Everything has a good and bad side, and I'm convinced while pessimism is in the rage nowadays, I see a few ways in which certain things can be said to be for the better. This, after finishing the last tow episodes back to back.
-I get the feeling that I was missing something when that was supposed to be their objective: All that trouble to create a new Tomogara?!? Didn't realise until they said it was a first in the history did I get it. It was supposed to be some groundbreaking experiment, and along the way we knew nothing about it (Not sure if anyone actually speculated this, but I sure as hell didn't see any of those) except that Balle Masque was doing something strange by slowly harassing the Reiji Maigo.
The bad thing about this is even though the motive was completely masked from us viewers for most of the season, you would have thought that the Flame Hazes were at least sensible enough to provide some protection or at least show some concern over the trend of things that were happening to Yuuji. Makes it seem as though he's the only intelligent dude on their side. Way to go for the 'dumb' good guys.
-I like the fact that Kazumi didn't use the Giralda in the end, because it came in line with her behaviour. She had been a worrywart all along, and even though there was resolution in some of her actions (such as wanting to do all she can to play catch-up with Shana and Yuuji), getting herself killed in order to save Yuuji would show that she doesn't trust Shana, and with her death she would effectively be breaking the promise between her and Shana to see who 'won' out in the end. It would defeat the entire purpose of the competition, because she hasn't given up.
If only they had more time to show her struggling with her inner thoughts...Well, too bad the focus was on the fighting.
-Speaking of which, while it seems apparent that the animation is not too bad in this episode, the jumping of scenes made things seem a little confusing, especially with Wilhelmina and Margery. The former was at first flying about and fighting for a while, and when we jumped back to her, her clothing is torn and she has already bandaged herself up. Likewise with Margery. It just seems so strange that she recovered so suddenly and in the nick of time to save Kazumi from the window shards. I attribute it to poor pacing, a consistent bug in the season itself.
-As for Hecate's miss, the obvious first thing that comes to mind is that it's supposed to justify the Konoe episodes earlier. I'm not entirely buying it mainly due to the fact that a good chunk of the season went to waste. By shortening the Konoe arc by even just one or two episodes, J.C probably might not have so many problems with pacing of episodes.
However, I will accept that it DOES give meaning to the Konoe arc earlier on, and IF there's a season three, it will be a nice angle to explore...hopefully with better planning of how the subplots will turn out.
-I quite like the Yuuji-Shana interactions, because while Shana seemed like she's gone back to her usual self during battle with Yuuji around, the latter is now standing on an almost equal height to her status. Instead of being 'recon', Yuuji was promoted to 'support fire' in the face of stronger foes and Shana probably realised it too (This is also one point which Kazumi failed to realise earlier, and I think it boils down simply to her failing to recognize the change in Yuuji's mindset now. Unfortunate as it may seem, that probably spelt doom for her in the love-triangle resolution).
-I'm also left bemused at three things: The absence of either Fecor or Bel-Peol in overseeing the protection of such an important specimen. Wouldn't either of them remaining in Serei-den be enough to observe what was happening?
The second thing is the state of the Flame Hazes. Margery was knocked out in one blow just like that, leaving her issue with Silver practically completely unresolved. It would have been nice to see her rushing back to the battlefield after the nice save of Kazumi because of her vendetta against the Silver, or at least the fact that she wasn't called a 'battle freak' for nothing.
The third thing being how the combination of the Professor and Domino making the better part of entertainment for me. In case anyone has complained about having a character sprouting out too much of the truth behind his schemes, it's apparent that Prof here has a *slight* case of megalomania, or can be what we call 'crazy'.
However, it was pretty entertaining and informative nonetheless, else some of us wouldn't have an inkling of what was going on in the end.
-Kudos to Hecate and Syndonay for acting like 'true' villains. Didn't leave much talk in between trading blows (or "OMG bling bling" projectiles) with Wilhelmina and Shana.
-The whole episode itself actually felt rushed, especially at the ending. Cheap as it may be, I've decided to blame it on the consistent problem SnS II had throughout of poor pacing, i.e. shortening some time of the supposedly quirky Prof-Domino interactions and cutting down on the 'bling' in the attacks of everyone, especially Hecate.
-So all supposedly ends well for Yuuji, since he does protect everyone from something that was ironically part of him in the first place (well, technically in the second place so far, since Johan was the first being to own and use the Reiji Maigo). I don't quite get the furore behind the disappeared footsteps.
(1) Shana probably can't smile so happily if Yuuji suddenly disappeared in front of her, and it doesn't make sense for Yuuji to disappear after all that he's done to retain his existence. IMO, that's probably one of the worst endings ever and even if J.C. was indeed as incompetent as the many detractors here make them out to be, I doubt they will pull that fast one on us. If they did, I might just join the camp.
(2) Couldn't it be possible that Yuuji actually took a longer step forward, or even an unlikely possibility that they were simply used to symbolise a difference in his taking a step forward because of the 'change' he was talking about in the last few lines before the ending scene?
Even though there was meant to be resolution for some of the characters here, especially for Shana, Yuuji and Yoshida, I don't get that feeling mainly due to the novel developments as well as the obvious fact that Balle Masque is still there, and the antagonist as a main body is still alive. What kind of a series leaves their antagonists alive without giving some sort of resolution to them (concillation or death)?
That alone should be a good reason why Season III is a viable possibility.
By the way, is there a season evaluation thread somewhere?
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