>>120420009Gonna go full iron man mode
11 7, (small powergap), 8, 1, and 9 are my top 5.
11 is fantastic. Really great execution of everything it sets out to do. It really manages to get you wrapped in and invested in Mictecacihuatl as a character, and was really well paced. The emotional moments hit well, too, and Mictec/Mictlan, Yaotl, and Tezcat. have great voicework in it. Seeing Tezcatlipoca act like such a petty, spiteful asshole under his suave, menancing badboy facade we see earlier in the series was pretty great (though I do wish there was more to stress the contrast and why he shifts to that).Amazingly, and this really shows how good 11 is that all the other points are more to credit for it's quality then this, is that it taking place in Tenochtitlan is "merely" icing on the cake: An episode EASILY could have coasted to my favorite just by leveraging the amazing imagery of Tenochtitlan's gardens, palaces, etc; but instead it manages to be the best without even really focusing too much on the city itself (though I do hope that if we get a S2, we get a Tenochtitlan exploration and downtime episode(s)
7's imagery and visual design is absolutely fantastic, and I think from a visual standpoint this is easily the strongest episode. If you asked me to come up with a theme for a Mesoamerican underworld, Marine and Coral Reef imagery, x MC escher x Pokemon's Distortion World, wouldn't be what I'd say, but it works really well and ties into underworld associations with pools and caves well. As
>>120413894 says, the intense, epic rendition of Nelli's theme is easily the best piece of music in the show (and I really hope in a S2 that theme gets to play again, it REALLY elevates the scene it's in here in 7). The scene with Izel's reply of "I know" to "it's suicide" is one of the best written lines in the show that hit like a ton of bricks, and Izelanon delivers it extremely well. I think the way the House of Darkness was depicted was really cool, as well.
1/2
