Author Archives: Josh

Shakugan no Shana III – Episode 6

By | February 9, 2012 at 12:00 pm | No Comments

Satou has been locked in a room at Outlaw for a week, behind held as a hostage to try to lure Wilhelmina in. However, he hears a discussion in the hall about Margery Daw and demands to know what’s going on. Another Flame Haze, Rebecca Reed, releases him and tells him what’s going on. After talking to Satou and remembering some memories with her old friend Wilhelmina, Rebecca decides to leave to help her rescue Shana. Back in the Palace of the Stars, Shana rembers Shiro words about the most powerful unrestricted method that is even powerful enough to imprison a crimson lord: love. Suddenly Hecate shows up in Shana’s room, telling Shana that she’s not needed.

The newest kick-ass female Flame Haze: Rebecca Reed

The newest kick-ass female Flame Haze: Rebecca Reed

So we finally find out what happened to Satou, and now he can return to be Margery Daw’s side. Meanwhile, Wilhelmina now has her friend Rebecca to help her find Shana. While I’d still say it’s a long shot, I guess two powerful Flame Hazes is still better than one.

I don’t know if I’m the only one, but I’m getting some sort of shady vibes from Sophie. Maybe it’s just the fact that she can be caring in one scene and very calculating in preparing for the Flame Haze’s defense in another. Or maybe she’s secretly undermining the Flame Hazes, I don’t know. If she were, I don’t know why she would.

Meanwhile, it appears jealous Hecate has shown up to try to get rid of Shana. I’m guessing that Hecate has a thing for Yugi-Silver and isn’t too happy that Yuji is spending a lot of his time with Shana. I certainly doubt that Yuji sent Hecate to deal with Shana.

Tamayura: Hitotose – Episode 6

By | February 8, 2012 at 5:00 pm | No Comments

In 1999, Maon is reading a story she made on a hill when Fu arrives and overhears the story. Maon is incredibly embarrassed, but Fu is interested in how it ends. Norie and Kaoru then show up, but Norie falls while trying to pull Kaoru around, causing Kaoru and Fu to start crying as well. Maon is then able to calm them down by whistling. 10 years later, Maon is in middle school and after class runs into Norie, who is despressed because a boy refused her sweets. They walk around town, and Maon starts whistling at sunset. However, Norie is able to understand what she’s thinking when Maon whistles, and the two become friends.

Maon FTW

Maon FTW

I guess to start off, this episode cleared some stuff up for me. I was kind of under the impression that Fu already knew everyone from when she lived there before, so I was like “wait…how can Maon become friends with Norie in middle school, after Fu already left?” So I went back and checked the first episode, and sure enough, the only one that they had really established as being Fu’s friend from before was Kaoru and her sister, and the 2nd episode, while not confirming this, insinuated it as well. So…I guess my impressions were wrong so now I’m corrected.

Having said that, this was once again another nice episode, and another Maon episode, who is quickly becoming my favorite character, I think. In this episode, we see how the four friends all first met, even though they didn’t really become friends yet at that point, and then later when Maon became friends with Norie (and then presumably Kaoru after that). We also learn where Maon got an affinity for whistling as well here. I think I said this a couple episodes back, but Maon is the type of character that can sometimes be forgotten by writers, and I’m very pleased with the fact that she’s already gotten two episodes centering around her.

Working’!! – Episode 6

By | February 8, 2012 at 12:00 pm | No Comments

Poplar and Jun are sick, so Kyoko calls in a pair of her old gang buddies: the twins Yohei and Mitsuki, who both happen to always argue with each other. The next day, Souta complains to Kyoko that he’s not appreciated, so she relieves him of having to look after Mahiru and assigns the task to Yohei. Mahiru, unsure of how to react, says she doesn’t care who looks after her, and Souta goes off on her and starts ignoring her. Poplar finally gets Mahiru to explain that she thought if Yohei looked after her, she wouldn’t punch Souta any more, but she likes Souta looking after her, and the two finally make up.

