As I’ve said previously, one of the central themes of this show is the search for self-worth. And this week, Nine finds his— through being needed by Lisa.

It was really cute. Twelve is a smooth operator. Best date idea ever.

As for the rest, it was great too. A tragic end was the only way this could possibly go.

The one part I’m not sure about is having the Americans come in at the end and do the killing. I feel like it takes away from the themes the show was going for, about the complicity of Japan itself. It ‘s a “wow, evil foreigners” ending. It’s like they’re agreeing with the old guy’s talk in the last episode about how Japan has been emasculated and needs to regain its imperialistic might.

That’s not to say America doesn’t deserve all the criticism it gets, but the callousness of the Americans in not caring if a city is annihilated by a nuclear weapon turns the crimes of the Japanese into a sideshow. Anime always pulls its punches when criticizing its own country…