I couldn’t get myself to finish it (Actually watching up to this episode was a trial in and of itself in a way). It simply has too many flaws that can't be overlooked. Shakugan no Shana is one of those anime that has a really intriguing plot but can't follow up on it. The first episode was stunning and I was looking forward to a deep and somehow philosophic, mature anime but it turns out to be a bad-guy-appears-and-is-defeated-anime.
STORY
Don't be deceived by the intelligent beginning. I thought I was going to witness an excellent story and drama just from the opening. It quickly became
...
boring, lame, and confusing. It evolved into just another of the partly romance, partly action stories, with both aspects being underdeveloped, flat. If I had read a paragraph summary of the show then it would've been just that much more boring (ruining the only part of show) it was one of the few redeeming things the show has, that concept...
It has uninteresting dialogue, repetitive battle scenes, and slow execution. They bring in some sort of awkward romance story that isn't really fulfilling or moving. So this series basically becomes a horribly cliché and contrived romance with absolutely no progress in any meaningful direction. The actual story development with the baddies, romance and all that is REALLY cliché. Neither the story nor characters are worth it for watching this series. The action was actually boring to me, the ones I saw anyway...
It's best summed up as a sword girl + generic male lead fighting to save the day. They came up with some 'intricate' plots but really they aren't that impressive. The show tries to blur its simplicity with many terms and names. It's roughly about a boring and overly confusing and overly repeated plot about mistes, torches, flame hazes, guzes, balance of the world, etc... The whole thing is just confusing and I don't feel like it's my fault. There's not enough explanation yet there's so much confusing, boring dialogue
there was this ONE SCENE that I thought was the ULTIMATE EXAMPLE OF WHY it's so...manipulative and impudent at the same time. it also is one of the biggest/annoying problems in new anime that I canNOT STAND.
So they show Shana changing and they show her taking her panties off (lol)
But while she's doing that she's talking about all that mumbo-jumbo and that mumbo-jumbo made no sense.. AND AND because I have yet to thrown in the towel even though the signs are huge that the show is shit, I re-watch that scene. orz OTL I realize it really doesn't make ANY SENSE. it's like they're trying to cover it up with this weird loli fanservice which doesn't do much for me. Have her say shit that makes no sense which they are apparently deluded that the viewer will take in as really too complex and deep or whatevers to comprehend if she takes her undies off while she says it. Was this in the ep I dropped it? PRObably. this is a really bad tell-tale sign that this anime is a piece of popular overrated shit.
talk about trashy, and just plain insulting. i'm sure the loli otakus went crazy over that scene but i didnt...
CHARACTER
As episode after episode passed, I just felt horribly unsatisfied without any character development.They lack any sort of sort of dimensionality: unconvincing voice acting, dull dialogue, no development. Everyone else besides Shana is merely "devices" to make things a bit more intricate and to help push the "story" on. Characters are basically given whatever set of feelings and goals and repetitively do the same action. Nearly all of them are meaningless and replaceable. The male lead is not very appealing and can be easily forgotten. Shakugan no Shana is blessed with Shana, a cute character, but that's it. Shana is the only interesting character and even so she's not THAT interesting. Shana is clearly "loli" which doesn't make me like her any more BTW but hey if you're into that sure…
The enemies are just enemies, it's like they exist only because the anime needed them. They don't explain their background all that much, they don't have motives really, boring, possibly annoying, same old same old, in other words I couldn't care much... From the 1st ep I just thought the baddies just weren't that "cool" but then again I didn't get to see/meet the other baddies I saw in the opening so who knows. But I doubt it...
ANIMATION
I loved the artwork. It's what made me want to watch this in the first place. Though I did find the animation itself to be a little ordinary since I've seen other anime that look like this. It's normal production quality of recent anime. Basically as much as I like the artwork, I can't watch for that
Sound
One department Shana does quite well at is music. Its theme songs are very good and even fits in with the series with the lyrics. As far as voice acting, I couldn't help but feel that some characters weren't sounding too convincing. That could simply be due to the poor execution of the characters and storyline, consequently damaging the mood of the scenes.
There are better anime of this genre out there fo sho. Shana never really passes more than an average/below average show. I would recommend that you watch the openings, because they look awesome and all that & maybe the firsrt couple eps if you just wanna know what it's about but I can't fathom watching all 24 eps... Overall, a show with huge potential that fails to live up to its hype.
do yourself a favor and watch SLAYERS NEXT!! (watching slayers next twice is more enjoyable than watching shana once lol) instead of this anime. it has a girl with red hair too lolz... no but seriously it's actually funny and the serious parts are really good too (this anime is cool... in short while shana just gets lamer and lamer). seriously the characters actually have souls and the story is actually cool (I have this thing against fantasy anything but I love this fantasy anime) and the background music kicks ass and so does the op/ed and the seiyuu. It's better in every single way except maybe animation but I personally prefer slayers next animation to shana animation personally. it's on HULU!
www.hulu.com/the-slayers-next
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Mar 29, 2008
Shakugan no Shana
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings Preliminary
(8/24 eps)
I couldn’t get myself to finish it (Actually watching up to this episode was a trial in and of itself in a way). It simply has too many flaws that can't be overlooked. Shakugan no Shana is one of those anime that has a really intriguing plot but can't follow up on it. The first episode was stunning and I was looking forward to a deep and somehow philosophic, mature anime but it turns out to be a bad-guy-appears-and-is-defeated-anime.