This is probably the minimum that Souta deserves

This is probably the minimum that Souta deserves

I’m not sure if it’s the writer’s intentions to make Souta as unlikable as possible, but so far they’re doing a pretty good job of it. On top of having the weirdest “issue,” he’s easily the most self-centered, possibly even more than Kyoko, which is saying something. Unless something is “small” or “cute,” he basically sees it as trash that need not be paid attention to. Before some of that was just for comedic relief, but at this point he’s just being mean about it. I can have some sympathy for him due to being punched by Mahiru all the time, but at this point I’m thinking he probably deserves it more than needing sympathy over it.

Otherwise, I’m guessing we’ll be seeing the twin former-gang members again at some point. I have a feeling that their devotion to Kyoko, which easily matches Yachiyo’s, might cause problems between them, however.

Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing – Episode 5

By | February 7, 2012 at 5:00 pm | 1 comment

Fam, Giselle, and Millia meet the Silvius’ Chief of Maintenence, Olaf, who is impressed with Giselle’s ship and astronomic knowledge. Millia tells Fam that she doesn’t know how to repay her if they are able to reestablish Turan, so Fam says that she can hold another Great Race. Fam, Giselle, and Olaf then set out to capture the first Ares ship, tricking the ship’s crew to leave the ship in order to accomplish it. Meanwhile, Ares formally annexes Turan while Millia creates a government-in-exile on the Silvius.

Millia leads the glorious Maid Empire

Millia leads the glorious Maid Empire

I guess I’m not surprised that Fam’s first capture ended up pretty easy, though I somehow don’t expect it to be as easy from now on. One good thing is that, as she collects ships, she may be able to start capturing more than one at a time. For example, once she has 4 or 5 ships, she may be able to go after two that are together and get them to surrender.

We also confirm that Dio served on the Silvius before joining the pirates, so this series is probably more than 6 months ahead of the first series, but it’s still clearly not that far into the future. Meanwhile, in a short scene it looked like Dio was playing chess from the old engineer from the Silvania. Otherwise, not a lot happened in this episode. Giselle was able to show off her expertise, and the government-in-exile was created, but that’s about it.

Shakugan no Shana III – Episode 5

By | February 7, 2012 at 12:00 pm | No Comments

Shana finds herself trapped in a giant bedroom at the Palace of the Stars, without her sword or Alastor. Yuji, who now wears Alastor, arrives, and tries to be friendly with Shana, but she rebuffs his advances, to the confusion and disappointment of Yuji. We also learn that the Corpse Collector has joined Yuji in attempting to accomplish the Grand Order. The Bal Masqué is nearly ready to launch the 2nd phase of the Grand Order, which involves multiple independent attacks on Flame Haze positions. Meanwhile, Wilhelmina is preparing to set out to save Shana on her own, after being rebuffed in her requests for aid from the other Flame Hazes.

Hecate is almost ready for the real action to begin

Hecate is almost ready for the real action to begin

We still don’t really have any word about what the Flame Hazes are doing to prepare for imminent Bal Masqué attack, though it seems they keep asking for Wilhelmina to be a part of it, though she’s intent on trying to save Shana, which seems like it would be a suicide mission right now. Perhaps the one way it could work is if she attempted to rescue her while all the members of Bal Masqué were away as part of their 2nd state attack.

I still wonder what Yuji’s true intentions are. There are more rumblings, this time from Sydonay, about what Yuji is up to, though Bel Peol assures him that things are alright. One has to wonder if he is doing something behind the scenes to hurt the Bal Masqué’s plans or somehow has secret knowledge in that, even if the Bal Masqué succeeds in doing what they’re doing, the end result won’t be what they expected. Otherwise, why would Yuji allow Alastor to basically be in on some of the Bal Masqué’s meetings. Not that there is much Alastor can do about it right now, but still…

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