天下制覇

Mostly by moping around. In one case, by visiting home for about 15 minutes.

Impressions:

This episode peaked very early. A couple giggles from the existence of New Channel ∞ was about as good as the (expectedly) maudlin episode was to get. I wouldn't even say that the moping around was particularly effective. At the start, it looked like they'd be putting too many eggs in the girlfriend basket over Whose-His-Face dying, but she was around for only maybe a minute of the episode. It was more focused on Poofy Hair, who despite featuring prominently in the first OP, has yet to break out of the slot of Completely Extraneous Secondary Character. Her relationship with Akira is even less substantial than Maia's. Or him for that matter.

They didn't really do much of anything with her either. Or Akira. They pretty much just bummed around for twenty minutes, everyone spontaneously got their grooves back and glowed with the power of hope or words or whatever, and then kissed to tick off a box and satisfy the nonexistent fans of that pairing. They've neither set up nor are showing the ALL IS LOST and THIS IS OUR DARKEST HOUR atmosphere that I can only assume is what they were going for that they will now overcome when Maia learns to believe in herself and her nonexistent love.