First Impressions / Shakugan no Shana

Summary:
It’s a restless night for everyone as Kazumi is thinking about whether Yuuji is a torch or not, Yuuji is thinking about having to leave town, and Shana is thinking about going to the festival with Yuuji. At Margery’s place, Satou and Tanaka are training so that they can go with her. Margery pulls out the Blutsauger, plants it firmly into the ground, and basically challenges the two to use it. But Tanaka is unable to pull the very heavy sword out of the ground. The next day, Shana runs home happily after school ends. Yuuji, who is looking out the window at Shana going home, is himself being watched by Kazumi, but she is too scared to use the monocle.
Chigusa dresses up Shana, and the two wait for Yuuji to come home so that Shana can surprise him. After waiting for a while, they decide to go to the festival to look for him since they don’t know that he’s already there with Kazumi. Everyone converges on the festival, including Tanaka, Satou, and Margery. They are spotted by Ogata, whose invitation Tanaka had rejected before. Khamsin is watching over the city thinking about how there are no signs of Tomogara when the Professor puts his plan in motion by using the osprey figures around town. At that moment, Kazumi gets enough courage to view Yuuji through the monocle and finds out that he is indeed a torch. Seeing the Jizai Shiki, Tanaka and Satou volunteer to go on the lookout, while Shana starts seriously searching for Yuuji.
Yuuji himself has also noticed the presence of a Tomogara, but when he turns around, he sees a wide-eyed Kazumi. She drops the monocle, which he picks up and realizes is a Hougu. Shana arrives onto the scene to see Kazumi running away crying. Yuuji wants to chase her, but Shana holds him back and refuses to let go. Yuuji gets angry and chooses chasing after Kazumi over Shana. Shana is unable to hold back her tears as her mind is filled with Yuuji. By chance, she runs Khamsin and Behemoth. After waiting for her to stop crying, Khamsin explains the situation and tells Shana that he needs Kazumi to start the tuning. Shana, knowing that she has to carry out her duty as a Flame Haze, goes to look for her rival.
Back at the festival, Satou is looking for Tanaka, who happens to be held up with Ogata. She wants to know who Margery is, and to prevent him from leaving, she takes a deep breath and confesses to him. Meanwhile, the professor activates the osprey figures, turning them into flying energy birds. Margery casts a fuuzetsu in response and starts blasting the creatures. Tanaka apologizes to a frozen Ogata and promises her, even though she can’t hear him, that he’ll be back. Satou, on the other hand, is about to be attacked by several birds. Fortunately for him, Yuuji sees and decides to use his own power to stop them. However, now Satou knows about Yuuji and Yuuji knows about Satou. Nearby, Kazumi is also about to be attacked, but a certain red-haired, sword-wielding girl saves her.

Wow, that was just about as good as last week’s Otome. Shakugan no Shana is yet another show where the sh*t’s really hitting the fan now. We have Kazumi learning about Yuuji being a torch, but since she doesn’t know about him being a Misutesu and having the power of Reiji Maigo, she completely freaks out. Shana feels like she’s gotten more or less rejected by Yuuji, but still has to continue fighting because of her duty as a Flame Haze. It must really suck having to save your rival in love, the girl chosen over you. On the male side, Yuuji is discovering his own powers while at the same time finding about Satou. Perhaps now the two groups will come together and Margery and Shana will start working with each other? Wishful thinking if nothing else… And to add to the mess, Ogata decides on one of the worst possible times to confess to Tanaka. Poor girl, she’s probably going to get rejected. Actually, I feel bad for all of the girls (except uber-cleavage Margery) after seeing this episode.
So where do we go from here? I just can’t see Shana and Yuuji apart for too long, so I’m betting that they’ll apologize to each other pretty soon. And Kazumi should feel a lot better once Yuuji gets around to explaining that he’s not going to disappear on her. Next episode should be about the Professor attacking the city and the ensuing fight.

