灼眼のシャナ II Episode 01

SPOILER Summary: As the sakura (cherry blossoms) fall, Yuji walks to school and meets up with his best friend Ike. As they talk, Yuji has a feeling they’ve had this conversation before. He catches a single sakura and asks if it is currently September, which Ike confirms. They arrive at school where Yoshida-san also arrives and heads off with Ike. Tanaka and Sato, Margery Daw’s assistants, also arrive at school. Ogata and Tanaka see each other and have a blushing hello. Finally, Shana arrives with Wilhelmina Carmel, and Shana is not that happy to have been escorted, but is happy to see Yuji. Yuji recalls their last adventure when Shana said something to him (a love confession), but he can’t remember everything she said.

In class, the teacher gets on to Shana (whom everyone still sees as Hirai-san) for her lack of a notebook and Shana shows her knowledge of English. Later, Yoshida-san breaks out some pudding snacks for her friends (including Shana) which goes over well. Yuji seems to remember this event as well as the English one and Shana suddenly states that “it” is here. A Fuzetsu zone surrounds them and to Yuji’s great surprise, the Guze no Tomogara known as Friagne appears and has the same battle with Shana as happened in the first series. When Friagne departs as he did before, Yuji attempts to tell Shana and Alastor this, but they seem to not comprehend what he’s saying and press on as if he’d said nothing about this déjà vu.

After class, Yuji talks with Ike, but when Yuji mentions the strangeness of seeing sakura in September, Ike’s answer is to some other question about cram school. Wilhelmina arrives and when Yuji attempts to tell her about the strange events and the past repeating, she appears unaffected and simply states she’s there to pick up Shana. As she and Shana leave the school, Shana tells Yuji to not be late for training. Yuji wonders what is going on when he hears a series of small bells again (which he’d heard earlier). He decides to see another Flame Haze, Margery Daw, and sets out to go to Sato’s home, where Margery is residing. This will be his first time going to Sato’s house, but Yuji finds that no matter which way he goes, he keeps coming to the same communication tower.

He returns home and tries to process the events and how he’s the only one that notices these changes. He reasons that if this is the work of a Tomogara, Shana and the other Flame Haze should be able to detect this, even if Unrestricted Spells are used. He has a thought and when his mother brings up coffee to his room, he decides to ask her a question he’s never asked — where’d she buy the coffee. His mother does not answer the question but answers that his father should return soon.

As he starts to contemplate this, an Unrestricted Spell happens outside and giant tentacles appear all over. This is a repeat of when the Tomogara incestuous twins Aizenji and Aizenta appeared to steal Shana’s katana “Nietono no Shana.” He decides to continue testing his theory and comes between the twins and Shana since these events seem to be pulled from his memories and thus people cannot answer what he does not already know. As such, he is in a world of his own creation and as Aizenji attacks, Yuji has a vision of a girl in an elegant dress and matching umbrella saying “A transient and eternal dream” when he’s cut by Aizenji which breaks the dream.

He comes to his senses and finds himself in the middle of a fight with a Tomogara, the one he had a vision of. Shana kicks him out of the way and chastises him for spacing out in the middle of combat, even if the Tomogara they are fighting is weak. The Tomogara does have a Hougu. He then learns from Alastor that he’d only been out a few seconds and the Tomogara welcomes him back from his dream state. Shana tells the Tomogara that she’s surprised such a weak being would step out to fight her. The Tomogara agrees, but states that she has a purpose and that the life of a Tomogara is to live as they desire. Shana dispatches the Tomogara, who giggles and glances at Yuji as she is destroyed.

Shana states she’s never seen a Tomogara with such a small existence, which Alastor confirms, stating they’d never have notices her had she not revealed herself. Yuji starts to mention the Tomogara’s strange power but suddenly finds himself unable to remember. The battle over, the Fuzetsu is dropped and as Shana and Yuji walk, he asks her about what she said to him at the end of the first series since he didn’t hear it (or remember it). Shana and Alastor are a bit embarrassed by this and Shana decides to play it off as if she merely stated she had some respect for him.

The two walk to school and meet up with their friends. Yoshida-san is there as is Ike. Yuji remembers Yoshida’s confession to him as well as Ike’s statement that he would pursue Yoshida in the 2nd term of school. Shana notices she has a bento. As such, the rivalry for Yuji’s affection heads into round two.

Back at Sato’s place, Margery Daw is suffering from a hangover and is being cared for by Sato, who promises to bring home some medicine after school. Margery asks Marcosius (Marchosias?) to do something but he’s not going to. Meanwhile, a blushing Ogata and Tanaka are walking to school together while somewhere else, Hecate is praying as usual and looks up while the giggling of the Tomogara is heard as Yuji and his friends walk to class.

Thoughts: Well, I have to say that surprised to see Friagne again, but having just watched the movie, it was pretty neat. It appeared to me (and I’d have to check this out to be sure) that these scenes were newly animated and not just recycles from the first series, which was cool. This new Guze no Tomogara is pretty interesting since she clearly is not dead. I have to say that the first episode of the new series really went by fast and with the end of the episode (and the preview for next week) showing the Bal Masqué getting involved again, well that means more fun.

The only negative I guess is Yuji not remembering Shana’s confession to him at the end of the first series. But I would guess that maybe the writers had injected that confession to the first series which was not in the anime, so a little “fix” was in order to have Shana and Yoshida-san continue their love feud and to press on as the light novels have done.

Man, I already have a full plate, but there are so many good anime this fall that I can’t help but watch them all. I may lag a bit at times on reviews when the schedule gets tight (for those who read this regularly) but it shouldn’t get too bad.