An actual fight!!

Really sorry for the late post guys, school’s been picking up and I’ve been left behind ;_; But alas, you’re not here for my life story, you’re here for some Shana goodness… which unfortunately has been lacking lately. Epi 07 and 08 are being combined since 07 was such a waste of an episode. Oh well, at least all this useless stuff is finally over.

Summary:

07: Ike plans a trip for himself, Yoshida, Yuuji, Shana, Konoe, Satou, Ogata, and Tanaka at an amusement park. Much uselessness ensues. Throughout the day, Ike tries to impress Yoshida with his superior organizational and preparational skills, but fails horribly. Honestly, there’s nothing much to summarize because nothing happens. They go to shops that are closed, Ike lines up for a rollercoaster he doesn’t want to go on, Yoshida waits in line with him as they get some time alone, Ike becomes pathetic, they run through a maze together, they ride a ferris wheel together, Ike throws up. That just about sums it up.

Continuing straight over to episode 08, stuff actually starts to happen. But not really. Now instead of wasting time and not advancing the story, we flashback to times long past and neglect to truly advance the story. We’re beginning to see Margery’s past when she was living in NY, and the people she encountered there.

Sporting a nice dress and letting her hair down and untied, Margery battles some sort of Tomogara that can control the advancement of civilizations. During her battle, Metamorphosis appears and defends the Tomogara, as he apparently was contracted to do so. After being beaten heavily by the duo, Margery collects herself, when she meets the Hauler of Prevailing Ghouls, Yuri Chvojka. He’s a new flame haze that seems to have no sense of how a flame haze should act. However useless, he works as an Outlaw, which seems to be a not so useless position.

Over at Eastedge, Margery arrives at a bar and delivers a message, the reason for her coming to NY. The message is about Revolution, a group of Tomogara that need to be fought off. Margery is given the job, as well as the duty to train little Yuri. However, due to the simple fact that Yuri just doesn’t have what it takes to be a flame haze, Margery gives up on the idea of training him and goes to battle without him. Having an idea of where the Tomogara they fought earlier is, Margery heads to the Empire State Building and forms a fuzetsu to start their fight.

Back over at the current time, and not Margery’s past, we have Yuuji training against Wilhelmina and he has quite some progress. He’s able to use his power of existence to go head to head with large rinne [namely the one that Marian and Friagne used against him at the beginning of the series], and his usefulness is starting to show. Shana sees the promise in Yuuji and wants to teach him unrestricted spells next, including the coveted fuzetsu.

Thoughts:

Episode 07 was another waste of an episode. Much like the previous recent episodes, I struggled to get through the entire thing without quitting halfway through. At least now it isn’t about Shana and Yoshida being stupid about their feelings towards Yuuji. Now it’s… Ike being stupid about his feelings towards Yoshida. On second thought, I’m not too sure that’s much of an improvement, given there’s really no benefit of furthering the relationship between the two. Ike is and will probably always be a minor character, and his relationship with Yoshida will never interfere with how she feels for Yuuji. Even if the unlikely event happened and they DID get together, what would happen next? There needs to be a love triangle somewhere, so with Yoshida gone, who will fill in the gap? Konoe? Unlikely. If she’s Hecate, then “Konoe” as a role that Hecate plays will disappear. If she’s not Hecate but still part of Balle Masque, then there’s no way she’ll stick around for long. Finally, if she’s not Hecate and is completely unrelated to Balle Masque, then she’d quickly be relegated to a minor character and we’d never hear of her again. Unless she’s like Ike and comes back next season to try to steal Yuuji away, but now things are getting wayyy too unlikely.

I don’t even know why we’re wasting time on Ike anyways. The past few episodes were centered around Konoe’s introduction and the impact it had on the love triangle. Having finally gotten over it, now we’ve changed gears to Ike and Yoshida, which basically completely ignores all the “development” we’ve suffered through. Is this the reward to Yoshida for getting through all that jealousy stuff? It just makes the flow of the story seem so random and meaningless. If say, they jumped from getting over the jealousy to a fight with a Tomogara, you would be able to see the fruits of their labor, as they would probably be cooperative with each other and further bonding would develop. However, instead we have a story that has no relevance to the plot and is seriously useless. Why do you do this to us? ;__; On this note, episode 08 isn’t providing a wealth of help either on that issue. Again, the story is stagnant and doesn’t deal with the previous jealousy arc. Instead we watch a story of Margery’s past, which by no means is a bad thing, but there could’ve been a better flow of events.

Now changing from complaining about the uselessness of the episode, I’ll talk of how useless Ike is. I’ll give him slack for telling off Yuuji when Yuuji was being stupid with his three ladies, but this episode I had a huge urge to slap him across the face. Hard. His need for everything to go JUST AS PLANNED and his bawwing when things weren’t perfect were less than desired. And his little victory that eventually ends up being messed up at the last moment? He deserves that. But that just makes the episode more useless, seeing how absolutely nothing really advanced.

But I think I’m complaining too much about this episode, so I’ll move on.

Episode 8 was a very welcome change. We get a rare glimpse into Margery’s past in her younger days back over at NY. Her experiences with Yuri will probably be the reason why she’s so against having Satou and Tanaka follow her. I suspect Yuri’s lack of a real fighting spirit will lead to his eventual demise, and Margery will take the blame upon herself. Not wanting to lose another person like that, Margery’ll refuse to train Satou. I guess that’s fair enough. Margery probably has seen plenty of deaths in her time, and a life of a flame haze must be lonely. She probably adopts the reasoning that she will outlive any mere human, so she shouldn’t get too involved with them. Kind of a sad story, really.

