Wow… hisashiburi… o___o Despite the lack of activity in the blog lately, rest assured that all the chefs are still alive and kicking :p They’ve just been caught up with work, and real life in general. Hopefully, we’ll get the blog back on track again (and hopefully be able to reply to all the piled up comments as well x___x)~

And with this update, I bring the long overdue Kaze no Stigma Episode 15 summary and commentary, and some deep frying mix to boot (boy did I miss deep frying~). I hope you guys still read this despite the delay~ and… enjoy the deep frying especially!

Kaze no Stigma Episode 15 – Catherine Returns

Screenshots

Summary

Catherine still haven’t left Japan and is currently wreaking a mayhem by hunting youmas in the city, which she considers to be her way of training to defeat Ayano. Kirika asks for Kazuma’s help with regards to this matter when they stumble upon Catherine, the perpetrator herself. Catherine gets insulted that Kazuma thinks of her training as useless, then finally realizes that she’s not at par with his skills as she sorely loses in their match. Kazuma says that there’s something wrong with the way Catherine fights. She attacks simply with Metatron and loses her ace when this sole weapon of hers is defeated. Catherine finds Kazuma cocky yet admits the truth in his words and wonders why Kazuma is telling her all these when he’s supposed to be the ally of her opponent Ayano. Kazuma however thinks of himself as simply a “partner for a bargain”, where he is sort of employed by people to do certain tasks for them. Catherine then hires Kazuma to be her coach.

Yukari hears rumors about Kazuma talking a walk with a beautiful woman who certainly looks perfect for him. “But such a thing doesn’t mean anything to Ayano, right? Since she doesn’t have anything for Kazuma” says Yukari and Nanase, while knowing just how infuriated Ayano must already be feeling with the rumor they mentioned. Ayano pretends not to be affected by this, something she’s never good at (an expected reaction from Ayano). Kazuma suddenly comes to the same restaurant simply to inform Ayano about the challenge from Catherine in a week. Ayano can’t believe that Kazuma agreed to coach Catherine when he’s supposed to be her bodyguard, but Kazuma says he doesn’t remember anything of his services being exclusive to hers.

Kazuma coaches Catherine who develops a new strategy for fighting against Ayano which he believes will be more effective than Metatron, considering that both of them have similar way of fighting – going all out with a single strike. Some random accident happens and Catherine realizes that she’s smitten with Kazuma. Soushu and Ren are shown in some scene similar to (or rather COMPLETELY same with) the previous episode, talking about Ayano’s “rival”. Soushu sighs as he was hoping a different kind of rival will arrive to make Ayano and Kazuma’s relationship become better. That same night, Ayano vents out her anger for Kazuma with a “specialized Kazuma pillow”

The day before the fight, Ayano indulges herself to sweets, confident that Catherine’s flame is no match for her Enraiha (but of course feels mortified that Kazuma’s coaching her). Catherine goes to the same restaurant with Kazuma and flaunts about their “closeness”, which almost led to a duel between the two hot-blooded women, hath Kazuma not stood in between them. Catherine warns Ayano that she’ll be taking Kazuma to America if she wins, believing that Kazuma can’t stand being with Ayano. Yukari and Nanase cheers for Ayano, advising her that the right thing to say at this time would be “Kazuma is mine!” Kazuma doesn’t have any complaints because of the reward he’ll be getting in return, infuriating Ayano even more.

Kazuma warns Catherine for making Ayano snap, knowing how she gives out everything when she’s angry. Catherine isn’t the least bit affected by this, and goes all bashful as she tells Kazuma that she was serious about what she said earlier, then exclaims her full motivation to defeat Ayano. On the way home, Ayano suddenly blurts out, “I’ve decided! I won’t let Kazuma go to America!” Yukari and Nanase were thinking Ayano finally became honest with her feelings with this declaration, dismayed that her reason for is solely because of her unfulfilled “mission” of splurging Kazuma’s money on various restaurants.

The day of the duel comes, and Ayano easily defeats Metatron as expected. Catherine however still has other tricks up her sleeves thanks to Kazuma, and is now able to control several wisps to her advantage. Ayano struggles in battle because of her lack of experience in fighting this number of opponents all at one time. Catherine’s sardonic laughs and imagination of how she’ll be spending time with Kazuma brings Ayano back to her feet, and eventually defeats all the wisps and finally, Catherine herself. Catherine finally accepts defeat and both she and Ayano compliment on how each of them fared well in this battle.

