Short Synopsis: An idol-turned-Shikabane kills people who don’t like her songs.
Highlights: Best fight so far; Makina’s background.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10 (enjoyable)
Okay, so I’ve gotten a lot of varied feedback on the new episode rating scale, some positive and some negative reactions. As a result, I’ve changed the scale a bit yet again, where anything above or equal to 7/10 means that I liked the series, as opposed to 6/10 (which was too low) or 8/10 (which meant me handing out only 8/10s for 95% of the cases).
In any case, this was a pretty strange episode for Shikabane Hime’s standards, where it spent the first few minutes on Keisei who decorated Ougi’s room full of figures and otaku-posters while he’s sleeping. While a bit funny, it did ruin this series’ mood a bit. On the other hand, however, it was a nice way to flesh out the different characters.
This really was an episode that was meant for both the cast to get closer together, and the viewer, to learn more about the characters. We finally learn a bit about Makina: it seems she was killed, along with her entire family in a fire. She already knew Keisei at that time, and something happened between the two that made Makina return as a Shikabane. The reason why Makina doesn’t berserk like all the other sis because of a contract she made with Keisei, where in exchange she gets to take his life-force (or something similar, at least) so that she can heal her wounds. Judging from the fact that the idol in this episode was surrounded by human allies, I’d say that it takes a skilled monk to make such a contract.
The enemy this time also got a bit more difficult than usual, and it’s good to see that the creators are adding an extra challenge to them, provided of course that they’re not going to drag on these fights over time. The idol’s story was a bit less interesting than the other episodes so far, but that may also be because that’s a subject I’m not interested in at all. Thankfully, the end-fight was an excellent one. I like how Makina doesn’t have any super-strength, but instead just a larger resistance than usual. And even then, when she leaps off a building, she still gets hurt, as opposed to other series where characters can jump off cliffs and are just fine after a few minutes of unconsciousness.
Awesome: you didn’t spoil a thing. If you continue blogging like this i can also read about series on air. Infact, I used to avoid by purpouse any post regarding on air series and was often cut off any discussion.
the shot near the end of ougi and keisei holding making standing at seperate ends of the room seemed to accentuate that makina belongs to keisei, no matter how much of a necrophiliac ougi is, he cant have her (lolz).
Still don’t know the significance of the cat, and ougi being able to see ghosts / not be afraid of death.