No spoilers, but it will be really helpful for you if you have knowledge of the prior two seasons of this show. I'll explain some things, but if you haven't seen the first two seasons of Shana or at least have basic knowledge, you'll get confused easily. On with the impression.
Before I go any further, I think it would be good to give my overall opinion on the Shana franchise as a whole(though not in too much detail since I plan to review this franchise whether individually by title or as a whole later) and some background on what it is. So, this franchise started with Shakugan no Shana in 2006, an action-supernatural-school-romance anime produced by J.C Staff, and yeah, it was alright. It really encapsulates what most anime are like, a fiery tsundere heroine, a bland main protagonist, and a semi-serious plot inter cut with a high-school setting and the classic secondary love interest who doesn't stand a chance. I sort of viewed it as a standard for anime, something not too good or bad, but still had enough passion to be tolerable. Especially after the lackluster sequel to the series(Shakugan no Shana II), which had even more high-school crap I didn't care about, like at all, and I turned my sights on this franchise-concluding third series, my view of the series was that while it would be a fun journey with these characters through three seasons, and there would be some good memories along the way, the Shakugan no Shana franchise was never going to be anything special. But with my viewing of the first 4 episodes of this final season: Shakugan no Shana III may have an opportunity to prove me wrong.
It's interesting. I certainly won't pretend that these four episodes have been fantastic, I still don't think the anime has either the ambition or potential to become something legitimately great, but these episodes have shown that this franchise is able to take steps in the right direction. First, the whole twist involving Yuji this season is grounds for intrigue and development. I won't spoil anything, but motives and how it actually happened are things I'm really curious about, and this all blossomed in episode 4, which both in writing and character interaction has been maybe one of the best episodes of this entire franchise so far. In fact, it is actually kind of killing me right now to stop at that cliff-hanger ending to write this impression, and that is actually something that hasn't happened often with this franchise, and that's exciting to say the least. Also, it's nice to see the slice-of-life elements have finally gone and buggered off, the biggest problem with Shakugan no Shana II was that half of it was watching bobbing heads talking about who gets to make the main character's lunchbox, so dropping the slice-of-life elements to concentrate on the supernatural ones not only gains focus for the franchise now, but also stabilizes the tone. Shana has always been a bipolar show, half being slice-of-life and half being supernatural battles that were supposed to be taken seriously, but now seemingly everything is plot focused, and we don't need to spend the time between each battle going to theme-parks or festivals, but for world-building, the rules of this new season, and maybe even some character development. Which leads us to my final reason why I have hope for this season, no matter how small and insignificant.
I can say this safely, Shakugan no Shana, retrospectively, has some of the worst villains I've seen for awhile. I mean, how boring are Denizens? They are evil spirits who want to eat human existence and destroy the world or something. Why? Because they are evil. That's literally all we got from them for two seasons, and even when we meet the supposedly big baddies of the show, Bal Masque, they are some of the most boring and stereotypical antagonists you'll ever see, as if the creators of the show got a survey and checked off all the boxes for what they wanted for their "Insert Villain Here". But we're finally starting to make some progress. What's funny is that we've been concentrating on those villains more than our protagonists these few episodes, and while it has been only hinted, they might actually have some motive that they believe in. Whatever that is, I hope it is something actually thoughtful and justifiable, seeing all of the horrors that the Denizens have caused in the show, so that this might turn more from a battle of good and evil to a clash of ideals. That would impressive.
Call my cautiously optimistic I suppose. I still don't think Shana will ever truly astound me with its quality of storytelling, but I can appreciate that it has some grasp of escalation, because even if it has been sloppily handled here, that is something extremely important for any anime that goes over one season. Things are getting more serious. Character arcs are starting to circle back around, and Shakugan no Shana III looks like it will try to accomplish the mission to peel back the layers and themes of its world to reveal just how good it can be. Whether that is something good or something truly great, I'll have to wait. It can also fall on it's face of course, but it hasn't tripped up yet, and hopefully it won't ever. Because I do want to find it in my heart to like this franchise, but it needs to prove to me right here and now that it actual deserves it, and not something I can just give the dreaded label of "Average" and move on. Three strikes Shana, you're not getting any more from me.
Goodbye for now guys.
Click here for an anime review of Fate/Zero.
If you liked this First Impressions, click here learn mine on Hyouka.
Speaking of Shana, my Top Ten Anime "Ugly Ducklings" countdown is located here.
And if you feel up to it, follow me on Hummingbird or Twitter.
It's interesting. I certainly won't pretend that these four episodes have been fantastic, I still don't think the anime has either the ambition or potential to become something legitimately great, but these episodes have shown that this franchise is able to take steps in the right direction. First, the whole twist involving Yuji this season is grounds for intrigue and development. I won't spoil anything, but motives and how it actually happened are things I'm really curious about, and this all blossomed in episode 4, which both in writing and character interaction has been maybe one of the best episodes of this entire franchise so far. In fact, it is actually kind of killing me right now to stop at that cliff-hanger ending to write this impression, and that is actually something that hasn't happened often with this franchise, and that's exciting to say the least. Also, it's nice to see the slice-of-life elements have finally gone and buggered off, the biggest problem with Shakugan no Shana II was that half of it was watching bobbing heads talking about who gets to make the main character's lunchbox, so dropping the slice-of-life elements to concentrate on the supernatural ones not only gains focus for the franchise now, but also stabilizes the tone. Shana has always been a bipolar show, half being slice-of-life and half being supernatural battles that were supposed to be taken seriously, but now seemingly everything is plot focused, and we don't need to spend the time between each battle going to theme-parks or festivals, but for world-building, the rules of this new season, and maybe even some character development. Which leads us to my final reason why I have hope for this season, no matter how small and insignificant.
I can say this safely, Shakugan no Shana, retrospectively, has some of the worst villains I've seen for awhile. I mean, how boring are Denizens? They are evil spirits who want to eat human existence and destroy the world or something. Why? Because they are evil. That's literally all we got from them for two seasons, and even when we meet the supposedly big baddies of the show, Bal Masque, they are some of the most boring and stereotypical antagonists you'll ever see, as if the creators of the show got a survey and checked off all the boxes for what they wanted for their "Insert Villain Here". But we're finally starting to make some progress. What's funny is that we've been concentrating on those villains more than our protagonists these few episodes, and while it has been only hinted, they might actually have some motive that they believe in. Whatever that is, I hope it is something actually thoughtful and justifiable, seeing all of the horrors that the Denizens have caused in the show, so that this might turn more from a battle of good and evil to a clash of ideals. That would impressive.
 |
| Seriously Yuji, why couldn't have this happened, like, a season ago? |
Goodbye for now guys.
Click here for an anime review of Fate/Zero.
If you liked this First Impressions, click here learn mine on Hyouka.
Speaking of Shana, my Top Ten Anime "Ugly Ducklings" countdown is located here.
And if you feel up to it, follow me on Hummingbird or Twitter.
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