Loved this episode. The sadness means depth for me. Not just skating the surface of this tragic situation, but at least dipping into it a bit. This is the kind of thing that makes this show, for me.
And I continue to think Hirano is even better this time around, with more energy, control, and sharpness in her voice, and as much sadness hidden beneath it. I'm a Hirano fan, and that started in 2006, but it was based more on Layla than on Haruhi.
As for the unfilled white space in the ED, it is certainly there, as
ReneeBurossamu said, within the angle formed by Mikuru's legs. But I wonder if it is intentional. There is another space between her arms and her body that they have half-filled with the grey color of the floor, to show the edge of the reflection from the window. They might have thought that doing the same thing in the larger space under her legs would have been too confusing -- and all-grey too strong -- so they left it white as the least visually distracting thing to do. Maybe. Here's the image again:
And by the way, the early shots of Kyon made him seem pretty buff, too, as well as Koizumi.
