Shameful Otaku Secret!

Rose Madder Colored War

Wha? That’s pretty specific. I suppose at least it’s not sea foam green, I hate sea foam green. I do like a little action in my action shows, and Shana finally delivered this week.

[Incidentally, link to the Shana Info Page resides here de arimasu]

Recap-ish

Not much to speak of, story-wise, it’s all one big fight. The explosion that rocked the fuzetsu-enshrined Misaki City last week was none other than Sabrac the Destructive Blade, notorious assassin and arch-enemy of Wilhelmina Carmel, currently contracted by Bal Masque to kill the shit out of Yuji.

Yep, that’s pretty much what assassins do.

And she’s here to prove she hasn’t quite passed the torch (huuurrrr) to the next generation of Flame Haze yet.

Sadly, I must. Assassin. You know. Kills targets.

Shana and Margery are taken out of commission by Sabrac’s initial attack, and that’s further exacerbated by his “Stigma” attack, which causes all their wounds to continue bleeding and fail to heal. So Wilhelmina is forced to take him on by herself, despite her own Stigma-ing injuries, all the while towing Yuji around in a trail of ribbons. Turns out he’s not so bad-ass against a real villain, but he doesn’t have that many episodes to prove his mettle.

Poor Wilhelmina, dragging this kid all around town.

Seems the guy can’t really be stopped, so the battle maid’s final move in the episode is to let him capture a decoy Yuji while the real one escapes through a sewer tunnel.

Nice trick. I’d be using that pretty much all the time. Can it use Photoshop? I could send it to work for me.

Kazumi shows up, why I don’t know, and she has a nice little chat with Shana while the world ends.

I’m not so sure. I think after you kill your first guy by breaking his neck with your hands, you’re not really the same.

Thoughts

I suppose I asked for it, nothing but action this week. There was some really cool animation with Wilhelmina’s ribbons, a new trick where she could create realistic dummy with those ribbons, and some incredibly huge explosions and attacks — all of which Sabrac managed to come out of unscathed.

wooooosh Battle Maid to the rescue

I dunno, something about the first season’s climactic explosion of action really sold me more than this has so far, but there are a couple episodes left to really whip out the big guns. The first season’s mix of (admittedly weak) drama into the action was a lot more effective too; this time the two sides are way too separate and neither seems to stand on its own all that well.

Horrible…. so awful. Makes you want to just KILL YOURSELF KAZUMI

Still, I do think they can pull a big explosive climax out of this. I just hope this super-unbeatable Sabrac isn’t taken down by something really stupid.

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.

We’re throwing fireballs now? I see. So it really IS that kind of show after all.

Kazumi…. ah, who gives a shit.

If I say that, will you use that thing and kill yourself?

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.

I hope she’s not looking for me. They lost me a while back at the Filler Town off-ramp.

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.

Just my sensory organs, dear. And maybe my intelligence.

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.

Yes! Plot! Action! And… cue end credits.

What we’ve learned

Not a lot… not a lot.

Wait… this show… sucks? For HOW long now?

Please, Please, Please

Hello, writers? What? They quit at episode 13?

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.