Kobato, Episode Three: The Rain`s Gift.

Kobato continues to be wonderful in its first episode. This episode was hilarious as ever, and while it continued to follow Kobato's established theme of her healing hearts, they really managed to make it feel different from the previous episodes. The Tsubasa Chronicles-style cameos in this episode didn't hurt either.

As the above picture shows, Kobato gets a change of clothes this episode, which is nice. I always really enjoy the outfits CLAMP does for their characters, and I look forward to more wardrobe changes. This episode had a really uniquely CLAMP feel all over, and not just because of the cameos. There were some really nice stills that really showed off the CLAMP art style, and the show got a little dose of the sort of intrigue that they slowly trickle into their sweet stories. I think I'm going to have to track down some art for this show after this episode.

It's hard for me to say whether Kobato or Darker Than Black II is my favorite show this season. I really look forward to both and have loved every episode I've seen. Were I to make a top 3 shows of the season list, I imagine these two would have to share the number one spot, and the rest of this season's anime would have to battle it out for spot number three.

Rating: 95/100