[Kaoru Chujo]

Oh, man, is ep7 great. So beautifully, beautifully directed. And the relationships so subtly drawn.

Spoiler for ep7:

The complete silence at the opening, after the OP: at least three seconds of Fumi lying in bed and no sound at all. When Fumi is knocking on the door and we see her hesitate, then see the actual knock from inside the door. And many other nice inspirations.

And of course the story: how Fumi skips school to spend the day with Ah-chan. And the amazing sisters, who make Sugimoto-senpai seem so tame, all of a sudden. The open bandying about of words like "Lesbian" and "bisexual." And senpai's final shocking declaration.

Loved Ah-chan in the little old-fashioned Chinese hat when they were in Yokohama. Also love Fumi's striped pajama pants, lol -- straight from the manga.

There was a phrase spoken by Horie Yui as Kyouko, in the car, that really seemed excellent to me: "Nandemo nai" -- especially the little wobble on the "nai."

The episode was storyboarded and directed by Aoi Sayo 青井小夜. She has been a key animator at least since 2004, but only recently has been doing storyboards (Zero no Tsukaima Rondo) and episode directing and storyboards (Toradora, Umi Monogatari). As a key animator, she was involved in shows such as Aria, Darker than Black, and Hakaba Kitarou. But of course, the style is Kasai Kenichi's.

I'm definitely seeing three shows this summer that I consider candidates for "masterpiece" status: this, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, and Bakemonogatari. All three are maintaining their high quality so far.