STORY Don't be deceived by the intelligent beginning. I thought I was going to witness an excellent story and drama just from the opening. It quickly became ...
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jun 30, 2007 Not Recommended Preliminary
(5/24 eps)
SORRY hadta to it for the haters
Here is an anime that is completely devoid of a storyline, opting instead to engage in countless irrelevant side quests that are not only dull, but irritating and stupid as well. Here is an anime that reuses "jokes" over and over and over and over, until the jokes are not only tedious, but borderline tortuous as well. Here is an anime that has a lead character so obnoxiously unfunny and dislikable that he is not only annoying, but absolutely loathsome as well. And yet... here is an anime that is not only insanely popular, but has an almost rabid ... fan base violently defending its "#1 anime of all time." It's one of the most overrated things out there. This show has one of the stupidest senses of humor of any anime. It's not funny at all, yet they continually use the same jokes over and over. The main joke is either Keitaro gets into a situation where he looks like a pervert through some ridiculously contrived stupid misunderstanding and then gets up beat up by the girls or gets beat up by the girls for no reason; which is more frustrating, you decide... Exaggerated violence isn’t funny if there’s no justification to it. None of the jokes were genuine, by that they were cheap, unrefined, low, substandard, poor, juvenile- 0MG L00K 1'M $0 FUNN!3!!! so if anything, unfunny. On top of that, everything felt very forced and emphasized which made the jokes even lamer. In short, the comedy is "sooo not funny" or "SO not funny" or "so NOT funny". Unfortunately, I know exactly what draws fans to Love Hina. This anime appeals to the lowest common denominator, to the losers inside us. Every episode is filled with horrible, blatant fan-service that talks to the average otaku's low self esteem. Though this anime is remarkably stupid, people love this anime for one reason: it provides a perfectly distilled fantasy. This fantasy is designed solely to appease the insecure adolescent in all of us. The anime was made knowing that the best way to sell discs is to fan-service, to give a hentai dream that they think will please the average viewer. I hate, hate, HATE this anime. I hate the fact that it expects fan-service to replace any shred of a story whatsoever. I hate its ridiculously shallow, forced morals and all that other BS. Of course no anime can be 100% original but this anime is CHOCK-full of clichés, stereotypes, etc, - Everything about it has been done to death before, but Love Hina manages to make turn most of it into something more awful and annoying. [Nearly] everything about this series has been done before, one way or another, and its attraction seems to lie in the fact that most of those who like it have seen very little of what it is ripping off. Example: I wouldn't say it's ripped from the anime I'm going to mention but it reminded me of that anime which made me think even less of Love Hina which is so little anyway at that point. There is an episode which is actually the same episode with the glasses thing I mention later. But basically they had some "slapstick comedy" with ping-pong but it wasn't funny. It reminded me of Dash Kappei because that show had an arc on table tennis/ping pong and Dash Kappei anime is just hilarious and the table tennis arc is no exception. I just felt so saddened that something that is so brilliantly done in Dash Kappei is like whittled to a pathetic piece of god knows what that I could not imagine my 6-year old self laughing at. Love hina just did the obvious slapstick thing you can do with table tennis and it's just soo lame that I roll my eyes as I type this. Expanding on the "remarkably stupid": This anime has some dumb plots or episodic plots, better described as fillers in this case. They're insultingly, frustratingly, absurdly dumb, like extremely unnecessary in the most annoying way, dragged out, over-the-top for no reason, straight out stupid, etc. The Romance comedy (that is, laboured, annoying romance comedy) works on the basis of “hilarious misunderstandings” and “bizarre coincidence”. Love Hina throws some of the stupidest hilarious misunderstandings in the world at the characters. For example, in one episode the "love interests" [who hate each other] end up sitting next to each other. Both didn't have their glasses on and so they actually did not recognize each other. Obviously lots of plot-holes here. Like Why they don’t recognise each other’s voices is beyond me, and the fact that Naru wears glasses for studying and not for normal world activity suggests that she is actually near-sighted … It makes no sense whatsoever. It's so contrived and just lame, so stupid, not funny, and the whole get-up is aggravating on many levels, in addition to what happens next is just as frustrating and cringing like in those cruel make-over reveals in those reality TV shows or talks shows. Perhaps the characters are just that stupid, shallow, dim-witted that the "dumb" plots can be possibly excused, but even so that's still frustrating and insulting and just contradicting. Then if it is true that they're just THAT dumb then the plot is ludicrous not that that plot was so interesting in the first place. Well maybe it was just a little dull for a little bit but it just got annoying and even more uninteresting because the anime would just keep mentioning that "set up"/ "story" (since that is the only thing it has...) yet there was little or no progression or there would be progression but then for absolutely no reason except that they can, they throw you back to square 1 to be... [shocking? annoying? stupid?] (I think they're deluded that