[color=#006FFF]So this episode was easily one of the best, if not the best. It had zero down-time, an excellent clash between Ryuko (albeit in berserk mode) and Satuski, more story, and more Mako!
So for starters, Nui turned out to be the killer after all. I was skeptical, but nonetheless, I was not disappointed. I feel like Nui is one of those characters that I would say I have a love-hate relationship with because while I love her design and the fact that she's important and intimidating, I HATE her unbreakable smile (unless her eye is getting gouged). I don't mean to say I hate her character or anything though. She just pisses me off with how happy she always is.. lol. Regardless, I loved the flashback (seeing Dr. Matoi in action was pretty cool) and it added to Nui's character nicely.
This bitch.
[color=#006FFF]Also, how about that berserk mode?? I figured
something would happen, but not that. I'm always a sucker for the berserk/blind-rage mode from characters, so I loved it. It shows the emotion from the character in a way that also calls for some mindless, ruthless, destruction. I got some major NGE vibes from it. And it made for an excellent excuse to call Satsuki into action (at which point my heart dropped with excitement).
I freaking love this woman.
[color=#006FFF]I was hoping to see a bit more of Ragyo in this--or at the end anyway--but what we did get was nice enough since it reassured the rivalry between Satsuki and Ryuko as well as gave us Satsuki motives. I'm curious if Trigger is going to do some sort of "real-time" thing for the next episode though and we'll just cut one week ahead (since the anime is weekly airing) or if they'll just start from where they left off. I feel like it'd be something they'd do to follow it in real-time but that's beside the point.
Overall, fantastic episode and I'm eagerly looking forward to next week's episode!
Also I think that, if Mako was going to die like people have been thinking, it would have happened in this episode. I don't think she'll be going anywhere anytime soon, and I'm okay with that.