drunk and leave Hibina to clean up while the two lovebirds say their goodbyes and Christmas salutations in the snow.

We have three episodes left, and obviously whatever ending Bones slaps on this story is going to largely original. I’m still frankly confused about this series’ identity. No one acts as if the premise means anything to them (including Mira’s comrades). That’s funny to an extent, but begs the question – why bother to have the premise in the first place? It’s nothing more than a pretext, seemingly, which I guess is fine but leave the whole enterprise feeling pretty lightweight. It seems like it’ll be an uphill struggle to concoct in a final arc that brings any heft to the story as a whole, but I guess that’s not strictly necessary.