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Nov 12 2005

Categories: anime, episodic review, shakugan no shana
Tagged: shakugan no shana

2 Comments »

There’s just nothing threatening about a doll otaku ringing a bell. Better villians, please!

The fights continue to be very uninteresting– is it just me, or can everyone toss around energy balls but Shana? What’s the point of having a very short range weapon when everyone else has long range attacks? Less DBZ, more Yagyu-Jubei, please!

And where’s the melon bread? Or fanservice? I’m so lost.

Shana and Yuuiji save the city and themselves, and they end up with a better appreciation for each other. When Yuuiji was watching Shana get tossed around like a rag doll and wondering, “I’m just a Shinji Ikari, what can I do?” I kept thinking of Iriya no Sora and Mahoromatic. (To a lesser extent, Konomimi, but I repressed memories of that series.) All of those series also have the average, normal guy with the extraordinary girl who has to save the world. In Iriya, Asaba helps Iriya by becoming her reason to fight and save the world. As they called it in the series, the puppy-dog project. For Mahoro, Suguru was someone she wanted to protect, and for their fight against Ryuga, it was Suguru willing to sacrifice himself to stop them that saves Mahoro. Now in Shakugan no Shana, Yuuiji helps Shana by directing her like Ash would direct Pikachu: “Behind you!” “Up top!” “Kick!” “Slash!” “Eat melon bread!” I should have seen this development coming from episode four‘s confrontation with the gym teacher.

The Shinji Ikari comparison is not fair. Yuuiji has significantly more spine, and he didn’t take advantage of the situation when Shana was down and out in the previous episode (i.e. Shinji did at the beginning of EoE). I think Yuuiji is more interested in surviving and not being forgotten, but now that he knows his flame isn’t going to go out soon, I wonder if he’ll wake up to the fact that Shana and Yoshida has the hots for him. The Shana and Yuuiji interaction is the strong suit for the series, and they shouldn’t stray far from that path. Shana and Yuuiji are almost on par with Hazuki and Kouhei (I can only hope for nekomimi Shana), but Shana’s action and fight scenes as well as villians just don’t compare to Tsukuyomi‘s.