Shakugan no Shana II (Second)

Denizens from the Crimson Realm continue to infiltrate Misaki City and steal life energy from humans. To combat this threat, Flame Hazes are tasked with saving humans from losing their existences. But while it is a Flame Haze's duty to protect humans, Shana—the "Flame-Haired Burning-Eyed Hunter"—seems to be focusing her attention on one human in particular: Yuuji Sakai, a teenage boy who was unwittingly dragged into the fight between Crimson Denizens and Flame Hazes. Since her first encounter with Yuuji, Shana has started to see him as more than just a friend. In fact, Yuuji wonders if Shana might have revealed her feelings to him once before, but it is difficult for him to confirm due to her hot-and-cold personality. Nonetheless, their days pass like any other, until a new transfer student arrives at their high school—one who bears a striking resemblance to an old enemy.

Yuuji and Shana have no time to dance around their feelings for each other; while their adversaries from the Bal Masqué organization plan their next attack, the two must keep their guard up as they explore the origin behind the coveted magical object within Yuuji's body, the "Midnight Lost Child."

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Shana Main

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Sakai, Yuuji Main

Hino, Satoshi Japanese

Yoshida, Kazumi Main

Kawasumi, Ayako Japanese

Carmel, Wilhelmina Supporting

Itou, Shizuka Japanese

Hecate Supporting

Noto, Mamiko Japanese

Daw, Margery Supporting

Nabatame, Hitomi Japanese

Sabrac Supporting

Kuroda, Takaya Japanese

Nbh'w, Khamsin Supporting

Minagawa, Junko Japanese

Alastor Supporting

Ebara, Masashi Japanese

Marchosias Supporting

Iwata, Mitsuo Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Nakayama, Nobuhiro Producer

Kawase, Kouhei Producer

Miki, Kazuma Producer

Reviews

Oct 4, 2008

KaminaKai

Recommended

*A wonderful sequel to a fabulous series.*

It is highly recommended to complete the first season of Shakugan no Shana before watching this. This is a DIRECT sequel, so prior knowledge of the series is expected from you.

Shakugan no Shana II is sometimes viewed as a "filler" season due to the plot trailing off from the light novels where it originates from. It also received numerous "bashing" from fans of the previous season who complained that the first half of Shakugan no Shana II lacked actions. Personally, I really liked how they began Shakugan no Shana II so I have nothing to complain about. But many ... who prefer actions over character developments would be rather disappointed in this season, but a real Shakugan no Shana fan should actually be happy that the anime is spending time explaining the mysteries and/or unclear relations between certain people or things.

Story:
Continuing from where the first season left off, Shakugan no Shana Second as it is officially called start us off in a very noglistic way. Summing up most of the main events in season one in half an episode (not to mention a battle is going on at the same time) is quite innovative. Shana II, unlike its predecessor, does not have a lot of flashy battles. Instead, it focuses much more on bringing out each character's unique characteristics and their relationship with one another (more about the characters later).

Art:
Those who are familiar with the first season should be able to jump right into Shana II as the production crew practically used the same graphical engines to animate the show. This means 2 things:

1. the animation crew got lazy and presented us a 2005 quality anime
2. it is still animated on par (if not above) most of the 2008 animations

Sound:
The same singers were asked to perform the OP and ED for Shana II so fans shouldn't have much to complain. As stated from my previous review on Shakugan no Shana, it is packed with many bright and talented seiyus. Excluding Shana and Kazumi who were already covered in the past review, we also have

Mamiko Noto (Kotomi Ichinose in Clannad, Yuka in Elfen Lied, Anna Liebert in Monster) performing the role of Hecate and Fumina Konoe

Hitomi Nabatame (Unchou Kan-u in Ikkitousen, Mikoto Suou in School Rumble ) voicing for Margery Daw

Shizuka Itou (Himawari Kunogi in xxxHOLiC, Lenalee Lee in D.Gray-man) performing the role of Wilhelmina Carmel

Last but not least, we have Marina Inoue (Tsukiumi in Sekirei, Yoko in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Tsukasa Kiryu in Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka) voicing for Pheles

Character:
This show is flawless when it comes to characters. The production crew did an amazing job at creating the characters in such a way that makes them believable and in many ways demonstrated that they are not much different from us (ie. make them real.. not like some fantasy characters). I was simply dazed by how fabulously constructed the characters (both main and supporting) are in Shana II. Although the first season of Shakugan no Shana was already extremely well made, this successor is no doubt a level above (11/10?).

Final Impression:
Shakugan no Shana II expanded on what was lacking in the previous season (namely some explanation on certain issues and character mental growth for some minor supporting roles). However, because the crew had to cover these, they had to take out some attractive actions that the fans wanted to see in the beginning. Overall I would not say this is inferior or superior to the first season, but if I have to choose I will say I like this one slightly more (excluding the flashy actions).

