[Kaoru Chujo]

I'm not sure whether to give every episode a 9 or every episode a 10. There were so many things in this ep to love.

The text-entry scene, where Konata's geek-speak words are revealed as having become the defaults.

"Cute" Minami, and Miyuki and her mom laughing at the fact that her friends think she is "cool." Minami feeling sad because she did the right thing with the dog and her mother gave in and had the pleasure of feeding it.

The chain of screen-hiding as first Yui and then Yutaka come in to see what game Kona/Patty are playing. Hiyori saying that she gets her stories from personal experience, then realizing that Yutaka has read one.

Gotuuza-sama. In her remarks at Anime Expo, Gotou Yuuko said she wanted to get roles that were more like her own character: more masculine and forceful. This is her first.

KyoAni's great (but simple) animation of such things as the wooden sword being pressed into Shiraishi's cheek.

Further to what Skane was saying, I'm not sure that the live-action endings are particularly expensive. They took two trips with a small crew -- one to the seaside and one to the mountains -- did a bunch of taping each time, and came home. I imagine that since the first 12 EDs used the same static scene and the latter 12 used simple live-action, the total cost of EDs may be not that different from the normal cost of a fancy animated ED.