Posted by  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
「再び、戦いへ」 (Futatabi, Tatakai e)
“To Battle, Once More”
It’s that time during the second-cour that everyone dreads — the moment everything starts to slow down and nothing makes sense. For a show like this it’s quite a drop after an entire month of fast paced battles with very little if any dialogue. While I may be a bit biased when I say that these slow episodes still pique my interest, I think there was a little bit for everyone.
Seeing how the comments were buzzing about Pheles last week, I thought it was pretty funny how she only got a few minutes of screen time. But her appearance did bring up a point that I had nearly forgotten. Maybe, just maybe, Kazumi would finally have a reason to show up again. While I may be a Shana fan, I think it’s fair for major characters to get their fair share of screen time — especially a prominent female protagonist (voiced by one of my favorite seiyuus) who has played the third wheel for over three seasons. But getting back on track, do you remember the cross-shaped hougu Pheles gave to Kazumi way back when? Up to this point, I haven’t been able to come up with a reason why Kazumi would ever use something that does something as pointless as summoning Pheles in exchange for all of her Power of Existence. However, after watching Pheles mention Kazumi’s hougu and Yuuji’s new found interest in Kazumi herself, it leads me to believe that the useless cross might get some use after all!
Besides my little epiphany about Pheles and Kazumi, there was something else that caught my eye this week. That something would be watching three Tomogara living as humans who were trying to coexist with humans! While we’ve only seen a few whose main goal wasn’t to feed on humans, who would have thought there were Tomogara trying to integrate with society? Imagine what kind of world it would be if the Tomogara tried to coexist with humans instead of trying to consume them!
All in all, a pretty good episode to keep things going strong until the pacing picks back up. With Shana’s determination to stop Yuuji at 110% and a handful of ridiculously strong Flame Haze who agree with her, you’d have to be pretty thick to think that anyone would have turned down her offer. While I am a bit disappointed that Rebecca will be accompanying Sophie back to headquarters, it does provide a convenient alley way for Margery to get re-integrated back into the group. But even with everyone finally back together, there are so many questions that still need to be answered! Especially the question over what significance that cross will have!
Fun Fact: If you watch the beginning of Episode One when Shana is facing Yuuji, you’ll notice how his front bangs are still pulled back. However, based on the fact that Sairei no Hebi is floating right beside him, this would imply that his bangs should be hanging forward since Shana is facing him after their battle from within the void. Continuity Problem!
ED2 Sequence
 |
 |
 |
ED2: 「ONE」 by ALTIMA
Watch the 2nd ED!: Streaming ▼
Preview
 |
 |
 |
Finally, a animated ED.
Can someone tell me what Pheles did this episode? I am so confused.
I would like to tell you the exact nature of the unrestricted spell Pheles created in this episode, but that would spoil everything. All I can say is, she created it to save Johann.
By the way, I wonder if Yuuji/Sairei no Hebi’s plan requires Kazumi somehow (probably more accurately say that if it requires Pheles somehow). It would be interesting if the plan requires Kazumi to sacrifice herself; that would surely lead to the breakdown of Yuuji and Sairei no Hebi’s relationship.
Was that Pheles appearing at the end with the three Tomogara? Wonder what she is up to…
“…be accompanying Sophie …” image link needs a dot. :3
And I do think its nessacary for a downtime episode or two. I have to wonder if the cross has other powers except for merely summoning Pheles… that’s my feelings.
If you look at the previous ED, you will see pictures of several different Flame Haze and their Guze no Ou…. then you see Kazumi and that cross…. so it seems to me as a hint that she will become a Flame Haze with Pheles….
Wow, as a born Hong Kong native, I must say JC Staff’s got all the sceneries in Hong Kong right, from the airport to the famous city skyline, that’s for sure.
https://randomc.net/image/Shakugan%20no%20Shana/Shakugan%20no%20Shana%20III%20Final%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2021.jpg
They even featured the Hong Kong pineapple bun (AKA the Hong Kong style “melonpan”), and who better than Shana the melonpan expert to make comparison between the Hong Kong and Japanese style melonpans?
For that cross Giralda, Pheles deliberately told Kazumi that if she uses it to summon Pheles, she herself will disappear and be forgotten.
Now this is where it’s intriguing, because if Pheles had wanted to be summoned, she ought to have left out that detail and kept it a secret from Kazumi, but she didn’t. This means Pheles is actually not that keen on getting summoned, but decides to leave it up to Kazumi to decide by her own free will whether to sacrifice her existence in order to save Yuuji.
http://shakugan.wikia.com/wiki/Hyakki_Yakou
Those three Denizens seen living amongst humans were once known as the Hyakki Yakou, a Denizen smuggling group that used to provide transportation services for minor Denizens in order to ferry them safely from the ever vigilant patrolling of Flame Hazes. Though they were notoriously elusive, as they valued their survival as priority, meaning in the first instance of danger, they would not hesitate to abandon their “customers” at once. Wilhelmina was once assigned to hunt them down, but to no avail.
