An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Category: Seasonal Episodes

Seasonal Selection – Shikizakura Episode 12 (End)

While by no means one of the all-time great climaxes, I will credit the ending of Shikizakura this: it’s exactly the sort of end you’d want to see to the sort of show Shikizakura has been. Decent fighting? Check. Everybody’s infected by optimism and pulls together? Check. Some surprisingly decent emotional play? Check. Totally corny speeches that belong in the kind of campy hero show the creators clearly loved? Double check.

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Seasonal Selection – 86 Episode 21 (S2E10)

Can you believe we’ve got more coming after this? Once again, the show has done a pretty good job of convincing you that everyone is dead and all is if not lost than at least at a brutal end. Alongside that, we get a pretty incredible action climax with the right amount of back-and-forth for a desperate final battle against the odds.

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Seasonal Selection – Shikizakura Episode 9

So, I misread things last week – the smooth talker from Black Team wasn’t the big monster; he was in the scene already. In the first couple of seconds, said big oni proves itself final boss caliber, however, as it swallows the core of the defeated Shinja and one-shots Kakeru out of the fight, cracking (nearly shattering) Ibara’s power suit crystal in the process, rendering Kakeru powerless to transform again and Ibara silent, at least in a conventional sense.

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Seasonal Selection – 86 Episode 19 (S2E8)

After another recap break in the action, we resume 86 with the hunt for the Morpho. Uncharacteristically for this show, the episode is mostly dedicated to the action. It’s extremely good action, but it does mean that the summary will cover more of what there is to say.

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