I pretty much assumed Yuuki no Takarabako was saving its heaviest ammunition for the final episode.  It seems pretty obvious that this series was intended to be a sort of bridge to a true second season, which is a considerable ways off given the dearth of source material.  It wouldn’t surprise me to see the same thing happen with Made in Abyss in fact, where a third season has already been announced even though the anime has used basically all of the manga.  As such, using the finale to set up future events only makes sense.

This season has been a mixed bag, as indeed was the original series in hindsight.  There have been some very solid episodes strictly in the “extra” vein, but not too many that have meaningfully added to the core premise.  I think the two that most successfully did that – Episode 4 and especially this one – both directly involved Ouken.  In point of fact this could easily have been “Episode 24” and one wouldn’t have batted an eye – it would have slotted in perfectly after the close of the first season.

The storyline of Desha, Despa, and Ouken was one (probably the only one) of the main threads in the series that didn’t seriously go off the rails by the end of S1.  Ouken is a genuine tragic figure, Despa is arguably the show’s best character for pure entertainment, and Desha- well, Desha is fascinating.  Their arc always had a lot more to give, and it always felt very unfinished.  #4 was more about filling in the backstory – this episode was about taking it beyond where the parent series left it.  I don’t know whether this was drawn directly from the manga, but it certainly could have been.

Desha is not a conventionally nice or likeable character.  He’s done some indisputably very bad things.  Yet he’s selfless, in a very profound way.  He always acts in what he feels are the best interests of those he’s determined to protect – including his brothers.  Therefore it was always pretty obvious that when he got the #1 ranking and access to the divine treasures, he was going to try to find a way to use their power to save Ouken.  And he surely knew that the likely tradeoff would be his own life or sanity (or both).  The challenge is in nimbly avoiding the traps (like cursed blades) and finding the method to actually restoring Ouken.

Fittingly, this involves committing another despicable act – he saves Ouken at the expense of a demon child.  An act that’s simultaneously evil, self-sacrificial, and selfless – that fits Desha like a bespoke suit of armor.  And save Ouken he does, apparently at the expense of his own memories (Bojji and Kage see the shell of the man on their “like the wind” journey).  Ouken is distraught at the acts he’s committed; Despa endeavours to convince him that the being that did those things was not Ouken.  There’s no time for sentiment in any case, as the plight of Desha soon takes center stage.

I’m not sure exactly how to take that encounter Ouken had with the beings at the center of the treasure vault, or with the God he fought outside it.  That will receive considerably more attention in the second season I suppose, if we get one.  This finale has certainly stirred my appetite for one, a prospect I was pretty indifferent towards by the end of the first.  In that sense I can only call Yuuki no Takarabako a success, especially given that it was a fine showcase for the peerless imagination of the team at Wit Studio.  Whatever else you say about Ousama Ranking, it’s no mass-produced model.  And anime needs as many series like that as it can get.