灼眼のシャナⅢ（Final）
Shakugan no Shana III (Final) – 11

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

As the Tomogara armies mass to meet the Flame Haze armies, Shana, Wilhelmina, Rebeca, and Nbh’w emerge in flight from Seireiden, much to Sophie’s delight and Decarabia’s surprise. Shana announces to the Flame Haze what is going on inside the God’s Gate and her intentions to go in and put a stop to it. With that, she and her companions fly up as Decarabia has his armies charge. Meanwhile on Earth, Tanaka picks up Satou and together, the race back home where they are met by Kazumi in front of Satou’s house. After exchanging greetings, Tanaka and Kazumi leave so that Satou can take care of Margery Daw, who is still sleeping.

Before leaving, Kazumi and Tanaka remind Satou of the story of Sleeping Beauty. Once inside his home, Satou finds he cannot get himself to go into Margery’s room and so goes to the bar in his house.  Marchosias is there on the bar, saying that he remains outside of Margery’s room because he’s no voyeur as he knows what Satou must do. Marchosias has some advice before Satou goes to Margery’s room. After saying his confession piece and kissing her, Margery awakens and grabs him, informing him he’d heard him as well as Tanaka and Kazumi from the fight that took her out. After saying what she has to say, she asks if he loves her, which he does, and Margery opens her heart to him.

Shana and company are met by the spirit of a Flame Haze and follow it while outside Seireiden, the Flame Haze are easily overwhelming the defensive Tomogara armies. Even with two small Tomogara reinforcement armies coming in, the Flame Haze still have the edge. As such, Sophie gives orders for the assault on Seireiden while Decarabia sees that the only way to buy time is to enter combat himself and so emerges in his monster eel form to begin killing Flame Haze. The Flame Haze attacks are unable to reach him and he is able to shield all Tomogara individually.  Seeing this, Sophie quickly analyzes the situation and decides to enter the fight herself.

Samuel has Zirnitra form a bridge to Seireiden and leads a Flame Haze army in a charge across it. Decarabia reforms himself to take his only shot at wiping them out which gives Sophie the opening she needs to attack with overwhelming force, killing Decarabia. However, the celebration of the removal of the powerful Bal Masqué general is cut short when Haborym arrives with his massive armies from the western front, revealing that Decarabia had done his duty to buy Haborym time. On Earth, Satou awakens to find Margery getting dressed and wants him to do so as well to join her in what’s to come. Beyond the God’s Gate, Shana scans the castle at their final destination where Sabrac awaits them.

Thoughts/Review:

I liked Shana’s emergence from Seireiden because she clearly has come into her own and is leading the charge into God’s Gate to go after Yuuji. As such, she will be a force to be reckoned with once she meets Yuuji again.

While the Tomogara and the Bal Masqué organization are clearly evil, I liked how Decarabia willingly and honorably chose to sacrifice himself for the cause in order that Haborym could bring his massive armies into the fight to defend Seireiden from being taken by the Flame Haze. Naturally, there was a chance that Decarabia might make it out alive, but the way I see it, he knew his chances of making this happen were pretty small.  However, the rewards for Bal Masqué could be great because the Flame Haze are now surrounded and outgunned.

I still feel that Margery Daw will play an important role in deciding the outcome of the battle though. A well-established writing technique is to have a big gun incapacitated for a time so that it came be brought back in a most desperate hour.  As such, I can see the Flame Haze being routed, but then Margery shows up and with an Unrestricted Spell, help turn the tide again. Well see though.

Speaking of Margery, I never expected that she and Satou would become intimate like that. Margery has never been a favorite character of mine as she’s always been too much of a drinker and over the top for my tastes. However, she has never looked more lovely as she did when she lowered her defences and let Satou in (if you’ll pardon the expression). Considering the massive age difference (he being a high school boy and she being hundreds of years old, if I’m not mistaken), she really has opened up and I hope that she is a more interesting character as a result. I also hope her implied consummation of her relationship with Satou isn’t just a one-time thing but something more, leading to a happy ending for her.

As an aside, I was amused at Kazumi’s and Tanaka’s completely understanding Satou going to confess to Margery. Then there was Marchosias, who also was uncharacteristically mature regarding Margery and what he apparently knew would happen between Satou and Margery.

Finally, there’s Sabrac waiting for Shana and company. Sabrac was such a huge factor in the last series and he’s been teased in this one. So, it will be very interesting to see him have to battle Shana and Wilhelmina again, though they have Rebeca and Nbh’w this time.

I have to say that I’m really enjoying watching the events unfold in this final Shakugan no Shana series.  Still a ways to go before all is resolved, but I’m looking forward to seeing how that comes about. ^_^