Episode Title:
Exodus Christmas.
Episode Description:
Watanabe, Onoue, Katsuragi, and their playmates discuss about letting Aoi go to Kanno before talking about Musashino's plans to begin work on the anime adaptation for The Third Girls Aerial Squad. Elsewhere, Aoi meets up with Kanno, who, after reading the storyboards, points out the ridiculous nature of animating horses for the final scene and that there are barely any animators left capable of accomplishing such a task. However, he goes on to mention that there is one person at Musashino Animation who is capable of handling the scene. The next night, the staff holds an all-hands meeting, during which Watanabe suggests altering the scene considerably to lessen the amount of work for the key animators. However, Seiichi and Honda protest this, stating that the alterations suggested would ruin the intended tension of the scene. Aoi then relays Kanno's message that Sugie, who everyone had assumed was not suitable for handling scenes for Exodus! and therefore had assigned him to another anime, is more than capable to animating the horse scenes. With the others' approval, Aoi goes to Sugie's house and asks him to take the job, to which he gladly accepts. He talks with the rest of the staff and works out a method that will get the cuts done quickly with help from Ema, Yumi, Rinko, and the other key animators. With the key animation almost complete, Ema tells Aoi that the work has allowed Sugie to still have something to do, then voices that she is now inspired to draw scenes just like he does. Sometime later, Erika returns to work, her family dilemma having been resolved. Sugie approaches Aoi and announces his intention to begin a workshop for key animation at Musashino before thanking her for her work. The delivery day soon arrives, and after everyone works up to the last minute to get the episode delivered on time, it finally airs without a hitch. Aoi, Ema, Tarō, Erika, Seiichi, Honda, Yumi, Ryōsuke, Yūichirō, Rinko, and several other staff members go out to celebrate. However, Sugie declines Aoi and Ema's offer to join them, citing that he has to return home. Watanabe arrives late, bringing with him a disc titled "White Box", which he says is a present for Aoi. The disc is played, and everyone begins a countdown.
