Shakugan no Shana III – 09

Alas, poor Fecor – we knew him well.  It appears as if our goatish friend (who frankly always seemed a bit of a bumbler to me, and was generally dissed by The Trinity) was offed by Tenroku, the mystes who created the Nietono no Shana.  I’m not sure if we’re supposed to know why and how Tenmoku came to the Palace of Stars or whether that will be explained later (was it Shana’s desperate call to the sword for help?).  In any case I think it speaks to the arrogance of Snake/Yuji and The Trinity that they left Fecor in charge of defending their home base and their Princess, thinking an attack could never come.  But it did, of course, thanks to Wilhelmina’s use of the Heavan’s Road Path, and any attack featuring Khamsin – who does wonder for adult diaper sales whenever he announces he’s going to fight – it’s serious.  Still, Fecor’s Magnesia spell was powerful enough to defend the palace before Tenmoku arrived in his game-changing way.  Sophie and her gang are on the way to attack, too, and Shana’s got her mojo back, so it looks like Yuji and The Trinity really got caught with their pants down here.

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE – 09

Pieces are slowly sliding into place at last, and a lot was revealed during a visit to the workshop of master mobile suit mechanic Madorna Murked (Shirokuma Hiroshi – cool name, “Hiroshi the White Bear”), the man who designed Woolf’s white moble suit G-Exes.  He’s been contracted by mysterious arms merchant Yark Dole to improve his black mobile suit, which Madorna suspects – and calls Woolf in to confirm – is a UE.  But it’s perhaps more interesting to eavesdrop on the conversation between Emily and Madorna’s wife, Lalaparly  (seriously, who comes up with these names?) who finally confronts Emily about the fact that her desire to keep Flit from fighting might just be selfish.  When the UE goes nuts we also get a look-in from odd little imp Desil, who’s using it as a method to check up on improvements in the Gundam’s fighting skills (he’s not impressed).  With Grodek coming clean about his mutiny and his plans to attack the UE home base, and the seeming loyalty of the entire Diva crew, it appears as if we’re headed for a major showdown between the Diva – along with two ships each from the squabbling Euba and Zalam, against the UE nest.  Any chance the lovely Yurin might show up when that happens?

Maji de Watashi ni Koshinisai – 10

Well, we didn’t get much humor for the third week in a row, but I’d still say this ep was an improvement from the last two.  The action sequences were rather stylish, though the slow-mo combat sequences between Saki and Yamato’s harem probably went on a little too long.  There was some carnage, for sure, with Cookie crumbling (but before some good laughs from his Fukuyama Jun persona) but probably best of all was the scene at the end, where Mayucchi (well, Matsukaze if you want to get technical) made a long overdue speech to Momoko that actually would have been welcome in several other series I can think of.  Momoko’s claim of ownership of Yamato rings rather hollow, given that she’s already rejected him and basically kept him around as a pet.  The overt play by Mayucchi and the others certainly forced Momoyo to declare herself as no longer a sister, but “a woman” but I’m still a little skeptical that she’s really interested in Yamato as a lover so much as she wants to stop him from being with anyone else.