The military higher ups are secretly evil
The council of Kyubey as I call them are not only really creepy. With Kakiyasu being a dead ringer for Aki-Sensei/Masked Taisha priest, Hiroki being a creepy pervert, and the gray haired one is Gin Ichimaru full stop. With all their condom references, foreshadowing of a ritual, and the comments that Hidomoto is more than a mere old lady and may be getting shot soon. It's clear that the JSDF is up to something fishy.- Seems to be supported with their plans in Episode 7... they first plan on having the pilots fall in love with someone, and then the higher-ups will deliberately cause heartbreak in the couples to make sure the pilots devote themselves to the OTFs...
- Seems to be jossed. While the Ritual does require a sacrifice, it’s to supposedly protect Japan and possibly the world. Hisone also finds a way to stop the sacrifice, and despite initial protest, they choose to go on with it.
Hinomoto is getting the Mami treatment soon.
Episode 6 hints at the fact that the little old lady is not just a random civilian and things are going to get Madoka magica dark. And Hidomoto is going to get killed off by the council of Kyubey starting the Cerebus Syndrome.- It’s at least confirmed that Hinomoto is not a random civilian. She’s actually one of the pilots who participated in the Ritual 74 years ago.
- The other part is jossed. Hinomoto survives at the end.
Anastomosis is just the dragons being extremely stressed.
Even before Anastomosis was revealed, we had some instances where the dragons were stressed and ended up melting holes in the flight suits of the pilots.