37 Comments

  2. What’s with Kazumi? she looks like she either got raped or just got a super dose of the shocking truth. Which is it? Well more likely the latter, but if you say it’s like otome, then there may be a shocking twist.

    mangamaxx
    Reply

  3. It’s like Otome because of all the plot they throw at us in one episode. For the short version:
    Shana expects to go to the festival with Yuuji, but he’s already there with Kazumi. Kazumi has been thinking the entire day about whether Yuuji is a torch or not. She finally gets enough courage to find out by using the monocle, and discovers the truth (but she doesn’t know he’s a special Misutesu). She runs off crying, and Yuuji wants to chase her, but Shana (who came with Chigusa) stops him. He angrily breaks free and chases after Kazumi. Shana also runs off in tears, but has to fight because the professor is putting his own plan into motion. Meanwhile, Margery, Satou, and Tanaka are also at the festival. During the worst of times, Ogata decides to confess to Tanaka, but she doesn’t hear his response because Margery puts up a Fuuzetsu (the professor let loose some energy birds). Yuuji is unable to find Kazumi, but instead spots Satou about to be attacked. He uses his own power to get rid of the birds, but now Satou knows about Yuuji and Yuuji knows about Satou. Kazumi, on the other hand, actually ran away from the festival and is about to be attacked, but a certain red-haired girl saves her.

    It must suck to have to save your rival in love…

    Omni
    Reply

  6. i have to say the characters ( especially the female characters are looking so much better.. hotter… sexier… and cuter… ) theve done a really good job with all of shakugan no shana…. an i know this is too soon but i just hope it doesnt end with a cliche…. guy is with girl…story… i want death.. -.-!

    JT
    Reply

  8. Wow. What an awesome ep, and what an awesome cliffhanger!

    The last week has been treating us exceptionally well. Brilliant Otome ep, now a brilliant Shana ep. Amazing. Hell, I so want Shana19 right now.

    Mentar
    Reply

  12. Yuuji will end up with Shana in the end, what happend today can be easily excused by the fact that Yuuji consider it important to find out my Kazumi knows and to properly explain it. He didnt choose her over Shana in a game of love.

    Fury
    Reply

  15. That’s one of the justifications why this series is my favorite. Action, revelations all thrown in. Fabulous, and another cliffhanger as well. Seems like almost the whole gang is in on the Guze no Sekai thingy, except for Ike. =P

    F.A.I.T.H
    Reply

  16. Crap, meet fan. 😀 Well, now Kazumi knows about Shana -and- Yuuji, so I wonder how this will affect things, especially if Kashim turns out to not be the ‘cooperative’ type.

    Of course, seeing Wilhemina encounter Yuuji, should she do so, would probably be worth a good five or ten minutes of an episode. Ah, but this will be… interesting.

    Haesslich
    Reply

  21. Sorry, but I don’t think so 😉 … I love both series, but Otome certainly edges out Shana in story construction and complexity. Shana has a much more focused approach with significantly fewer characters, and it’s much more episodic and linear in nature. Most story threads (Friagne, the Twins, Shana’s background) are already fully resolved, but enough long-range residual storylines remain to keep things fresh and interesting. Also, the drama level of Shana is way below Otome17 yet, even though Shana18 was the best installment and came close in THIS department. On the other hand, Shana undoubtedly has some major strengths aswell where it outperforms Otome.

    The Otome-Shana comparison is warranted because in BOTH shows carefully crafted fault lines broke and the underlying dilemmas burst out into the open. Truth day, so to say, delivered with some major drama and resulting in exciting cliffhanger confrontations. I’m looking forward to seeing them resolved 🙂

    Mentar
    Reply

  24. I think drama of Otome17 is suck.

    Nothing new it’s the same plot as Gundam seed , and poor brainless Sunrise just reused it again and again.

    And Nina’s reason to fall to darkside is silly.

    Plant42
    Reply

  25. Meh.. I won’t dispute on the drama but in terms of characters, Shana > Otome.

    Music is also where Shana > Otome. A word of warning here too, Aka no Seijaku is dangerous. I can’t stop playing that song over and over again right now ;P.

    Kurogane
    Reply

  29. Finally watched it; disappointing that we only see Yuuji’s (silver?) flame light up and three birds disappear. Would’ve been interesting to see how it works.

    He’s a Torch as well. What happens if he uses up his store of energy? It gets replenished at midnight but still… definitely a support chara.

    Eleutheria
    Reply

  35. My friend, you know you can’t ask for that here, read the message before you make a post.

    Anyway… fou days of suffering pay very well, an excellant episode of Shana… all the secrets, lies and loves fall apart…

    Only 8 episodes more to go… sniff sniff poor Shana, those teras don’t look well on her… damm you Yuuji.

    Syaoran Li
    Reply

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