(L) Shikabane Hime Kuro

[kam11]

considering this series continued a week after the first series (Shikabane Hime: Aka) finished. Another point to note is that FUNimation list the series as Shikabane Hime (not Shikabane Hime Aka) on YouTube.

[Guido]

I don't know how to begin at interpreting the fifth episode.

I mean Takamaru and Takamasa's backstory nicely explains why Shikabane Hime aren't human, which would partially explains as well why Akasha destroyed his own Shikabane Hime.

Spoiler:

Yes, I also understood that only deceased females can be revived to fight for the monks, but it's obvious that only a selected and handful of deceased women can become Shikabane Hime.

Otherwise, all the Shikabane introduced since the first season would have turned out to be males in all the cases, if that was true.

First of all, the problem I got with this episode was they sorted attempted to pull out an empathetic reaction from the audience to feel for the characters.

As if they wanted to make the characters even more pitiful and miserable than they already are to manipulate the viewers' emotions.

The current plot still doesn't moves on with the issue of Makina not carry on due to Keisei's death.

Spoiler:

What we have discovered in this episode were:
1. The Sadahiro and Akira team are loner operatives, kind of a secret SWAT Kougon unit. They were tasked to shot to death Makina due to the abnormal circumstances of the curse afflicting her; that's what I understood.

2. Ouri concludes by himself for a surprise that Makina's curse is actually the bond she and Keisei continue to share after death, which lingers within all of her body. Moreover, Ouri believes this bond could be of use to defeat the Shichisei or that's what I understood, in spite of the language barrier.

[Sylphic]

I just saw episode 4, but I don't quite get it. Why did Itsuki go beserk?

I guess that that act poisoned the relationship between Itsuki and Genpaku, and destroyed any sort of happiness that he had intended?

[serenade_beta]

Spoiler for ep6:

Fairly interesting episode, I guess. Well, the story moved and I was pleased, as far as Shikabane Hime standards go.

The fights were rather disappointing though. The clone Kenseis were just completely weak and barely did anything, so the battle wasn't exciting. And then the battle with the other guy was just laughable for some reason. Maybe because of the way Makina used her gun or the fact they had a battle with a ball or because the guy just died so easily...

In the meantime, the main event of the week is O-mune-sama going insane... or died and became a shikabane... either way... Going out of control. Well, it was definitely going to happen sooner or later, with her snooping around all of the time. *sigh*
The stupid friend of Ouri's is surprisingly sharp...

Preview: Evil O-mune-sama~...

[Deathkillz]

ep 6

Spoiler:

Definitely one of the better episodes for this series and for once the fight was more entertaining than usual. Not the fake aniki guy but the other one with the spinning bell. At least I thought that was a cool weapon but sniper's monk thought it was a good idea to just stand there with a knife

But the way Makina stopped the bell was over the top, she should have lost her hand in the process

And why was that big chested girl in the forest all of a sudden...and getting turned into a whore by balloon head.

[SuperKnuckles]

I'm really engrossed with the various aspects of Shichisei. Especially the way they tout their nature of being, and how they're released from the struggle to keep down their desires in life, they just become incredibly dangerous IDs as corpses.

Also, it seems each Shichisei member has their own ways of fighting and ways to get on Makina's nerves in various psychological (and obviously physical) ways.

These guys reminds me of Akatsuki in Naruto. I love bad guys who are so diverse and yet have such a dangerous philosophy going for them beyond simply being bad for being bad's sakes. Though I guess that is what 'tapping into our own nature' talk really is.

[Guido]

Special thanks to SuperKnuckles, DeathKillz, and serenade_beta for their comments on episode sixth.

This episode turned out decent and good for the reasons posted by the above people.

Spoiler:

Ouri, actually, finally sprang into action by himself and did not dissapoint by ramming the staff through the throat of one the fake Keisei clones.

The four quickly figured out that disposing of the clones won't let Enna with no other choice but to reveal her true body.

I finally found out the name of the balloon head shichisei, Touya.

Well, this particular episode was informative enough to have the highest priest of the Kougon sect brief in about the Shichisei.

Spoiler:

In fact, I'm starting to think that each of the Shichisei are sort of a supra-embodiment of several, collected people experiencing the same sort of desires and regret at their moment of death. In summary, various dead people resurrected and fused into a single Shikabane body and keeping the different consciousness within binded.

I'm speculating about this, because right after that Makina broke through Enna's curse the latter experienced a flashback of her former, human life.
The flashback shown various bodies naked and lying on the ground; the creepy aspect was whether I could not distinguish if the bodies were actually corpses or makeshift mannequins.
Then, we have a man stabbing himself with a knife on the neck because either his art did not turned out what he wished for or something else.

Deathkillz, I know was inverosimile that Makina bare-handed crush Enna's curse operandi.

Spoiler:

But, Makina either consciously or just pure instinct released her own curse which derives of the bond Keisei and she share.

I do agree as well with you three that Omune-sama's 180 degrees change of attitude is creepy as hell.

Spoiler:

Maybe Touya's, balloon head, curse works by literally possessing people with the ballloon, but with the catch that the balloon strangles the victim to a near-death point without killing the host victim.

And Touya's classmate grudginly whines about Omune-sama's recent change of personality into a vixen, since he likes the former Omune-sama: naive and innocent.

The whore turned bitch has the message, I'm an easy girl just take me, written all over her death eyes.

And we see the Ouri started to grow angst and jealous about not being to compete against the late Keisei for Makina's love.

Spoiler:

I absolutely loved the jukebox rendition to the current ending theme played when he and Makina arrived at her apartment.

