It probably is a bit too late to actually mention this, but I noticed that those two girls at the beginning, the ones that Mugen was hanging around in order to steal their food...were they not those two ladies that the Daikan's son's thugs were bothering in episode 01 at the tea shop?

wow. Nice observation. I don't think if I'd watched them back to back I would have noticed that. They do indeed seem to be identical characters. Bravo!

I was surprised when I found it, but I figured something like this would be found...kind of like those three men who appeared in various episodes in Cowboy Bebop.

Funny that...it seems like they're using those charaters as 'extras' like they do in live action films....they might be in other scenes in other episodes too!! like in the brothel in the yakuza episodes....I think its rather clever I'm glad to hear that animators are also firm believers in recycling!!

or they might be the same people in diff places you never know

Wow, cool observation.

They seemed kinda familiar to me, but I did not make the conection at all.

Cheers!

Although this wasn't in episode 16, it was more along the lines of "Did Anyone Notice...?" kind of topic. Remember those Yagyuu swordsmen that appeared in episode 01? Well, it seems that in episode 06, those three men who were trying to find that foreigner coincidentally look exactly like those Yagyuu men... Refer to 12:20 and 12:30 on episode 06 to get a comparison shot with the three men in episode 01 at 6:46 and 6:53. What made me think of this was their appearances, as well as one of the three men's distinguished 'bump' on his forehead.