Shameful Otaku Secret!

Quickening of Peril

Biff! Bang! Pow! Holy atonement, Batman. I’m not sure that 3 or 4 episodes can make up for a series whose sin was Gluttony of Filler, but Shana’s crew is trying their best to gain my forgiveness. It’s been shaping up ever since Sabrac appeared, but now things are just exploding.

As with last season, the Seeking Researcher narrates the action

Recap

When we left Yuji, he was probably attempting to slide his way out of the Kazumi-vs-Shana ultimatum when Hecate the Supreme Throne up and stole the Reiji Maigo from him.

Johan speaks to Kazumi…. kiiillll…. yooooooouuuur..ssee

Now, as Shana and the other Flame Haze look on unable to penetrate Bal Masqué’s crazy dome, she whisks the Reiji Maigo into the giant suit of armor’s (Taimei Shihen) chest. Misaki City’s clock tower warps into a twisted maze of vine-like nonsense. Seems that Hecate, Bel-Peol, and the Seeking Rearcher have been planning something big for a while — since last season, in fact.

oh, about 47 episodes now.

Satou finds a way through the big bubble, and Marjorie Daw creates a spell to drill right through. But waiting, as expected, at the other end of the gap is Sydonay, and he jacks Marjorie right up. The Interpreter of Condolence apparently purposely acted as a shield, and it looks like she’s paid a pretty big price. But will Satou just let that go?

Nooooooo

And Yuji’s not going to sit back and wait for help either. He’s going to take his surplus of Existence and chuck fireballs at the Seeking Researcher’s robots until he finds the Reiji Maigo and gets it back — or disappears trying.

so action-packed, you may have a hard time getting screenshots!

In true mad scientist form, the Fucked-up Professor lays it all out: The fountain of existence that spilled forth soul power at the Serei-Den last season’s climax provides the power. The emotions and thoughts collected by Hecate when she came to earth as Konoe provide the brains. And for the heart: the Reiji Maigo, of course.

The result? The Statue of Pride, a giant shambling Tomogara made from the clock tower.

Quick! Distract the Seeking Researcher with your fanservice attack!

What We’ve Learned

Shana looks kinda cute in a big pink coat. I said it.

new Flame Haze name: Many Hands Destructor of Traffic

But that’s not gonna make up for killing my favorite TV drunk since Norm from Cheers, so everyone pull for Marjorie, will yas.

Everything is tying together better than I would have expected this show to do. Shana’s first season gave us a bitching run of episodes between about 17 and 20, but fell off during the climax in my opinion. This season looks like it might just make up for that — all my complaints about the pacing fell by the wayside as the show just blasted along this week. Now I can’t wait for the conclusion, although signs still point to another season.

Christmas Eve

[and my xmas present to you, the Shana Info Page]

My foray into Extreme Work Travel as a contact sport threw me off a lot of shows; but there’s not much to say for Shana 21, basically the gang defeated Sabrac. However…

Puberty really sneaks up on you.

Recap

The beginning of episode 22 drops the bad news — Sabrac’s still around. However, Bel Peol seems to think that he accomplished what she hired him to do, so she’s releasing him from service for now.

Satou’s trying to work up the nerve to call his pappy, I guess to tell him he’s going to go do research for Outlaw, by the way pops, I’ve been working for a supernatural lush and she’s living in the house.

Poor Ike-kun (remember him?) is pining after Kazumi again, dear lord can’t he just have her so they can live anemically ever after?

The big news, though: Yuji’s dad is back again, and reveals that our favorite mystes is going to be a big brother! Not only that, apparently he’s already a younger brother — unfortunately the first boy that the old man and Chigusa had, before they were married, didn’t make it.

No, son. The capybaras don’t rest, so neither can a capybara wrangler. Seriously though, what the hell does he DO for a living?

All this talk about babies has got Shana interested. Unfortunately, out of all the real-world things she’s learned over two seasons, she somehow managed to get through a year of high school without figuring out how babies are made. Good thing she wasn’t dropped into School Days instead or someone would’ve been gutted by now. Kazumi has to explain to her in a roundabout way that it’s just not something you ask.

Like Pat Boone’s version of Holy Diver, Kazumi hears the words of her dreams from the wrong mouth.

Rather than explain to Shana how to make babies, Kazumi agrees to another lukewarm battle of love: this time it’s love letters, specifying a meeting place for each of them. Whichever meeting place Yuji chooses, that’s the girl he’s picked. Voiceovers give us the gist of each letter, and Shana’s is actually pretty amusing. “Yuji, Follow these orders as written.”

