Such an excellent series.
I also really liked Jintan protecting Anaru like that.
Regarding Anaru's friends actually caring for her, I must admit that I thought they might show it - I've seen things like that often happen, and the show has been making efforts (successful ones imo) to really portray RL emotional struggles, realities and the like.
I've always smiled a little to myself that they've used a "fictional element" like a ghost as the driving force to make the story and the portrayal of these RL elements manifest themselves. When I saw the first episode I was actually a little reminded of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" (in the sense of a ghost driving the story, I mean).
Anyway, very good ep. I gave it 8/10.