Now, this was just heart-warming. This entire episode felt just like a warm blanket in the middle of winter and it was incredibly charming. It basically showed two parts right through each other: Claude’s father, and Oscar entertaining first Yune and Alice, and then the whole neighborhood. They meshed together wonderfully.
There really seem to be a lot of hints that Claude is as cold as he is thanks to his father. In those flashbacks, he actually hardly ever talked to Claud. I actually felt that Claude also grew a tiny bit in this episode, especially after how fast he calmed down after he got offended after being compared to his father by that customer of his. It’s subtle, but he would not have been that diligent at the beginning of the series.
What has also surprised me about this series is Satelight’s animation quality, and how consistent it turned out to be. Two years ago, especially when they were working on both Guin Saga and Basquash at the same time, they really had this trouble to keep their faces consistent and keep their art crisp. Heck, even Macross Frontier had a lot of strangely drawn faces and inconsistencies. Nothing of that shows here: nearly every part of this show is detailed.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
You’re right about Satelight. They’ve really changed over the years. I mean, look at Kamichama Karin! That had intense budget problems (which they fixed in the DVD version. I should ask Licca Subs if they wanna work on the DVD version). They’ve really come a long way.
I really enjoyed this episode. You don’t mention it, but Alice showed growth as well. We even got to see more of Yune’s background.
I also enjoyed seeing some animation of the French countryside for a change.