Shakugan no Shana Review!
Title: Shakugan no Shana
Director: Takashi Watanabe
Japanese Production Studio: Shakugan no Shana Production Committee
Type: (TV)
Number of Episodes: 24
Vintage: 2005-2006
US Licensing Company: Geneon Entertainment
Genre: Sci-fi, Shounen
Related Series: Shakugan no Shana (Movie) ~ Not released yet.
Reviewer: EternityOfPain
General Summary
Sakai Yuuji is a normal high school student, with average grades and was accustomed to the same old routine of getting up in the morning, coming to school then going back home. One day as he is coming home from school it turns to be quite different from the norm when a creature called “Rinnes” begin eating the power of existence from the surrounding people in an area of space referred to as a “Fuzetsu” where normal “torches” are unable to move in. To add to the weirdness Sakai dies and becomes something referred to as a “torch” only later to find out that his real “self” died (so basically to keep the balance “torches” are individuals who there real “self” died and they are basically a replacement so as to not to disturb the balance which is later explained in the series). Among these odd events he meets a girl who is the “Flame Haze of the Holy Flames” who declares she travels around hunting these Tomogara and Rinnes trying to maintain the balance. Also Saki is not a normal “torch” but rather a “Mistes” which enables the individual to move around in the “Fuzetsu.” Eventually
Art and Animation
The art is quite good; I believe they did a very good job working with the background detail of the city, as well as the characters themselves. As far as animation goes, the battles are very clean and well animated. It is not very often that series put forth so much effort in detailing the sub characters but this series does just that. Easily two thumbs up in this category.
Character Development and Storyline
The characters are very well developed we start off learning quite a bit of Saki Yuuji character early on in the series and notice change throughout the series. Really all the characters in Shakugan no Shana undergo some sort of change especially Saki and Shana. Shana we learn quite a good deal about her throughout the series, and they did a really good job. The characters are quite memorial in the fact of how they got along, it was just right off the back “oh lets team up and fight evil” it was much more then that, a lot more complex I should added. The pacing of the show is fantastic, through the series you come to a point where for two or so episodes it focuses on Shana childhood which I really thought was great because it allowed the viewer to get to know Shana more and where she comes from. Also you will learn the mystery behind her obsession with melon pan! The show was quite powerful throughout, of course during battles it was more serious compared to the school life episodes but I believe they did a good job blending them in. The story did indeed have an impression on me and I really was interested in the show the entire time. The ending of the show was fantastic, its one of those ending that just make you happy you watched the series (sorry but it’s a bit hard to describe!).
Final Summary
All in all, I really did enjoy this series. The characters are wonderful, the storyline is great. I highly recommend this series to anyone who likes sci-fi action as well as some minor romance on the side. I heard that there is supposed to be a movie released soon so that’s something to look forward too. My final remark is that I do recommend this series simply because I don’t see anything wrong with it. Perhaps that’s a flaw itself! In the end its really up to you, I believe no one should actually trust just one review, I highly suggest after reading this (I do assume you are I hope!) that you try reading others review and then finally formulate your own opinion of the series. I hope if you do choose to watch it that you find it just as enjoyable as I did.
Rating: )))).gif)
