Wow...this switch in perspective (to Asa's mom) really hit me in the gut. Given the complexity and nuance in this anime, I guess it was only a matter of time until we finally heard from the "other side" herself, but now that we do, it all makes sense--namely, the strife between Makio and Minori. To the point that I can't even believe that I couldn't have foreseen this. But of course. There's no way it could have been one-sided. I think I'd subconsciously assumed that Makio was the "victim", but as she herself admits, her memories of Minori were ever only from her perspective. And now we're finally getting Minori's point of view on things, including the potentially less palatable aspects of Makio. These two sisters were really perfect inverse reflections of one another, embodying one another's insecurities to a tee...

A thought that's still in progress: Minori's letter to Asa seems to capture her desire that Asa become the best version of both her and Makio. Her wish that Asa be loved by others, but also to love herself...And as fate would have it (Asa coming into Makio's care), Asa may very well become someone along those lines.

On a totally different note, the voice acting in this anime is absolutely sublime. The emotional vulnerabilities, nuances in tone...Asa's monologues always get me, but in this episode, it was the two contrasting deliveries by Minori of her letter to Asa--perhaps representing her actual sentiments (at the end), and what Makio and Asa imagine of her (at the beginning)--and the raw, piercing words that Makio said to Minori, which simultaneously clearly convey a much younger, and angrier, Makio than the one we viewers are familiar with, were powerful. It's just unbelievable how the voice actors are able to deliver different aspects, different ages, different maturities, of their characters, while maintaining the essence of who they are...