First Impressions / Shakugan no Shana

Summary:
Under pressure from the plant that holds her, Shana is forced to drop the Nietono no Shana. Meanwhile, the hand on Yuuji’s shoulder turns out to be Margery’s. The two then spot a plant going around absorbing people’s powers of existence and sending it back to the main plant by the Aizen siblings. Back at the main fight, Sorath is rewarding Tiriel with a kiss, reminding Shana of Yuuji and of Chigusa’s words of how a kiss is like an oath. Tiriel suggests that her brother try out the sword, so he slashes open the front of Shana’s clothes, cutting off Alastor’s necklace in the process. After watching the siblings kiss again, Shana decides that their kissing isn’t an oath like Chigusa said, but are instead just clinging to each other. In response, Tiriel pokes Shana’s chest with the sword, drawing blood, and claims that she’s doing everything for her brother sake. However, the siblings notice something going on in the distance: Margery and Yuuji taking care of the supply plants (called Pinion). Tiriel calls on Shudonai to go do something about it, and then turns to her brother so that they can finish off Shana. Knowing that Yuuji is ok and on the move, Shana starts her counterattack. After reclaiming Alastor and freeing herself, she grabs Sorath’s old sword and slices him with it. She takes back the Nietono no Shana and then throws Sorath’s sword through Tiriel.
On the bridge, Shudonai confronts Margery. He transforms into a chimera-like beast, grabs Margery, throws her into a building, and follows it up with an energy blast. Having survived the explosion, but stuck under rubble, Margery tries to contact Eita and Keisaku. When they don’t respond, she starts to worry, and Marchosias uses their disappearance to revitalize Margery’s fighting spirit. However, after breaking free of the rubble by transforming, Margery sees the two boys nearby, ready to dig her out. Marchosias tells them to go back, and Margery transforms again and heads off. Still on that bridge, Yuuji figures out that something is at the top of the bridge tower. He fails to climb up and instead gets caught by Shudonai. Realizing what Yuuji is, Shudonai digs his hand into the Misutesu and finds out about his power. But a flying kick by Margery’s bear form interrupts them.
Returning to the main battle, it seems that the siblings aren’t finished quite just yet as Tiriel has sacrificed her own power of existence to keep the Cradle Garden going. But with things not going in their favor, the two head for the Orgel. Yuuji turns around from watching Margery dive into the water after Shudonai to see a large energy blast headed his way. Fortunately, the ring around his neck once again protects him. Shana and Yuuji are reunited and fly to the top of the bridge tower where they face off against Sorath and Tiriel, with the Orgel between them. In the waters below, Margery seems to have no trouble beating on Shudonai, forcing him to eventually make his escape. With the tables having been clearly turned, Shana fires off a flame spiral that kills Tiriel and destroys the music box. And because Sorath is so fixated on the Nietono no Shana, Shana has no trouble killing him too. With the battle over, Shana remembers that she has to give Yuuji a reward. Yuuji thinks Shana is about to kiss him, but she shoves a bag with a melon bread into his face instead. When the fuuzetsu clears, Shana resumes her argument with Kazumi. But it goes nowhere and ends with Shana declaring that she won’t lose.

This is another fantastic battle episode of Shana. Really, I can’t help but be awed at how good some of these battle sequences are. Shana in particular got a lot of cool new moves. There is a lot of scene switching back and forth, but that’s what makes this so fast paced. Having said that, this arc ended a lot quicker than I would have predicted. We only met the Aizen siblings at the very end of episode 10, and they’re already dead by the end of episode 13. I do feel a little sympathetic towards them though, since Tiriel kept talking about how she was doing everything for her brother’s sake. But part of that is also brought on by the fact that they played the piano version of Hishoku no Sora when Shana was killing them. I really hope that’s on the OST (coming on January 25th).
As for Shana vs. Kazumi, there’s a real war brewing there. It’s fun to cheer those two on, and while I doubt Kazumi has any chance of winning, I do want to see how that part of the story develops. But next week, it looks like we’re going to be introduced to Wilhelmina Carmel and learn about Shana’s past.

Edit: I forgot to mention that next week should be the premiere of the new ending song, 「紅（あか）の静寂」 (Aka no Seijaku) by 石田耀子 (Ishida Youko)

33 Comments

  12. Awesome episode! Margery gets some nice character development, more of Shana’s sweet powers are shown, Yuuji gets melon bread in the face instead of a kiss, and to top it all off, I felt sorry for Tiriel when she disappeared. Never saw that coming.

    Rasmiel
    Reply

  15. I’m not completely sure, but I think Margery uses the sword’s powers to fix everything that was destroyed during the battle; since power is needed to repair what was destroyed and the music box was broken by Shana, they need to use something to repair the city.

    KiraTakuto
    Reply

  17. Lol, classic scene with Yuuji getting a bag of melon bread in the face instead of a kiss. 😀

    Fyi Show Spoiler ▼

    We’re almost back on track now. Just have to wait another week for Bleach and Black Cat to start airing again. 🙁

    Shinji103
    Reply

  22. Looks like another awesome episode, except for the fact that the Tomogara come and die like flies once again. Still, at least one escapes…And Shudonai might be part of a bigger picture yet.

    F.A.I.T.H
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  30. Show Spoiler ▼

    Shinji103
    Reply

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