Shion no Ou – 11

Okay, scrap what I said after the previous episode. This wasn’t exactly what you’d expect from the semi-final episode of a series. The next episode is going to be awesome, with three exciting matches between Shion and Satoru, Ayumi and Shion’s foster-father and Saori and Hani-Meijin. But can the creators really solve the murder-mystery along with that? At this point, I have no idea whether this series is getting a sequel or not. If would of course be awesome to see more of this series.

Also, with this episode, I finally realize something regarding my own tastes. I’m a sucker for series that don’t just develop their main characters, but also have deep side-characters. That’s probably why I’m into Shion no Ou so much: not only does it have the amazing Shion in the lead, but it also has an excellent cast of side-characters. In other words: the entire cast feels complete. That’s probably also why I liked series like Simoun and Baccano so much.

In any case, this episode shows especially much focus to Hisatani, as he manages to win a difficult match against a strong yet kind opponent. Saori’s role in this is interesting, and is it me, or are the two of them getting closer? In any case, Saori really looked like Hani-Meijin did in the previous episode, when she went on to check up on Hisatani’s match.

And really, I have no idea what’s up with Satoru. In episode nine, we clearly see that the killer has purple hair, and yet he was the one who returned Hisatani’s cell-phone. And yet Shion doesn’t notice anything when she talks to him, and yet she subconsciously recognized the voice of the killer immediately. It’s clear by now that Satoru has a connection to the killer, but I still can’t really put my finger on whether or not they’re the same guys.

I must say that Shion no Ou did really well in capturing the overall feel of the tournament. Sometimes, you end up against someone you know, sometimes you’re against a complete stranger, but all of the new opponents have felt surprisingly real, despite their short introductions and lack of background. I like how basically the main stage for this series is the Shougi-dojo, where basically everyone can run into everyone. It’s hard to explain this, but it feels like everyone gets to know every other character this way. I hope this made sense.

Now one thing I hope for is that the final episode doesn’t screw up. There’s going to be enough tension with the three major shougi-matches, but the question remains whether the murder-subplot will be resolved enough.

Oh, and on a final note: Shion nicely subverted the mute-girl trope in this episode. Usually, a mute girl gets her voice back after having been shown the enormous friendship of the main characters. Shion however, finally utters a few words after hearing the killer again. I like how this makes sense.