Shakugan no Shana Is BACK!
Posted by 0rion on January 11th, 2008 - 2:00 am
Finally finally finally FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY… after dicking around with filler arcs and side stories for what seemed like an eternity, they finally get around to the good part of the story. And thank goodness, because it is good indeed. I’ve been waiting to see this scene animated for a long, long time.
The last few episodes have been following the novels very closely, so it seems that they’ve decided to really get back on track. Man, it’s been a while since I watched an anime episode that made me giddy like this one did. Honestly, instead of wasting the first 7 episodes on filler stuff, they should have just jumped right back into the canon storyline and used the extra money on animating the fight scenes. Especially considering the speed at which they’re moving through the events in the novels; I mean, they basically covered almost half of one novel just in this episode.
I think I’m also finally beginning to see how they’ll work Konoe into the main plot. Really though, the story was fine beforehand; I don’t know what the point of adding her into the mix was, other than as a half-hearted attempt at being a romcom series. Oh well… hopefully they’ve at least managed to come up with something creative.
That said, episode 13 was awesome! Great music and great fight scenes, both things that have been sorely lacking up until now. It was good to finally see Pheles in action as well. I really like her character design, and Inoue Marina’s voice works extremely well for her. It’s very similar to her Yoko voice, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a negative.
Safer Pheles
Also, with the dark operatic music in the background, this shot totally felt like a Final Fantasy moment.
Mmm…kegadoru (bandage) moe mode for Margery-san. I approve.
At any rate, this gives me hope that J.C. Staff hasn’t completely wasted their budget on booze and pachinko, and that there’s still some hope for the key parts of the story that are coming to be executed well. Recently they’ve been doing a good job with following the novels closely and pacing the story well, so I’m cautiously optimistic that the series will improve from here on out.
If you’re one of those who was put off by the first couple episodes of this season, it looks like it may be worth picking the series back up again. And you can basically just start at episode 10, really, because everything before that is either filler or part of an independent side story (eps 8-9), so you would not be missing any of the “real” plot if you just jump right in at 10.
Finally…I dearly hope that this will be used in an upcoming Shakugan no Shana-tan omake. It would probably even make up for all of the wrong this season has done so far.
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Shakugan no Shana is BACK! And it’s kicking ASS and taking NAMES! YEAH! Bring me my BOW of BURNING GOLD, bring me my ARROWS of DESIRE . . .
Oh wait, this is another one I’m not watching. Still, time to note down ‘kegadoru’ for future use, and store away a few thoughts about the rate at which light novels are covered. (IIRC, Zero no Tsukaima II covered a whole novel in one episode. Now that’s what I call pace.)
THANK GOD! I missed you Shana!
Speaking of Shana. Ive been watching a lot of shows lately and the world is obsessed with either a bittersweet or depressing ending. Whats wrong with a happy ending every once in a while like Shana for example? I understand that people like the drama of say Sola with its amazing ending, or TTGL with various characters sacrificing themselves to save everyone, or School Days (which sucked in my opinion) with its “OMFG DIE BITCH DIE” ending, but more and more animes (spice-o-life excluded of course) are running with this EVERYONE-MUST-DIE end. Hopefully the second season of Shana ends in the same light as the first one; with a huge grin on my face! All im saying is im tired of all the death.
Well, I’m glad the story is finally back on track, at least somewhat.
Well I have to at least watch the first season before I get excited for this… but at least I know the second season becomes worth watching (at this point in time anyway).
Finally!!!
After 4 months of torture, Shana has truly returned to us all. Let’s hope that this episode isn’t a fluke and the momentum keeps going.
[…] more of a repetitive drama that failed to be really engaging. But with the recent episodes having kicked the series full throttle ahead, it might be time to pick up interest in the show […]
I have to agree with you on this. The fillers were a waste of time, but not entirely meaningless especially if they had to put in Konoe there. In case you haven’t noticed or have been updated, she looks like Hecate for a reason.
Still, this is what SnS should be made of. The one mistake J.C Animation made was to put in slice of life a few episodes too long.