Also, while they didn’t suddenly put glasses on Kazumi, we do get giant pigtails on Shana. What a season this is shaping up to be.

Wilhelmina is initially furious about Shana’s desire to confess to Yuji, but she warms up after stabbing her toast and yelling for a while.

It is tough, I know. Maybe you should just KILL YOURSE– I’ll stop. I’m sorry.

The climactic convergence of Ike, Kazumi, Shana, and Yuji can only end with at least one person’s heart broken, but all of a sudden, terrible terrible perspective pays a visit in the form of Hecate, who promptly rips the Reiji Maigo right out of Yuji’s chest.

Uh oh.

What We’ve Learned

Sabrac apparently loosened that gewgaw inside Yuji during the fight, so Yuji now stands pretty much defenseless in the face of Bal Masque.

We’re probably going to get another season. I’ll continue watching. I’ve put far too much time into it now. And the whole tepid love-triangle (whose central figure seems to care very little about) is probably not going to be solved anytime soon.

Let’s see, Kazumi north, Shana south… which way for ‘pretend you’re gay to get out of this?’

Thoughts

This should be where it gets really good. I’ve been disappointed with this season’s pacing, although some people disagree with me. But the appearance of Bal Masque in person should be the harbinger of ass-kicking.

Something That Couldn’t Be Said

[What's a Tomogara, you say? Try the Shana info page]

Last week, I said something to the effect that I’d be OK with Shana doing that Bleach/Dragonball thing where a single fight draws out for a whole season, if they’d just get us out of the void of nothingness that the show’s been stuck in almost since day one. Well. I said “almost.” Good thing, too, as that appears to be their goal. Is this going to end up a 200-episode show with drawn-out action scenes and minimal character development? Maybe I just can’t be happy either way, but I was sure glad something happened this week.

Recap, The Summary of Injustice

Turns out Zarovee the Collation Flux is a Jaeger, which sounds like hunter but is really more of a decoy. He’s here to pull Yuji away, thus luring the Flame Haze into a trap set by the Wanderer, a giant slug-shaped cannon. His ability to clone himself keeps Yuji at bay: attack me here and I’ll eat some souls over there. So most of the first half is spent with Yuji’s incessant internal dialog as Zarovee leads him to the designated spot. During this time, Shana takes care of Yuji’s mom while wearing a pink sweater, thus sealing the deal on her transformation from killing machine to useless girl.

Funny, no one takes me seriously when I make that threat

Zarovee is planning to draw her out by taking Yuji to a strategic location. Fortunately, Yuji susses this trap out (easily, Zarovee’s a pretty dumb Tomogara), and when he happens to see Tanaka and Ogata on the street, he starts yelling crazily to signal them. If you remember, Tanaka quit the henchman game, but he can’t let it go — so he visits Margery anyway after about 8 minutes of internal debate, with shame in his heart. Unsurprisingly, the kinder gentler Margery-san forgives him, and her and Satou take off to… do nothing the rest of the episode.

Pan to the sky.

It involves a thousand meangingless terms designed to impart an illusion of depth to an otherwise barely-written show

To be fair, they do contact Shana and Wilhelmina, who do all the slug-fighting after Yuji cleverly casts his own Fuzetsu to take care of his situation and kills the fuck out of Zarovee. I’m sorry, but for a guy who’s never done this before, he sure seems to have no qualms about ramming the Blutsauger through the middle of a human-looking thing begging for its life. He even breaks one copy’s neck with his bare fucking hands.

at the intersection of hopelessly GAR and needlessly cruel, there stands the New Yuji

All seems well, but in the place where the Slug Cannon was destroyed, a huge explosion drowns out Yuji’s attempt to make some apology none of us care about.

What We’ve Learned

Action is back! So is fanservice, apparently. And Yuji understands why Shana and Kazumi are mad at him: he wasn’t ready to leave the city, he was lying to himself, and now it sounds like he wants to stay after all, to protect it.

Oh god I think I just got served

One thing hasn’t changed. When the camera cuts to a new character, that character will have a sweaty distressed expression and will make a small grunting noise. Every time.

Thoughts

As president of the Margery-San fan club, I apologize for that.

Next week, the explosion is revealed to be Sabrac the Destructive Blade, Wilhelmina’s old arch-enemy or whatever, so the time to kill of a major character might come exactly one season after she joined the story. Either way, I say again — the action is back, and hopefully it’s not going anywhere this time.