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「一つの理」 (Hitotsu no Ri)
“One Truth”
Somehow, in the span of one episode, the story went from borderline boring to amazingly intricate. Honestly, would you have been satisfied with Shana just destroying that huge egg that’s going to form Xanadu? While I personally would have been fine with an answer like that last week, I was ready to invent a time-machine to see next week’s episode.
For starters, who the world would have thought that the Professor was Sale’s “father”? And while I use the term father loosely since I’m willing to bet that he isn’t a father in the traditional sense, I was surprised to see that there is yet another surprise relationship between two unexpected parties. But what really got my mind racing was the revelation about what Shana’s true goal was. Not only was she aiming to alter and not destroy Xandu but it finally makes sense why so many Flame Haze are in Misaki City massacring Tomogara. Yes, they are there to murder as many Tomogara as possible but they are also trying to set the precedence for centuries to come — trying to engrain the mindset that Tomogara trying to eat humans is a taboo with dire consequences.
As the clock winds down to the birth of Xanadu, it finally feels like destiny is siding with Shana. After a fascinating turn of events, I’m still impressed with how she exploited Yuuji and The Bal Masque’s diehard intentions to make sure that the creation of Xanadu could not be stopped. And even though we still don’t know if her changes to Xanadu are set in stone since I’m sure Sydonay will do anything possible to save his precious Hecate; Shana still has one more trump card left — Kazumi and Pheles. And yes, I know that the awesome Volkswagon bus was blown up. But I can’t imagine such big name characters like Khamsin and Kazumi would be taken out that easily — especially since the former is one of the oldest Flame haze in existence and the latter is apparently still important.
However, I can’t help but feel that the main story line is going to get put on the sidelines to wrap up this interesting twist between Sale and the Professor. If that ends up being true, I hope that the writers do this new character justice and give his first and final battle some oomph to make it worth our time. But if I’m wrong, which I wouldn’t mind, then woohoo for more Yuuji and Shana!
Preview
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For all those who sympathize TOO easily with Tomogara:
TOMOGARA EAT HUMANS, UNDERSTOOD?
And that makes me even more sympathethic to the corpse-eater who willingly decided not to harm living people and use torches instead.
Shana’s plan was a masterstroke. I was actually asking myself, will there be humans in Xanadu, just for Tomogara to devour? Now, Shana has in one masterstroke answered my question; YES, BUT YOU CAN’T EAT THEM!
I guess this wholesale massacre of the Tomogara on the front lines is similar to what happened to Germany and Japan in the WW2 – ever since both countries rank along the most pacifistic governments and societies.
I don’t know. Guze no Ou are powerful beings who do not need humans’ Power of Existence, so they “bully” he Guze no Tomogara to follow their rules regarding devouring humans. From Guze no Tomogara’s point of view, that’s really unfair. You are just judging them from a human’s point of view (i.e., Guze no Tomogara kills humans so they must be evil). But I really cannot tell.
The ethical question, in my opinion, is complex. We are trying to judge something that is not human using human ideals and interests. This seems wrong.
Well didn’t the show say Tomogara only need power of existence to exist in the human world? So that means if they stay in the crimson world where they come from then they don’t have to eat humans. That’s like saying if I travel to a foreign country, the only way I can survive there is to eat the indigenous inhabitants. If they are not forced to go into the human world they can simply do the ethical thing and stay in the crimson world.
Yes they don’t need the power of existence if they stayed in Crimson Realm. The reason they come to human world is to get that power to grant whatever their wishes entail.
From human point of view, they are evil invaders that need to be destroyed. From their point of view, they are simply doing what’s within their power and right.
It all comes down to ethics and moral, and we all know there is never a black and white scenario. Most often not it is history that judges. If the Flame Haze army fell here, it will be most likely written down in the new world as the crusade of Tomogara won against all odds, and if Flame Hazes succeed in killing all the old Tomogara, it will be a bane, absolute punishment against breaking a taboo-eating humans.
But since we know it’s never black or white, neither side will have a complete victory. So end result will be somewhere in the middle.
Why Sale called Dantalion(The Professor), ‘father’:
Show Spoiler ▼
Thanks, I was pretty confused by that too.
I guess this season is really all about fan-servicing the people who have read the LN… kind of like how the UBW movie went.
I need to learn Japanese so I can read the novels. Seems there is always so much stuff missing when it becomes Anime.
To expand on Mixed Milkshake’s explanation.
The Professor has captured many humans and forced them to form a contract unwillingly with a random Crimson Denizen, who may not even have any intention of siding with humans and participate in their “kinslaying”.
This forced contract experiment was kind of a lose-lose situation for both the human contractor and his Crimson Lord.
For the Crimson Denizens forcefully summoned over to our world, many were killed while passing through the Void between the two worlds.
For the human, he had no grudge to begin with, but was now “robbed” of his existence thanks to the contract. Moreover, the Crimson Lord he was contracted to may not share the same sentiments of those “kinslayers” who so willingly form contracts with humans. And so would be coerced into attacking other Flame Hazes (under threat of getting devoured), which would end up getting himself killed by the Flame Hazes instead as they would want to remove a rogue Flame Haze asap.
Sale and Gizo were the lucky ones as they were both smart enough to realize that the only way to survive was to actually depend on each other and actually try and live the life of a Flame Haze. Though unlike many Flame Hazes, he carries no grudge against the Denizens, save perhaps the Professor, whom he has a score to settle.
As for his protege and lover Chiara, she is one of the few Flame Hazes to be contracted to two Crimson Lords, as they happen to be twins.
Damn. Is all this explained in the LN?
As far as I know, Sale’s and Chiara’s really great backstory is explained in sidestories of the novels, stuff that will probably never get animated, unless we get OVAs. Same with the backstory of Mathilde, Asiz and Lamies – stuff that doesn’t belong directly into the storyline of Shakugan no Shana but had it’s own story in the novels, and thus doesn’t get animated.
as for Kazumi, they really dropped any tension with the cliffhanger about her fate when they showed her in the preview of the next episode if i’m remembering right.
They should be around chapter 2 of the last novel by now, I think. I hope they can wrap it up in 3 episodes without rushing the last like they did with Kaichou wa Maid-sama
I didn’t watch the preview to see if they are in it but it’s pretty obvious that Kazumi at least is going to survive the bus explosion. It would be kind of pointless to spend so much time over the last several episodes building her up as still serving an important purpose to just pop her like that. Khamsin might die though, SOMEBODY important has almost got to die by the end to show that this plan was costly for the Flame Hazes too. If they pull off this complicated plan and kill thousands of enemies and don’t lose anyone it will seem overly contrived, if the writer’s have any sense at all them someone has to die, could easily be Khamsin.
I REALLY don’t see her getting killed after how she survived summoning Pheles.
I’m sure Kazumi will still be alive, but I can still dream right?
God, I hate the red indian lady with the water fish power. She is so God damn annoying. Hope one of the tomogara just kill her off. I just can’t take it when her screentime is on. Anybody with me here?
For some reason, I find her annoying too.
I hope Sale manages to kill Dantallion, that´s one dengerous bastard that doesn´t deverve to live at all, not even within the ranks of Bal Masque was apreciated. The only reason the Trinity allowed him to join their was to use his twisted inventions.