Shakugan no Shana III (Final) – Episode 12

This was easily my favorite episode yet, and no, it wasn’t just because Sabrac was in it.
…Alright, maybe it had a little bit to do with it.

So apparently the fall season is ending in a few days or might have already ended, with winter pretty much here, and yet I still haven’t written an impressions post or a review or anything. This is because I’m nearly 10 episodes behind on every show that isn’t Fate/Zero, Future Diary, or Shana. Honestly, I have no idea what I’m going to do. I’ll probably get an impressions post out soon, but I have no idea about reviews. And don’t even get me started on summer show awards; that post is so backlogged it’s probably covered in more dust than my entire attic.

So I guess my order right now is: impressions post = shana episodics > summer season awards > figure out what to do about reviews > misc. shit

So, turns out, Snake’s body is… a snake.

I’m still punching myself for not seeing this sooner.

I mean, think about it, Alastor is the Flame of Heaven, and his form is a giant goddamn flame. So, it only makes sense that Snake of the Festival’s form is a giant goddamn snake.

Maybe if I try really hard, I can convince myself it’s Decarabia reincarnated.

As for the rest of the episode, as per usual, a healthy dose of action takes place, meaning I’m scrounging for stuff to talk about. Though it wasn’t too hard this time, since quite a few pivotal events happened in true climactic form.

I mean, I could just fanboy about Sabrac for the entire post, and diss people who don’t like his mid-fight speeches because I feel like those make him even more badass since he looks for a philosophical reason for everything, but I don’t think that’d be very fun to read. But hey, I could be wrong.

So far Sabrac seems to easily have the upper hand. I don’t doubt Khamsin has something up his sleeve though, so we’ll see.

Something interesting they did was that they actually brought back Mare. Well, in a flashback kind of way, but still.

For those of you who don’t remember, Mare was the first Crimson Denizen in the second season. She was the one who pulled an Inception on Yuuji and placed him in dreams within dreams. And judging by what Sabrac was saying, she was either a close friend, or a love interest. Going by the usual flow of this kind of show, it should be a love interest, but I can’t really see Sabrac being romantically interested in anyone (except his swords).

Even if he did have a romantic interest, I doubt it’d last long since he’d try to find the philosophical reason each morning for why she’d make breakfast or coffee for him. (“Scrambled eggs… what is the meaning behind it? Is it because it looks more like the victim of my swords than sunny side up does? Or is she trying to tell me what my soul looks like to her?”)

Oh hey look (pun possibly intended), Bel Peol got her other eye back!

Snake mentioned a magical item of hers was used so that he’d be able to find his way back to his body, so there’s that. Guess we finally got our answer as to why a triclops ironically had two eyes, eh?

Speaking of leading the way to his body, I actually think I figured out the whole deal of why the Flame Haze could fly there, yet they walked. So, it was either Sabrac or Bel Peol or Snake or Hecate or whoever that was maintaining the path with their energy, which would strictly allow them to find his body. Now, due to the limitations of 2D animation, the Abyss looks pretty damn linear, but I’m willing to guess it’s easy to get lost for eternity pretty damn easily with one wrong turn. It probably looks like you’re heading into a black hole no matter which direction you’re facing. Think about it, it took Snake over two seasons of this show (if not more) to get out of the place, and the path that Snake and the gang followed was windy as shit. Snake was lost, and had to wander around for ages before finding a way out, hence why the path is so inconsistent. Shana and the gang on the other hand, just flew forwards hoping to find something, but then the ancient Flame Haze came by to guide them in the right direction.

So basically, my guess before of them staying the path due to really not wanting to get lost was correct.

Back on track, Shana also reached Yuuji, which means endless fighting will soon occur on every perspective in the show. Though I’m sure they’ll take the time to throw in a few twists in the plot here and there.

They were also giant cockteases about Snake’s plans. Shana spoke for me (and probably every viewer) by asking Snake what his big plan was, but he taunted her by saying it wasn’t time to reveal it yet. It was practically fourth-wall breaking, but yet it wasn’t. I’m not sure whether to be impressed or upset.

Hopefully this means we’ll see what he has in store soon.

And that was all for this episode! Quite a few interesting events happened, we have our Sabrac fight, the climax has pretty much reached it’s peak, all that good stuff.

Unfortunately, Shana is off this week (so I’ve heard), so we’ll have to wait a bit before seeing what happens next. But hey, you can just replay all of the Sabrac parts of this episode while you wait, right?

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