Kazuma thinks that Catherine could’ve had a chance to actually win in the battle if she didn’t become careless, and both Yukari and Nanase realize how Kazuma meant this battle for the development of Ayano’s skills. Ayano demands Kazuma to treat her to a meal because of her victory, and Catherine reprimands her lack of respect for “her Kazuma”. It seems that the two women still didn’t become friends in the truest sense of the word as they remain rivals for the love of Kazuma.

Thoughts

This is what I’ll really call, a “filler episode” (the GONZO version at least), since Catherine had the ‘spotlight’ for this one, with not much Kazuma x Ayano antics and entertainment to actually merit its own episode. If they were just going to butcher this episode the way they did, I really believe they could’ve just focused their energies on the other short stories for more solid developments in the KazuAya relationship. Just like Soushu, I was kind of hoping that the rivalry will stir up some things Kazuma and Ayano, and despite the fact that Catherine could contribute to that, that impact wasn’t really shown in this episode (the novel at least gives us some nice KazuAya moment in the ending)

Rather than showing developments in Kazuma and Ayano’s relationship, it’s more like they showed how Catherine became an addition to Kazuma’s growing harem ^^;;;; (and the next episode will still be featuring Catherine and the other girls, in onsen) After the “great omission” in the last episode, this episode seriously didn’t make up for that loss. I’d rather see Ayano in her sensitive and sweet self rather than her impulsive and short-tempered personality as depicted by GONZO most of the time =___=

Kazuma once again showed his money-loving and sarcastic side in this episode as he agreed to coach Catherine because of the great reward he’ll be getting in return. Not only that, he was more than willing to go to America with her for the same reasons as well >< But then I guess Kazuma had this faith that Ayano will certainly win the fight and agreed to coach Catherine knowing beforehand what the outcome of the battle is going to be (these are my words without having read the novel)

It is worthy to note that the anime made quite some drastic changes in Catherine’s personality, turning her into some lovestruck dumb blonde of some sort, from her originally rational and calculating self, who even played mind games throughout her duel with Ayano. Her cynical and irritating laughs, and most of the bashful expression she showed in the anime weren’t really in the novel. There was probably some laughs, but not this often and irritating (supposedly). I think I’ve only read about Catherine blushing when Kazuma patted her head and told her to do her best, since he was treating her like a child. And, there’s no mention about Catherine referring to Kazuma as “my Kazuma” This made Catherine all the more… annoying (compared to her original serious self portrayed in the novel) ><

There wasn’t a silly accident in the novel either… that was really uncalled for, in my opinion. From the looks of it, GONZO is turning KnS into a fanservice venue of some sort… making changes to characters as well as the setting (like the next episode) in order to make this possible. And well, this goes to show how they don’t really take this series seriously =___=

And now for the deep frying…

On Kazuma vs Catherine’s Battle

Kazuma and Catherine’s battle didn’t end as quickly as in the anime (due to time constraints? -> the usual excuse), and its impact was greater (with regards to crushing Catherine’s pride). Kazuma actually used a knife as his weapon, which he used for crushing Metatron (coupled with his l33t wind abilities of course). After defeating Metatron, he goes as far as holding the the knife against Catherine’s neck. You can just imagine the fear she experienced that time… But despite all this, Kazuma simply referred to himself as a “regular ‘free’ (freelance?) wind user”, resulting to Catherine’s disbelief that an ordinary wind user can do all these feats (”You’ve gotta be kidding me”, she says) :p

On Catherine’s Pride(?)

Catherine was shown to have much more pride (or feels like she’s a VIP) in the novel when she appears late for battle and just tells Ayano “Oh, it seems that I’m a little late…” (and I imagine her having this scornful face ^^;; ) Ayano insults her for not knowing how to tell the time, and calls her a “yankee girl”. Ayano further insults her lack of intelligence for not being able to understand or accept the difference in their skills when Catherine was defeated the last time. (Ayano’s really confident of herself… or rather, over confident actually)

It wasn’t explicitly explained how Ayano knew about Catherine’s challenge but I believe Kazuma was also the one who told her about it. He just didn’t mention early on that he was actually the one who became Catherine’s coach. The only time Ayano found out about this was on the day of the battle herself, where Catherine apologizes for this late introduction to her “partner” Kazuma (and offers to light his cigarette as shown in the pic above).

