@GARbej: yeah, this does feel like the segue into something bigger, although I already know how long the fifth movie will be…if you’re implying that Ayara Souren guy appears in it, I’m expecting it to be excellent. (:

I can’t wait to read the depiction of Shiki’s coma segment in the novel, because it appeared to be so difficult to animate (although I have to say it was a success…the imagery was reminiscent of Evangelion in some ways). I’ve heard the novel is out in August but sadly repeated searches aren’t yielding any set dates or details. Will keep you posted!

When reading Garan no Dou, I wondered how the the scene of Shiki in her coma would be like animated. Needless to say, Ufotable did a magnificent job visualizing it.

As for me, Garan no Dou was the most disappointing of the five. It was useful to link all the lines of plot dispatched in the shuffled chronology but, I don’t know, the emotion and the pace seemed a bit off.
Mister director this time was someone I didn’t know : Shinichi Takiguchi, and it seems that Google don’t know him too well either.
Oh, I almost forgot, good review, as always.
And ARIA is totally awesome. I mean Aria, well the ending theme song. But that’s also true for the awesome iyashikei animu/mango.