Short Summary:
Yuuji finds a hurt Shana lying in front of his house, but she wants him to leave her alone, blaming him for what happened. When Yuuji leaves for school the next day, Shana is gone. At school, Kazumi is waiting for him so that she can ask him to go to an art exhibition with her. In the absence of Shana, Yuuji spends most of the day with Kazumi and Ike. Unbeknownst to him, Shana is actually watching from the roof of the school. Meanwhile, Friagne is out investigating who has been erasing Torches when Margery feels his presence and moves to attack. However, her efforts to defeat him are stopped by his ring, and so he escapes. At the exhibit, Yuuji and Kazumi are enjoying the art. Yuuji watches as a woman disappears from a group, and then he sees an old man standing behind them, with the light of a torch clearly in his hand. The man notices Yuuji and knows that he must be a Misutesu. The two introduce themselves with the old man calling himself Shikabane Hiroi Ramie (Corpse Retriever Ramie). Ramie explains that his purpose is to collect powers of existence. Ramie asks Yuuji if he feels nothing about the fact that he’s going to disappear. Yuuji thinks that as long as Shana remembers, it’ll be ok. Ramie then tells Yuuji that the light of Yuuji’s torch still radiates very strongly. While all this has been going on, Shana has been talking with Alastor about Yuuji, and Alastor concludes that Yuuji will break down.

Yoshida Kazumi is my new reason to watch this show. For all the people that said this episode didn’t have enough Shana, I say that it had more than enough Kazumi-chan, voiced by the talented Kawasumi Ayako, to compensate. As for plot, lots of stuff happened, but it feels like we didn’t really advance the story much. Friagne and Margery fight, but Friagne just ends up running away so nothing there is resolved. Friagne does get to show off his powers and his ring and it occurs to me that since Friagne is strong enough to be able to dodge everything Margery threw at him, Shana should be glad that he didn’t stick around to fight her back two episodes ago. Anyway, Shana spends the entire episode sitting on the sidelines, so it feels like only Kazumi-chan and Ramie moved the plot forward, though not much. But like I said, Kazumi-chan alone was enough for me.
Now the question in my mind is, and this is the product of having seen too many romance/harem series, how will Shana react when she sees Kazumi-chan and Yuuji getting closer and closer?

Closing Thought: My favorite part is when Kazumi-chan gets fed up with Yuuji spending so much time with the old man (as seen in the third screen on the next to last row).

10 Comments

  1. I thought this was a great episode. Come on let’s face it, as much as we love Shana, for this to be an actually /good/ series, it can’t focus on her only. ^^b We’ve gotta have focus on other cast members and the plot, or this is just going to turn into a “we watch it for the girl!” series and it won’t go anywhere. And this episode accomplishes the cast focus very nicely.

    Besides, as said, Kazumi’s appearance in this episode fills the void from Shana being left out. ^^

    Shinji103
  2. me prefers shana though… anyway i read until so far in the novels that i forgot kazumi actually existed… although for the first few books she was a prominent figure but later on when they went back in time(hint: spoilers) kazumi is pushed more and more to the sidelines… anyway shana of coz can’t bring herself to kill yuji so lets watch next week to find out more…

    oh yes omni (OT): Has Karin aired?? seeing that it is on ur list, i am just curious what the show is all abt…

  3. Omni, I’m pretty sure Alastor said “Being a Misutesu WILL destroy Sakai Yuuji” just before the end?

    Anyways, it’s really obvious Kazumi will just be used as a step rock for Shana and Yuuji to get together. It will probably go something like this:

    *Shana sees Kazumi and Yuuji having so much fun together*
    Shana: What is this…uneasy feeling?
    *Kazumi and Yuuji are looking at each other in a sunset after the date*
    Kazumi: Um, Sakai-kun…I…
    *Kazumi puts her hands on Yuuji’s cheeks*
    Shana: DAMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! *Jumps out of the bushes*
    Yuuji: Shana!?
    Shana: Yuuji, I…I…!!
    – Insert the cliched confession scene here –

    I reckon something will happen between Yuuji and Ike, since Ike has feelings for Kazumi.

    Yeah, I miss Hirai Yurika too. She was the most awesome character next to Shana T_T

    Rasmiel
  4. >>Alastor said “Being a Misutesu WILL destroy Sakai Yuuji” just before the end?

    I think it’s Alastor suggesting to Shana to destroy Sakai Yuuji. That would explain Shana’s reaction. Considering that she already is accustomed to the fact that Torches disappear, she wouldn’t be showing surprise if Alastor said that.

    Besides, from a contextual POV, Alastor dwells inside Shana and thus shld have an idea of Shana’s thoughts. He must’ve concluded that Yuuji’s making Shana act weird and thus suggests Shana to destroy Yuuji to eliminate the root of her problems.

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