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Short Summary:
After abandoning Kazumi-chan at the gallery, Yuuji runs into Shana on the way out. The two go home together and meet up with Yuuji’s mother. Yuuji introduces Shana as only a classmate, which irks Shana so much that she pulls out her sword and almost strikes Yuuji with it after his mother leaves. She can’t go through with the swing though, and her anger is interrupted when she feels Friagne’s power in the center of the city – she has no choice but to go and stop him. Returning home, Yuuji remembers Raime asking him if it’s ok like this, Yuuji as he is now. Realizing that he’d like to do something, he rushes to the fight, but gets captured by Friagne. With Yuuji as a shield, Friagne returns to his own base, but Shana follows him there and the two fight again. Seeing Shana faring poorly against Friagne, Yuuji decides to help and warns Shana of oncoming attacks; Shana gets quite irritated by this. Although her sword gets stronger, she still gets knocked down by several blasts. Friagne becomes obsessed with consuming everything in the city, and Marianne faces Shana alone while her master loses his mind. Marianne disappears in a giant explosion that sends Shana flying, but doesn’t kill her. As Yuuji approaches where Shana and Friagne are, Friagne pulls out a gun and points it at Shana. Shana is exhausted at this point, and Yuuji’s power of existence is being taken by Friagne. With one last bit of strength thanks to Yuuji’s urging, Shana throws a piece of glass that hits Friagne’s hand and cuts off his fingers, including the one that bears the ring. Friagne tries to use his other hand to shoot them, but Margery interferes at this point and stops him. Shana then charges Friagne and stabs him with her sword, ending the fight. In the aftermath, Yuuji prepares to disappear, as his power of existence is totally gone. But then the clock strikes midnight, and his torch flares up again. Shana tells him that his power of existence is completely renewed at midnight.
I wish all the episodes could be like this. Seriously, all this episode is missing is a touch of fanservice, though I did spot a panty shot during the fight. The animation is good, the battle doesn’t seem too repetitive, and Yuuji isn’t a complete wimp. I was hating him for abandoning Kazumi-chan, but he manages to redeem himself a bit by the end of the episode, even with the corny thumbs up in the middle of the fight. And so while there was very little of Kazumi-chan, there certainly was plenty of Shana in a range of emotions from confused to angry to happy. She even holds Yuuji’s hand as he prepares to disappear at the end, AND she says that he’s not just a torch, but actually Sakai Yuuji. But Yuuji doesn’t disappear because the clock strikes midnight, and his Misutesu power, called 「零時迷子」 (Reiji Maigo), allows him to live on. 零時 means midnight and 迷子 means lost (stray) child, which I guess could be translated to something like Midnight Stray (ok, I just wanted to say that cause it sounds cool in english).
The preview for next episode features Margery getting drunk and Shana in the bath. It’s winning points with me already 🙂
