shakugan no shana 13 « Blog Archive

shakugan no shana 13

Jan 04 2006

Categories: anime, episodic review, shakugan no shana, spoilers, top ten
Tagged: shakugan no shana

3 Comments »

It’s the halfway point for our illustrious Flame Haze, and what has the first thirteen episodes given us? One long arc where Shana resists jumping Yuji, and two smaller arcs featuring battles again a perverted doll fetishist and another against perverted twin fetishists. What will the second half of the series bring? At least episode fourteen will at long last introduce Carmel, that Flame Haze who looks like a meido.

As for thirteen, spoilers upcoming.

Tiriel tells her brother that he gets a “prize” for capturing the Nietono no Shana (Shana’s katana) and that prize is one heck of a French kiss. This scene sparks a memory of Yuji in Shana, since he said the same thing in the previous episode, and Shana lectures the twins on their smooching… not exactly a winning idea considering Shana is (a) still bound and (b) Souseiseki has her katana now. However, Shana overpowers their trap and turns the tables on the twins by using Sorath’s own Blutsauger (am I spelling any of these names right?) against him. She then impales Tiriel, but the two twins are indeed quite invincible as long as they’re in this special Fuzetsu, Cradle Garden. The battle is actually quite good, and, because Shana has red hair, kinda reminded me of Kenshin.

Meanwhile, Shikijo-sensei meets up with Yuji, and they go look for the power source to the twin’s garden. They find the Orgel that is powering the Cradle Garden, but it’s being guarded by the tomogara in shades (can’t remember his name, sorry!). Shikijo-sensei gets her butt whipped, but thanks to some inspiration from the Fang of Devestation, Satou, and Tanaka, she manages to drive that tomogara away. Yuji joins up with Shana during this chaos, and the two take out the Orgel and the twins. Shana offers Yuji his prize, and it turns out to be one hour at the local love hot– err– one melon bread. Fantastic.

Shana’s scowl looks fantastic

Yoshida’s… not as good

The episode ends with the conclusion of Shana and Yoshida’s argument that the twins originally interrupted. It’s pretty clear now that Yuji more or less made up his mind as he was waiting for a kiss from Shana and was disappointed when he wound up with yet more melon bread. Shana still can’t admit her feelings, but she does reaffirm how she’s not going to lose to Yoshida, and there’s some nice tension between the two now. This was a good episode that finally featured decent use of a katana in a fight. Shana vs. Sorath is probably the closest we’ll get to either a Kenshin-like swordfight or at least a Jubei-chan-like swordfight in this series; however, the techno-baubble concerning the world of guzes and tomogara is really starting to weigh on me. I’d prefer less of this type of dialogue and more of Shana going, “Urusai! Urusai! Urusai!”

Anyway, now I’m hyped for the next episode and the introduction of Carmel, who was Shana’s instructor, as well a whole new set of villians.