Anim(e)ania is back once again with a review of Shakugan no Shana. Shakugan no Shana is a fairly recent title being released in 2006 and never really gathered much of a following in North America. It saw enough sales to be put into a Complete Collection DVD set that featured all twenty six episodes and a special OVA episode. There is a Season 2 and Season 3 has been confirmed as in the works, however, Season 2 has not yet been released in North America.
Shakugan no Shana starts off as the story of a high school student named Yuji Sakai. His life is going pretty well for him at the moment. However, his life takes a complete turn as he is heading home from the local CD store after school. Time seems to stop around him in a reddish hue and all the people around him stop in their tracks with a grey overtone covering them. Yuji can still move and before he knows what happened he is in the grasp of a gigantic baby monster about to be eaten. Luckily, a sword wielding flame haired girl saves him and defeats the monster.
Upon his rescue the girl lets him know that he is what they call a “Mystes”, nothing but a treasure for Flame Hazes like herself who cleanse the world of the monsters known as Denizens and Rinnes. She also lets him know that when a Rinne eats you in the frozen world you don’t immediately die. A replacement of your being is put in your place so that the balance of the world isn’t thrown off after a particularly devastating Rinne/Denizen attack. The replacements are known as Torches. Now, back to Yuji being called a Mystes, a Mystes is a tool…but a Mystes is also a Torch. She informs Yuji that his real self had died long before she had saved him. She even goes so far as, in the Japanese translation anyway, as to calling him the “leftover SCUM” of the real Yuji Sakai. As time goes on, however, the Flame Haze realizes that Yuji has a particularly special treasure inside of him. She must protect Yuji and make sure that the treasure inside of Yuji doesn’t fall into the hands of the Denizen and their Rinne servants. Yuji eventually gives the Flame Haze a name, he calls her Shana.
Now, that is the basic story behind Shakugan no Shana. The story comes off as quite deep because of how Yuji at first deals with being told that his real existence died long ago. It’s also an interesting character study because of how crude and brash Shana starts off. She has no qualms about delivering news in the harshest manner she possibly can in order to get the response she wants. But, as Shakugan no Shana progresses her personality does crack and we do see her for what she really is. On the subject of the story, it’s something that when you watch the first batch of episodes you think the pace is perfect. There is an obvious goal that needs to be achieved and there is an obvious antagonist that is still very mysterious. It has a great flow to it until about half way through the series, and then it starts flashing by way too fast. Everything just starts to happen so fast that you’re not really sure what any of the fuss was about. Even the final confrontation with the main antagonist doesn’t seem that epic because you were really just introduced to them two episodes ago so their potential to destroy doesn’t seem that great. It almost felt like the animators wanted this anime to be 35 episodes but they ran too close to the deadline or couldn’t afford another nine or ten episodes.
Another couple of things this anime does that I absolutely despise in more recent anime; the fan service episode and three or more episodes devoted ONLY on the past of a character that has nothing to do with the current time frame. Let’s start off with the fan service episode. I hate fan service episodes because they are an absolute waste of time and that’s usually what special OVA’s are for.
Basically, every fan service episode in an anime revolves around two scenarios. The main protagonist party has just received tickets to the local water park and, what do you know, they need bathing suits. The females go looking for bathing suits and there is always a shy girl that is goaded into getting one she hates for being too revealing. Everyone meets up at the water park, the girls in swimming suits that show off a little skin and the guys in typical board shorts. They have fun and nothing is accomplished story wise besides…fan service. The second scenario is that the group, after a fierce battle, decides that a dip into the local hot springs would be a great idea. This scenario can be made effective because the tender of the hot springs usually turns out to be evil and luring the party in so they can try to kill them. It never works and the rest is obvious. Shakugan no Shana uses the first scenario. Speaking of fan service and things that bug me, this is somewhat of a warning if you are thinking of picking this up. There are a pair of siblings in this series that get quite incestuous. Now, they don’t have sex or anything but they have full on tongue to tongue spit swapping kissing on numerous occasions. If that offends you then don’t even bother with the middle part of this series.
The next is that three episodes were devoted to the past of Shana and drifted totally away from the present time period. What I mean is we get to see Shana as somewhat of a child and how she trained to become a Flame Haze. Now, this can be effective if you don’t spend more than two episodes harping on her past or if you HAVE to have three or more…make sure she is TELLING someone about her past. In this case, Shana was asked why she liked Melon Bread so much, she drifts into thought about her trainer who would always buy her Melon Bread as a treat. That is how the flashback past three episode saga is started. She doesn’t say anything in the present time, she is just thinking about it and reminiscing on it to herself. It accomplishes nothing except to introduce ONE character to us that we wouldn’t have known about otherwise. It’s a complete waste of time to make it anymore than two episodes. You start to forget about the world she is ACTUALLY in and start to think the rest of the anime takes place in the past. THAT is not a good thing to have happen.
Those three episodes aside, Shakugan no Shana actually does a fairly good job with character development. You do start caring about their situation, especially Yuji considering the burden he has been given, and even with Shana and how her personality starts to change when she starts to become a somewhat normal girl. But, like I said before, it starts to move so fast that some of the other characters that were introduced to you and spent time on seem to get shifted to the back burner. There is a love…square…that takes place. Now, by love square I mean there are four love interests involved, so instead of forming a triangle just form a square with two guys and two girls that all at one point or another want to outdo and impress their respective crush. It’s a complex thing to do and for a while Shakugan no Shana pulls it off. But once it gets going, it just takes a backseat and one of the components of the square is never seen again until the final episode’s credits and it shifts to a love triangle.
Shakugan no Shana has some of the best visuals I’ve seen in a while, the animators really paid attention to the visual aspect of this anime. When Shana “transforms” it’s quite amazing because they get her to have this glowing feel to her without really making her glow. It looks like they just really increased the brightness on her skin, but it’s more than that…it’s hard to describe, but it’s stunning. She also gets these little sparks of fire that float around her that have that same glow to them and it really does look astounding.
Also, whenever there is an “Unrestricted Method”, it’s basically a fancy way of saying a spell, is being used there are these amazingly detailed arcane symbols that flash through the air in a flashy blue font, they look stunning but might be overlooked because of how often they are used.
So, overall Shakugan no Shana is a good anime. It isn’t GREAT, but it is one that you should try to check out if you ever get the chance to. It’s visually amazing and the story becomes quite deep and thoughtful when it really gets going. However, when the story gets a little past mid-way it seems to just blow right past you and never really fully develop every character it could. Fan-service episodes and too many back-story episodes do tend to slow the overall story down as well.
Overall, I give Shakugan no Shana 3 Arimasu Repetitions out of 5.
