THAT Animeblog

The magic circle that would summon the Big Bad Demon Belial, who is apparently a lot more powerful than the Turtle but is defeated in a jiffy.

Since Impz appears to have been rendered sick by work life, I shall do my best to provide something in his absence. Lo and behold, a Kaze no Stigma blog, and probably the last blog post on this subject.

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So, this moment have finally arrived. Kaze no Stigma, final episode, rather defies summarization. I would be honest here and say that I vastly prefer the previous episode; this episode is anticlimactic at parts, although there are still a couple of scenes that are capable of getting me all ga-ga over.

I’ll also say here that it’s an open-ended finale that just begs for a sequel. If they end it here… I’ll… I’ll think of some unfathomable vile consequences to boil, skewer, skin, and mince the producers.

(In case anyone decides to sue me for threatening bodily injuries, the above is an exaggeration. A slight exaggeration.)

Summary

At the mention of Tsuo Rin, Kazuma immediately lost his cool… of course, he regained it almost immediately, which is more than I can say for Dark Kazuma.

Kazuma recalls how Tsuo Rin had died, how he was utterly useless and helpless against the Big Bad Magician (I didn’t quite catch his name), who continued with his sacrificing of Rin, all the while smirking over Kazuma’s total despair. As Rin lies there, bound by magic and dripping blood and alternating between screaming and whimpering, Kazuma looked on from where he had been beaten down to, with bruises on his face and utter helplessness in his posture.

But in the present, Ayano, Kazuma and Ren walk into Pandemonium. Ayano asks Kazuma what he is going to do about Lapis; after all, she has been created from the remnants of Rin’s last thoughts. As such, she would be Kazuma’s lover.

Kazuma denies that angrily as he says, “I don’t know where you heard it from, but Rin is dead. She died right in front of my eyes.” He feels that Lapis is simply an imitation of Rin; she is not Rin. He then regains his calm with an effort and ask if Ayano has anymore questions. Ayano, subdued, says no. They continue on their way.

They entered a hall full of yellow crystals. At that moment Ayano saw Nanase (in that dominatrix costume) and Yukari (dressed as a maid -_-||| ), both of whom have the blank eyes of the brainwashed. Just as Ayano and Ren approach with exclaims of gladness, Lapis walks out from the sideline.

She welcomes then, saying that Vernhart has left. Utsumi the Perverted Stalker appears locked in a crystal, looking even MORE nerdish than ever (is that even possible???). He murmurs something about losing to Vernhart, and not understanding why.

Nanase and Yukari step forward to explain the Pandemonium thingy to Ayano and company (sounding very much like robots). Apparently they are using the Internet to “seed” humans with evil spirits (“youma”) and by summoning all those seeded evil spirits, they can summon the Big Arch-Demon Belial (?).

Lapis picks up her big sword and chops the Utsumi Perverted Stalker crystal into half. Utsumi disperses into a red light and joins other red lights around Pandemonium to form a magical design. The summoning begins with Utsumi’s “death”, for he is the last bit of the ingredient needed to summon that Big Arch-Demon.

Of course, they couldn’t summon Belial for more than a couple minutes, but those couple of minutes would be enough to level off Tokyo and most of Japan (at least the Japanese are less prone to “saving the world” than Hollywood).

You probably can’t believe it, but Utsumi the Perverted Stalker is even more nerdy looking than before.

Ren asks Lapis why she is doing this; after all, she used to be Rin. Lapis replies after a moment that she has no heart. She is only a doll created from Rin’s last thoughts, and all she wants to do is to feel, and feel something that comes from her own heart. She says that all that she feels for Kazuma is from Rin; she wants to feel something that is truly from herself, a real feeling, not an artificial, implanted one.

If she can truly feel, she would become Tsuo Rin.

Kazuma walks towards her, telling her to shut up as he summons up a pillar of wind. He tells her not to use Rin’s appearance and voice. A scythe of wind whips towards Lapis, and Lapis simply stands there and whispers, “Are you going to kill me again?”

Kazuma, completely affected by that simple statement, causes his own scythe to miss Lapis by a bare inch.

Lapis made use of his distraction to attack him by conjuring a yellow crystal from the ground. Kazuma retreats into a crouch. Ayano then rushes up, asking him angrily, “what are you doing?”, before conjuring Enraiha and attacks Lapis. She declares loudly, “As long as we defeat the summoner (Lapis), the summoning will end!”

