This was a pretty solid episode and looks to be a decent two part story that brings Sharu back into the story. Glad to have her back to be sure. It even did a good job in giving Gaul the most attention he’s gotten in a long time. Throw in a bit of mystery and you have the recipe for a good episode.

I’m not sure why this episode made me think this more than any other, but I have to put my foot down in protest to the lack of Eclair this season! How has one fairly major character in the first two seasons basically gone missing in the third season? In the first large battle of this season she was basically sidelined up in the sky with Rico. Then she had one moment of action in the second major battle and then….nothing. She kind of popped in at the end with that Shinku drunk scene and that’s about it. I don’t mind that we’re getting some world building done and focusing on the other countries a bit, but this is getting ridiculous. This seemed like an episode you could easily toss her onto the team. But instead she’s just not there. It’s just a personal gripe, but I still think of Eclair as one of my favorites in the show and the total lack of her with only a few episodes left is disappointing.

The episode itself had a lot of good moments though. Sharu showing up on the scene was nice and I’m glad she made it back before the show was done. I will say I was kind of hoping this would lead to a major incident that would last the remaining episodes, but I’ll take what I can get here. It was pretty awesome of her to just show up riding the fire dragon in order to ask permission to investigate over their countries. And of course she’s not going it alone so there isn’t anything to worry about really.

Minus the lack of Eclair……the groups made sense for this kind of thing. Maybe Yuki was a bit of a throw in, but it made sense for Rico to go to try and help investigate and if Gaul was tagging along then of course Genoise were bound to join the group as well. That trio has really gotten a lot of screen time this season surprisingly. Even Leaf went along which might not have been necessary, but a bit of extra combat ability is nice to have. Things were going pretty well until the dragon decided to eat them!

Then of course there is the issue of Aria. That girl is a mystery to say the least. The immediate thoughts are that she’s either connected to these demons or the whale in some manner. I’d probably guess the demons because while she doesn’t know a lot, she does know what those things are and that says a lot in this situation. I almost wondered if she was the priestess herself, until we met the actual one. Either way the girl is a mystery. Someone talking through telepathy isn’t the most common even in Dog Days. But the options for her identity are pretty open since the show has spirits, demons, dragons, etc.

At least Aria’s got a good heart and helped Gaul out there. Frankly this is as close to a romantic interest Gaul has had in all three seasons so it’s something to make note of XD. And really it’s not often Gaul gets to cut loose and show off so glad he got some focus in this one. Their conversations weren’t too long, but they were nice. Gaul got some information and helped reassure someone who’s seemingly been stuck in there living by herself for some time.

And wow the sky priestess isn’t a tiny person at all. Maybe it’s a given since she communicates with this giant whale. Though a giant person living in an even larger whale is pretty weird. Once again they introduce a female character who is a pretty solid badass. She clearly was punching the heck out of those things as evidenced by her weaponry. Maybe she’s got some answers as to how the star whale got so full of those sickness demons.

Overall it was a pretty good episode. This season has been all about the world building and this time around we’ve even extended the world up to the sky. I expect they will pretty well wrap up this situation next week, but I’m still looking forward to seeing just what will happen and the secret behind Aria who seems to be the core of this situation. Again, I’m also glad we got to see Sharu again. Only one real complaint left, but that’s not so much about this episode.
Score: B+