Shakugan no Shana Second 21
灼眼のシャナ II Episode 21

SPOILER Summary:

The injured and exhausted Wilhelmina is again attacked by Sabrac as he tries to finish her off. Meanwhile, Yoshida has just finished bandaging up Shana when Yuuji pops out of a nearby manhole. He gives Yoshida some bandages from Wilhelmina, instructing her to use them on Shana’s wounds. At the continued sounds of the fierce battle between Sabrac and Wilhelmina, Shana asks Yoshida to hurry so she can help Wilhelmina, but Yuuji says otherwise, stating that they need to go to Margery’s location.

At the battle site, Sabrac goes for the finishing blow, only to have Alastor’s flames provide a barrier to his attack. Sabrac is amazed that Shana isn’t half-dead, since his Stigma spell is very deadly. However, he then notices the bandages on Shana have spell insignias on them. Wilhelmina then reveals that this spell had been developed by the Mystes Johan as a counter to the Stigma and that Wilhelmina had used their battle to complete the counter-spell as well as test it as she wraps her own wounds with these spell-laden wraps. This news stuns Sabrac, since a mere Mystes had found a way to overcome a powerful Tomogara spell. Wilhelmina and Shana release their bandages and are now fully healed. Wilhelmina announces that the real battle is about to begin, but is halted when Yuuji communes with her via one of Margery’s bookmarks, to announce a plan.

Flashback to just after Yoshida had bandaged Shana up, the group makes their way to Margery Daw and Sato, where she too is bandaged up in the spell-infused wrappings. Yuuji explains the strange feelings he’d been having ever since Zarovee had shown up. However, even with the defeat of both Zarovee and Bifrons, the odd feeling he had didn’t go away. Even while in the sewage tunnel, he felt this and realized that Sabrac’s presence was all through Misaki City and not just the blast site of Bifrons, meaning the entire city is Sabrac. Margery is impressed with his reasoning and gives him two bookmarks. This is what Yuuji tells the amazed Wilhelmina through his new bookmark. Wilhelmina and Tiamat now understand that the Sabrac they are fighting is only a piece of the whole, which when that piece is defeated, it simply draws power and forms again, like a new sword.

Shana continues to battle Sabrac as Wilhelmina listens to Yuuji, who has apparently told Wilhelmina the plan and reveals that Margery Daw is currently working on her part of the plan. Wilhelmina’s job is to keep Sabrac occupied as Yoshida, also equipped with a bookmark, will use the Haridan to guide Wilhelmina’s actions, to keep him away from Margery and thus unaware of what Margery is doing. Wilhelmina and Tiamat agree to this course of action with Tiamat going into battle mask form. Meanwhile, Margery and Marchosias fly around to different points in the town, as directed by Sato, following Yuuji’s instructions, and place powerful spell insignia at those points. Margery and Marchosias briefly discuss how they are never bored in Misaki City and that Alastor’s naming the city “Maelstrom of Warfare” is very appropriate.

Shana and Wilhelmina both battle Sabrac, who’s able to keep both at bay. Shana unloads a powerful attack on Sabrac but before he can retaliate, Wilhelmina has him in her ribbons. He cuts himself from her, but the ribbons on him explode, sending him down to the ground where he reforms and returns to fight. Shana leaves the battle site and goes to Yuuji’s location to catch a breather. She tells him of her great confidence in the success of his plan.

It is then that we flashback a 2nd time to the meeting between Yuuji, Shana/Alastor, Margery/Marchosias, Yoshida, and Sato. Marchosias wonders how they will defeat such a massive Tomogara. Marchosias figures it will take many massive explosions like the one that took out Bifrons to defeat Sabrac. That would completely destroy the city, which Margery says is easily fixed. Yuuji rejects this idea as it would cause Sabrac to start consuming humans. Since Yuuji is only interested in protecting the city, he has a plan to defeat Sabrac without razing the city. Margery is interested in hearing such a plan. Yuuji explains that such with Sabrac being so large, he should be able to attack them even now. Yet he doesn’t attack and Yuuji cites Wilhelmina’s explanation on Sabrac, where he can only perform one mass-attack, after which he can only focus on the things right in front of him. As such, Sabrac’s “brain” is with the humanoid form that is currently fighting Wilhelmina and so he would be unaware of everything the rest of them do as long as Wilhelmina keeps Sabrac away from them.

Back in the present, Margery and Marchosias lay the last insignia down. Sato tells Margery that he has an answer to her question about what he’d do if she died. He rejects the question, stating that his job is to do everything he can to keep her alive. His remarks meet with Yoshida’s approval, and Margery’s too though she calls him an idiot.

Meanwhile, Sabrac has noticed that Shana has left the battle and wonders if they are planning a trap for him, which he feels would do no good. He presses his attack hard on Wilhelmina as Margery activates her massive spell, which causes the majority of the city (in a perfect circle) to be “dug” out of the earth and to rise up into the sky, snapping energy bands Sabrac used. This is the signal for Shana, who rises. She starts to tell Yuuji something, but decides against it and takes off to join the fray. Alastor tells Shana that she could have told Yuuji and he wouldn’t have objected. After all, Yuuji has done what none of the others could and arranged for the defeat of Sabrac, to say nothing of killing Zarovee and aiding in the death of Bifrons. Now that Sabrac is completely detached from being able to resupply himself with energy, Shana takes attacks and ultimately takes him out, the flames of Alastor consuming the surface of the city and removing Sabrac from it.

The battle over and everything returned back to normal, Shana and Yoshida pay Chigusa a visit, who’s recovered from her illness. Chigusa thanks the two girls, but doesn’t thank Yuuji, which he questions and the girls find amusing. When Yoshida leaves, Yuuji wants to properly apologize to her. However, Yoshida understand Yuuji’s motivations, having seen and heard him in the Fuzetsu. As such, she no longer has a problem with what Yuuji said and takes off. Shana too starts to leave and Yuuji wants to know what she was about to say in the fight. Shana refuses, using her trademark “Urusai” time three remark.

Thoughts:

What another truly enjoyable episode. Someone mentioned that this felt like a series/season finale and that’s true. Sabrac was defeated, Yuuji’s mother got well, and Yuuji patched things up with both Shana and Yoshida-san. Heck, we even got Shana to yell, “Urusai! Urusai! Urusai!” when Yuuji wanted her to say what she was going to say just before Sabrac was defeated.

The playing of the rock song “JOINT” by KAWADA Mami during the final battle sequence worked well. I liked that song as the OP for the series, but as happens (likely a season change), we were given a 2nd OP/ED theme song.

Yuuji’s growth has been quite impressive. Likely, having Johan and the Silver as part of his matrix (via the Reiji Maigo) plays a role in this. Still, it ultimately took three Flame Haze to take out Sabrac, to say nothing of Yuuji’s plan as well as Sato’s and Yoshida’s important roles as support people, making great use of the Haridan. I had thought that Yoshida might use the Hougu from Pheles, but that didn’t even come up. However, her directing Wilhelmina to keep Sabrac distracted while Sato directed Margery was good stuff.