Baffled Yuji
It’s almost time to take this horse out back and shoot it. It’s not that its legs are broken, it just seems to have forgotten how to use them. I so want to check the category box for “action” every time I write about this thing, until I realize that nothing has happened. And yes, I understand you’re going to get some filler since we’re pretty far in, but I think they’re setting things up for a run way huger than 24. We’re currently on what I hope is the tail end of a really insulting amount of filler. I’m almost wishing the action would just start, and do that Bleach/ Dragonball/ InuYasha thing where a single fight draws out for 8 episodes.
Almost.
Anyway. Let’s get going.
Wait, who’s baffled?
Yuji doesn’t seem baffled at all. He’s singularly determined to fuck shit up, and he’s being given the tools to do it. Margery Daw teaches him how to throw silver fireballs and turn the Blutsauger into a bookmark so he can carry it around with him.

Kazumi…. ah, who gives a shit.

When Yuji’s mom gets sick, Shana starts thinking that maybe Yuji’s not really ready to take on his weight of responsibility, leave town, or any of that nonsense that he’s got roaming through his head these days.

Shana seems to worry about Yuji’s mom far more than Kazumi, which I assume is some kind of value judgment? Either way, I’ll keep no secrets that I learned the meaning of “tsundere” from Shana, and this cemented the fact that they’ve killed off most of her redeeming qualities as a character.

And finally we get the new Tomogara — Zarovee the Collation Flux, who sounds like a copy machine malfunction but oddly enough seems to be able to duplicate himself so maybe that’s intentional. He sneaks up depresso-Yuji, who’s wandering around after kind of being told off by both girls.

What we’ve learned
Not a lot… not a lot.

Please, Please, Please

It’s not just a James Brown song, it’s me begging for things to move. There was the barest hint of development, and I hope they’re setting up the ball very carefully for a big swing. We’re down to the wire, and almost every other show of the season is behaving like it. Knowing this show, I won’t even try to worry about it until I turn it on and find a new OP playing, but a fight between Zarovee and Yuji seems promised in this OP. Next week? Maybe? Please? I’m hardly an action junkie, but like sugar in the cokehead’s stash, the filler is bringing me down.