My friend knew the spoiler going in, I didn't. When we were just sitting down to watch it, I let drop that Mami was my favourite character so far... he told me afterwards he had trouble not giving it away with his reaction. And wow did it hit me out of nowhere... I didn't actually buy that she was dead until she didn't appear outside like the other three.

But yeah, she actually was my favourite of the characters so far, since she's the sweet and charming type. I didn't expect her to do a heel face turn, although I was expecting her to turn out to be a Knight Templar type since its already been demonstrated she's pretty ruthless. Kyuubey, on the other hand, I find very suspicious.

(Side note: I keep thinking that this set of photos indicates Megumi Natsumi could do an excellent Mami cosplay: http://mpzerocos.exblog.jp/14417978/
Unlikely though, since she doesn't do that many costumes per year.

It does have a bit of an Eva vibe, doesn't it? I doubt it'll be a break through on that level, but I do expect the show to be big, which is nice since it's been a while since there's Shaft also doesn't seem to have skimped on budget for once, Shinbo has done a lot of projects since Bakemonogatari, but I think this is where we get to see what sort of clout he has nowadays.)

I agree that this is obviously a huge project - despite all the other shows Shinbo has done over the past year or so, this is the first one that feels like a followup to Bakemonogatari. I don't think it's going to have anything close to the broad impact NGE did since its still a late night show, but I'm expecting some really good sales numbers.