Yeah the opening segment was great, the way that Asuka was clearly in character for the first portion of it and then was genuinely took back by the announcement and basically broke character. Was fitting it was Asuka she got to pass it over to aswell given the respect she has for her and the way she talks about her, very cool.
Happy for them both, but from a totally selfish perspective it sucks that she's going to be gone for so long, if not permanently. Huge shame she didn't get to go out in front of a crowd too, that pop would've been awesome and a fitting end to this awesome run.