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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Tuesday, 23 September 2008 16:00 |
 A look at the episode titles for this volume should give you a pretty good idea of what this volume's all about. The poor Crimson Denizens barely get a look-in, while Shana and Yuji deal with issues of a more hormonal nature...
9 - Poolside of Love and Desire
When Yuji's classmate Ike gets a set of free passes to a new waterpark, it's a golden opportunity for a break from training - and for Yuji to ogle beautiful young girls in swimsuits. Shana's not impressed at his skipping out on practice, given his poor skills - but she can't deny that she finds the idea of playing in water appealing, either. First, though, there are swimsits to buy. Once there, there are prizes on offer in the Cavalry Battle, but when Yuji is paired with Kazumi, Shana's competitive streak comes to the fore...
10 - Entangled Feelings
Fun's over, and it's back to training for Yuji - although he's spending so much time thinking about how good Shana looked in a swimsuit that it quickly becomes a painful lesson. A few chance words from Yuji's mom, though, gets Shana to thinking about how she feels about Yuji. When Yuji's roped in to help Kazumi in the library after class, Shana's reaction shows that she's developing a strong jealous streak, leading to an ill-tempered row - meaning that when a new Rinne appears, Shana's left to fight it on her own. Meanwhile, there's more trouble on the horizon when Denizens Tiriel and Sorath arrive in town...
11 - Yuji, Shana and Kisses
Shana's own fighting skills are improving rapidly, thanks to the effort she's putting in with Yuji. They've been spending ever more time together, but when a late-night drama introduces Shana to the ideas of kissing and romance, it soon leads to some awkward questions for Yuji's mom to answer. It also leads to Alastor starting to worry about the emotional state of his Flame Haze. Meanwhile, the twins are working their way through the city, consuming the life force of huge numbers of people. Sorath is looking for something - but what?
12 - Flowers Bloom in the Cradle
Kazumi's worries over Yuji - whether he has feelings for her or for Shana - have been keeping her awake at night, enough so that she decides to take the dog for a late night walk. As chance would have it, her route brings her right to the place where Yuji and Shana are out enjoying the view of the stars, which really doesn't help her mood. Next day, she tells Ike what she saw, and he decides it's time Yuji was tackled about it - but for all she feels for Yuji, that's not what Kazumi wants right now. Instead, she has some questions to ask Shana - questions that Shana doesn't like the answers to herself. Later, the twins make contact with Shana - she has something they want, and they're not taking 'no' for an answer...
Swimsuits, kissing, and romance weren't these two meant to be dealing with the Crimson Denizen threat? The problem is the amount of time that Shana and Yuji are spending together, and Shana's general cluelessness about anything other than her Flame Haze duties she's never had to worry about how to interact with people, or with how to interpret her feelings. Now, not only does she have her own feelings for Yuji to deal with, she also has to deal with competition, in the form of Kazumi, whose own feelings for Yuji are getting to the point where she's ready to fight for him. In the midst of all this, Denizen twins Sorath and Tiriel arrive in the city, with taking control of Shana's sword their main aim.
First up, there's disappointingly little of Margery in this volume. She's still smarting from having been thoroughly beaten by Shana when they last met, and has descended into what's almost depression as a result when she does meet Shana now, she essentially ignores her; when she meets the twins, she's quick to dismiss them as someone else's problem, despite being instantly aware of just how powerful they are. She's far from being the loud-mouthed, heavy-drinking woman we originally met, and I can't help but want to see her back to her usual self. It doesn't happen in these episodes, sadly.
Speaking of the twins - Sorath and Tiriel are supremely creepy. Despite being apparently brother and sister, there's barely a scene featuring them where they're not pictured kissing passionately (we're talking full tongue action here), and their attitude towards others shows that they're powerful, and they know it. The kissing is passed off as the way they pass power between each other (Sorath kills to gain the power of souls and passes it on to Tiriel), but that doesn't make the skin crawl any less when you see it. I love creepy characters, though, and these two are up there with the creepiest of them, and great fun to watch because of it. They don't get any significant action until the disc's final episode, when their search for Shana's sword finally brings them face-to-face with the Flame Haze, but their scattered appearances throughout the disc are all enjoyable.
The main focus of the disc, though, is on romantic entaglements. Kazumi loves Yuji; Shana may love Yuji, although she's unfamiliar with the emotion and is having to get help from Yuji's mom in working out what she's feeling; and Yuji is stuck in the middle, with both girls beginning to show clear signs of jealousy and looking set on a collision course that could turn out to be messy. With both Shana and Kazumi being adorable in their own way (Shana for her innocent cluelessness, Kazumi for general cuteness and determination), it's a love battle where I don't want to pick a side or see either girl outright lose, but it's an issue that's quickly coming to a head.
Plenty happening, then although if you're looking for action from the volume, you might be disappointed. It's only during the final episode, when Shana confronts the twins, that there's any real fighting other that that, it's more down-to-earth stuff dealing with the interactions between the characters. It's no less enjoyable than the fighting, just different.
This is another good volume of Shakugan no Shana as well as moving forwards with the Crimson Denizens, there's plenty of time devoted to allowing the characters to develop both their personalities and rivalries, and it's a mix that works really well. The disc is enjoyable throughout and ends with a neat little cliffhanger that leaves you wanting to see what happens next what more could you want..?
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