I hope to see more of Margery’s other past. Since I haven’t watched the first season in such a long time, I forget what exactly the reason for her fighting was. Her hunting for the silver… wolf, was it? I just hope they go back and eventually explain that one fully though. Originally, I suspected that the silver wolf [or whatever it was] was actually Metamorphosis in a wolf’s form, but seeing how the NY fight was the first time they ever faced off, I figure that’s unlikely now. If it turns out to be someone like Hecate, then that would really blow my mind, but I think that’s the least likely yet.

Yuuji’s recent developments really boosted up his usefulness. In the previous season, all he could do was be a huge talking target with an anti-flame hougu as his only means of defense. Now, not only has he been trained in battle, he can defend himself with physical reinforcement as well as launch powerful physical attacks. With the promise of unrestricted spells in the future and his huge capacity for power of existence, he’ll really become a Mistes to be feared. I really look forward to future battles with Yuuji, since he’ll be able to do something now. Too much uselessness, needs more people who can actually fight!

But am I the only one who thinks giving a mere Torch who wishes to remain human the powers of summoning a fuzetsu is a bad idea? Just think of how Yuuji will abuse that power. He’ll be able to ace any test at school by just fuzetsuing and whipping out his textbooks while everybody else is frozen. Or maybe he’ll just waltz into a bank and waltz out a million dollars richer.

Or maybe he’s just not evil like that.

…maybe.

//Soda

Episode 7 (zZz)

Superb :3

Episode 8 (Yuri? Did someone just say yuri?)

OH GOD MARGERY IS HOT

Episode 9 (WHAT A TWIST!)

OSHI-

I really can’t wait to see how they explain this one. Will they use the silver POE as a buffer to introduce Pheles as the source and therefore main antagonist of this season. Or will Margery freak out when she sees it and direct her rage at Yuuji, even though he might not be the one she’s looking for, or perhaps is but just can’t remember it.

Whatever the case, we’re finally done with the boring pseudo drama, so all is well in my mind.

~ Shirukii ~

You should be able to solve this

Rejoice! All this little drama regarding the love polygon should finally be over. The girls have finally accepted the fact that Yuuji is just spending some time with Konoe, and that they’re all finally taking steps forward. Finally.

Summary:

Class starts with an announcement from the teacher that there’s a pop quiz the next day that will test every subject. Ogata and Ike organize the entire group to study at Satou’s, after having Yuuji ask Shana and Yoshida. They all agree, and gather to study.

Before all the girls and Ike arrive, Satou, Tanaka and Yuuji try to convince Margery to leave Satou’s house as to not cause unnecessary trouble. Too drunk for words, she refuses. Thankfully she does, because she proves quite useful later on.

Ike’s ladies

Everyone settles down and starts studying. Yoshida, being the smart one she is, decides she’ll skip the studying and instead cook for the rest of her friends. They all eat dinner after a bit of studying, and while washing the dishes, Ogata and Yoshida bump into a drunk Margery =0 Oh the drama, the development =0 Ogata questions Margery’s relationship with Tanaka, since Ogata obviously feels threatened. Margery says that there’s nothing special going on, it’s just that the guys admire her. And while she’s at it, Margery throws in a few love tips which Yoshida also listens to intently.

Meanwhile Konoe and Shana go out to look for Ogata and Yoshida, since they’ve been missing for a long time. They come across the still unwashed dishes, and attempt their own jab at doing a proper job. Konoe, being the princess she is, and Shana, being the inexperienced flame haze she is, completely fail at the task and end up blowing up water everywhere. This also relieves the tension between everybody, and things go back to normal. Yoshida tells Shana the wisdom Margery imparted on her, and they both finally get over their jealousy of Konoe =0

Thoughts:

THANK YOU MARGERY, I THINK I MIGHT LOVE YOU. It doesn’t rival any Noto role, but still, you got the girls out of their love polygon funk and we can finally put an end to that drama. I’m glad it’s finally over, it was made of DO NOT WANT and kill me now.

Margery, once again, gives some advice to Ogata. The first time should’ve been during the onsen OVA, although I’ll admit I forget what exactly she said since it’s been so long. But Margery’s proving to be a character that isn’t just sitting along in the sidelines getting drunk. Or maybe she still is, but at least she got us over this part. I couldn’t be happier. Her little love wisdom thing also confirms the fact that she’s essentially a big sister to Satou and Tanaka. And no, the guys aren’t into siscon >_>

Shana and Yoshida should hopefully be fully back to normal starting from next epi, or at least they won’t be nearly as annoying as before. However, judging by the episode preview of 07, it doesn’t look like there will be any real progress regarding Konoe’s origins, so she’ll remain and cause trouble for the ladies for a little longer.

On that note, I have to constantly remind myself that Konoe isn’t a lifeless doll. Her quietness and need for everything to be done for her is typical of a doll, yet when she went to look for Ogata and Yoshida, I was reminded acutely that she was a normal human by most standards. It’s nice of her to be concerned, and it makes me wonder if Hecate is capable of feeling something like that, should they prove to be separate entities [which I think they are].

Unfortunately, looking at the next episode’s preview, it would appear that we’re not quite out of the woods yet. Now it’s Ike’s turn to toil with his relationship with Yoshida, which should also affect the previously established love polygon.

…So when can we get back to swords, fire, and killing? I’m not a shounen addict, but seriously, I’m not watching this series for the intricate webbings of a high school drama. That’s like watching School Days for the romance. Now certainly you can have SOME drama in Shana, but looking at the stats here, it’s clearly unbalanced. We have 6 episodes so far, the first one of which being a recap episode, which basically sets us down to 5 episodes. Of those, the past 4 episodes were devoted to the love polygon, and the only fighting we got was between the girls and Yuuji. Ok ok FINE, you can count in training if you REALLY want to, but that hardly changes anything. And the fight with the flame haze that controlled fire rings? He literally died less than 2 minutes after his first attack. Additionally, 50 seconds of that “fight” was spent on him helplessly crawling over to Konoe, attempting to eat her power of existence. The only reason the fight lasted so long was because of Shana’s wanting to test out her theory. So looking at it, we have: recap, fight, love polygon, love polygon, love polygon, love polygon. And the next episode is Ike’s little drama.

