It’s episode 8, and we finally get an episode that makes Shakugan no Shana Shakugan no Shana. This time most of the action occurs in the past via a story Margery Daw tells Satou, but that’s good enough for me at this point! Also, Yuji learns to use his power even more.

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The highlights of this episode:

• Margery Daw has a dream about the Denizen in silver against whom she is trying to get revenge, but suddenly wakes from it, and asks Marco if she said anything in her sleep.
• Meanwhile, Wilhelmina creates an image of the giant Rinne that Yuji first saw when he first became a torch. Yuji, startled by it, tries running away, but Shana yells out to him that “he can do it” and Yuji turns around and uses his power to destroy it while Satou jealously watches.
• Alastor and Shana decide that it’s time to take Yuji’s training to the next step: casting unrestricted methods, specifically a Fuzetsu – a crimson bubble.
• Wilhelmina researches the keeper that’s being kept on the Midnight Lost Child within Yuji, and stumbles upon a name – Pheles – and decides to leave town to investigate further.
• Satou, meanwhile, requests that Margery train him so that he can get strong enough to follow and help Margery. However, Margery merely remarks that it’s crazy and that Satou will get killed if he tried.
• Margery then begins to tell Satou a story from her past. It’s New York City apparently in the 1930s (despite Margery’s claim that it’s “soon after the great depression,” unless she means the start of it. Oh, and where’s the Chrysler Building?). A Denizen – the Cavern of Scrupulous Impaling, Annaberg – is hanging out on the Brooklyn Bridge and Margery casts a crimson bubble and attacks him. Margery believes she destroyed him, destroying the Brooklyn Bridge in the process.
• However, Thousand Change Sydonay shows up and attacks Margery, beating her up pretty badly. Sydonay wants to kill Margery, but Annaberg doesn’t want him too since it will take too much time, so Margery is spared. Annaberg then leaves, mentioning how he’s about to “accelerate civilization.”
• Margery, whose dress is now ruined, strips to get changed, and has Marcos clean her with his purifying flame. However, while this is going on, a boy shows up (this is still in the crimson bubble, mind you).
• After probably getting the crap beat out of him by Margery, the boy identifies himself as the Hauler of Prevailing Ghouls, Yuri Chvojka, a flame haze who has a contract with the Marshall of Diminutive Lizards, Valac, who exists in the form of what appears to be a machete. Margery tells him to scram, but Yuri ends up working for the person Margery is trying to meet.
• Margery ends up visiting the Outlaw of Eastedge, a large male Flame Haze who has a contract with the Summoner of the Milky Way. Margery relates to Eastedge that she doesn’t think Yuri is suited to be a Flame Haze since he doesn’t hate Crimson Denizens.
• Later, the boy explains how he became a Flame Haze, saying that a Crimson Denizen attacked the ship he was on, killing his family. In the middle of it, Valac found him and turned him into a Flame Haze. He states that he regrets not being able to protect anyone then, and hopes that he can protect people now that he’s a Flame Haze. However, both Margery and Valac get exasperated with him since, in their view, the purpose of a Flame Haze is to keep the balance of the world, not to protect humans per se. As a result, Margery goes off to find Annaberg and tells Yuri not to get in her way.
• Annaberg arrives at the Empire State Building and starts to do whatever he intends to do, but Margery shows up and casts a crimson bubble over the city…

Now this is what I’m talking about. Crimson Denizens showing up and fighting Flame Hazes. Famous bridges getting blown up. The Empire State Building being the center stage for a another Crimson Denizen plot. This is what I watch Shana for! Except poor New York City. First it had to deal with giant alien space ships and asteroids, and now it has to deal with Crimson Denizens. Such is the life of such a big city, I guess.

I’m not sure we’ve learned anything particularly new this episode, though obviously the story from Margery’s past will continue in the next episode, so we’ll get to see more of it and see what the moral of it apparently is, and why she thinks it shows that Satou would be of little help to her.

We now also have two additional developments. First, Wilhelmina has apparently found something about the keeper on the Midnight Lost Child that appears to have alarmed her to the extent that she feels she has to go somewhere else to investigate it. Second, Yuji will soon be learning how to cast unrestricted methods, so that should be pretty cool. Maybe he’ll come up with one to banish stupid angst-filled episodes from now on.