Nanana's Buried Treasure - Episode 11 (Completed)

The face-off between the Adventure Club and their former member Ikusaba seems to have taken a dark, violent and decidedly dangerous turn - is there any way out of the mess Juugo and company have found themselves in?

Yes, as it happens, but not before our protagonist is left with a fractured elbow and collapsed lunch by Ikusaba. Of course, the solution comes via our resident master detective, who claims to know the truth behind Ikusaba, threatening to reveal it and thus render it redundant unless he steps away and lets his rivals leave. After some pause for thought, Ikusaba agrees, leaving the Adventure Club members to recover and make good their own escape as it turns out that Tensai was actually bluffing (or rather, making an educated guess) all along.

In fact, Tensai's efforts involve a lot more than simply diffusing this situation, as she also procures the piece of the Nanana Collection to return to Nanana herself, which in turn leads to a bet as to whether Juugo would use the piece if presented with it in spite of his previous promise to her. As it turns out, Juugo does have some morals and does in fact turn down the opportunity presented to him - what's more, he seems to be decidedly worried about what Nanana really wants for her future; an issue made all the more important than her attempts to avoid answering that quesiton until forced to do so.

So ends a series that teases us with the possibility of future events that we'll never get to see (unless we're lucky enough to be granted a second season), but one that was nonetheless incredibly entertaining for the most part - it had a great roster of characters (including Juugo himself, who blows your average run-of-the-mill anime protagonist out of the water), some excellent action and great animation to depict both this and the show's intricate, Uncharted-esque puzzles. Some of the treatment of its characters and their personalities was a little inconsistent, and its pacing waxed and waned on occasion, but that doesn't detract from the fact that Nanana's Buried Treasure most certainly exceeded my expectations and then some on every count, and I certainly wouldn't say no to more of it.