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Finally watched Episode 8 of this (I had to wait on gg subs as nutbladder's didn't work for me).
After watching it... I can understand Guardian Enzo's critiques, but I also think I see where Ikuhara is going with Ringo specifically, and MPD in general.
Next episode is absolutely key for MPD, and especially for Ringo's character, imo.
My view is that Ringo's character has been taken right to the line here. Her yandere eccentricity has blossomed into full-out, non-stop insanity. Ringo is deeply disturbingly delusional. She's genuinely crazy.
I don't mean "crazy" as in someone who simply acts very theatrically, and/or you can't perceive the method to his/her madness. Nor do I mean "crazy" in the sense of "evil beyond belief". Ringo is crazy in the sense that she has completely divorced herself from reality, and is living in a dream world that perceives reality through a massive distortion on a fun-house mirror.
Episode 8 has definitely demonstrated the depths of Ringo's psychological decay. I think that at this point, one of three things should happen:
1. Ringo "flames out", as she does in the OP. In other words, she becomes a tragic figure meeting with a tragic end.
2. Ringo begins to snap out of it. Shoma's potentially lethal accident is much of the catalyst for this. She begins the road to recovery, and takes on a new role in the near future.
3. A major "game changer" comes into play, one that actually enables Ringo to win over Tabuki. An obvious example of this would be Yuri being removed from the equation somehow (death, coma, etc...). This is the trickiest of the three options, though, and hence not my personal favorite of the three.
If Ringo is back to fruitlessly pursuing Tabuki next episode... then Ikuhara has frankly overplayed his hand. Such a hopeless pursuit is now very much played out. That plot-line has been taken as far as it can before tediousness and pointless repetition sets in.
However, that plot-line has been skillfully used to bring Ringo to the very edge and peak; Ikuhara has set the stage for a great moment of high drama here if he executes it well (think of how Gen Urobuchi handled Sayaka Miki).
Ringo either now ascends to victory, or crashes spectacularly, or is pulled back from the brink of the abyss. To bring her to this point only to have her run around in circles would be a horrible waste, and highly counter-productive.
So, if MPD is the truly great anime that many believe it to be, then I think next episode will be a major turning point, or a tragic ending, for Ringo. However, if Ringo continues to be used as she's been the past few episodes, then Ikuhara will have badly misplayed his hand, and my assessment of MPD's narrative strength will drop considerably.
With all of the above being said, I can't really judge Episode 8 yet. I will say I loved the Western-themed bit: That was pretty cool and amusing. The ending of the episode was also very good. But how good Episode 8 is as a whole will depend, in my view, on what happens in Episode 9. After Episode 9, I think I'll know if MPD is deserving of the hype that surrounds it or not.
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