Shana is not pleased

So are we going to advance the story with some killing or what?

//Soda

Noodle time in 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.

Much like last time, there’s a lot of tension between the girls and Yuuji because of the amount of attention he’s giving to Konoe. In fact, the entire episode was devoted to the relationships between each of the characters. Personally, I don’t like seeing the girls get all “confused” about Yuuji. Save it for LiveJournal or something, ladies.

Summary:

We start off with a training session between Yuuji and Wilhelmina. Yuuji surprisingly is able to dodge and fend off an attack by Wilhelmina, which goes to show his progress. He’s slowly becoming more and more able to control his power of existence and manipulate it to benefit him better, like physical reinforcement of his body.

After Wilhelmina gets back home, she cooks up some cup noodles and calls it dinner. Shana, still fighting with her emotions regarding Yuuji, skips dinner for a bath. She’s noticeably irritated and snaps at Wilhelmina after she lectures Shana about leaving her clothes in a mess.

Morning of the next day, Yuuji goes over to Konoe’s place to pick her up, but since she’s running a little late, Yuuji is invited inside to wait. The princess finally is ready, and they go off to school. On the way, the bump into Shana, who just angrily runs off.

Once at school, their homeroom teacher asks for Yoshida and Ogata to switch roles in taking care of Konoe with Yuuji. Yoshida actually agrees with it and gives up her place with Yuuji. Ike finally gets tired of Yuuji’s actions, so he outright tells him to stop tending to Konoe so much. But alas, Yuuji has no idea what Ike is talking about.

At the end of the school day, Ogata ditches Tanaka to go with Yuuji and Konoe as her new role requires of her, while Yoshida and Shana angrily/jealously watch them leave. After Konoe is dropped off, Ogata and Yuuji walk off alone until Tanaka shows up to pick up his girl. They split from Yuuji, and cue in a moment of slight awkwardness between them.

Shana comes home to a homecooked meal from Wilhelmina, a rare sight and a huge shift from instant noodles/meron pan. It doesn’t have the best taste in the world, but Shana is thankful for the effort, and finally takes her first steps to going back to her normal self.

Thoughts:

I didn’t really like this episode all that much. Too much drama, not enough swords and killing.

Shana keeps avoiding Yuuji, keeping everything stagnant. I’m happy Wilhelmina is getting her out of this phase, but it’s still taking too long. Too many scenes of Shana watching Yuuji and Konoe, then bawwwing and wondering why she’s feeling mad/irritated when she doesn’t want to. You’d think it would be kind of obvious to her by now. Too much tsun tsun. Too annoying =/

And Yoshida is absolutely no relief either. She’s the exact same as Shana. “I’m feeling bad, is this jealousy?” x 1000. I get the point, can we please move on? ;___;

Although I sound rather bitter, those two are the only people I’m really complaining about. Everything else was fine.

More development on Konoe’s origins. Seeing how her butler has the same bracelet as Konoe and that both are on their right wrists, it certainly implies something significant about it. I’d suspect it’s related to some sort of illusionary magic. It certainly isn’t out of the question, seeing how in previous episodes, an entire dream world was created that was hard to discern from reality. Balle Masque probably chose an abandoned mansion and included that in the illusionary magic so that it would look full of life once again. I won’t be surprised if/when Konoe disappears, there will be a scene of Yuuji standing infront of Konoe’s former mansion, now old, worn down, and empty.

On that note, Yuuji’s recent developments in his abilities are certainly promising. I’d like to see him get useful sometime soon on the battlefield, instead of forcing Shana to always kick him to safety. Can’t be much fun that way anyways =/

Ike’s even doing something now. Despite being Yuuji’s rival, he still has the decency to tell Yuuji to shape up and back off from Konoe. By doing that, he kind of gave up his chance to strike and get close to Yoshida. Of course, that’s assuming Yuuji actually listens to Ike. At least we know that not all guys in the series are completely brainless.

And Ogata. Yuuji really doesn’t know when to quit, dragging Ogata into his mix of ladies. Tanaka sure can’t be too happy about that one, but at least it’s nice to see he’s actually getting somewhere with Ogata. Side characters: not completely neglected. Hurrahs!

I wonder about the significance of the empty rooms in Konoe’s mansion. Am I missing something blatantly obvious? Yuuji pays a good amount of attention to it, so I figure I’m being blind to something. Perhaps if there’s really nothing special about it, the purpose of it will be to serve as a contrast to the empty mansion that appears, should everything really be just illusionary magic. Another thing that I don’t see the significance of yet is the black car that keeps driving around. I don’t think it’s because the animators just wanted to throw in a random black car into the scenes to make it seem more realistic. There seems to be something about that black car. But then again, what use do Tomogara/Flame Haze have for cars? I mean, they can fly around and all that, so maybe I’m just being paranoid.

In any case, I’m happy the arc is progressing so we can finally get it over with. With Shana’s imminent return to normal, things are looking up. However, judging by the episode preview of 06, it looks like there’ll be one more episode at least until things can finally blow over. Hurry up ;__;

//Soda

As a change in pace, I’ll be stealing this Shana post instead of the usual Shirukii. Sorry Shirukii lovers, but it looks like you’ll have to find your fix in another post =p

This episode was all about Yuuji’s increase in his harem by adding in Konoe, and the destructive effects it has on his other ladies. He’s no Makoto, but he’s getting there.

