First Impressions / Shakugan no Shana

Summary:

Initially confused as to why he didn’t sense Zarovee getting closer despite his sharpened senses, Yuuji soon realizes that the size of Zarovee’s existence is too small and that this means that Shana and Wilhelmina won’t notice either. Zarovee claims not to want to use violence on Yuuji, but Yuuji figures out that there’s a copy of Zarovee in the city ready to attack people if Yuuji harms the other Zarovees. Yuuji then realizes that Zarovee is a Jaeger of the Bal Masqué, something he had learned of from Outlaw documents. Jaegars are covert operation specialists, are unfit for fighting, and are usually paired with a combat specialist Tomogara called a Wanderer. Yuuji concludes that this means that there is a Wanderer around here somewhere, but he can’t sense it. And since he doesn’t know exactly what they are after, he feels that he has no choice but to wait and see what happens by going along with Zarovee.

Meanwhile, back at the Sakai house, Shana serves Yuuji’s mother some tea made with medicinal herbs and shows her the food that Kazumi brought. As she leaves Chigusa’s room, Shana thinks about what happened earlier and how she had accused Yuuji of lying. By now, Yuuji and Zarovee have made their way to the busy parts of the city, and Yuuji is still trying to figure out what the Tomogara are up to. He knows that they wouldn’t have gone to this much trouble just to kidnap him, so he suspects that they’re trying to use him as bait to lure out Shana and the others. Yuuji feels that he has to let them know of what’s going on, and when he suddenly notices something nearby, he starts screaming. Zarovee eventually quiets him down, but not before Yuuji makes a big deal about there being a trap. Unbeknownst to Zarovee, this commotion attracted the attention of Eita and Ogata who happened to be nearby, and Eita realizes that Yuuji knew that he was there.

Eita also figures out that the person with Yuuji was a Tomogara, however this leads to him recalling memories of Ogata’s body getting injured in the previous battle. He stops her from chasing after Yuuji, but he isn’t able to explain to her why he’s so worried right now. After noticing the other Zarovees walking through the crowds, Eita realizes that these are indeed Tomogara and that Yuuji was trying to get him to help. However, Eita feels that he still can’t face Margery, and he also doesn’t want Ogata to get injured again. To his surprise, Ogata then grabs his hand and checks to see if he’s okay, and Eita finally makes up his mind to go see Margery. At Keisaku’s house, Eita fills Margery in on what happened, and she decides that they should go use the Haridan map. When Eita apologizes to her, Margery realizes that he won’t be coming along, so she tells him to take Ogata far away. Margery and Keisaku then head into the city where Margery tries to use herself as bait by letting out signs that she’s a Flame Haze.

Yuuji meanwhile is still walking with Zarovee as he continues to try to figure out what the enemy is really up to. He gets a hint when Zarovee reveals that he’ll be personally putting up a fuuzetsu for battle instead of the Wanderer. Yuuji finds this strange because he knows that Zarovee alone can’t create a fuuzetsu large enough to cover a battle area, and he gets another clue when he sees one of the other Zarovees suddenly stop moving. As he puts the pieces together, Yuuji realizes that the small fuuzetsu is to lure the Flame Haze and that the Zarovees will combine to take him away. The Wanderer is thus aiming outside the fuuzetsu and will be trying to destroy the Flame Haze from a distance. Having figured this out, Yuuji declares that he wants to protect this city and quickly puts up his own fuuzetsu. Using what he learned from Margery, he takes out one of the Zarovees with a ranged blast, and he then crushes the throat of another with his bare hands.

