Shakugan no Shana

Story

This anime talks about Yuji Sakai, a ho hum typical Japanese secondary schooler living his normal life. Suddenly out of nowhere, he was trapped in time freeze and much to his horror he facing strange entities "eating" people's essence. Uncomprehending to the new alien surrounding, he was spotted by the malevolent entity and the beings considered him quite a catch as they remarked he has a rare treasure within him. Grabbing him, ready for consumption, he was saved by another strange entity with red hot eyes and burning hair armed with ancient Japanese sword. The entity resembled a young girl and she dutifully dispatched the hungry beings while bewildered Yuji looked on. She then restored the situation and after being prodded by Yuji, she snapped that he is already dead and his existence is temporal.

From there, he found out that the world he just witnessed is a major battlefield between denizens of the realm, one side disregarding balance of existence while the other one fought to preserve it. The person saved him has no name, hence he decided to name her Shana, the first link of humanizing her. The series went on how they become close together, how both of them grow and becoming who they are in the end of the series.

Shakugan no Shana is based on series of light novels by Yashichiro Takahashi and illustrated by Noizi Ito. It has since adapted into 24 episode anime series and a manga project. Using some elements of mysticism, sci fi and chambara traditions, this anime managed to climb out from typical magical girl with sword genre thanks to good characterization of the principal players in the story.

Rating: 8

Art

The animation and art is sufficient for the series portrayal of the characters. Nothing too fancy except for occasional CG and little bit more animation towards the end of the series. The character design reminded me a bit too much of Haruhi since they shared same illustrator but it did not detract anything from real purpose of anime should be, good storytelling. To summarize my opinion here, the art is adequate to convey what it needs to convey and nothing more.

Rating: 6

Sound

The voice actresses of series (Japanese) lived up to their reputation such Kawasumi Ayako ( Lafiel and Saber), successfully fleshing out the people as the voices is convincingly fit the character. Shana's VA Rie Kugiyama brings out her feisty spirit well and viewers really get the feel from her as a hotheaded, no holds barred warrior female.

The first OP (Hishoku no Sora by Mami Kawada) is pretty catchy and so is the first ED (Yoake Umarekuru shōjo by Yoko Takahashi). I personally however find second ED (Aka no Seijaku by Yoko Ishida) a bit weak, not as dramatic as first one which really wraps up the anime well. The second OP (Being by KOTOKO) is adequate but nothing much to shout about it.

The OST fits the mood of the show, from foreboding tunes of incoming battle to theme of Shana herself. Admittedly this is where anime shines the most. The music fits and enchances the story quite a notch.

Rating 8

Presentation

Shakugan no Shana actually takes time to develop the characters and this is what makes it different from other magical anime out there. There is only total of 1 filler episode of the rest which in my opinion a good call on director's main part to focus on story development, not moe pandering. However, I felt there is not enough backstory on villians especially Hecate esepcially her reason to be what she is in the show. She appeared in background but it is a mystery on why she is obsessed with Yuji's treasure or why she becoming what she when she appear in the anime. We all knew quite a bit about Flame Haze in 2/3 of the story but very little is known about other Denizens which called Ball Masque in the show. The first villian, Furigane also have sparse background story which makes it difficult to imagine why he is a powerful Denizen or his reason to be. Not to mention who is Bel Peol, Sydonay or the Researcher. Very little information is known about them.

I always believe that well fleshed out villian enchances the story a lot.

Some commentators accused this anime as excessive pandering of lolicon moe with Shana herself as main focus. I would have to concur with this observation but what makes this anime above average is because the story is well developed on general and main characters actually grew up as the story progresses. Thus, if viewers can look over the moe lolicons and look at the story itself, the anime actually offered a lot.

The matured ladies such as Margery and Wilhemnia have their respective role to play but I liked Margery especially as her character is very interesting to follow in my opinion. She is a flawed person which made her more compelling to watch as compared to tactiturn maid. Surprisingly, the anime devote quite a segment developing Margery which made her quite likable instead of just an irritating sidekick or villain of the week feel in the series.

I would heartily recommend this anime to casual watchers as the story is well presented, developing characters and good sound support in OST department.

Credits : Sources from : Here!!!

Utar CI

My frens and housemates who know me long enuf definitely understand my behaviour...


U know y i do my own lab report? bcz during foundation, miss wong (chemistry lecturer) she knew I copied one, so she gave me 3/6 like tat oni... so little, tats y i do it on my own...

During CI Y1 S1, this problem occurred when I carried out the experiment by myself... Group members were fixed so u cant choose anyone u like... My team mates consist of 5 ppl, one girl, a girl u would say SOHA* when u work with her...

