Score: B-

I sort of miss old Narumi. It was nice back when he was giving good advice to kids and being awesome. Now he’s going insane and trying to kill other main characters…Enough is enough Narumi. You just a huge amount of the show dedicated to you and ignoring the other main cast. Stop being selfish and trying to hog the rest of the show. You have to share the spotlight with Shirogane and Masaru. He’s just gone completely off the range. I’m not even sure where to start with talking about his current state of affairs. He’s well on the road to becoming RoboCop with all his limbs being replaced by mechanical ones. Was that really necessary? Were those limbs so wrecked they needed replacing or did the doctor just think it would be cool?

Also I did want to give it a week to make up my mind…but I’m not loving the new OP. In terms of the song it is a major step down from the original OP and even the visuals aren’t quite as good. I know shows feel the need to have multiple OP/ED sequences for a variety of reasons. But it is unfortunate when a show starts off with a really strong one and then slips back with a much weaker one.

A face you can trust

There aren’t a ton of times I think the pacing of this show is a bit off, but this was one of them. We seriously go from a major showdown with the automata…right to Narumi hunting down Shirogane to try and kill her. Holy smokes show! Give some time for the story to breathe! Couldn’t we fit that into the next episode? Maybe have some lighter focus on Shirogane and possibly end the episode on a cliffhanger of Narumi meeting with Mr. “I got spy cams.”

Are we seriously trusting this guy? He apparently didn’t realize that the doll with the Midnight Circus wasn’t the real Francine, but could instantly give Narumi details about where the real one ended up? He was either lying to the shirogane up to this point or he’s lying to Narumi. There’s no way he figured all this out between the time the Midnight Circus was toppled and Narumi showing up to meet him. What is the timeline for this show anymore? How much time has passed between any events? Also…what was even the point of the Assassin guy being dropped into that story when he didn’t do anything?

This show has gotten a bit weird

Not that this arc and episode didn’t have good moments. It was enjoyable watching the dolls get smoked. I will say that Narumi has evolved to the point that he’s become extremely overpowered. Who is even a threat to this guy anymore? I’m guessing we’ll get to that sooner or later. There has to be a major element to all this involving Masaru and all these major tech organizations. I don’t even think we can discount mister “Fool” being a ringleader villain. He’s invented nano camera machines…which are not exactly far off from the kinds of machines actually spreading the Zonapha syndrome. Regardless I’d be disappointed if the whole point of the remainder of the show was killing off Shirogane because she may have a connection to Francine. Something I’m not exactly ready to trust.

If nothing else this has sure cleared the field of characters. The shirogane as an organization are effectively dead and buried. The Midnight Circus is pretty darn annihilated as well. If nothing else it doesn’t appear the Zonapha disease will spread too much more. The puppets actually doing that work are annihilated. Yeah they need to find a way to help the people suffering terribly from it. And they should probably also figure a way to deal with any of those micro robots that may still be flying about. But really that crisis seems controllable. Just work on dealing with the current dilemma and finding a cure. Heck if a genius is around then maybe have them work on re-creating the Aqua Vitae.

Regardless, we’re now moving into a different dilemma. Masaru is still out on his own while people are still clearly interested in killing him. Narumi is…well on a bit of a rampage. His own memories may keep him from straight up murdering Shirogane for the time being. And we still haven’t seen where the show is going from here. I’d expect the threat to resume from the major tech companies and even Masaru’s own father (who I’m not sure is dead) who must have been plotting something. Not a bad thing though for the show to have some mystery as to where it is going. And with how the show has jumped around the next episode might just focus entirely on Masaru for all we know.