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Animation quality seemed to drop down for this episode, and the pacing in some places got pretty rough. Still, though, it was a good episode which reached an appropriate high point for the conclusion. A counted yakuman for Shindouji in the second-last hand of the Captain's match--we're still waiting to see how that will turn out.
One of my favourite moments of this episode's corresponding chapter in the manga was Sera getting friendly with Ako once the game was over. Out of all of the potential yuri pairings Ritz has set up for Ako in this sidestory, AkoSera has got to be the hottest and the one with the most chemistry. I'm slightly disappointed that Crunchyroll's translation called Ako's reaction to Sera as being 'scared' rather than 'nervous', and that the anime didn't get to throw in Ako's internal thought of it feeling nice when Sera touched her, lol.
In any case, these two latest matches have really been all about the badass normal Aces. Sera had a point gain of a whopping +53000 (!!!) before being hit in dealer position by that finishing Yakuman. Even then, her final score (+37000), is one of the strongest performances in the entire tournament, and this is considering that Sera does not even have any powers.
On the other hand, with Shindouji's score as low as 35000, what Mairu managed to pull off is even more impressive. The point gain for her own performance (+41000 in total, after one last round in the next episode) is already incredible, doubling Shindouji's score to put them back into a fighting position. However, more significant than that is the precise fact that her and Himeko's ability guarantees that those gains of hers will be essentially doubled. Ryuuka, Shizuno, and even Awai, whose scores are essentially now hovering just above the 100,000 level, will have to seriously watch out.
I expect episodes 15 and 16 to be incredible too.
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