灼眼のシャナ II Episode 19

SPOILER Summary: As Yuuji is surrounded by the various copies of Zarovee, he realizes this Tomogara is a Jaeger — one that gathers intelligence and thus is not a good fighter. Because Zarovee’s presence is so small, he would be undetected by the Flame Haze. However, from the reports that Yuuji had seen from Outlaw, such a weak Tomogara would almost certainly be accompanied by a combat Tomogara known as a Wanderer. Yuuji starts to get angry and causes “Red Zarovee” to merge with “Light Blue Zarovee” (based on their scarf color). However, despite their fear of Yuuji’s power, Yuuji is reminded that the city will be in serious danger if he harms them. Yuuji decides he needs more information.

At Yuuji’s home, Shana has Chigusa drink the tea that Wilhelmina made. She also has the bento that Yoshida had made and tells Chigusa that Wilhelmina is making a remedy food for her.

In town, Tanaka meets with Ogata for their date. Down the street, Yuuji follows Red Zarovee (who’d separated from “Light Blue”) and as he continues to try to figure out the Tomogara plan, he realizes that he needs to get word to the Flame Haze. He sees Tanaka and so makes a scene with Red, and in doing so, loudly lets Tanaka know he needs help without giving it away. Ogata sees this as well and wants to follow them in case Yuuji is in trouble. Tanaka figures out Yuuji’s message, but struggles with what to do since he longs to keep Ogata out of this mess. In the end, he runs, with Ogata in tow, to Sato’s house, where he makes his report. However, he still won’t join them and seeing Ogata, Margery Daw understands tells him to get her far away from there.

Shana returns home where Wilhelmina is cooking. The bookmark she has from Margery starts glowing, indicating trouble. Elsewhere, Margery and Sato are on a roof, where Margery is waiting, letting the Tomogara know there is a Flame Haze in the vicinity. Still elsewhere, Yuuji has been feverishly trying to figure out Zarovee’s plan. Zarovee reveals they are almost at the site of the battle. Yuuji knows that Zarovee can’t cast a very large Fuzetsu, so what is the meaning of this? He realizes that Zarovee is simply a cage to capture the Flame Haze that are coming. Since they are now under a clouded glass ceiling, Yuuji figures that the Wanderer is going to make a massive ranged attack to take out the trapped Flame Haze.

Indeed, at a rooftop far from where various Zarovee and Yuuji are, Bifrons is waiting for Zarovee’s orange Fuzetsu to activate as a signal to start the attack. Since Yuuji knows an attack is coming, he refuses to go the last little distance that Zarovee wants to go and instead activates his own silver Fuzetsu. He understands that he never wanted to leave Misaki City like he said and knows he will have to apologize to both Shana and Yoshida. He fires a fireball which takes out one Zarovee. As the other Zarovee’s rush up, he strangles Red. Orange and Blue are afraid and he fires another fireball at them, taking them out. He then summons Blutsauger and hurls it at the final Zarovee, killing him.

Retrieving the sword and returning it to bookmark form, Yuuji carefully looks around and confirms his theory about the Wanderer attack. He calls for Shana, who quickly arrives with Wilhelmina. He briefs them on the situation and the forthcoming Wanderer attack. Wilhelmina tells Yuuji to keep the Fuzetsu up as she grabs him with her ribbons and leaps up into the sky, followed by Shana. They find the flame from Bifrons, who’s looking much like a giant cannon preparing to fire. Wilhelmina launches Shana towards Bifrons location, but she won’t make it in time, so Shana fires her own ranged attack to meet Bifrons, countering it and destroying the Tomogara in the process.

Margery and Sato arrive on the scene, having missed all the combat. Wilhelmina and Tiamat reluctantly agree that Yuuji is a good partner for Shana based on the just won battle. Yuuji still feels uneasy about the scene of the battle. However, even while still dangling from Wilhelmina’s ribbons, he starts to talk to Shana (to apologize?) when sure enough, the smoking wreckage of the battle erupts into bright, large flames.

Thoughts: This was another good episode. Yuuji certainly has come a long way from that quivering thing he was in the first episode of the first series. Granted, taking out a weak Tomogara wasn’t much, but it was still pretty wicked. Interesting that Zarovee addressed Yuuji as “Mystes Sakai Yuuji-dono,” which indicates to me that considers Yuuji (or maybe the Silver Yuuji carries) to be very important.

Next episode — three Flame Haze plus one pretty decent Mystes vs. the Tomogara Sabrac. That will be an interesting battle to be sure.