Summary

Now that Shana and Yuuji think that Konoe is a normal human, they let down their defenses and get closer to her. They pick her up everyday to walk her to school, they eat lunch with her, and they’re always together. It’s fairly obvious by Konoe’s insistence on staying close with Yuuji and her constant shirt tug on him that there’s some sort of attraction going on there. And it’s absolutely no wonder that the increased time that Yuuji spends with Konoe starts to bother Shana, and that she’s starting to show more of that tsun tsun. Do not want?

But what can Shana do? Nothing more than just attempt to pretend like nothing’s wrong while being pissed off inside… which is exactly what she does when PE class starts and the students are all forced to clean the pool. The rather mundane activity picks up in excitement when Ogata sparks a waterfight and much fun ensues, but Shana sits off to the side without participating, feeling sorry for herself.

Lunch hits, and things start to take a turn for the worse. Seeing Yuuji’s two bentou from Shana and Yoshida, little Konoe wants to try some too. Sakai stupidly offers his lunches to Konoe, despite the protest of Ogata and the silent protest from Shana. This only serves to piss off Shana more, and starts to stir up feelings of jealousy in even Yoshida. Even Ike notices how big of an idiot Yuuji is. orz

After school, Yuuji and his three ladies walk around town. Konoe walks off by herself without realizing it, and Shana blows up on her for her inconsiderate actions. Yuuji, being typical Yuuji, takes the side of Konoe and manages to piss off Shana even more. It really starts to show when training begins, and Shana gets serious on the poor guy. However, Alastor comments on Yuuji’s improvements, and tells him he has promise in the future. Maybe we’ll see Yuuji actually useful someday =0 Meanwhile, Wilhelmina and Margery Daw come to their own conclusions that Konoe is probably a normal human, and not Hecate.

The next day, Yuuji, the three girls, Ike, Ogata, Satou, and Tanaka all go to a new Supersize Heaven restaurant. They all get HUUUGE servings of food, and demonstrate their superhuman abilities of cleaning off plates. Little Konoe curls up like a cat and sleeps =3

But it doesn’t last long. After everybody finishes their meals, they realize that Konoe has run off again without informing anybody. Everybody’s concerned about her, all except Shana. Being jealous that Konoe is always on Yuuji’s mind, she tries to convince him to simply forget about Konoe and to leave her alone. It doesn’t really work, and Shana runs off home alone, confused at what her true thoughts are, and why she’s feeling this way. But as she’s walking home, she looks behind her, only to come to the realization that Yuuji isn’t following her.

Meanwhile, Yuuji’s off looking for Konoe, and finds her at a park. She was out there saving a baby bird from a stray cat =3 He realizes just how similar she is to Hecate, and while his eyes are locked upon hers, Yoshida walks in and observes the scene before her.

At the end of the day, Yuuji’s at home, wondering where Shana is. Wilhelmina appears, informing him that Shana won’t come back, and that Wilhelmina will take over Yuuji’s training. Cutting to Yoshida, we see her preparing her bentou for Yuuji’s lunch tomorrow, but thoughts of jealousy appear in her mind.

When tomorrow morning hits, Yuuji is walking to school alone with Konoe. He sees Yoshida, who offers an awkward greeting. Shana appears behind them and coldly says hello, leaving no time to talk. During lunchtime, Ike gives Yuuji the bentou that Yoshida made, telling him that she had a meeting to attend and couldn’t join them for lunch. Up on the rooftop of the school, we see Yoshida and Shana eating their lunches together, alone, as neither want to see Yuuji at the moment.

Thoughts

NOTO!!!!!!! Yeah I’ll say it, I’m a huge Noto Mamiko fan, so all this Konoe/Hecate screentime makes me happy =D I’m still really jealous of anybody who got to see Noto at Otakon. I’d kill for that. Yes, I’d even kill you. So don’t brag to me that you met her, because I’ll go cry in a dark corner alone ;_______;

But Konoe’s soft and naive nature makes her an awesome character. There are limits to retarded moe, but I think she’s still within acceptable limits. She just needs to adjust from her ojou lifestyle, is all. And her insistence on sitting beside Yuuji, her constant shirt tugs on Yuuji, her curled up sleeping… do want!

In a way, she reminds me of other Noto characters, which is never a minus. Her ability to deal with animals reminds me of Tsukamoto Yakumo of Sukuran. Konoe’s saving of the baby bird is somewhat relatable to Yakumo’s saving of Iori, even though I highly doubt the baby bird will become a recurring character. Or that Konoe’s friendliness with animals is relatable to Yakumo’s, which you could see in how much Pyotr the giraffe liked Yakumo. Meanwhile, Konoe’s interactions with food reminds me of Ichinose Kotomi of Clannad. However, instead of Kotomi’s offering of food to Tomoya, we have Yuuji offering his food to Konoe. Except that… well, it’s not really Yuuji’s food. But alas, I digress.

So indeed, seeing Konoe advance her relationship with Yuuji is really nice, but it’s actually a mixed reaction. Her presence is causing Shana and Yoshida quite some trouble, and seeing them in full out jealous mode is rather tiring. There can only be so many fights over Yuuji, and it feels like it’s nearing that quota.

Shana is more tsun tsun and is only causing Yuuji more trouble. What I find somewhat strange is the fact that she was fairly okay with a rivalry with Yoshida, but once Konoe is thrown into the equation, she totally loses it. Perhaps she realizes just how compromised her position is, now that a Noto has stepped up to the plate? But she just seems so overreactive and extreme in her thought process, evidenced by how she decides to stop training with Yuuji and to not go over to his place anymore. And of course her constant insistence to leave Konoe alone. Konoe must think Shana absolutely hates her with the fiery passion of a thousand suns or something, because that’s certainly what it sounds like.

