天下制覇

So that’s how you stalk a girl.

Impressions:

I miss Margery Daw already. At least we’re fast approaching Pheles showing up. Hopefully she’ll jolt things into motion again, even if we will end up watching he fawn all over Yuji for at least a short while. I have little else interesting to say about the episode because it really wasn’t interesting in the slightest. Yet more relationship talk between the girls and Chigusa, followed up by relationship talk between Yuji’s father and the girls. Speaking of him, they dragged the whole "Kantarou lurks" thing far too long. I get it. He’s a lurker. A professional lurker. He’s lurking for the long haul. He’s ready to lurk for most of the episode and save enough energy for a quick sprint of lurking at the end. I understand. I did not need to see six seperate shots of him lurking to drive this home.

Anyway, hopefully things will get back to being interesting soon. The Konoe thing is still tiresome and transparent as a spider web, and with no other imminent threats aside from "Yuji’s got a monster’s flame color," we’re back to not really having any real focal push for the series. Again, now that Pheles’ name is out of the bag, hopefully things will get interesting. The next episode preview was at least 50% shots of Wilhelmina’s eyes, so assumably she’ll be back in Japan. Hopefully she’ll bring her bloodlust and A game this time.

Sorry if I’m a little curt with the summary. There was a lot of yammering onwards about good feelings and being happy. It got dull pretty quickly and incongruously, sapped my will to live.

The silver barrier goes up around Yuji, to Shana’s horror. Yuji’s confused as to why she looks aghast. She tells him to look at the color. He looks up and remembers back to Remi telling Margery that the Silver is still alive. He realizes it as well. Yuji looks down at his hands and wonders why his flame is this color. Shana and Alastor don’t know, but it is definitely strange. Shana turns away and absolutely forbids Yuji from using this power. He has to rely on his martial arts for now.

Later, he lies in bed, wondering what exactly he is.

In the morning, Chigusa sees him off. She goes back inside, but there’s a man watching from the shadows.

Yuji runs into Ogata outside Konoe’s mansion.

She doesn’t seem to be feeling well, so the two take off. Inside, Konoe sits in a chair sadly. The butler silently walks in. The camera zooms in on their two identical bracelets.

At school, everybody is preparing for a festival. Ike handles the class rep crap, etc etc. Outside, the mysterious man is chased off by a limo driving up. Konoe’s butler gets out and opens the door for her. The two walk into the classroom in the midst of a lottery. He apologizes and hands Konoe her bag. People ask her if she’s feeling better, and then pull her into the festival duties.

Interest waning… must… keep… writing…

Everybody is excited, but Konoe is pretty lifeless. They ask her if she has any other ideas, but she’s the usual useless blank slate. Yuji tells her that she doesn’t need to help if she doesn’t want to, but she says that she’ll be happy to. Ike announces that they’ll be doing some kind of freakish Romeo and Juliet play. Yuji is already decided on Romeo by lottery. Yoshida and Shana reach into the lottery for their roles as well.

The mysterious man watches Chigusa leave her house.

Girls congratulate Yoshida on ‘winning’ the chance to be Yuji’s lover. Shana’s steamed, though not sad, thank god. The two seem to be more or less taking it in stride, which apparently means that they just sit there and stare at nothing.

In the hall, Yuji wonders if Konoe will be able to understand that Yuji is Romeo and Yoshida is Juliet. Yoshida is a bit surprised, but Shana butts in and chews him out, telling him that the roles were decided and the spineless twerp better stick to it. He apologizes and she pushes past.

At the Sakai home, Chigusa gets a call from Yuji. MYSTERIOUS MAN continues to lurk. I get the picture.

In Paris, Wilhelmina wanders the streets. She comes upon Khamsin.

Back at school, Yuji and Ogata make small talk about Yuji’s mother donating clothes. Yoshida drags Shana off for some "thank you" sex. Or perhaps to go fetch clothes from Sakai’s home. I forget which.

Ogata pokes at Yuji and Shana’s relationship a bit more.

Chigusa has the old clothes all laid out and they chatter on about Romeo and Juliet. They’re taking this entirely too seriously for my tastes, is going nowhere interesting, and is starting continuing to bore me. Chigusa is of course the voice of reason; kryptonite to their bubbling insecure teenage hormones.

Mysterious man continues lurking as they leave. As they walk back, Shana tells Yoshida that something is following them. It’s not a Denizen, but she doesn’t think that it’s harmless either. The two start running and mysterious man gives chase. He rounds a corner, but they’ve disappeared. He scratches his head and then trots off. Yoshida and Shana watch him leave from a rooftop. Shana decides that they should follow him. 

Yuji rounds a corner and nearly runs into the guy. Shana takes that as an opening and attacks, but he dodges her flying kick… and then stumbles backwards and falls.

She plants her foot on his back and lets him get up. He compliments her on her kick. Yuji recognizes him and asks… What are you doing here, dad? He introduces himself to the girls as Sakai Kantarou.

Back at the Sakai household, Chigusa and Yuji explain his weird behavior and absence. He proudly shows off his battlewound from Shana. Chigusa makes a nice meal for them all and they dig in. Yoshida thinks that both his parents are amazing.
Dinner table talk starts turning boring. Will to summarize fading…

Chigusa and Yuji clean up while Kantarou hits on the girls on the porch. Kantarou has the right idea here. He’s also drinking relatively heavily. Also the right idea. I wish I had a drink.

Kantarou also has some ‘wise’ words about marriage and his relationship with Chigusa. The two understand eachother and their feelings, so they’re happy together.

I think he’s getting just a little too drunk, personally. He heads inside for coffee with Chigusa, leaving Shana and Yoshida to think about what he said.

Back in Paris, Wilhelmina and Khamsin convene. He reveals that there’s a Denizen hunting for her lover, the Reiji Maigo. Wilhelmina realizes that it must be Pheles.