灼眼のシャナ II Episode 17

SPOILER Summary: Sydonay and a group of monsters of some kind observe a ship, which is an Outlaw installation. Sydonay summons his giant spear Hougu, Shintetu Nyoi, and attacks the ship, destroying it, and apparently taking out the Flame Haze Drell Kubelik in the process, who ran this Outlaw facility.

At school, Oga-chan notices differences in some of her friends as she observes Yoshida, Shana, and Yuuji at the front gate of the school as they go home. Ogata mentions this to Ike, who observes that there are changes, but that it seems that one change has her and Tanaka getting closer. He suggests that she invite him to her volleyball match on Friday. Tanaka is at his shoe locker and Sato meets him there. However, Tanaka ends up making a hasty exit. Sato returns home to find Wilhelmina and Margery discussing the lack of new information on the Silver as well as the strange reports coming from Outlaw. Margery senses him outside the door and tells him to come in. He starts to tell her about Tanaka, but Margery assures him that Tanaka will come to an answer eventually and that Sato should just leave him alone for now. He starts to ask about Outlaw, then changes his mind

That night, Yoshida considers to ponder her choice as she looks at the Hougu “Giralda” that Pheles gave her. Meanwhile, Yuuji and Shana are practicing with wooden swords to further train Yuuji to fight. Yuuji wants the level of training increased, which Alastor is not sure about. However, after to listening to Yuuji’s reasons, Alastor agrees and so Shana steps up the training level. The following day, Sato summons Shana to the roof, who’s not interested in having a conversation with him up there. That changes when he says he doesn’t want Yuuji to know and he asks her about Outlaw.

Meanwhile, Oga-chan “forgets” her lunch since Tanaka has been forgetting his lately and the two go to the cafeteria to eat. Oga-chan feels he’s been avoiding the group and Tanaka has a flash memory of Oga-chan’s mangled body. She starts to invite him to her match as he’s spaced out, but he cuts her off, saying he’ll take her anywhere she wants to go Friday. She’s not happy with how Tanaka is acting and how he’s changed and so she ends up not inviting him to the match. Tanaka meets with Sato outside a continence store and Sato tells him about Outlaw, which is an organization to support Flame Haze, where humans also work. As such, he wants to join Outlaw since as a human, he can’t fight. Tanaka is happy for him and leaves. Sato is angry and asks how long Tanaka is going to be a coward.

At school, Ogata is spacing out thinking about Tanaka during practice. Elsewhere, Yuuji and Shana are helping Wilhelmina sort through the Outlaw reports. Wilhelmina warns Yuuji that since Sabrac was the one who placed an insignia on the Reiji Maigo, it is very possible that he will at some point come to Misaki City. However, since there are no reports of him anywhere, she feels he’s in hiding and plotting his next move. She reveals that Sabrac almost killed her, but Pheles and Johan came to her rescue. As such, the three traveled together for years as Sabrac pursued them, it taking all three of them to keep him at bay. Sabrac took advantage of a moment when Wilhelmina was away to attack Johan and Pheles as Johan was almost completed work on creating a spell that would take care of Sabrac (or at least counter him). That was when Pheles placed Johan within the Reiji Maigo.

Sato comes home and informs Margery Daw that he wants to join outlaw. Margery passes information she’d just received from Wilhelmina. Drell Kubelik’s Outlaw facility had been destroyed with everyone dying and numerous other Outlaw establishments had also come under attack recently. This is why the reports from Outlaw had been such a mess of late. Considering this change of events, Marchosias wonders how Sato feels about joining Outlaw now.

Back at school, Tanaka gets ready to go home and Ike meets him. Ike wonders why he’s not at the volleyball match and if Ogata invited him. At the match, Ogata is still thinking about Tanaka. However, when she sees him in the crowd, her depression leaves her and she’s able to play up to form. That night after the match, Tanaka summons Sato to the continence store. Sato invites him to the house, but Tanaka refuses, saying he can’t face Margery. He hands over the Hougu bookmark Margery had given him, telling Sato to relay a message to Margery apologizing for being a coward. He’d planned to be with Sato working with “Ane-san” but can no longer do so. Sato is fine with this, telling him he’s not a coward for choosing his own path and that Sato’s own path won’t be as easy as he’d first thought. The friends part company at that point.

Meanwhile, Yuuji and Shana’s stepped up training has Yuuji not living up to expectations. Alastor feels it was a mistake to increase the training level, but Yuuji asks to keep going. He actually manages to sense which of Shana’s strikes are feints and which is the real one with “killing intent” and knocks Shana’s wooden sword out of her hands. Both are a bit surprised by this, however, in the brief moment that he’s realizing that fact, Shana teaches him a lesson on spacing out by throwing a kick his way that knocks him down. Alastor is pleased with Yuuji’s sensing Shana’s true attack and calls it a night, but Yuuji insists the training continue now that he’s just getting the hang of it.

Thoughts: Its kind of sad seeing Tanaka and Sato take different paths and thus will no longer be working together with Margery Daw. I would guess this means that Tanaka and Oga-chan will be relegated to cameo-type roles from here on out.

Speaking of changes, Yuuji seems obsessed with getting stronger and fighting. No problems there, but I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t a result of outside forces doing who knows what to him, but the forces inside him driving him.

It was nice seeing how a Tomogara like Pheles and a Flame Haze like Wilhelmina became friends. With Sabrac being so powerful that it took a powerful Mystes, Flame Haze, and Tomogara to hold him off makes me wonder if the Silver and Sabrac are the same again. Gah. This show can be tough to keep on top of with everything that is going on.

Interesting that Bal Masqué, specifically Sydonay, are taking out the Outlaw infrastructure that supports the Flame Haze. I would guess that based on whatever is in the silver armor combined with a Flame Haze force that is now disorganized, Bal Masqué is nearly ready to make its move and maybe wipe out most of the Flame Haze. But that’s just a guess on my part.