I will say, however, that I found it rather surprising that after Shana stormed off from Supersize Heaven, she turned around only to not see Yuuji there. That must’ve really been a blow against her, as it seems most natural that Yuuji will always follow her. But I think even more surprising than that was that she continued to walk home alone even after realizing Yuuji’s not following her, and that she didn’t turn around to find him. She chooses to not do anything and to instead stay jealous and confused, which then only leads her to worsen her relationship with Yuuji.

Yoshida, on a similar boat as Shana, also surprises me with her jealousy. I didn’t expect her to give in to jealousy as easily as Shana did, seeing how she was always fighting a losing battle with Yuuji. Yuuji and Shana are always together, they’re fighting battles against other Flame Haze and Guze no Tomogara, while Yoshida is on the sidelines and can only really interact with Yuuji at school, a huge disadvantage. However, Yoshida finally breaks and even she reduces her contact with Yuuji, lying about being busy during lunchtime so she can avoid him. She didn’t have much of a fighting chance before, so Konoe shouldn’t affect her THAT much. And it’s a large contrast to her actions before. Yoshida at the beginning promised that she too would pick up Konoe from her house to help familiarize her with the area and to make her feel more welcome. And during PE class, Yoshida also saved Konoe from falling into an empty pool. The shift in her actions really show Yoshida’s shift in feelings from one of friendliness to one of rivalry and jealousy.

I guess that just goes to show how similar Shana and Yoshida are with regards to Yuuji, which can also explain why they were fine with being rivals before. But now that Konoe is in the fight too, everything’s thrown off balance, I guess.

I personally don’t really like all this drama that’s being stirred up because of Konoe. It’s too childish and destructive. I’ll admit though, if this is a carefully crafted plan by Bal Masque to split up the Reiji Maigo from its protective Flame Haze, it certainly is working like a charm. Not only that, but with a connection between Hecate and Yuuji now existing, it will only make it harder for Yuuji to fight off Hecate when Bal Masque’s next plan is in motion. Even if Konoe turns out to be a normal human and not Hecate, Yuuji is still seeing the high resemblance between them, which means he’ll no doubt associate Hecate with the lovable Konoe. It’s a shame he’ll ultimately choose Shana in the end and not Hecate =(

//Soda

So the Hecate clone turned out to be human after all, or so it would seem. There’s pretty much zero possibility that the animation team put a Hecate clone in the school just for the lulz, so I’m going to go ahead and assume that this is all part of some grand scheme by the Balle Masque that eventually be revealed. But for now, Noto fans get to kick back and enjoy some Hecate screen time, of which was lacking in the first season.

Episode Rating: 8/10

When a transfer student, Konoe Fumina, is introduced that looks identical to The Master Throne, Hecate. Shana immediately jumps out of her seat and casts a fuzetsu, her and Yuuji wondering what exactly is going on, why Hecate is at their school as a student. Thanks to the memento from Khamsin, Yoshida is also able to move within the fuzetsu and wonders what’s going on. Shana explains that Konoe looks exactly like one of the members of Balle Masque that attacked Yuuji and tried to make him into the power of existence fountain, Hecate. However, when Shana approaches Konoe, even drawing her sword, she shows no sign of movement. Since she doesn’t move within the fuzetsu and the probability of such accurate human imitation is low, they are forced to take a “wait and see” approach to the situation.

However, despite not appearing to be a Tomogara, Konoe is far from normal. Despite being told to sit at the back, when she comes to the seat beside Yuuji, she insists on sitting there. She then proceeds to act like a pampered princess, shocked that she has to take her textbooks out herself and covering her desk with a clean cloth. Shana’s suspicions of her remain high.

Meanwhile, at Satou’s house, Margery Daw is still lying around doing nothing but drinking, dragging Satou and Tanaka into her lazy lifestyle. She notices a tomogara on the outskirts of town, but doesn’t go take care of it, saying that it should notice the presence of Flame Haze and will run if it’s smart.

Meanwhile, back at school, Ogata has taken an interest in Konoe and her princess act, laughing it up when she asks her if she can change into her gym clothes herself and Konoe saying that only some assistance will be required.

Yuuji then notices the presence of the Tomogara in town and asks Shana if she’s not going to do anything about it. Shana says that dealing with Hecate is more important at the moment, but praises Yuuji on being able to detect the Tomogara, even Alastor seems surprised he was able to do so.

With some help from Ogata, Konoe gets changed and gym class begins, Yoshida is worried about Konoe possibly being a Tomogara, spacing out during class thinking about the things that have been going on around Yuuji lately. Not paying attention, Yoshida ends up getting owned in the face by an incoming volleyball serve. When their game ends, she talks to Konoe on the sidelines, trying to get some hints by asking why she chose to sit beside Yuuji in class, suggesting that she might know him from before. But her efforts only convince her that Konoe is indeed human, albeit an odd human, as she looses interest in their conversation and ends up falling asleep on Yoshida’s lap.

At lunch time, Ogata drags Konoe out to buy food, as it won’t be served to her as she expects, when Tanaka and Satou finally show up for class. That gives Yuuji an idea, to call in Margery for a second opinion on Konoe’s true identity, especially since she’s an expert on unrestricted spells. When Margery sees Konoe, she’s surprised at the resemblance and understands why everyone is so worried, but when she fires a dummy spell at Konoe and gets no response, she can only conclude that she’s just a human who coincidentally looks exactly like Hecate.

