Another great episode with strong animation and writing.
The grand conceit of the series is revealed in this episode, that of two people forced to exist in one body. At first glance you could mistake the series for a “help, I’m a woman!” gender switch comedy along the lines of Ranma 1/2 and Futaba-kun Change. But that’s not what the story is going for. It has more in common with the body invasion horror of Parasyte or Guyver. The twist being that for a change it’s a human invading an alien’s body (albeit by the alien’s own actions).
And that body invasion theme is laid on thick this episode as in addition to Birdy’s situation we have the villainous Bacillus acting as a more traditional body horror parasite – the alien who needs to take other other’s bodies to survive – and so a mirror on Birdy’s actions. Birdy lets Tsutomu into her body to save his life. Bacillus forces himself into people to survive, at the cost of that person’s life. And then there’s a third scenario that plays out this episode, not spelt out to the viewer as yet, that appears to be somewhere in between Birdy and Bacillus’ situations.
And then there’s another really strong action scene that highlights the sense of movement the show has (as well as it’s nice line in facial expressions). The only weak spot is some humdrum 3D work that looks like it’s being employed as cheap filler.