Chrona is now Krona …

Summary:

Will Soul be alright? But of course! The show has 43 more episodes so we can’t just lose our main character in episode 8 (OMG! ::mourns the death of Kamina::).

For reasons that even I cannot understand, I’ll just be referring to Chrona as a ‘he,’ and I think blissmo is doing the same.

Maka recollects how well their mission went up until the point that she opened the chapel doors which lead to Soul’s serious wound. Medusa orders Chrona to devour their souls and Maka just holds Soul’s limp body in her arms despite his commands for her to flee. Just as Chrona raises her sword, a blade blade pierces through the door and her alike; black blood flings out of her back. The blade weakens the door and a foot kicks through – the foot of Stein. Maka is surprised but realizes that the black blade is non other than Death Scythe, her father. Death Scythe thinks to himself about how Maka must think he’s awesome, but she and Stein have turned their attention to the wounded Soul. Things then get serious for Shibusen’s top two; Stein and Death Scythe turn towards Chrona to exterminate the threat that they came to quell.

They understand that Chrona will become a Kishin later on if they don’t stop her now, so they break into the fight. What follows next is a very awesome, straight-forward battle between Stein and Chrona. Death Scythe is strong enough to absorb the vibrations of Ragnarok and Stein is skilled enough to deflect Chrona’s attacks, but the real trouble is the blood. Because Ragnarok is a part of Chrona (literally in her blood), he can not only harden the blood for defense but also turn each and every droplet into a weapon. Stein’s fighting style isn’t acrobatic like Maka’s, but relies on stance. He doesn’t always use the scythe as a weapon but also uses palm strikes to pump his own wavelength into the opponent. This actually could be more because of Chrona’s blood being so deadly, but I assume he’d fight in this same style in other matches, using Death Scythe more as a parry and deflect tool.

Medusa is using this fight as a test for Chrona and even wonders just how long he can last. Stein sees the enemy soul, it is a large soul with an X on it like Ragnarok’s face that envelops the entire user. He comments on how Chrona looks to be being bullied by the weapon and is close to being completely overtaken by it, but he is currently trying to fight back. The real mystery to Stein is the black snake that surrounds them. This bullying isn’t just in the souls. All throughout the fight, Ragnarok pinches and pushes Chrona and he just doesn’t know how to deal with this treatment.

Stein knocks Chrona through the doorway with another blast of soul wavelength and follows after him. He falls into Ragnarok’s trap and gets caught off guard and stabbed with the bloody needles for a second time. The wound, like the previous, isn’t terribly serious so he fights on, but the blood droplets have completely surrounded him this time. So he starts spinning the scythe and displaces the area with a defense attack from his soul wavelength, Experimental Spirit Body. This is used as a diversion from his real plan. Stein leaves Death Scythe standing upright and comes down in an areal attack to deliver a double palm soulforce directly to Chrona. This time the blood that comes out is actually liquid; the battle is won.

Stein is about to finish off Chrona and Medusa is sad to see her experiment coming to a close, when Chrona and Ragnarok start having serious problems. Chrona and Rangarok souls have begun rejecting one another. With this turn of events, Medusa decides to release her Soul Protect. Her soul resonates with fierce wavelengths, making her known to Maka and Stein alike. Her huge, powerful soul surrounds a large area around her body.

Maka wonders why it is so that she could not detect the witch’s wavelength so Stein confirms the Soul Protect ability which is an advanced magic some witches use: it allows them to hide their existence and pretend that they’re normal humans. Medusa attacks by aiming lines of arrows towards Stein and Death Scythe, but the pair resonance their souls and use the Witch Hunter skill to deflect the magic. Medusa summons a snake and it moves to where Chrona lies and picks it up in its mouth. The witch bids them farewell and departs. Stein decides not to follow them because he’s more concerned about Soul’s health.

In the showers, Tsubaki overhears the incident and Soul’s condition. Maka waits outside the medical clinic until Stein comes out with good news. He informs her that the surgery was a success and all that Soul needs is some rest. Immediately, Maka rushes in to see him while Death Scythe appears and warns Stein that he shouldn’t lie. When he asks for Soul’s real condition, Stein replies that Ragnorok’s blood has entered Soul’s bloodstream, so he has no idea what will happen to him now. Inside, Maka apologizes to Soul and bursts into tears. Suddenly, Black Star arrives and tries waking Soul up. Medusa walks in as a nurse and tells Maka that she can become strong.

The Maka Chop will never grow old

Poor Chrona … he’ll never know what hit him …

Now I know why they call her Medusa

Lovely Maka shot

Thoughts:

This episode was absolutely awesome. The only issue I had was that the way the bad guys always end up leaving is so typical, but then again, I guess it creates suspense. It would’ve been cool if we didn’t know that Medusa was also a nurse at Shibusen or she wore a disguise that somewhat looked like Medusa but made us think that she wasn’t. I hope Soul is okay but I think he’s going to get manipulated by Medusa from now on and she’s going to be able to control him like she does with Chrona. The part when she announced that she would punish Chrona, but before that punish Stein and Death Scythe was brilliant. I’m glad that there were at least some humour in this episode, especially with Death Scythe and Black Star. Maka’s getting better at the Maka Chop, but I hope we haven’t seen the last of Shinigami Chop either. Stein and Death Scythe’s resonance soul thing wasn’t that awesome, but the action was hot nevertheless. Next week definitely looks like it’ll be fun because it’s Death the Kid plus Black Star. Hilarity will ensue, no doubt.

I didn’t absolutely love the fight choreography in this episode as much as others, but I must commend the artist for giving Stein such a bad ass and straight-forward stance. It isn’t all acrobatic and theatrical like I (and probably many other anime viewers like), but he was just hauss the way he deflected attacks. His moves her simple but very effective. The Resonance between Death Scythe and Stein wasn’t as flashy as I expected, but I can only assume that it wasn’t the full power and that was just a quick burst to counter the witch attack. Plus, that clicked in my mind. Witch Hunter…. witch. COME ON MAN, KILL HER!

Medusa’s magic is also pretty awesome. The zig-zag attacks got me bouncing in my seat and the snake tattoo coming to life just made me drool. Frankly, that was hawt.

I’m still confused about the Chrona boy/girl bit, but I know that won’t clear up so I’ll just deal with it. I think it’s safe to say boy even though I always second guess it and almost write ‘girl’ each time I wrote about him.

I must agree with blissmo about the comedy in the episode. It’s not that I was relieved to see them do something comedic, it’s just that, if I was drinking anything I would have shot liquid out my nose like a spigot when Black Star came in, straddled Soul, and attempted to shake him awake. It was probably the funniest bit the series has done so far. I won’t deny that there will be more funny things, but I just think this was the best yet.

Also, wtf about Medusa being a nurse. That just made me angry. I mean, seriously. Did they even look up and at least see the exact same hairstyle sticking out of that hood? Yeesh! I don’t know, but developments like that in the plot are indeed great and can provide some seriously thrilling situations, but I must say that I didn’t see it coming and I didn’t like it when it did come.

Preview: The Sword of Excalibur