This episode thankfully wasn’t as bad as the previous episodes, and instead it was just a build-up. Unfortunately though, it showed a lot about the structure of this series and how much time it has actually wasted. But before I comment on that: we finally see Rook again… only to have him state the obvious and disappear again. Great use of him, guys!
Now, about this episode: it actually went back to the brainwashing again. Even though this disappeared for nearly half a season, here it is back like nothing happened. So yes, this series will turn Kaito’s friends against him. So really? What were those previous episodes about anyway? A random repetitive tournament that revealed the motivation of the Orpheus Order and a random beach episode. None of them really said anything about any of the characters, save for that very corny backstory and returning Nonoha back to the kitchen. They did absolutely nothing with the theme of brainwashing people
If these episodes were mentioned to flesh out the characters, then they pretty much failed because none of the characters emerged as better from those episodes and some of them even regressed and became more generic. Only this episode finally tried to delve deeper into the characters, even though it had plenty of annoying moments with everyone and his dog running for president. You could have made so much better use of these episodes. Take control of a few more side-characters; continue trying to recruit Gammon again by using his sister or something. Give Nonoha a puzzle she can actually solve. There was so much potential for these episodes. You obviously don’t care about having a puzzle in every episode so you could have taken one episode off to dedicate to the past of one of the characters.
I think it’s pretty clear by now: the first season was completely planned out when Sunrise suddenly came with the announcement for a second season. And my guess really is that the script was rushed in order to get the second season to continue immediately after the first season. Sunrise has very solid planners, so keeping the animation quality up was no problem. But thinking of a completely new series with complete new threats was way too much. This is especially the case considering that Sato Junichi switched from the director to the series composition: it’s very likely that he wrote this second season while directing the remaining episodes of the first season. That’s the only explanation I can think of for such a shoddy writing-job from his side, because there are just too many things wrong with that string of six episodes.
Rating: (Enjoyable)
To be fair, I don’t think the series composition guy writes the script. Sato is listed as the co-director on ANN though, so maybe he just didn’t give a crap and let Hirotaka Endo (who only did the storyboard on the second episode last season) go wild. Endo’s only major experience is Solty Rei, which kinda shows. The actual series composition on MAL seems to be the same guy, Mayori Sekijima, for both seasons.
Series composition guys aka head writers don’t actually write the individual scripts (except when they do – it happens), they’re in charge of producing the scripts and overseeing the result. That is, in case of an original anime they discuss the plot, mood, direction, etc. with the director/etc, draft the plot and break it down to episode-sized chunks, arrange the pacing, decide which character gets focus and when, decide on when and how to insert/reference the sponsors or the products the anime “sells”, etc. etc. They’re also the ones who finalize the the actual story which will be then “elaborated” in the episode scripts, and review the episode scripts along with the director.
If you look at the wiki for Phi Brain you’ll notice that Satou Junichi is credited with exactly one script so far, for the first series.