But Shana needs some concrete proof one way or another. On the way back from school she starts leaking out a large amount of power of existence and sends Yuuji home by himself. She then follows Konoe to a secluded shrine where she casts a fuzetsu. Just as she suspected, attracted by her leaking power of existence, the tomogara from earlier shows up for a fight, introducing himself as The Debris of the Dashing Crook, Cache-sama. Neither Shana nor Alastor have heard the name and conclude that he’s a newly born Tomogara trying to act tough. And sure enough, he turns out to be a weakling, resorting to cheap and ineffective attacks. After being cut up pretty badly and hearing Shana’s true identity, the flame haze of Alastor, the Flame of Heaven, he gets desperate and tries to cling on to survival. Seeing Konoe, he goes after her to eat her power of existence.

Probably having noticed the fuzetsu, Yuuji shows up and right away goes to stop Cache, but Shana tells him to wait. She reveals the true purpose of the fight, that she baited Cache here so she could beat him up, forcing him to go after Konoe to survive. If Konoe truly is Hecate, she won’t let herself be eaten, either way they’ll find out whether she’s human or not. And surely enough, Konoe remains motionless in the fuzetsu, with that, Shana kills Cache before he eats her. In the resulting explosion, Konoe gets cut and starts bleeding, yet more evidence that she really is a normal human.

But the troubles may only be beginning. Even though Konoe may not appear to be a Tomogara, she seems to have an attraction to Yuuji, one which he remains oblivious to, but is painfully obvious to the jealous Shana and Yoshida.

Thoughts

A pretty good episode, plot wise, having Hecate show up at their school opens up a lot of possibilities in almost every aspect of the show’s story. It puts all the characters on edge with the looming sense of danger, yet maintains a more or less calm atmosphere, especially considering how weird Konoe is. It also leaves a whole range of ways the plot can use her appearance later on, her appearance will most likely be retconned to fit Balle Masque’s master plan that they keep alluding to. The drama aspect of the show is also kicked up a notch the Yuuji love triangle becomes a love square, which seems to be what they’re tackling first. I’m still rooting for Shana, naturally, but I’ve taken a liking to Konoe as well, her whole princess routine is pretty cute and she’s a user of the shirt tug technique, which ever since it was used in Suzuka, always wins me over.

I wonder what Balle Masque’s master plan is anyways. Bel Peol seems to be calling the shots behind the scenes, and random tomogara are being shown from time to time, so it looks like they’re rebuilding their army quite nicely, along with Serei-den, as we saw last episode. I wish they’d just get on with it and give us a hint as to what they’re doing instead of tiptoeing around it with teasers every week, but I guess that just means they’re doing a good job building some suspense. I just want something to build a theory on D=

One thing I’m noticing about the second season of Shana so far is that it’s quickly becoming a one monster per week deal, which never turns out very good. Monster of the week may work occasionally, but having seen the first season do much better with the distinctly separated arcs where a relatively powerful mini boss was taken down each time, it seems like we’re heading in the wrong direction this time around. It would help if they at least put up a fight instead of being pathetic weaklings, but they don’t, meaning there’s not even any battle eye candy to compensate. It doesn’t help that they have stupid names too.

The preview for the next episode suggests that things are going to get a little more serious between Konoe and Yuuji, which combined with his idiocy when it comes to matters of love and relationships is sure to cause the jealousy levels in Shana and Yoshida to erupt. I enjoy the relationship drama in Shakugan no Shana, despite how frustrating its indecisive nature can be, so I’ll be looking forward to see that move forward. Here’s hoping it leads to more of Shana’s jealous tsun tsun side.

With aspects of a plot coming into focus and two episodes gone by, I’m finding myself enjoying Shana quite a bit. Admittedly, the beginning of the first season was a lot better, throwing us into the fray right away, but I think the second season has done a good job rebuilding the momentum and setting up a continuation of the story. There’s been a serious lack of action so far, but I have no doubt there’ll be an abundance of it when the build up is over and shit hits the fan. I just hope the animation budget will be able to keep up.

Oh, another thing I wished this episode had done was explain the whole Keeper business. They introduced the term last episode, saying that it was protecting the Reiji Maigo, and even mentioned it during the pre-OP summary, but they still haven’t explained exactly what it is.

BOOM! Headshot.

~ Shirukii ~

God I love tsundere

Not the most exciting episode of Shakugan no Shana I’ve ever seen, but pacing is good and unlike a lot of other series this season, it actually feels like we’re getting somewhere. And there was the usual dosage of tsundere Shana, so overall it was an enjoyable ep.

Episode Rating: 8/10

Annoyed by Yoshida constantly making Yuuji’s lunch, Shana decides to ask Chigusa for help so she can make bento for Yuuji as well. But this means sacrificing time for Yuuji’s morning training, so in her place, Shana asks Wilhelmina to take care of that. Wilhelmina is not pleased with the idea of having to train Yuuji, and she’s annoyed that Shana picked Chigusa over her for cooking lessons. Chigusa wonders why Shana picked her over Wilhelmina as well, she explains that Wilhelmina can’t cook anything past prepackaged food, which isn’t suited for a bento box.

With Wilhelmina preoccupied and annoyed thinking about Shana, she forgets to control her strength while training Yuuji and almost ends up strangling him to death. However, Yuuji is different than he was in the past, after the incident on Serei-den the Reiji Maigo absorbed and stored all the power of existence that overflowed that night, leaving Yuuji with the potential to match a King of Guze in terms of raw power.

Shana knows this too, they discuss it on the way to school the next day. With such a huge amount of power of existence, Yuuji has the potential to become strong, all that’s left is to learn to control it.

At lunch, Yoshida gives Yuuji the lunch she’s prepared for him as usual, and when he’s about to start eating, Shana finally works up the courage to show off the skills she’s learned…or so she would like to say, but the reality is she couldn’t manage a proper bento just yet, stuffing a whole bunch of melon pan into a bento box instead. Yuuji is happy that both Shana and Yoshida are going so far for him, but is still too indecisive to make a choice, so the only option is to finish them both!