They’ve more or less half-retired, but it seems now Pheles requires their services once again.
I still don’t really understand why the flame haze still want to fight, I mean if Yuuji’s plan succeed then that means no more humans will die pointlessly because of the battle between flame haze and tomogara. And it was also stated that by creating a new world it will not affect the humans’ world, in fact it will give good effect to it or something. If I’m not mistaken they say they are going to keep on fighting because of ethics about the world or something…
Seriously if there is a way to stop the fighting just do it, why are the flame hazes being so stubborn?
Shana stated in this episode that, according to Centerhill, creating a new world is not without side effect. The result of this side effect might not happen in hundreds or thousands years but it will happen eventually. And when that happen, major catastrophe will occur – which might be the end of all worlds.
I see, well I still haven’t watch this episode yet, so thanks for the information.
You didn’t pay attention to Shana’s explanation. Let me see if I can explain it better.
Shana says that she believes in the truth that Centerhill has revealed. It seems that the world is unbalanced not because the Guze no Tomogara are absorbing power of existence from this world, but because they are consuming humans. This causes a disruption in the balance of the world. Yuuji’s plan will bring peace to the human world for a possible few hundred years, but then the problem will arise again. If the Tomogara do not change, they will consume all the power of existence in their new world. Once that happens, be it hundreds or thousands of years later, they will return to the human world. And this is where it gets vague. Shana believes that a catastrophe will occur and destroy all three worlds, sooner or later.
The Flame Haze are supposed to protect the balance of the world. That is why they fight. Which is why, when Yuuji announced his plans, all the Flame Haze became confused and scattered. Most of them gave up fighting. They no longer know what they are fighting for, because Yuuji promised peace to the human world. But not all of them knows what Shana knows.
Which brings us to why some of the Flame Haze still remains vigilant. These Flame Haze consists of two groups of people. The first group knows that the plan won’t work, and so they are still devoted to the cause of the Flame Haze. The second group originally joined the Flame Haze not for the greater good, but to gain the power to exact revenge against the Tomogara who killed their families, caused them misery, etc. So as long as they still hate them, this group will continue fighting.
If you still have questions, then you’ll have to keep watching till the end. This is about all I can understand so far. I might have made some mistakes, but hopefully this will prove to be somewhat helpful.
Thanks for the explanation. I got clearer idea now.
After the nonstop epicness of battles lately, this was a nice breather as FH side is temporarily too weakened to mount any kind of resistance. Still we got to see the pieces moving preparing for next battle, including some we didn’t know yet. And it seems everything that started in the Misaki city will eventually end there in the final showdown involving whatever plan Shana cooked up…
I still love this episode XD
Cause finally …I can see shana’s “Big smile” again
and of course it’s for preparation of the FINALE… 🙁
and wow w/ the ED… especially kazumi…. I dun know but I love her on that one
This whole season has been nothing but war 1-2 ep break war 1-2 episode break.
And I Love it.
Show Spoiler ▼
You know what I’m wondering… will they ever get in the back story of the Great War, and such. I want to hear more back story on the 4 Gods of the Mainland, Samuel, and the rest of the Flame Hazes. Especially given the fact that they do have a couple of episodes left. It’s be great to hear their back-story and where they come from. There are some characters where I’m like, you sound awesome, and cool, but yet I want to hear more about you and your life lol, otherwise, I probably won’t care that much… like why on earth did Rebecca Reed make an Oath lol.
I’m still just so happy that Margery is back. The first half of this season felt dull without her. Even with all the epic fights going on, in the back of my head I was thinking “this fight would be more awesome if Margery were around.” Her and Marco are a dynamic duo of awesomeness and they deserve to be featured more highly in the show!
I love this episode, it´s like a giant chessboard where all the pieces are being slowly but in the right positions, ready for the last and most epic battles of all. The great thing about the story so far is that you can´t classify Sarei no Hebi as the typical bad guy since his ideals work for the better of all parties involved, the problem remains in that he won´t accept any correction to his plans so Shana and his group would have to convince him by force.
Next time the remaining Gods of the Earth will be introduced, I´ve been expecting this for a while specially because every single tomogara is scared as hell of even mentioning their names so they must be real death machines. Also, the ed sequence was pretty good, I loved all the shots with the entire army of both sides ready to the final confrotation.
Show Spoiler ▼