[Anime Reviews]

Shakugan no Shana 1-4: wake up, you’re dead

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Shakugan no Shana]

One hell of an opening line, that (it’s from Clever Sleazoid, heathens). Given that I’d dipped my toes into the Shakugan no Shana franchise via the feature film, I already had some idea of how our hapless hero, who as the above title suggests snuffs it in the first few minutes, meets our favourite flame-haired tsundere…and fantastical hijinks ensue. I’m sure every blogger and his/her mum has seen this TV version before I have but the R2 DVD version has just washed up on our rainy shores and at a reasonable price too. To be honest I don’t care much for extras so a cheap disc with a respectable episode count and little else is fine by me.

The premise? Yuuji is an ordinary kid with an ordinary life but gets caught up in a battle involving two factions of beings from the Crimson Realm who eat human souls and those who fight to maintain the balance of existence respectively…and winds up dead, only not. Swordplay, bright lights, pretty-shiny explosions, supernatural stuff and funny stuff, etc., etc.. I’m sure you know all that better than I do if the Shana title led you to this post so I’ll leave the synopsis there.

[4 Comments]

[Editorials]

Flame Hazes and misanthropic medics: in defence of the tsundere

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Full Metal Panic, Over-analysis, Shakugan no Shana]

I’m not a huge fan of character archetypes at the best of times but if I had to pick one out that offers the most potential the tsundere is possibly the lesser of however many evils there are out there. Unlike the moe personality types and similar stock characters that I’ve grumbled about in months past, the tsundere concept has more going for it than the straightforward aggressive->gentle personality change or sensitivity behind a façade of belligerence. I’ll admit that these two are its main defining features, which is why many of us roll our eyes at yet another convenient blanket term to argue over. Nevertheless, it offers some things that stock characters rarely do: character development and some measure of depth.

You wanna argue with that? I thought as much

The tsundere is an extreme personality type and is somewhat over-used but it brings about effective insight into - and evolution of - a character’s personality when done right. Unfortunately I’ve yet to see the idea used much outside of the teen comedy or harem genres, which is a shame when the possibilities cover a wide range of character backgrounds and storylines (I’m not on about female characters exclusively, either). It’s also a manifestation of a character with depth; someone often suffering from some sort of inner conflict whose thoughts and feelings are, for whatever reason, not reflected in their words and actions. Both of these scenarios are to my mind interesting in themselves, and certainly shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand purely because the tsundere term is used to label a character or fit them into a pigeonhole.

[11 Comments]

[OAVs, Movies and Full Series]

Shakugan no Shana movie: red eyes and tears

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Shakugan no Shana]

Excuse my ignorance concerning the second and first seasons - that’s pretty much the point of this review. The Shakugan no Shana movie is, I’m guessing, a worthy companion piece for the series but I’ll leave that judgment for when I’ve got that far (and judging by the state of my backlog, you’re in for a fair old wait). If it’s intended to promote the series it does the job well by highlighting characters and ideas, but is also very enjoyable as an action piece by shifting on apace and covering a fair bit of ground. As an introduction then, it provided for me at least a balanced taste of what the series promises without being overly confusing or insular; at a shade under an hour and a half, it wasn’t too demanding of my time either. On the downside it’s still set in a school and the characters are drawn to be of that age accordingly, but you can’t have everything. ^_^’

[3 Comments]