Shikabane Hime: Kuro - Episode 11

The last episode of Shikabane Hime: Kuro looked set to bring a swift and unavoidable end to the Shikabane Hime themselves, with the source of the "En" which connected them to their Contracted Priests irreparably and violently terminated. Hang on though, we've still got two episode left to go, so surely there's still a twist in this tale...

In fact, never mind one twist, for there are several present in this penultimate episode of the series, although for twists they're mighty predictable. For starters, once the Shikabane Hime appear to be out of the way, Akasha's first move is to contract to Hokuto as his Shikabane Hime, making for what looks on paper like an unstoppably powerful combination which also allows our betrayer priest to turn against Shichisei.


However, it isn't quite time to assume that Akasha is going to get things all his won way, as Ouri and Makina arrive on the scene (despite the loss of their "En"), vowing to put a stop to whatever he's plotting. At this point comes twist (that probably isn't to anyone who took note of the episode title) number two, as Akasha relates the story of his original Shikabane Hime and exactly what happened to her - A far cry from the story propagated by the Kougon cult.The biggest twist in this episode however is left until the end, offering up renewed hope for "the good guys" (although it is difficult to call anyone good per se in this series) as we move into the show's final episode.

Despite the telegraphing of the episode's shocking revelations, this was another pretty good instalment of Shikabane Hime: Kuro - The animation quality has definitely been on the up of late, Akasha's story of his Shikabane Hime and her fate was really excellently portrayed and handled, and even what could have been a pretty cheesy ending to the episode slotted in quite well to the overall feel of things to leave me eagerly awaiting the grand finale with more interested than I would have expected myself holding come the half-way point in Kuro. Much like a Shikabane Hime, this show seems to have roused itself from the dead in recent weeks...