Remember when I said that this didn't seem like the kind of show that would kill off its characters? I take that back. I suppose that the ending could be another red herring, like with Koko (apparently she is now part of "the horde," which makes her sound like an orc), but that explosion doesn't leave a lot of room for interpretation. Either way, it's amazing the way that the stakes have been ramped up in one episode without sacrificing the overall feeling of the series. Where the episode left off was shocking, but it felt like a another natural extension of the conflict. I can think of a lot of shows that suddenly added action at the very end of their run, and while they were still fun to watch, something was lost in the execution. Tsuritama doesn't have this problem. I credit this to the great writing and direction; Haru's short explanation in this episode was all that we needed, since the details have already been given to us. The things I was confused about in the first couple episodes make a lot more sense in retrospect. Anyway, back to how this episode ramped things up for the finale. At the moment, all the characters have is the magic lure. No special rod, no fancy reel, and no boat. There's a typhoon bearing down on the island and the dragon can now take over people that are in the general vicinity, not just through water. To top it off, someone may have died. "Sticky situation" doesn't quite do it justice. However, with everything that I've seen from these characters so far, I have no doubt that they'll pull it off, and not just because I don't think that we're heading towards a tragic ending (knock on wood). Our main characters have overcome so much in their personal biases that a dragon seems easy. Yuki can talk to people and get stuff done (although he'll probably never lose the "stone fish" face), Natsuki has forgiven his dad, Akira realizes that no person is an island, and Haru is starting to grasp the complexity of human emotion. I'm really excited to see how they manage to solve this problem. Catching a drgon can't be too hard as long as they work together, right? Images from Crunchyroll.com.
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