This Kiki's gonna need some serious Kanri-ing.
I like how Izumo tried to mitigate the Watermelon's edginess by having Shamiko and Momo sling wisecracks throughout her demon genocide spiel, though it only served to make her more unnerving. I'm not even sure if this was intentional or not- Izumo's 5D chess is as brilliant as ever.
It's been a long, fun ride, and it feels surreal to see how far we've come from a standard Kirara comedy. This clever, gay, brilliantly ambitious series has been one of the biggest surprises I've encountered in all my time reading manga, and I'm still amazed at just how much Izumo can do with the often-reviled 4koma format. Most authors are limited by the structure and often avoid going for complicated content, but Izumo uses the simple layout to optimize the flow of her exposition, create perfect balances between gags and drama, underline action and dialogue in frantic progressions and create some of the best visual narratives I've seen (the core slowly eroding, that one panel of absolute, terrifying darkness after Suika reveals her true intentions, the partial shot of her grinning, misshapen face as she resurrects, and the absolute goddamn brilliance of framing her spacetime-breaking threat to Shamiko as the punchline of a 4koma strip are all excellent examples of an artist making the absolute best of their medium).
We're in the endgame now, or perhaps the beginning of an entirely new one. I'm extremely hyped for this, because I just know that Izumo's planned it all out and will almost certainly deliver a fitting conclusion. This series has been excellent at retaining its core identity and charm whilst steadily strengthening its dramatic beats, and we're going to be in for a legendary payoff. Ganbare, Shamiko! Stop Mahou Shoujo Hitler, broker world peace, and kiss Momo while you're at it!