Lapis and Ayano exchange a flurry of blows, before Lapis retreats behind Nanase and Yukari. Ayano hesitates, for she does not want to hurt her friends. Suddenly, Kazuma enters the fight by ordering Ayano to move aside. Ayano leaps up just as Kazuma sends a scythe of wind right in the gap between Nanase and Yukari. Lapis is unable to escape the blow, and is flung backwards into the wall.

Kazuma sends Nanase and Yukari to Ren, telling him to protect the two of them. Ayano tries to attack Lapis, but is surrounded by yellow crystals that sprout from the ground. With a couple of slashes, she destroys the yellow crystal in front of her, by Lapis then appears in all the multiple crystals. Ayano could not identify which crystal has Lapis in it.

Kazuma sends a gust of wind through the crystal pillars, easily finding Lapis hiding in one of them. He destroys the pillar, and Lapis emerges from it, surprised and defenseless. Kazuma is just about to deliver the final blow (who knows if he’s really going to do it?) before he is conveniently interrupted by the completed summoning, as the red magic design blazes into life and activates.

Kazuma says that they are too late… and that the attack is coming from below.

Kazuma’s wind just missed Lapis… but rendered Lapis a lot more pretty than I originally thought.

Lapis floats in midair, saying that Vernhart had told her that to truly begin to feel, she has to create utter despair, preferably in Kazuma. “Yagami Kazuma, show me that face of utter despair,” she said before disappearing.

Kazuma cradles Ayano, Ren, Nanase and Yukari with his winds to escape the activating magical gate, before leaving Nanase and Yukari unconscious on some random roof. He then brings Ayano and Ren high up, so that they could see the magical design etched to the ground, and the emerging gate.

Kazuma says that Belial is not something that even the Kannagi family and a contractor added together can defeat. He then proceeds to smirk and continues, “So we will just meet this head-on!”

Ayano and Ren are determined as well to fight. Kazuma tells them to gather their strength for one powerful hit. They don’t have to defeat the Arch-Demon; all they have to do is to delay the time, to protect Tokyo for that couple of minutes in which Belial may emerge.

Ayano then tells Kazuma with a faint smile on her face, “This may be the last time I see your (smug) face. Do you have any last words to say to me?”

Kazuma replies with a smile, “You could cook me something from your own hands occasionally.”

Ayano looks at him sideways. “I don’t want to.”

Kazuma just looks back at her with a widening smile and says gently, “I see.”

Is it my imagination, or has Ayano’s Enraiha shrunk?

With that heartwarming banter, the circle finally activates and Belial begins to activate. Kazuma sends Ayano and Ren upwards before activating his Contractor power. In the midst of it, he recalls the memory in which Rin was sacrificed, when she said, “I wasn’t born to be sacrificed to a demon.” And right in front of Kazuma, with tears spilling out from his wide, unblinking eyes, Rin utters a last “Kazuma…” before dispersing into red light, which were devoured by the tentacles of the demon.

Kazuma thinks to himself, “If I had the power then that I had now… but that is useless thinking. What is important is the present, and the future. I’ll protect everything!”

Ayano, high up in the air with Ren, begins gathering fire power and summoning Enraiha. Ren follows suit, sans Enraiha and panty shots. All three of them put all their power in this one final blow, descending from the top and smack right into the giant Belial’s giant hand.

Cue bright animation and some really corny drama (you would have to see it to get it; I don’t even want to describe it).

Anyway. The end result is an enomous crater where the Pandemonium used to be, with all three of them lying on the ground, panting and completely wringed out.

Suddenly a voice said, “This is indeed the power of the Kannagi family.” It is Vernhart, with Lapis besides her. Kazuma is shocked that he has not escaped after all, but after exchanging a few hostile quips, Vernhart says, “Don’t worry that I’ll attack you here. I am cautious and will not fight a battle that I have no guarantee of winning.”

At that moment, we see Genma standing at the edge of the crater, looking down at the stand-off, radiating menace if Vernhart would dare attack his son (ok not really. You get the idea).

Vernhart and Lapis turn to leave, saying that they would definitely meet again. Kazuma tells them to wait, and asks them what was Rin’s last thought. What did she want to tell him?