Which turns out not to be the smartest of ideas, as shortly into afternoon classes, Yuuji passes out from a stomach ache. Shana and Yoshida rush him to the nurses office where they have an argument over him, Shana arguing that it’s Yoshida’s fault for unnecessarily making him lunches, ordering her to stop from now on because she can’t have Yuuji fight in this condition. But Yoshida doesn’t back down, she says that Shana is being unfair by trying to use fighting as an excuse, that her lunches and their fights are unrelated and that she’ll continue to pour her feelings into Yuuji.

Suddenly, Shana spots a fuzetsu through the window. She wakes Yuuji up and drags him off to fight, despite his condition, leaving Yoshida powerless, only able to wish Yuuji good luck and to be careful. When they enter the fuzetsu, they realize that something isn’t right. Shana can’t feel the presence of an enemy and Yuuji quickly realizes that the scene in front of them is just like the night of the festival where they fought the professor. Recalling their fight with the guze no tomogara the other day, Yuuji figures it must be another dream, and surely enough, upon realizing that, the scene before them fades away.

Oddly enough, the dream doesn’t completely go away, Yuuji quickly figures out why. When Yoshida said goodbye to them at school, she wasn’t acting like her usual self, a side that neither of them had seen before. Since they were already inside the dream world at that point and it’s a world based on their memories, the only way Yoshida could have been acting like she was is if she was also under the spell’s influence.

Yuuji’s fear is confirmed when they get back to school and find Yoshida unconscious and chained up. The guze no tomogara, The Fool and Slumber Maina, Mare, that’s behind the unrestricted spell, called Gemeinde, shows up and tells them that they’re done for, that Yoshida will never wake up and they’ll never escape this dream world. Mare uses Gemeinde to create a clone of Bel Peol to fight Shana with, with her hands full, Shana tells Yuuji to concentrate on waking up Yoshida so they can get out of the spell.

While fighting Mare, Yuuji notices something weird, the occasional attack that Shana fires at it is completely ineffective, even in Gemeinde, that seems a little weird. Remembering that Shana said the core of the tomogara is small, he realizes that its true target is the hougu inside of him, Reiji Maigo. Mare congratulates him on figuring it out, but as she’s already inside Yuuji, closing in on the Reiji Maigo, it’s too late to do anything.

However, when Mare tries to grab the Reiji Maigo, a mysterious force repels her and burns away half her body. Mare calls it Keeper, and is scared out of her wits when she finds out about it. With half its body burned away, Mare nears death, but tells Shana and Yuuji that when she dies, Gemeinde collapses along with everything in it. With no time to spare, Yuuji quickly goes back to trying to wake Yoshida up, and surprisingly enough, just hearing his voice is enough to do it.

The three of them snap out of the spell and find themselves back in the nurses office at school. Yuuji is amazed that Yoshida was able to wake up and realize the situation so quickly, he thanks her for saving them, relieved but tired from the fight, he passes out. Knowing that she owes her one, Shana calls a subtle truce between them, allowing her to keep making bentos for Yuuji as long as she decreases the amount.

Elsewhere, Satou and Tanaka have their hands full with Margery Daw, who has been drinking even more than usual lately. When even Marcocious notes that she’s drinking way too much, all she can say is that she has a bad feeling…

And sure enough, things start to get weird, the next day at school, a new transfer student is introduced who looks an awful lot like Hecate.

Thoughts

Hmm…after summarizing it, I have to admit, this episode was pretty boring. If you think about it, the whole deal with Shana trying to learn how to cook and the bento scene against Yoshida was a rehash from last season. She went through the exact same routine, egg burning and all, and ended up giving Yuuji melon pan back then too.

But that being said, there was enough new stuff to make the episode worth watching. First off is the return of Balle Masque, even if it was just a brief reintroduction. From the looks of things, they’ll be the main enemies again, seeing as the tomogara from this episode was a mini boss who was just trying to get their attention by capturing the Reiji Maigo. Aside from rebuilding Serei-den, no indication as to what they’re up to is given, just that everything is working towards some big ‘ultimate goal’.

Which brings me to Hecate’s appearance at their school. Uh…wth? I’m curious how they’re going to explain this and not have it sound like a sorry excuse just to have some school comedy-esque scenes with Hecate. I don’t know what this ultimate goal may be, but putting your trump card within the reach of your enemy can’t serve any purpose. I bet this is just a huge ploy so the animators get to draw Hecate in bloomers, a school swimsuit or something alone those lines. orz

On a more random note, I wonder if we’ll ever see that loli guze no tomogara with the horns again. Supposedly she was just a pawn used by Mare, but her ominous smile when she disappeared made it seem like she would be coming back. I hope she does, I like her character design (auauauauau~)

As for things on the good guys side, Yuuji just got the most haxed powerup since Clare in the final episode of Claymore. Hopefully he learns how to use it without episode upon episode dedicated to “LOL training”. Yes, I’m still THAT bitter over StrikerS and Sky Girls -_-

And not only does his potential STR skyrocket, he gains a +255 DEF Plot Armor bonus with this “Keeper” business, which must be something seriously overpowered seeing as the tomogara and even Wilhelmina started shaking in their boots when they found out about it. Coupled with the 100% Fire Resist that Yuuji gets from the Azure ring, Yuji is a freaking fortress. GG

Speaking of Yuuji hax, the guy is WAY too insightful. The inferences that he makes and the speed at which he does it is ridiculous. Within seconds of realizing they’re in a dream world, he recalls Yoshida’s odd behaviour, links it with their previous knowledge that the dream world is based off their memories and comes to the corollary that Yoshida must also be in the dream. Given enough time, anybody could come up with the theory, but he does it in seconds! It’s not the first time either, there were plenty of times in the first season when the speed and scope of his logic surpasses anything that a normal high school student should ever posses. +255 INT. Yuuji must be sharking his stats.

