Just interested, Cal-Reflector - what would you give an A/A+? (Honey and Clover?? I remember you liking that show.)
Episode 14 was actually better than I expected, it was better than 13 at any rate. Even though I liked the original for 13 more than 14... Again I am impressed at the colour coordination, but the art has just gotten better and better over the series!!! I didn't know GREEN was capable of doing this - GREEN and what seems to be their sister studio, the China-based Feng Dong Hua. It's actually been the same 4 people from GREEN doing the backgrounds since the beginning, and probably the simpler backgrounds are passed to Feng Dong Hua... But in this episode 14, it's really striking how amazingly detailed the backgrounds are. I can actually not care aout the animation and just look at how detailed the bamboo forest is and the lighting and the feel of it all...
Seiyuu watchers might be interested to know that the famous Junko Iwao (Akane from Mai-Hime, Ceres in Ayashi no Ceres [+ the OP], Tomoyo in CCS, Akane in Mahou Tsukai Tai!, Hikari in Eva, Mima in Perfect Blue, Tomoe in the Kenshin OVA, Ayaka and Serika in To Heart, Kotori in the X movie)
...did a semi-main part, the role of Setsu (the wife of the main person this ep) in this episode. Very convincing performance, as expected. Yet it didn't feel contrived or like overacting.
But even more interstingly, there is an actual 5 year old playing the part of Setsu's daughter. Said person is called
Chihiro Yarita (isn't she cute!!), and she really sounds very convincing!!! I wonder if it's her or if the audio director did a great job getting her to feel the role.