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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

What We’ve Learned

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

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…

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.