灼眼のシャナS (review) ep. 02
Shakugan no Shana S episode 02 – Domicile

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Wilhelmina notices that Shana is coming home late and is avoiding questions on her activities. As such, she seeks advice from Yuuji’s mother, who advises Wilhelmina to speak with Yuuji. Wilhelmina and Yuuji then begin to stalk Shana to Yuuji’s discomfort since he’d prefer to just ask Shana straight. Yuuji does convince Wilhelmina that he knows nothing and when Shana hides her presence, Wilhelmina decides a visit to Margery Daw is in order. When they drop by, Yuuji detects that Satou is not acting right and is likely in on whatever Shana is up to as well as Margery Daw. This seems confirms when Wilhelmina and Yuuji visit Haridan and see Margery’s work on the map to hide Shana.

At school, Ogata and Kazumi run interference and tell Yuuji he’ll have to walk home alone. Ike sees Yuuji but has no answers and states that even if he knew something, whatever he said or did would be part of the plan. Wilhelmina has Yuuji tag with her and watches Ogata, Kazumi, and Shana do some shopping, which puzzles her since she does the shopping. It makes her and Tiamat consider a new plan for living on Earth. Yuuji wonders why Wilhelmina is so obsessed and her answer is that she doesn’t want Shana to regret anything. They eventually run into Margery Daw, who speaks with them a bit before they return to Haridan.

Meanwhile, the girls are making something food-wise for Wilhelmina and her special day and discover they have the wrong flower. Margery has Tanaka delay Wilhelmina and Yuuji at the Haridan while the girls race to get the food prepared. Finally, Wilhelmina and Yuuji return home where they find Kazumi and Ogata waiting. Wilhelmina is surprised to learn that Shana has learned to make pannenkoek for Wilhelmina. With that, the girls grab boxes of the Dutch pancake to pay off the other conspirators and usher Yuuji out as well. Alastor and Shana explain that in addition to doing something special for Wilhelmina, they wanted to have Yuuji and Wilhelmina work together to establish a level of trust for the trouble that is sure to come. Shana asks what is special about this day and Wilhelmina is touched by this, explaining that this is the day Shana came into her life.

Thoughts/Review:

You know, I have to say that I really enjoy these slice-of-life stories that have come about in Shakugan no Shana S. With no major threat hanging overhead and certainly no life-or-death situations, it is just nice to see the characters in an everyday kind of situation, this time Shana’s plan to keep Wilhelmina in the dark about the surprise pannenkoek she was learning to make for Wilhelmina. At the same time, it provided some other little tidbits such as another glimpse of Shana’s life on the Tendoukyuu and a nice bit of Yuuji and Wilhelmina working together.

Speaking of which, while this was certainly no heavy episode, it wasn’t a comedy either. That said, I did get a laugh when Wilhelmina decided to literally drag Yuuji along with one of her ribbons. There was something just so funny to me about Wilhelmina trotting along those high-power electrical lines with Yuuji dangling behind and below.

The episode managed to work in all of the major “good” players in the Shakugan no Shana series. Not only that, but the writers managed to make it so that all of the characters had purpose in their mostly cameo appearances, since this was mostly a Yuuji-Wilhelmina episode. I thought that was a nice touch, but then having a surprise event conspiracy makes it easier to work everyone into the story in a meaningful way.

So, a nice slice-of-life episode that made me smile a lot and just sit back and enjoy the show.