Kabitzin on February 13, 2009 · in Shikabane Hime 2

Summary:

While Ouri begins his how-to-not-die training, Rika and Saki take Makina to sever her Enkiri (remaining connection with Keisei). This Enkiri is the curse that allows Makina to turn delusion into power like a normal shikabane, but it is dangerous to her CP; Itsuki mentions that the cut will make it harder for Makina to remember Keisei clearly. Makina cannot bring herself to sever the Enkiri, and her dark side convinces her to try to maim Ouri instead. Fortunately, Rika and Saki intercept Makina with some puppet-string Zadan-jutsu, and once again Makina is tied to a pillar in a flooded room.

At the same time, Takamasa and Itsuki reveal their backstories. Itsuki was a normal high schooler until she got hit by a car, and she regretted not accomplishing anything meaningful. Because she was so scared about fighting shikabane, Itsuki sought out the strongest CP and made a contract with Takamasa. Takamasa bluntly tells Ouri not to think of SH as regular human girls, and the flashbacks make it seem that the scars all over his body came from an encounter with Itsuki and that tall boy who tried to match Itsuki with Takamasa. That boy also seems to be the special shikabane that Akasha has raised as bait, and while Akasha jumps Rinsen to draw out Makina, Ena plots some artistic destruction.

Reaction:

I thought the training really brought out some cute tidbits about Ouri. Neko-mimi-stalker Saki was right on the money about Ouri wanting to date Makina, and I liked how Ouri wanted to wield a staff just like Keisei. However, Ouri admits that he is jealous of the bond between Makina and Keisei. That cat came back again to remind us of how we still don’t really know who Ouri is. I wonder if Ouri is similar to Hokuto, because Hokuto died without ever experiencing anything and shouta-Ouri was a blank slate as well.

Itsuki’s flashback was funny, considering how she wanted to enter into a contract with the strongest CP, but found that Takamasa inherited the temple from his father without ever learning anything about SH and CP. I wonder if we will get to see how Takamasa went from being a clueless, wimpy love-com male lead to a scarred and hardened badass with a body sculpted out of granite. Meanwhile, I don’t see how Kanechika is doing much teaching, as he spends most of his time scuba-spying on Itsuki and recharging his “AAAA battery.” Finally, it was hilarious how Makina owned Saki with a Gainax-kick.