Lapis, after looking at Vernhart, replies slowly, “I want to kill you.”

Kazuma, shocked, could only stare in silence. Aware of the pain they have caused, Vernhart smirks before leaving with Lapis, disappearing into thin air.

Ayano gets up, and tentatively, she puts her hand on Kazuma’s shoulder. Instead, Kazuma abruptly turned around and grabs her into his embrace, holding her tightly as he suffers, as if holding back his auguish.

Hey, young bishounen alert! Our poor Ren has been relegated to minor minor character because of the emphasis on the K x A thing.

Cut to the aftermath of the battle. Ayano and Kazuma stand at the little pond in the Kannagi house. Ayano tentatively suggests that Lapis has been lying. Kazuma wonders if that’s true, for the fact remains that he was unable to protect Rin.

Ayano asks fanatically if he would kill himself in reply to Lapis. Just as she works herself up into panic, Kazuma tells her not to worry. He has decided to protect everything, all of them, this time.

Ayano, instead of being glad, tries to slap Kazuma. Kazuma catches that slap as he usually does, and asks what is that for. Ayano says, furious, “I don’t need protection! I don’t know what happened to you before, but you feel sad, you feel pain, don’t you? Don’t keep all the burden to yourself! Can’t you depend on me? What exactly am I to you? Someone that hides behind you in a fight, and then gives you a kiss and a hug of reward? Don’t think of me as an idiot! I can help, even if it’s just a little!”

All this while, she has tears in her eyes, and Kazuma is stunned by her outpour of emotions. Ayano turns her back to Kazuma as she finished speaking, as if not wanting him to see her cry.

After a while, Kazuma smiles faintly. As a wind blows, Ayano’s hair flares out behind her. Kazuma comes up to her and holds a couple of strands, bringing them to his mouth and kissing them. As Ayano blushes, totally affected and turning into the color of tomato, Kazuma finally let go and Ayano turns back to him, flabbergasted.

Kazuma said, “Well then, I’ll leave things up to you, partner,” before patting her on her butt.

Ayano jumps up, springs, and lands in the pool. When she got up, the water is bubbling with heat, and Ayano comes back to her feet with Enraiha in her hands. She begins chasing Kazuma all around (their reactions are so cute… especially Kazuma’s) the house.

Up at the house, Soushu sighs over Ayano’s willfulness as he presides over a gathering with Genma, Ren, Nanase, Yukari, Kirika, her two aides, Katherine, and Ren’s two friends. All of them gave a comment or two over the two of them playing tag.

The show ends on that happy note, with Ayano using Enraiha to create a pillar of fire that burst all the way up the sky.

Thoughts

Everyone’s drinking tea calmly while Ayano chases Kazuma. Is that like, a metaphor?

Ok. I’ve pretty up summed up my feelings in the first part of this blog. I like it, but it isn’t my favorite episode. I also don’t like specific parts of the show.

The number ONE dislike: the show is sooooooooo anticlimactic. Belial popped out of nowhere, and disappeared into nowhere! Come on, for an Arch Enemy, he barely rated 5 minutes of the entire anime! The whole attack with a single decisive strike thing is like some 80s animes, where everything is built up nicely but somehow, the villain gets killed/defeated as easily as ABC. Seriously. Last episode’s fight was great, and this episode’s fight with Lapis was pretty good; the final fight was about as interesting as bland noodles.

A story just doesn’t reach the peak if it falters at the end. So I’m sorry to say that as a result KnS didn’t end on a very good note.

On one hand, nothing is truly resolved between Vernhart and the Kannagis. He’s still at large, Lapis still wants to get a heart, and they are still plotting the demise of the world (or just Japan) and perhaps Kazuma’s as well, as a side benefit. And apparently Kazuma will have to carry the burden of his lover wanting to kill him… at least until or unless the next season comes about.

However, on the other hand, there is a resolution of a sort, and that is presented in Kazuma, who is after all the figure that the entire anime revolves around. If I look at the anime from the point of view of the characters, then yes, there is resolution. There is even a good resolution. Kazuma has grown out of the callous shell he has before; he has grown able to care again. He has friends, he has family, and he has laughter and teasing in his life. The ending in which Ayano chases Kazuma around maybe a bit corny at first sight, but the truth is it shows a side of him that we will never see in the first couple episodes.

