Shakugan no Shana III Ep 1 [First Impression]: Where’s Yuji?

Infinite time stopped beating its heart, and humans burnt away without making any noise. Not one person notices as the world becomes dislocated and is covered in the flames of Guze.

Wait, no that was Season 1. And S2 didn’t even have a opening catchphrase. Neither does this actually. Anyway. AFTER THREE YEARS. IT’S BACK EVERYONE.

THIS. IS SHAKUGAN NO SH-

OMG…IS THAT YUJI?

Summary

Sakai Yuji has disappeared from existence. All that’s left of him is the two invitation letters that Shana and Kazumi sent out for him on Christmas Eve, which mysteriously get mailed back to them. Clinging onto this as their hope, Shana, Kazumi and the rest of the cast that remember him try to concentrate on the situation with Bal Masque, with Shana furthering her training with Margery Daw. Unbeknownst to them though, Yuji has been contacted by the Snake of the Festival, and is now leading the Bal Masque.

Vantage’s First Impression

…This was amazing. No, it was BEYOND amazing. It was GODLY, and probably one of the only huge successes that J.C. Staff can claim credit to. And when you start a series with warfare, dodgy-looking monsters and a badass Sakai Yuji, the only thing that should be running through your mind is: “Holy shit, I’ll be looking forward to every Friday for the next 23 weeks”. No wonder Rebecca Black was so happy.

Anyway, the most important bit of this episode was definitely Yuji’s transformation, and I actually have a theory on that. Remember back when Bal Masque was introduced, and Sydonay mentioned that Hecate’s purpose was as a link to their leader, Snake of the Festival? And back in S2 Bal Masque were desperately trying to get the Reiji Maigo? And now, a voice calls out, from inside the Reiji Maigo, and after Yuji merges with it we have all of Bal Masque calling him their leader? Three guesses to just who Yuji merged with, and NO it’s not Johan.

Yuji most likely disappeared due to merging with the Snake of the Festival, since I think he would have become a different entity instead of just a Mystes, meaning that his old Torch body is gone and therefore so is his existence. Somehow I don’t think we’re getting much slice-of-life in this season.

Yeah so now the Yuji x Hecate fans that appeared after they had pseudo-sex in S1 can rejoice, because he’s CHANGED SIDES O_O I might have been one of those fans, I can’t really remember since it was so long ago. I found it pretty symbolic how Bel Peol and Sydonay stopped and bowed below the steps, while Hecate stopped halfway up and Yuji stood at the top. His power level is definitely over 9000, his growth rate must be like an exponential curve or something. With his Blutsauger and Reiji Maigo, he’s going to be insanely hard for Shana to beat.

Just some light Shana fanservice this week, and I don’t think there’ll be any trademark urusai’s soon, with the dark turn this story is taking. The other characters (that I realized I actually missed quite a lot) reappeared too, including Wilhelmina, Margery and Kazumi. Except I didn’t miss Kazumi at all. Yup, not a fan. In fact, seeing her in 10bit quality was painful. She should do us all a favour and use that Hougu given to her by Pheles back in S2. You know, the one that kills her?

Aside from the occasional Yoshida Kazumi, I will enjoy covering this series, and hopefully have all my questions on everything unexplained so far answered. Already I can say that we’re in for a bumpy ride!

Possibility of Watching: YES

Possibility of Blogging: Definitely

Eva’s First Impression

AJLSKDHSAKLHGALKSG IT’S HERE! LAKSJKA:SHGAKG AFTER THREE YEARS IT’S HERE! SHAKUGAN NO SHANA III IS HERE!!!! SCREAMS HOLY SHIT, I HOPE I’LL BE OKAY, MY LAST OLD OLD COMPUTER DIED LIKE TWO YEARS AGO AND ALL MY SHAKUGAN NO SHANA EPISODES WERE ON IT SO I COULDN’T THROW A MARATHON AND ALS:KJALSHG:ASLGJHSAKHJG:!!!!!

Throughout the episode I was getting chill and everything, but the minute we discovered Yuji going against Shana just made me go, “WTF IS GOING ON HERE?!” WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING THIS MAN?! HOW COULD YOU! But thanks to Vantage reminding me about the Snake of the Festival (I seriously need to re-watch Season 2, three years is far too long, I need refreshen my memory!)

