OK, I really hadn’t intended to post on CITY again. But I felt like I had to check in, as the last two episodes have been by far the best of the series. It annoys the hell out of me when that happens right after I drop a show, but it is what it is.

I’m swamped for time so this will be short. And I wouldn’t even try to describe what happened in Episode 5 – it’s a fool’s errand. I’ll just say #4 worked because, quite simply, it was the funniest episode so far. And with comedies, that’s job one. As a general rule the more focus on the Makabe clan the better – both father and son are often hilarious. It also means less focus on the screaming college girls, who work better when you split them up (as #5 did), and on the snoozeworthy (though that whole “cheeseboige” sequence was obviously way funnier in anime form) middle school duo.

Now, as to this week’s episode – all I can say is, watch it. KyoAni is shamelessly showing off here, but if you’ve got it, flaunt it. That 8-way split-screen stuff was seriously another level – I’ve never seen anything quite like it. I do remember this subplot from the manga and it’s pretty wild even there, but they absolutely leveled it up x100. The rest of the series isn’t going to even try to maintain that level – the manga doesn’t lend itself, and not even Kyoto Animation could keep that up. But the comedic success of Episode 4 is certainly a more realistic upside. Let’s hope so.