[serenade_beta]

Spoiler for ep7:

An event-filled episode that didn't waste much time, but for some reason, it comes off as not so well-paced. At least, it definitely didn't impress me as much as I wished. I guess it didn't help that 3/4 of the episode was focused on "death is a good thing" theme, which to me, is nothing that needs to be thought about. As if it is a good thing...

All in all, the main events of this episode was that O-mune-sama died (...) and the balloon man turned out to be a cute loli (...!) ...
That, and it revealed that Ouri is the child of a corpse. ...Can corpses even give birth to children...?

-Still, definitely do not want to be in this school. Putting everything together, I'm surprised the school is still running, with students disappearing/dying left and right.

-Break the balloon in the first place, Makina...

-The blood spewing scene for that big boss was... How do I say, over-done. It ended up being more funny than scary...

-Why did the two girls even fall for Ouri...

-Umm... So what happened to the loli? Makina? The students at school?

Preview: ...???

[Master Anime]

NOOOOOOOOOOO
my favorite character died

[Guido]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

Spoiler for ep7:

All in all, the main events of this episode was that O-mune-sama died (...) and the balloon man turned out to be a cute loli (...!) ...

Refer to Busou Renkin

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

Spoiler for ep7:

That, and it revealed that Ouri is the child of a corpse. ...Can corpses even give birth to children...?

That screams Zombie Loan to me.

[Manji Midou]

Originally Posted by Master Anime

NOOOOOOOOOOO
my favorite character died

lt seems any girl that wants to get near ouri romantically ends up dying... could a makinaxouri happen?
granted the other girl was already dead to begin with....

[serenade_beta]

Originally Posted by Guido

Refer to Busou Renkin

At least she looked like one. Balloon didn't look like one no matter how long you looked at it from any angle...

[Corek]

After the credits in the preview for episode 8... um was that Nozumi waking up and hugging someone in a black robe?

[prototype_sky]

Originally Posted by Corek

After the credits in the preview for episode 8... um was that Nozumi waking up and hugging someone in a black robe?

Spoiler for episode 7:

So is she dead? Would make sense if she became a shikebane hime of sorts since she fits the physical profile of more than half of them

[Deathkillz]

ep 7

Spoiler:

Well I thought this was one of the better episodes as that it was slow but not uneventful nor boring (yay~).

And surprisingly, Omune's death was somewhat sad and then you have the usual Ouri scream but this time it was done quite fittingly in time with the mood (I still chuckled though).

The balloon turning out to be a loli shikabane was unexpected XD
But I didn't quite get why her family, and herself died all of a sudden...terrorist attack? O.o

Ouri now has an upgraded eye thanks to the cat...

edit: and Ouri is the child of a corpse? wth??

[serenade_beta]

Originally Posted by Deathkillz

ep 7

Spoiler:

But I didn't quite get why her family, and herself died all of a sudden...terrorist attack? O.o

Spoiler for ep7:

I believe it was suicide.

[Guido]

Originally Posted by Deathkillz

ep 7

Spoiler:

Well I thought this was one of the better episodes as that it was slow but not uneventful nor boring (yay~).

And surprisingly, Omune's death was somewhat sad and then you have the usual Ouri scream but this time it was done quite fittingly in time with the mood (I still chuckled though).

The balloon turning out to be a loli shikabane was unexpected XD
But I didn't quite get why her family, and herself died all of a sudden...terrorist attack? O.o

Ouri now has an upgraded eye thanks to the cat...

edit: and Ouri is the child of a corpse? wth??

Touya's curse or more precisely the regret which spawned her curse was the long, lost happiness.

Spoiler:

What I interpreted is that Touya ensnares the victim's neck around with the rope of the balloon.

The curse makes the victim to recall back those days in which he or she felt the happiest; the longing to see those happy days back is transformed into regret which eventually fills up inside the balloon.

Once it pops or is accidentally blown by an outside force the cursed creature of the victim's regretted happiness spawns.

It became confusing to me to understand Nozomi's reason.

Spoiler:

I think she actually ended up liking Ouri, and felt regret that Ouri tended more to Makina and was not able to be alongside him.

I believe I heard her said that if it was possible for her to become a Shikabane Hime just so that Ouri could see her with the same eyes and treat her in the same way he does to Makina.
But, that statement is juxtaposed with Nozomi crying that she doesn't want to die.

At the end, I could not get quite well how she died.

Did she die because the curse consume all her life force? or quite literally died of regret and sorrow after being forced to relieve a happiness out of regret?

serenade_beta, things are turning like in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series that in which the students at Ouri's school are starting to realize the bizarre things happenings but choose to overlook them for the sake of going on with their lives. Of course, that doesn't mean they'll play stupid and forget what happened to them. It's just that they would prefer to carry on, that's all.

Spoiler:

What's the name of Ouri's other female classmate?

Kudos to that girl! She got more guts and the pants on to literally bitch-slap hard Nozomi to wake her senses up.

And if this show becoming D.Gray-man?
I mean the cat upgraded Ouri's right eye to become cursed, so to enable him see the curses.

[Shiroth]

It's been hinted at quite a lot, so i hope this series will show us some of the backstory for Sadahiro and Akira at some point. I'm dying to know how they ended up in the position they're end, which will include why they're allowed to kill both the dead and humans.

[Corek]

Spoiler for ep 7:

I would love it if Nozomi were contracted to Oori, but for the sake of adding a plot twist the writers will most likely contract her to someone else like that guy with the afro. This will eventually lead to her being ordered to hunt Oori or Machina for some reason or another. I hope writers don't go that direction..

[kamikazex]

for some reason i think oori is a pretty crappy male lead.... his bro was way better