Episode 23: Naraku: The trap of light
(奈落 光の罠 Naraku hikari no wana)

Chapters covered: 540 through the end of 544

mapI don't have any serious complaints about this week other than the fact that Sakuma directed it. There was nothing special about how the animation looked this week nor did it deviate from the manga. If I wanted to nit-pick, I could say that the whole scene with Sango begging Sesshoumaru to kill her and Kohaku trying to verbally defend her didn't translate very from the manga to the anime. However, it wasn't great writing to begin. The shots off Rin's feet was also kinda weird.

Furtheremore, call me an insensitive fan if you will, but this anime is just terrible at eliciting an emotional response from me. Sure, there was plenty  of on-screen emotion this week, but it just isn't translating towards me. I don't get it.

Finally, right now, pacing is perfect. 24 should cover at least through the end of 548, but I'm pretty sure it will go through the end of 549. Since we are averaging 4-5 chapters per episode, I'd like to make a preliminary prediction of the last 3 episodes.

24: 545-549
25: 550-554
26: 555-558 (end)

Summaries and animation directors for those episodes will most likely appear on Sunrise's website by the end of the week.