Also, Wilhelmina is a crappy cook, de arimasu. But that’s ok, poor cooking skill is moe.

I’m actually beginning to like Wilhelmina a lot, I don’t know what happened because I hated her during the first season. Maybe it’s because she stopped with the whole friendly fire thing, or maybe it’s because she was pretty funny in the Shana-tan OVAs, but I find her much more likable nowadays. Or it might just be my newfound love for pink/purple hair causing it, who knows.

Even though we’ve gotten a real episode of Shakugan no Shana II instead of a bs recap episode, I still can’t really say much about it. The episode itself was kind of lame, and the fight was really anticlimactic, but at the same time they’re working well to nudge along the plot and characters. I think we’ll have to wait and see if they deliver on their build up later in the series. I’d much rather have a boring lead up if things become awesome when it all hits the fan down the road, but the danger with that is that sometimes we get there too late and the whole thing ends up rushed. But as long as they keep the whole deja vu theme in check, I see the workings of an awesome season of Shana. But I suppose only time will tell, leaving us with nothing to do but wait until next week to see what happens.

Oh God. Shana. Hot. Etc.

You knew it was coming :3

~ Shirukii ~

URUSAI URUSAI URUSAI!

With the release of the Shakugan no Shana movie and the start of its second season, Shana is back in full force and it’s heavenly! The first season wasn’t anything particularly innovative in terms of concept, but it was played out very well and I enjoyed it a great deal anyways, though one may argue that it was because of the flame haired loli tsundere herself.

The opening montage wastes no time reintroducing some familiar faces, as Yuuji walks to school we get to see his friends Ike, Satou, and Tanaka as well as Shana, Alastor and the ever overprotective Wilhelmina (…de arimasu).

And the air of familiarity doesn’t stop there, more than half the episode is spent on what basically amounts to a recap of the first season. Under the guise that Yuuji is under the spell of a Guze no Tomogara and is trapped inside an ever recurring dream world, Yuuji is forced to relive everything from Shana’s defiant speech to their English teacher to their first encounter with Friagne to their close call with the Aizen twins. Yuuji eventually manages to break out of it by becoming self aware of his dream world.

Back in the real world, Shana snaps at Yuuji for spacing out and has to protect him while his mind stabilizes around the situation. But the guze no tomogara doesn’t seem that strong anyways, Shana effortlessly disperses her attacks and cuts through her with ease, although she disappears with an eerily ominous laugh, smiling through the whole ordeal…

But regardless, Shana and Yuuji finish up, close the fuzetsu and head to school. On their way to school, Yuuji recalls the moment before Shana released Alastor in the final battle of the first season, feeling like she said something important back then, but not being able to remember exactly what it was. But Shana remembers full well about her last minute confession, she blushes and stumbles to tell Yuuji that they were just some last minute words of encouragement, deflecting further questioning with her patented “Urusai urusai urusai!” and storming off to school.

The episode closes with a montage of what the cast has been up to since we last saw them. Shana and Yoshida are still fighting over Yuuji, who seems more or less oblivious to their feelings, Margery Daw is still camping out at Satou’s house, and the relationship between Ogata and Tanaka still hasn’t gone past elementary school blushing and fumbling over words. It also seems like Hecate’s gang is still fully intact, managing to escape despite Alastor unleashing the fury of heaven and hell on them.

First Impressions

So…basically nothing much has changed since the first season. One of the major flaws I thought that Shakugan no Shana had was that it left way too many plot lines without definite conclusions, it was a good ending, but it felt like it was the ending to an arc, not a series, I was left with a lot of “So what will become of _______ now?” type questions. And in that regard, Shakugan no Shana II’s opener was perfect because it reopened all those questions.

The Yoshida vs Shana rivalry, Margery Daw’s confusion as to what to do if not seek revenge, the fate of Hayate, everything was revisited. I hope this means that SnSII will be more of a continuation from the first season and address these issues, hopefully with some definite closure this time. My hopes were leaning more towards Shana and Yuuji leaving the city as they planned and continuing their adventures leaving the past behind, but this might be just as good.

The actual episode itself could have done without the recap though, it’s not as if people are going to understand much from the 15 minute recap they did anyways. People new to the Shana series will have to go back and watch the first season if they want to know the full story, so I think it was a waste to spend half the opener on rehashed footage. But the episode did set up the series to a whole multitude of possibilities in terms of plot, we’ll just have to wait another week to see exactly where we’re heading.

They also wasted no time in bringing back Shana in full tsundere force, which pleases me and I’m sure many others. You guys have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for the return of “Urusai x 3″. I for one welcome the return of our bipolar, loli overlord. Kugimiya Rie = loev.

Technically, animation and music were up to par. The OP and ED get the standard review from me, decent, but neither is too memorable and I’ll probably just skip over them from here on in. Shakugan no Shana’s animation has always been above average in my opinion, and the short fight scene that we got this episode suggests that they haven’t faltered in that area, let’s hope they have enough budget to keep it consistent for the duration of the season.

There’s no question that I’ll be watching the remainder of Shakugan no Shana II. I don’t have exceedingly high expectations for it, seeing as the first was pretty generic in concept, but despite its simplistic nature, the execution was very well done. Here’s hoping that they can capitalize on that and not only excel in execution but bring some innovative script/story writing to the table as well.

As for blogging potential, the question is…

Just how much “OH GOD SHANA IS HOT” are you willing to put up with?

EDIT: Upon further inspection, I just noticed. Hueg melon pan is freaking HUEG!

~ Shirukii ~