This is emotional— it is heartbreaking to see the parents especially the mom here upset over possibly losing her daughter to this surgery. Kousei is distraught over seeing that Kaori’s deciding on doing the risky surgery—  I really don’t see her coming out alive after this is over.  It’s a good thing though that this is taking place here because we get a good view of Tsubaki’s selfish behavior.

She knows full and well that Kousei loves Kaori but it’s great to see how she’s struggling at making her own feelings right in her own mind—  the impact is how she treats Kousei in the first half here.  She’s just as passionate as Kaori is and she does have a soft-side— her leaning against Kousei as he’s playing against the moonlight illustrates this quite strongly.  Also the hair cut scene as well!  She’s fighting her own feelings while trying to be respectful towards Kaori and her illness but I can’t shake the feeling that she’s going to have another breaking point later on.

Kaori is determined as ever to walk—  she wants to perform with Kousei one last time in order to keep her promise. She’s one of the strongest characters in this episode that has defined Kousei in who he is as a musician and a boy growing up.

As fantastic as this is Takeshi and Emi steal the spotlight this episode.  They’ve grown as well—  they respect Kousei now that he’s back in the music world and we get a good view of how inspiring he’s been to all these musicians.  Climbing those steps in the flashback is one heck of a way to depict this entire idea around these three—  Takeshi, Nagi and Emi.  Takeshi’s performance is awesome but I wish that we could have focused on that a lot more rather than the constant use of flashbacks.

His teacher crying over the fact that he’s surpassed and even Nagi cheering him on elevates his character to fantastic heights!  Good closure to him and hopefully we will get to see Emi handled in this same style!

OVERALL IMPRESSION: 8/10

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