I’ve always thought that there is an edge in Kazuma’s sarcasm, not malice or ill intentions, but rather a distance that he establishes between him and the world. Because he has lost before, and doesn’t want to lose again, he always stand at a distance and keep people away by laughing at them or heaping sarcasm on them.

Ayano looks beyond that sarcasm and distance; or I should say she doesn’t register the existence of such a distance. She simply plows ahead, like the lovable impulsive girl she could be. But it is exactly such a character that Kazuma needs to open his heart again. And in the end, Kazuma has accepted Ayano as his partner… and perhaps for something more.

You don’t kiss your partner’s hair, do you???

The infamous kiss scene. Although to be honest, I like both the last words scene and the chasing around scene more.

Another thing I really like is the sheer teamwork Ayano and Kazuma have there. When they were fighting Lapis, for the first time I see real, seamless teamwork, the real existence of a partnership. A great deal of it, I think, is because of Ayano “winning” against Kazuma last episode. She has a) grown stronger, b) gained confidence, and c) regained her trust in Kazuma (well actually she may never have lost it, seeing as how Dark Kazuma could almost have been another person). And so, we see Ayano reacting immediately when Kazuma told her to move; and we see Ayano taking over immediately when Kazuma temporarily lost the will the fight.

Before I forget, I also dislike the BMG for this episode. I have never noticed it before, so likely it wasn’t so bad before, but… this week’s episode sounds so badly RPG-ish, that I felt as if I’m playing game with some badly composed music. It’s not exactly bad… it’s just very… RPG. You know, the dramatic tune when you face the Big Boss, the MIDI sounding background music that repeats itself over and over again, the flat tone that is maintained through out.

Yeah. *shudders*

Now, as to Lapis saying that Rin wants to kill Kazuma. I do have a speculation. Perhaps it is the truth and not a lie, as Ayano conjectured so desperately. Perhaps Rin really wants to kill Kazuma. However, I doubt very much it is the sentiments of hatred that she is carrying. Consider Lapis, who has some very undefined feelings for Kazuma. Whatever it is, it isn’t hatred, that’s for sure. That’s the vibe I get.

Perhaps, just perhaps, Rin wanted to kill Kazuma because she knew that Kazuma will suffer and blame himself when she died. She doesn’t want him to suffer… so she would let him die rather than let him suffer a fate worse than fate. Of course, she hasn’t taken into account that there may very be someone else who can save him… but knowing Kazuma’s personality, Rin is perhaps afraid that Kazuma would suffer for the rest of his life, mired in guilt and anguish.

Another of my favorite scenes is also between Ayano and Kazuma. When Kazuma was told that Rin wanted to kill him, it is Ayano whom he turns to. And with that too tight grasp, with that pain just radiating from him, I just know that there will be more than just “partners” between them. So much more.

The exchange between Kazuma and Ayano, just before they fight Belial (about Ayano cooking for Kazuma), there is a connection between them that just defies description. I would call it chemisty, I suppose. It’s an understated affinity between them that required no words, just a smile from the heart.

Poignant. Just totally poignant. Not to mention funny, which isn’t always a possible combination.

I also love part of the ending; while seeing Ayano chases Kazuma around is nothing new, what is extremely unique and fun to watch is Kazuma’s reaction in being chased. The things he said, the facial expressions… I can’t help but smile at their antics.

And who do you know? Kazuma has regained that smile he used to have when he was with Rin; he is truly and undeniably happy.

And that is the part I enjoyed the most.

So much so I can even forgive the totally corny “climax” of the anticlimactic battle. -_-|||

Unsolved mysteries are still abound though, just begging for the second season. How did Kazuma gained his Contractor power? What does Rin really feel at the very end? What does Lapis truly feel for Kazuma? What is Vernhart’s next plan?

Last and probably the least…

So anyway. I hope you all have enjoyed the ride of KnS. It hasn’t always been smooth, what with more flaws than I can count in the process, but it ended pretty ok. Not fabulous, but in terms of Kazuma’s character growth, it is a suitable ending.

Here’s to hoping there’s a 2nd season. I want to see more Kazuma! And I want more Ayano x Kazuma moments. And I especially want to see Ayano act like an adult woman instead of a ditzy, crazy, and baka girl.

Thanks for continuing to read these blogs of mine! Much appreciated, especially for a newbie like me.

Until next time… Fin.

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