Now there is a good way to finish off the first half of this Shana season. We get to say farewell to Sabrac who mostly chose his own death, but it was the struggle that allowed them to get a chance to take him down. Of course that was about the only good news for the Flame Haze since the Serpent has finally made his physical appearance in the world. What they hoped to prevent sadly couldn’t be stopped this time. It of course will set things up for the second half since we have to find out exactly what its plan is and how the heck the Flame Haze can stop him. After all they still have the elite members of Baal Masqué who won’t be easy to stop. Somehow they will need to pull it together and decide on a plan. Well at least they can count on Margery for some crazed carnage in the next battle XD.

So Rebecca gets to claim that she killed Sabrac right XD? I mean technically he chose his own death, but she did get the last hit in. I figure if you can’t brag about taking down someone that powerful what can you brag about? That was a tough battle though. Without the ability to deal with his stigma it was a losing battle the moment they were all injured. Still they could hardly stop fighting at that point and give up. He might not have been able to understand the desire to keep struggling until the end since he’s never had to struggle like that against something. And of course he never will since he chose death after understanding why he was left alone. Kind of strange to get some insight into his mind and realize even he had affection for someone. It was an interesting battle though seeing him and Khamsin struggle for control of the terrain. Certainly not a good match-up for Khamsin since that guy can control so much territory and prevent him from having anything to work with. Good news then that Sabrac died here so he can go all out in the next battle though hard to say when that will be.

The battle with Yuji was more chatting than I would have liked, but still had some action to it. Both of them just going at each other and Shana getting a nice shot on Yuji’s face at the end. Could completely hear people not liking Yuji screaming “bleed!” Unfortunately it was too little too late to win the fight before they had to stop. Thank god that Yuji has completely forgotten Blutsauger’s ability to make the opponent bleed when coming into contact with the blade. Would make it completely easy for him to win if he actually used it. I mean he didn’t mind beating Shana into unconsciousness so can’t see the issue with making her bleed a bit. Seems like the real fight though will be pretty intense with the whole silver flame vs Shana’s new flame powers. Guess this was more to get us excited and to set the tone. After Shana losing so one-sidedly last time I think everyone needed to see that she can fight against someone like Yuji just fine.

Finally we will get to hear the great plan that Yuji and the Serpant have. Of course I don’t really care since Shana’s going to have to stop it anyways. I suppose though it will be important for some drama as people consider whether they should be fighting against this. At this point we can speculate about what kind of solution Yuji is going to be offering to everyone, but in the end he’s going to be an enemy to stop. Someone should have told Yuji to just do it Shana’s way already. When you become the villain of a series like this you are pretty much screwed.

Lightning kick strikes again! Could be jumping all over the “lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice” pun since both things that have been hit in these episodes will never appear in the series again. Though do realize that lightning often strikes the same place twice so never really understood who came up with the opposite saying. Anyways, good thing it did fail since losing Shana and the rest of the main cast would have sucked. Can’t help laughing though every time we see that crazy nun going into lightning kick mode XD. It’s just so bizarre, but incredibly powerful. Nothing short of the ultimate defense could have stopped her from taking that gate out.

I’m sure that Shana and Yuji fans mostly enjoyed the ending. Let’s face it a kiss on the cheek is a huge step for Shana and it had quite the impact. Yuji is just getting constantly surprised by Shana and the strength of her stance. I wouldn’t mind seeing some serious doubts on his side about the path he’s going on and going into battle with her once again. So far we haven’t seen any weakness there since the Serpent is perfectly confident with his plan and Yuji has seemed to be standing with him on it.

Overall, a good episode to end this first half of Shana on. Now we get to see them setting everything else up and preparing for wherever the last showdown will be. There has been a lot of chaos and losses on both sides. The Flame Haze will have to be prepared to charge into a losing battle since we’ve already seen the strength Baal Masqué has at its disposal. I’m sure next week will be a bit of a step down since hearing Yuji’s plan probably won’t be that interesting.
Score: A+