I'm glad I pause to read the narrative SHAFT flashes across the screen. "The only side effect of being a vampire is that I have to drink blood once a month. During that time, my vision becomes sharper." That explains why he could read the girl's backpack in the previous episode.

I definitely see how a lot of the SHAFT animation is very... SHAFTy, and doesn't really add much to the narrative. I get the "lost in surburbia" feeling and that sense of faceless, anonymous alienation, but some of the shots could've been delivered more effectively. Like, I think Serial Experiments Lain conveyed that kind of feeling very effectively, by breaking into symbolism instead of trying to do it purely through realism/perspective work.
I was amused by the transformations on Araragi's phone.

Still interesting stuff on written language and some good moments, but also a lot of stretches where "nothing happens," or the pls is real. "Unripe fruit," uuugh.

That first scene with the Festum grabbing hold of and protecting what we find out is Soushi caught my attention, then finding out that said Festum was Misao made it that much better. Misao sheds some nice insight into the Festum, providing us with one that follows what his Mir wants him to do for the most part, but still possesses individuality that Kazuki edges on throughout the movie. Ofcourse, he's all about "the sky is beautiful" since the sky or "azure" is a representation of freewill, but now I'm wondering if he's supposed to be a representation of all Festum, how they all have the potential for freewill, but are part of this collective instead(outside of Akane and Misao), with the Mir being the "brain" of the Festum. Misao even compares himself to a finger when talking to Kazuki, saying "your finger doesn't tell your mind what to do, your mind has complete control over it" when Kazuki tells Misao to think for himself.

Regarding the Mir, it seems to me like they are an entity that is attempting to learn about humanity and the world. Tsubaki explains that the island's Mir is trying to learn about the cycle of life and death whereas the Mir of the Festum are attempting to learn about humanity(and more specifically, the emotion humanity feels) through assimilation. Whether these Mir are actually one and the same or not, I'm not quite sure.

I'm still not sure on what happened in ep 23, Maya gets shot by a Festum, we never see her eject and it absolutely totals her Fafner. Yet in the next episode Maya is perfectly fine. Is this just a gaping plot hole that could've been easily avoided? w/e, I'm just glad she didn't die as her development and eventually becoming a pilot/best sniper was great.
Also totally expected the show to go all Elfen Lied when Tsubaki was released, especially when it showed the phrase "solve et coagula" (which kinda sums up the goal of the Festum/Mir). Glad it didn't go in that direction.
>Soushi having "one eye"
Woden pls