She jus sit there, asked us : 什么result? 给我! wah, tat time i heard this, and my heart replied : yes ma'am yes ma'am i shall give u the answer and results, i shall serve u.... D....
Really cant understand, sit there, she thought she is the boss there, we are the workers, oh wrong term, is we are the KULI!!! Buzz off, loser...

sommore she was asked to listen to the officer lab's instructions on plotting the graph, and we carried out the experiment... when done, we asked her how to plot, she said : 其实我不懂老师在讲什么 ...

nvm i still can accept... when reaching the deadline, we asked her know how to plot ar? she said, dono... FINE.... then wat shocked us was she is the first one to pass up the report... then we asked permission from lab officer to view it.... GOSH, everything complete...!!! KANASAI man....


Every lab session also like tat, so u can imagine how teruk we were... Nvm, she still haven changed abit... bcz some ppl drop redi so we aren't in the same group anymore, but she still cling on us, and took MY reports from MY bag and copy... when i saw her i asked her : wat r u doing?
She replied : ohh, 我的result 画不到 graph, so 我 看看 你 的result .... wah sai!!!

this one I really beh tahan... not only one person, jus now one of our group members (this time our group consist 10 ppl) who came for lab jus for a while and ponteng, (din do any experiment, not even assisting) msn me, : yi gang where is the result for soil compaction? Din do experiment still dare to ask for results.. U SUDAH MAKAN 豹子胆 ar??

another SOHA* treat me like an idiot... bcz tomolo is due date, so he so Gan Jiong asking me for result... Really deng man.... I worried one day I might get stroke bcz of this...
I really beh tahan they all... feel like wanna use bankai and kill them ALL....

They oni know copy others and don wan let ppl copy... how can like tat one, they don share theirs, but they took mine... WTF??? Last time I copied and modified but I oso share leh... they jus copy and din even change a word, bulat bulat copy... if they copy and change it is still accpetable... WTH is this man...??? the girl is worst, go curi curi my bag and my files took one by one out, so daring!!!

is not tat i don let them copy, jus tat don bulat bulat copy la...


(sorry for any vulgar words, I don mean to use it, but no choice, cz they deserve those words...)

Sports != sports on bed

After a long while din touch basketball, my bones and ligaments started to crack... Energy level degraded... this morning i played 2 hrs basketball with coursemates... slimmest but not the shortest...

Sitting listlessly in front of my electronic blog, it had drained enormous amount of energy, my power of existence, which is 'sonzai no chikara'... being used up like tat...

My favourite anime character is still unchanged... Shana...

Enpatsu Shakugan no Uchite (炎髪灼眼の討ち手) soshite Tenjō no Gōka (天壌の劫火)

Really hope there is a real thing called power of existence... then it would be interesting lol...


when u see me, u definitely think im a nerdy of jus sit in front of computer, playing games... then u r 50% wrong...

since primary, im active in sports, but definitely not sports on bed... Im hav no exp in tat, sorry man, so cannot become ur coach...

badminton- can play with u...
soccer- can entertain u...
tennis- can gua, wont die lo...
table tennis- learning in progress...
squash- i dono...
basketball- ok ok lo...
futsal=soccer
bowling- girl punya game, but i play...

common sports i know how to play and can play with u one...
haha, piano oso can play play just classical pieces oni... and now i have one apprentice learning basic things from me... and KNS he wans to learn virtual keyboard, not the real one leh.... d....

this one how i know wor?

Now really no energy, jus left the energy to write blog, already used up the energy to pangsai... even don hav energy to PUTT the shit come out arrrrggghhhh.....




~sleep~

Dream Shana...

Which one, this one is BURNING HAZE...

This one is nicer and is it easier to read or compare to the current one leh?
Jus drop some comments and let me know...

The color of the words can be changed and i think this suits the theme with shana... the flaming hot burning eyes with red hair Flame Haze...

Jus voice out which one is better for reading purpose and is nicer la...

Lol...

Many ppl wan me change to blogspot, saying that is user friendly wor...

Trying now, nothing to post leh...
Just a plain text lo...


And now out of sudden, Kelvin from SRC sms me, spamming my inbox saying that he is bored bcz after yesterday's blackout he cant go online... swt la...

I sincerely invite him come to my house to USE my internet FREE OF CHARGE
and now he is saying that very far la bla bla bla....

so i understand its hard to be come a good ppl...

-system message- first blog testing in blogspot is done... 100%
preparing to offline...
logging off...

shuting down....

~piuks~
(monitor off)