Yuuji throws another ranged blast at two of the remaining Zarovees and succeeds at taking them both out at once. He then finishes off the final Zarovee by throwing Blutsauger at him. While doing this, Yuuji admits to himself that he didn’t really want to leave this city and that he didn’t have the resolve, so he feels that he owes an apology to Kazumi and Shana. Now that the battle is over, Yuuji looks around and finds no Wanderer coming to attack him, and this confirms his theory that it is going to attack from a distance. Shana and Wilhelmina arrive shortly thereafter, and once they learn what’s going on, they take to the sky and spot Bifrons in the distance preparing to fire his cannon from a rooftop. Using Wilhelmina’s ribbons as a springboard, Shana flies towards that rooftop and unloads a fire blast right as the Bifrons shoots. The force of Shana’s attack causes Bifrons’ shot to reverse trajectory right back at him, destroying him in a huge explosion.

In the aftermath, Yuuji notes that both the Jaeger and the Wanderer were finished off, but he still feels that something is strange. Moments later, a wall of flame erupts on top the city.

Preview:

Well that looked painful. I knew that Yuuji was developing the potential to kick some ass, but strangling someone with his bare hands is pretty impressive. He’s probably not strong enough to go up against anyone major in the Bal Masqué yet, though maybe he will be if he gets some more practice with the Blutsauger. The eye-catch certainly got my attention in that regard – Yuuji actually looks pretty cool. I was also a little surprised by how quickly Zarovee and Bifrons were taken out. I expected them to be around for at least a few more episodes. That’s a good thing though because it means that the story is moving along quickly, and the preview shows Sabrac already appearing next week. Things are probably going to get really interesting now…

51 Comments

  24. with so much shyt happening, i keep thinking about 1 lil thing, the reji maigo has to come out of him sooner or later, wonder if he dies in the end? i know that someones gotta die, it just seems like one of those animes. Maybe Wilemina, idk, just sharing my thoughts

    reggie
    Reply

  27. Useless? Yuuji was far from that, but if you consider combat capabilities, you could say that.

    Nice eyecatch. Heck, nice EVERYTHING, since it looks like Eita has finally retrieved his courage and resolve from the back of his closet to end things.

    the preview looks extremely delicious, too, with Sabrac finally out.

    Owaranai Destiny
    Reply

  28. I agree with you, Owaranai Destiny. at the early ep of season 1 yuji help shana defeats the “doll maniac” friagne or something by spotting his attack. same as he spotting the source of cradle garden.

    gytg
    Reply

  31. Woah Yuuji is nasty he simply took out 5 of Zarovee easily one of them with a bare hands and another with a throw of his sword, to get things better Sabrac will appear next week it’s gonna be 3 flame hazes + Yuuji VS him. Can’t wait this is getting too good.

    setsuke
    Reply

  36. Finally Yuuji is stopping to be a wuss. I know he had ample justification, but that screaming in terror of his he showed during the Pheles arc was getting on my nerves. Of course Zarovee was just fodder, but still he pwned him nicely.

    bearzerger
    Reply

  39. lol oh Yuji you scream like a bitch the whole series but now you are relentless and bloodthirsty, who needs Blutsauger when you can just break the tomogara’s neck with your bare hands ^_^

    game8910
    Reply

  41. @Gyth: Come on now, Shana has shown us in the first series that she doesn’t even need clothes to go out into battle. Just wrap a couple bandages around her and she’s ready to go. She spent a good chunk of last season in those bandages alone when she wasn’t just plain naked.

    Kaioshin Sama
    Reply

  42. The only thing about Sabrac I’m not liking is the fact that, given what we’ve learned of him so far, he isn’t really that much of a compelling villain. Quite literally, he’s a hired gun, who kills anyone he’s paid to target (one wonders what he’s paid WITH though). A very POWERFUL hired gun, but a paid assassin nontheless.

    Myssa Rei
    Reply

  48. Man that long range attack looked like a nuke going off (which, someone already pointed out in these comments). Pretty nice effect there, well…being that the tomogara that was a big cannon probably would of done some devastating damage there. Just not in a nuke like format lol. Go Yuuji you kick more ass man!!

    Jason Isenberg
    Reply

  51. Very nice. Now, add access to the users locale and system preferences such as country, date format and the ability to use the metric system. You could add it as an option, for those who see problems with privacy in this.

    evden eve
    Reply

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