While Vantage thinks his new look is badass, personally I hate it. I hate the long hair and – just ugh. I DON’T LIKE IT. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like Yuji is going to go back to his original look anytime soon. :\

Okay lets put it this way: LIVE REACTIONS:

[07/10/11 7:38:58 PM] Eva: HOLY SHIT WHAT

[07/10/11 7:39:00 PM] Eva: THAT’S YUJI

[07/10/11 7:39:01 PM] Eva: WHAT?!

[07/10/11 7:39:03 PM] Eva: WHAT

[07/10/11 7:39:03 PM] Eva: WHAT

[07/10/11 7:40:07 PM] Vantage: yup.

[07/10/11 7:40:09 PM] Vantage: wait till u see the end

[07/10/11 8:01:12 PM] Eva: WHAT

[07/10/11 8:01:12 PM] Eva: WHAT

[07/10/11 8:01:15 PM] Eva: I DON’T UNDERSTAND

[07/10/11 8:01:16 PM] Eva: HOW WHAT

[07/10/11 8:01:17 PM] Eva: WHY

[07/10/11 8:01:19 PM] Eva: YUJI!?!

[07/10/11 8:01:35 PM] Eva: DID HE BECOME ONE WITH tHAT SPIRIT OR SOMTHING?!

[07/10/11 8:01:38 PM] Eva: AND HIS LOOK

[07/10/11 8:01:41 PM] Eva: OH GOD HIS LOOK

[07/10/11 8:01:45 PM] Eva: ITS TERRIBLE

[07/10/11 8:01:50 PM] Eva: IM SO LOST

[07/10/11 8:02:26 PM] Vantage: hahahaha

[07/10/11 8:02:36 PM] Vantage: i think the spirit is the snake of the festival

[07/10/11 8:02:46 PM] Vantage: they mentioned it in season 2

[07/10/11 8:02:51 PM] Eva: snake of the festival please remind me what that is

[07/10/11 8:02:57 PM] Vantage: the leader of bal masque

[07/10/11 8:03:12 PM] Eva: *HEADESKS*

[07/10/11 8:03:28 PM] Eva: SO THE LEADER OF BM DECIDED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YUJI’S POSITION AND TAKE HIS BODY?!

[07/10/11 8:03:33 PM] Eva: OR SOUL OR WHATEVER

[07/10/11 8:03:39 PM] Vantage: i think he was inside the reiji maigo

[07/10/11 8:03:39 PM] Vantage: which is why bal masque

[07/10/11 8:03:43 PM] Eva: WELL THAT TOO

[07/10/11 8:03:44 PM] Vantage: were trying to take it

[07/10/11 8:03:53 PM] Vantage: and all that stuff with hecate’s huge blue fuzetsu

[07/10/11 8:03:59 PM] Eva: yeah

[07/10/11 8:04:16 PM] Vantage: i kinda like his look

[07/10/11 8:04:19 PM] Vantage: its badass xD

[07/10/11 8:05:45 PM] Eva: XDD

[07/10/11 8:05:53 PM] Eva: i SRSLY need to rewatch s2

[07/10/11 8:06:23 PM] Vantage: s2 had a lot more…tech stuff

[07/10/11 8:06:32 PM] Vantage: and i didnt really get the last arc

[07/10/11 8:06:39 PM] Vantage: since there was hardly any talking

[07/10/11 8:06:42 PM] Eva: LMAO

[07/10/11 8:06:44 PM] Eva: RAWR RAWR

[07/10/11 8:06:45 PM] Eva: FIREEEEE

[07/10/11 8:06:53 PM] Eva: all that

[07/10/11 8:06:56 PM] Vantage: yeah

[07/10/11 8:07:08 PM] Vantage: i somehow remember margery sacrificing herself

[07/10/11 8:07:12 PM] Vantage: and being all noble

[07/10/11 8:07:13 PM] Vantage: inside the blue fuzetsu

[07/10/11 8:07:30 PM] Eva: Yeah, but its totally fuzzy in my mind

[07/10/11 8:07:32 PM] Eva: in fact i don’t remember

[07/10/11 8:07:36 PM] Eva: okay that’s it

[07/10/11 8:07:44 PM] Eva: i’ll be rewatching this on Monday

[07/10/11 8:07:57 PM] Eva: or after i finish cleaning up tomorrow

 

Either way this was fucking awesome, I’m SO LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS:

BUT I HAVE ONE COMPLAINT:

WHY DID THEY HAVE TO DIGITALIZED THE MONSTERS?! WHYYYYYY!!!!

 

Possibility of Blogging: Guaranteed

Possibility of Watching: Guaranteed