The Rise and Fall of a Flaming Loli

For every epic win…

I swore to myself that I wouldn’t bother bashing Shakugan no Shana Second anymore, but unfortunately inspiration isn’t something that one can control too much (and I needed something to get the April fool’s joke out of view). So here we go, I am going to share my deepest thoughts and feelings regarding this second establishment of Shana anime. Be advised that some spoilers can be found in the following text.

…there is a ton of fail.

Pointing out how bad show Shakugan no Shana Second is isn’t exactly a nice thing to do from a moral point of view. Like I mentioned in my previous post, it’s pretty much like making fun of a retarded and crippled kid, kicking him down the stairs and setting his wheelchair on fire. But you know, sometimes it’s just too fun to miss.

Shana’s first season was not the most ingenious and original anime series to the date nor even among the top 10 ones in that category, but it was nonetheless an enjoyable package of action, cute girls and clever plotline. Granted, the bad guys were the weakest link of the show, but that’s why I was waiting for the next season to make up for this flaw. And it indeed did, somewhat, but at the same time failed miserably at which its predecessor has succeeded.

In my previous post on the subject I wrote that the show is mostly unwatchable crap until the halfway. Well, now I stand corrected, because clearly this applies to the entire series. Shana Second does have its highlights of intense action and thrilling plot/character development such as Margery’s past, but these moments are spread far and wide along the 24-episode run of the show.

What’s the rest made of then? Filler arcs in the good ol’ Naruto-style? No, I can quite certainly say that Shakugan no Shana Second does not contain any fillers, but I wish it did. Instead the fabric of the show is made of long sessions of boring, extremely poorly executed relationship grind, monotonous babbling and overused flashbacks. If the actually plot-relevant parts of Shana Second were gathered in one solid package, I am quite sure it would make a potent 13-episode series. One can only wonder why as much as 24 episodes were used when most of it had to be spent on pointless boredom in a desperate attempt to fill up the scheduled weekly 25 minutes.

The first Shana season not only succeeded in slick action but also managed to build some nice tension between the characters, most notably in the form of a love triangle between Kazumi, Shana and Yuuji. Sure this isn’t the most original thing out there but it worked somewhat in bringing some extra spice in the soup. Second attempts to start developing from this basis but fails in an almost epic fashion. All attempts to create actual drama fall more or less flat and eventually the tension between Shana and Kazumi is reduced to laughably bad “love alliance.” The show also attempts to develope Kazumi as a character by putting her in the third wheel-role and possibility to help Yuuji by sacrificing her own life.

No wait just a second here. Sacrificing her life for a high school romance? Now, I’m not looking for True Tears-like portrayal of human emotions but that just ain’t normal. The devotion of Kazumi towards Yuuji reaches such proportions that it’s simply unbelievable and silly. Not to mention that interaction between Kazumi and Shana over Yuuji is like from a completely different, utterly screwed up and clichéd universe, even for a series of this kind.

But above all the weakest character of the show is definitely Yuuji himself. Setting aside his daunting obliviousness in romantic business which has long been the industry standard for male leads, his attitude towards the whole deal of events is just something I cannot comprehend. Such calmness and sheer ignorance towards one’s own life just is not something I can understand no matter what the consequences are and J.C. Staff is not even trying to present his resolve in a believable way. Also, the number of times he says “I must protect….” could rival Dianeira’s “Age…”-sighs from Heroic Age. Overall Yuuji gives me the generic cookie cutter hero-feeling which I have experienced far too many times already.

Technically Shakugan no Shana Second varies from tolerable to terrible. The artisty is very sloppy for the most part, especially in the meaningless and boring compared-to-this-naruto-fillers-gave-me-a-huge-boner-episodes. Some action scenes are very nice looking, while others are laughably badly done. My eyes aren’t lined with gold, but I did find the lack of attention to the visual presentation disturbing especially when the other content fails to make up for it.

The “emotional” scenes and overall direction are carried out in a way that would make Uwe Boll look like Steven Spielberg. The timing, dialogue and overall atmosphere building fail to create any kind of illusion of an emotional/moral dilemma or make the viewer to relate to the characters. Kazumi’s internal struggle is merely repeating the same flashback sequence over and over again accompanied with monologue that could rival the infamous badgerbadgerbadgerohgoditsasnake-flash animation in repetitiveness. Yuuji’s burning resolve is explained with his love for Shana and yet-to-born little sister, but neither of these are presented to the viewer except merely acknowledging their existence with a few sentences or maybe a scene that is soon forgotten. The “character building” the show wasted royal amount of time on in the beginning of its run could have been used for developing these crucial points to put at least some flesh around the bones of what’s supposed to be the main character.

The ending of the show feels like a rushed Japanese RPG final boss fight which does not really seem to have any notable effect on anything. Sure, Yuuji finally chooses between Shana and Kazumi but that’s about the only conclusive thing Shana Second manages to push out. The Bal Masque or whatever is still out there, up to their old bad tricks for simply the sake of being bad. The villains are developed a bit, but in exchange pretty much every other aspect in the show is weakened to the level at which it only succeeds at severely degrading the franchise. In a nutshell, Shana Second is like a half-ripe strawberry. What begins as sweet and refreshing ends up being a long, bitter grind until the end and runny stomach on the day after. A whole new meaning for the saying “Missed potential.”