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jul 20, 2008

Aphiel1

Mixed Feelings

Alright let me just say that of the majority of anime I watched this was probably my tenth biggest disappointment ever in anime history not because the idea sucked but because the implication of the idea was half-assed (no other way to describe it). The first season while good left a lot of holes and unanswered questions I was fine with that at first because I knew there was going to be a second season where I expected to at least have some of my questions answered but no instead I got a bunch of filler (dang it if I wanted filler I'd just watch ... bleach or naruto). The story did very little advancing and worst of all failed to answer any of the important questions. Luckily for us there's going to most likely be a third season (hopefully this time they don't just half-ass it and actually get to the point). If I don't read the manga to this and get an organized story I'll beat my head in with 2x4. Now that that's out of the way let's get to some quality looks at it.
Story- As far the story that this anime is supposed to follow it's really good some people have underestimated it and called it just a beat em as they come storyline but in fact that's not entirely true villains are reoccurring and do not always die after the first encounter with them and the plots are pretty deep. The only problem with the story is that it's not organized at all (at least in the anime) things are choppy and thrown in and there are tremendous amounts of filler that take away from the story. *sigh* When will people learn to just stick to a dang storyline and not smear it with fecal matter until it becomes repulsive.
Art- As far as art goes I was impressed this series is very well drawn the only critique I have is that sometimes the animation didn't flow right.
Sound- Sounds are interesting to say the least not all of them are good but for the most part the sounds will match a situation. My favorite part is that the same person who voices Shana is the same person who voices Louise in Zero no Tsukaima (it made me smile every time she talked).
Character- This anime did a decent job with character development I mean it's not like I needed to know about more than the main characters to begin with but hey who cares if you want to spend an entire episode focused on a character nobody cares about far be it from me to kick you down for it.
Enjoyment- I was disappointed to say the least I expected great things from this anime when I first started watching it but as it progressively went on it became like that new shirt you thought planned on wearing until it was stained with ketchup (i.e-filler). I enjoyed battles in this as most were pretty interesting and I even enjoyed the romance aspect of it which is strange because at first I found the romance to be kind of annoying. So my advice is if you watched the first season just go ahead and watch the second season chances are if you like one you like the other.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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May 17, 2011

Faito

Not Recommended

I can imagine that just by reading the overall scor you already hate me. But i can't give it any more than this, when i overlay the "4" it says "Decent", and this second season (not the firs, and certainly not the novel) is WAY below decent. So i'm sorry but it's what it is. A poor second season.


I'm not arguiing that the animation and sound is as epic as ever. My main complain is "what the hell happened with the plot!?". Maybe the plot died at the explosion in the end of the first season. Maybe the people in charge of adapting the novel ... said "Adapt the novell as it is?, pff that's for NOOBS, we are pro, we got mad skillz yo. We gonna get high and come up with a plot of our own, using the same characters as the first season".

You could give this piece of crap a higher score out of love / respect for the first season. Or maybe out of love for some of the characters. Yes you could, but please don't. If you give this abomination an 8, how could you give the first season a 10?, you would have to give it a 20 or else the scores won't make sense anymore.

Character "Development"
More like character involution. During season one, the characters meet, they live a lot of things together, wich makes their relationship / feelings (not just romantic) evolve, change, as it happens in real life as you get to know someone better you like / dislike him / her more.
There is no way you could say the relationship between Shana - Yuji - Yoshida is the same at the beg of the first season, than at the end.
Great!, so why trun back the clock in season 2?. Why GOD WHY!?. Why start again with the whole "should i teel him?, shouldn't i tell him?, what does he think of me?, what does he thinks of her?. Im going to ramble like this for 24 episodes, maybe i'll figure out the answer in season 3 or something... Yes sounds like a plan".
We were over this towards the end of season one, you had a frigging life /death experience, you can't get any closer than that.... But NO, let's just go back like we just met. AWESOME!.
The last thing im going to say about character development in this show is abou the end, but don't worry it's not a spoiler. The only thing im going to say is that you will get three things:

* The feeling that NOTHING CHANGED IN 24 EPISODES.
* The urge to rewatch the first season, to remind yourself why you tortured your brains until the very end of season 2.
* The wish that you could just "unsee" everything you just saw.

Characters
Oh yes, this is a whole new section. With the exception of Shana, and A BIT Yuji, all the characters become as intresting as a grapefruit.
Yoshida, who already was as intresting as watching the grass grow, becomes even more ANNOYING. Whenever she went on with her monologues about yearning Yuji's attention i felt like skipping the whole thing. She had so much appearence time, and what did she do? NOTHING, and you can't deny it.
"Ane-San" who had the job of providing comic relief in season one, and was a really intresting character. Suddenly gets all dark and boring.
The guy with glasses: ZOMG why didn't he die on the second episode of season one?, seriously.
Ane-San's lackeys: Who gives a flying fuck about them?.

Plot
You know a plot is poorly developed when you can't clearly define what the hell is a show about.
Take for instance season 1
"It's about a tsundere loli that hunts spirits and artifacts, finds a guy with a super powerful artifact inside who decides to help her fight the bad guys". Ok so it's a show about action, hunting things and killing demons spirits whatever. Ok i can get into that.

Now let's take a look at season 2 plot:
It's about a love triangle between a tsundere DFC and a big breasted wife-kind of girl. No it's about a silver armor that's gonna destroy the world. No wait, it's about a sandwoman who lost her husband. No wait it's about the curious things that happen in the everyday life. Wait i think that they fight some kind of "things" from time to time, so is it about fighting?".
Hey guys you had an objective rememeber?, i mean there was a whole first season about "FIGHTING THE TOMOGARAS", so why did you just decided to say "fuck that, let's all behave like this is a shitty harem / love triangle slice of life".
The episodes go by and they talk, and talk, and talk... And the worst thing is that they aren't really saying anything!!!.

Overall
If you liked season 1, don't watch this. This is a scam. The only thing in common with the first season is the characters.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Shakugan no Shana II Episode 14 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Darkreaper70 - Jan 21, 2008	71 replies	by almightybismarck »» Oct 16, 10:08 PM
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The Mysterious World of Shakugan no Shana

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