This special is a direct continuation to the 12 episode Tian Guan Ci Fu series. It is a slower paced episode based on character development and oh boy, does it do this in spades. Watching this was like watching a flower start to bloom, petal by petal, unfurling in slow motion. Conversations fully laden with meaning. Restraint. The slow unveiling of a mystery. And then ... the montage with the revelation that you might or might not miss towards the end, is like the flower blooming in full. I was stunned at the beauty and the realization of what it meant. I had debated whether Ishould give this a 10 because it is only one episode. The slow unveil leading to a climax has rarely been done half as well in other series. This might be the best one I can recall in recent anime watching history. The face reveal, I had to make sure and rewind it several times to re-watch it. My emotions were in a roil after (I have not read the novel). It makes sense, my heart was singing at the "rightness" of it. If anything can generate this kind of feeling and emotion, it deserves a 10.