Shikabane Hime: Kuro - Episode 3

With Makina and Ouri reunited last episode, it appeared that things were finally back on track and that the former was ready to accept the latter as her Contracted Priest. What's more, this episode begins with the news that their contract will be recognised by the Kougon cult if everything goes to plan.

Before that however, both Shikabane Hime and Contracted Priest have to go through their own forms of training to ready themselves for the battles ahead. In Ouri's case, this is pretty much just a crash course in "how not to die", whereas Makina has a far more tricky challenge - Purging herself of Keisei's influence as her former Contracted Priest. This proves to be beyond her, and before we know it a crazed (and not to mention powerful) Makina is on the loose, seemingly determined to break her contract with Ouri so that she can hold Keisei as her sole contractor, no matter what that may mean for her.


In the meantime, of course Shichisei aren't resting on their laurels, and thus they're already planning their next assault with an eye on flushing out Makina and Ouri. Add to that some back story regarding Itsuki (which looks likely to be the focus of the next episode even more so), and you have yourself episode three of Shikabane Hime: Kuro.

All in all, this counts as another "not bad" episode of this series, although given that we're now three episodes in I was expecting a little more progress by this juncture, something that has been delayed by the constant changes in Makina's mental stability. Perhaps all of this build up will bear fruit when things get really serious later in the series, but for now it's beginning to drag a little slightly, and the continuingly poor attempts at humour don't help in making each episode feel like less of a waste of time. Still, it took Shikabane Hime: Aka quite a while to really warm up, so I'm willing to remain patient for a little longer.