Just a side note, Ayano certainly won’t lose to Catherine, so she and Kazuma also has their own version of this cigarette-lighting thing (see pic below) :p

On The Real Catherine vs Ayano Duel (and the cute little Kazuma x Ayano antics)

If only the anime portrayed the battle (as well as the other KazuAya antics omitted yet again) more closely to the novel, then this episode would not have been so absurd. Catherine is supposed to be a much serious character (and less annoying), and her battle with Ayano should’ve showed how smart and calculating she can be (much smarter than Ayano). Catherine knows well that Ayano’s skills is of a different level than hers, hence she became somewhat desperate in their battle and went beyond what Kazuma simply taught her (playing mind games with Ayano, as well as coming up with her own strategy).

Ayano’s victory wasn’t certain after she defeated the wisps (who are actually formed from the remains (?) of Metatron after it becomes ‘purified’). Catherine even told her not to be so sure of herself because she still has an ace left for their battle. Ayano doesn’t believe this, until she becomes caught off-guard as Metatron suddenly [re]appears to attack her (she was able to bring back Metatron, from the remains of the wisps this time). And just when Ayano thought it was gonna be her loss, Catherine runs out of energy because she overdid it ^^;;; (it was like one second away from victory) Given that situation, it’s pretty clear how Ayano didn’t really “win” (in terms of showing whose skills are superior), but since she was the one left standing, she sort of became the winner by default :p

Kazuma patted Catherine’s head as he smiles and tells her about how she really fared well in the battle, and Ayano can’t help but feel a little envy :p Kazuma then tells Ayano that if Catherine was able to hold out a second longer, it certainly would have been her lost. Ayano knows this well and was speechless Kazuma then asks her, “It was a good experience isn’t it?”, and Ayano nods in agreement. Ayano not only realizes how Kazuma did this for her sake (unlike in the novel x___x), but also the fact that there are a lot more opponents out there who are far stronger than her. She therefore has to be able to know how to go about facing and defeating these opponents. (Take note that this is already in the later short stories, published in the recently released 4th Ignition novel, hence Ayano is much more mature than she used to be, or rather, than she was portrayed in the anime)

And because Catherine did everything she can for the battle, Kazuma actually showed sympathy and was holding her in his arms throughout this conversation. Ayano asks him how long he intends to have her in his arms, but Kazuma simply tells her that it can’t be helped given what Catherine has been through in their battle. Ayano gets all jealous and says that it’s not like Catherine is going to die or something, making Kazuma remark “Whoa, how mean” Ayano was even more surprised and jealous when Kazuma told her about bringing Catherine back home, telling him that he’ll be better off not concerning himself with “that woman” (and Ayano was already blushing furiously at this point.. she was just letting out some pouting :3)

Kazuma looks at Ayano and understands exactly what she meant. He explains that “it’s not like that”, since it’s simply his responsibility to ensure the safety of the one who called him for the job. And the rest of the conversation went like:

Ayano: I understand that, but…
Kazuma: Then (if you understand) stop saying such ridiculous things.
Kazuma: And besides, this girl is already going back to America. Getting jealous over someone who won’t be around anymore is useless, you know.
Ayano: Wha–!! (blushes furiously)
Ayano: Who says I’m jealous?!
Kazuma: Hmm? I was mistaken? Well, whatever it is, there’s nothing for you to worry about. Rest assured that I will treat you with much care (or ‘give you some tender loving care’ :p) when I’m your bodyguard.
Ayano: Wh-Wh-Wha–!! (speechless and dumbfounded XD)
(and… Kazuma makes his ‘escape’)

in the end, it looks like Catherine still didn’t go back to America, but she didn’t appear in the “father and son” chapter in the novel (which was published much earlier than this story).

(oh, and just an additional note, the scenes with Yukari and Nanase were just anime add-ons, which was supposedly meant to make the episode more entertaining. But with all the butchering, of course that didn’t become apparent to me ><)

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