天下制覇

I’m sorry, I’ll never make another Xanth reference. I promise.

By the way… they’re white.

Impressions:

Another good episode, though the pacing through the episode was pretty atrocious. Every five minutes, they would cut away from the Sabrac fight for Yuji explaining his plan. At least they remembered to keep Margery and Shana in bandages during the flashbacks. The animation wasn’t quite as good as last week, and I’m pretty sure Yuji’s leg went through a concrete floor at one point, but it was still pretty well done. I could have done without the completely random Shana panty flashes. Those were just strange and somewhat unnerving. "Here’s Shana landing next to Yuji… panty flash!" "Finishing Strike! Panty Flash!" You get the picture. The OP as an insert song also amused me greatly.

I do have to say that the preview for next week was a little weird given how little time there is left in the series. Well… I guess it just means that we’ll almost certainly end on the cliffhanger of somebody turning into some kind of horrible dark overlord… or blitz through the last bits of the novel stuff in record time. I imagine the former, but we’ll see. It should certainly be interesting regardless of which route JCStaff takes.

The Final Blow/Insert Song Silliness

The smoke clears and Sabrac attacks. I remember this from last week.

Alastor explains things to Kazumi as she keeps rewrapping Shana’s bandages. A manhole nearby moves aside and Yuji climbs out. That was the worst animated "crawling out of a manhole" that I’ve ever seen. I think his leg went through concrete. ANYWAY, he gives Shana some bandages from Wilhelmina.

There’s an explosion and Yuji hops up on a car to keep watch. Shana wants to help Wilhelmina, but Yuji says they need to find Margery first.

Wilhelmina keeps fighting Sabrac, but she’s not doing well and takes a few more hits on her arms. Sabrac waxes philosphic at her and goes to finish her off. He rushes forward with his flame full of swords, but a huge orange flame blasts upward at the last second and he’s forced back.

He can’t believe it, his Stigma should have dealt with this flame haze… it’s Shana.

Sabrac tries to figure out how she can fight… and sees the bandages on her glowing with Wilhelmina’s seals. Wilhelmina covers herself in the bandages as well and explains that she finally figured out how to hold the Stigma at bay for at least a short time. This is the power of Johan. Or something. The random nonsensical magical exposition is a lot of handwaving anyway. The bandages explode off them and they’re completely healed.

Shana immediately attacks and then throws a talisman to Wilhelmina. Sabrac tells them he’ll just inflict new wounds then and attacks as well.

-Yuji contacts Wilhelmina through the talisman and tells her that he’s got a plan on how to beat Sabrac. He made contact with Margery before and explained everything as she was healing. He tells them about Zarovee and thinks that Sabrac might be the same… a distributed being… and the source of that strange thing he’s been sensing for the past few episodes… 

Wilhelmina is a little skeptical, but she accepts that it might be their only chance. Sabrac attacks again. Shana counter attacks, but he easily blocks. Shana and he attack again, their flames intermingling.

As she holds them back, Yuji and Wilhelmina start putting things into action. Kazumi is also on the line… literally on the model of the city. Wilhelmina transforms and re-enters the battle.

Margery is working on her spell as she surfs around the city. She’s marking points surrounding the battle while the other two keep Sabrac busy.

Yuji thinks to himself that he doesn’t know if this’ll work, but he thinks that with all of them working together, it can’t fail. Together, they’ll do this.

Sabrac blasts Wilhelmina and Shana away and attacks them both at once. They block his barrage and Shana attacks again. He’s forced to concentrate on her, leaving him open for Wilhelmina to bind him. She detonates his bandages and he falls below… only to rise up again as he nears the crimson flames below.

Wilhelmina and he attack again.

Shana lands near Yuji, totally worn out. The plan is almost totally in place and we get another flashback to when they met with Margery. Marco was also skeptical, but Yuji is certain they could pull together enough power to protect the city. They must. They have to defeat Sabrac. He tells them that Sabrac let something slip when he was fighting Wilhelmina…

Yuji thinks that based on Sabrac always blasting upwards, being undetectable, and never doing it more than once, etc etc… plus the fact that Yuji can sense something from the underground, that Sabrac is somehow tied to the earth, so they just need to seperate him from it. Everybody admits that it sounds like a good explaination for Sabrac’s powers and behavior… and therefore, they can beat him.

BACK IN THE PRESENT, Shana hugs her knees, recovering. Wilhelmina and Sabrac keep fighting.

Margery finishes her seals around the city and Satou tells her that if she does die, he’ll fight on. Margery smiles and calls him an idiot. Yoshida stares at Satou blankly. GOOD WORK.

Wilhelmina falls back and Sabrac finally figures out that something’s up… Shana withdrew from the battle. Wilhelmina’s short on breath as they begin Operation Defeat Sabrac. Sabrac attacks Wilhelmina viciously, tearing off all her bandages and moves in for the kill, but at that moment, the OP kicks in and Margery starts her counter attack.

Wilhelmina guards and is blasted backwards. All of Margery’s seals explode and a huge chunk of the city is lifted upwards. Sabrac’s flames are shown binding the ground and they’re all torn away as Margery pulls the city away.

Shana gets up and exchanges a glance with Yuji… but then says it’s nothing. She flies upwards as Alastor gives us one more thumbs up for Yuji for figuring everything out.

Shana releases her energy as Sabrac’s flame starts to dissipate.

The two collide and she slashes through Sabrac’s sword. She then attacks in a huge blast and her flames swallow up Sabrac and throw him to the ground below. Her fire engulfs the entire city.

Margery reverts and Wilhelmina says that it’s over. Satou and Kazumi also think it’s over. Thanks, troops.

Some time later, it’s a bright, happy day in the city. Chigusa thanks the girls for taking care of her. Yuji wants praise too and gets NOTHING. He sees Kazumi off as she leaves. He apologizes for being a dick a few episodes ago and Yoshida accepts it.

Shana is also hanging around. Yuji wants to know what Shana was about to say before the final attack. "If I said it was nothing, it was nothing… SHUT UPx3."

Preview:

What? Where’s all the flames and people on fire? I don’t support a flameless Shana.