Shakugan no Shana III – Episode 18

The Palace of the Stars finally arrives over Misaki City and Yuji begins to enact his plan. First, his need for Yoshida becomes clear: Yuji must first undo the tuning of the city that Khamsin performed using her image of the city. Next, in order to give the Snake of the Festival the full power he needs to create the new world, Hecate sacrifices herself. However, the Gods of Earth then show up and start blowing away many of the minion denizens that have shown up, while Wilhelmina and Shana arrive in order to face off against Sydonay and Yuji.

Maybe you should know what you're volunteering for before you do it...

Well, as it turns out, Yuji did know about Yoshida and Pheles’ pact, and he has Bel Peol seal the pendant. I’m guessing that Yoshida will still somehow be able to use the pendant, but probably not until Bel Peol has been defeated.

Meanwhile…Hecate! NOOOOO! They just have her sacrifice herself just like that. We get a brief explanation of her purpose – namely to prepare for the Snake of the Festival’s return – but that’s about it. Just like that Hecate went from banging around her staff to being gone. I guess there goes my hope of her somehow turning around to the good side too.

This really is the beginning of the end of this series now. I figure we’ll have six episodes of massive fighting from here until the end (well, I suppose the last episode could be some sort of recap, so maybe only 5 episodes). We have yet to see Rebecca, Margery, and Khamsin show up, so I’m assuming they’re being held back in some sort of reserve for the moment.

I still have to wonder if The Spiral Organ has some how sabotaged the Snake of the Festival’s plans. He just doesn’t seem to be the type who would sacrifice the world in the long term in order to accomplish whatever goal they are trying to accomplish.

In any case, Yoshida seems to be kinda regretting her decision to help Yuji now which, one has to wonder what she was thinking in the first place. I know it’s Yuji, but he hasn’t exactly been on a trustworthy streak recently.