it's amusing or something). They pussy-foot around everything for no reason and it's to an extent that you just don't care anymore.Theyconstantly pull stunts like this every chance they get to get through filler after filler I suppose. These kinds of plots in his anime are insulting the viewer's intelligence or the viewer... In any plot and whatever events in any given episode they come across choices and they always go full throttle with the most stupid, predictable, ridiculous, silly, unfunny, aggravating, tedious, low route. It seems like a rather conscious decision. There is an awful lot of unnecessary fan service, seemingly put there for the sake of grabbing your attention while assuming that you're a slobbering teenager who gets "off" on seeing cartoon flesh; very tasteless to say the least. Not only that it has to put in more useless things that come from this anime's self-obsession of getting attention so it tries to make the biggest deal about everything like any silly stupid plot point of the filler or whatever contrived thing that's going on or the retarded fan-service or over some characters or some characters do this themselves. It gives off this pathetic feel that they're trying to be crazy to draw attention in the hopes or in complete belief that it will somehow make the anime be received better or make it completely redeemed of itself of the mess or possibly they really think that lowly of the viewers that the viewers needs things pointed out with a huge sign repeatedly or it just goes with the stupidity or they think it'll make the anime less boring (which actually results in some irritation taking the place of boredom which is worse... or to no avail since that "strategy" is so lame anyways). The word to describe the atmosphere of this anime is obnoxious therefore. Naturally, a childish aura is fuming. Yeah yeah fan-service- but the childishness is radiating quite brightly ☀ They put in some odd, random, wacky elements into the filler episodes. It's not random in a good way (the refreshing, fun kind)- its "random" is nothing but idiocy, over-the-top and absolutely LAME. It's completely repulsive as in low quality, contrived - do anything to get into whatever perverted situation fantasy thing or whatever other lame get-up- solely there to draw attention without any attempt to not be so obvious and at the same time give off some impudent attitude like they just know/believe it's so edgy and shocking and cool, or maybe the "lame random" elements here themselves are just hopeless. The anime's constant emphasizing can be even further translated to it oozing an irksome arrogance that they have the audacity to constantly do this when there's nothing there in the first place or that everything that's there is extremely stupid, let alone worth considering to emphasize or repeat, etc. Besides all that, they're sometimes gimmicky, and even taboo sometimes. Such elements include the supernatural - getting possessed and whatever other glowing effects. Yes, it's as dumb and pointless as it sounds or maybe dumber... There's no class, no charm, nothing is done with even the tiniest smidge of taste. Everything's just shoved in our faces. It literally feels like this anime is ordering me/telling me/screaming at me 'to laugh', 'it's funny' in some desperation. It could also described as it trying to shove it down my throat. They're trying to do what they "believe" is the minimum requirement to equal "good anime" or "romance anime" or "comedy anime", etc with such shamlessness and cockyness. COME ON... Emphasizing whatever lame joke does not automatically = funny’, emphasizing whatever situation does not automatically make it interesting or shocking or not boring, and neither does 'a promise always = a wonderful romance’ and neither does '"unique" cast always = good characters’, etc. Adding to that, it just needs to be more annoying and so it pretends to be dumber and shallower than it actually is because it knows it doesn't NEED to be ambitious. They're doing whatever they think is the minimum requirement. This anime is extremely boring on top of the irritating though this anime actually can be annoying AND boring at the same time somehow. Somehow they try way too hard yet try so little at the same time, they get the awfulness of both worlds of any trait related to bad. It's baffling... Some specific eps/points (probably much worse throughout the series than the ones I'll mention below): Episode 2 whatever reason it attempts hard hitting drama about the politics of divorce and the place of the child within. It’s quite painful to watch, particularly with the whole “running away” aspect, and the typical portrayal of “cruel girls”. The four episodes even feature their own sort of thematic gimmick - the first being laced with fantasy, the second with some horrible, horrible symbolism pertaining to “direction” (ironic, that), the third features an initially well scored “silent film” sequence, which has misjudged artificing and starts to drag. The fourth has a “diary” storytelling method. Each episode probably wants to set itself apart, but it comes across as gimmickry. Also, the dialogue placed in each episode when it comes to its realization feels quite forced. CHARACTERS The characters are like the epitome of cliché, 1-dimensional, stereotypical, typical, predictable, annoying, stupid, unlikable, useless, redundant, shallow, superficial, unrealistic, and unoriginal. Pretty much every single one of them has most, if not all of these traits. The trait to emphasize would be annoying and unlikable which go hand-in-hand here. Almost all the characters are useless, because they didn't salvage or add to the generic promise plot or the comedy or the lame episodic fillers; maybe they aren't if all you are looking for is fan service. Plus, the characters' gags were lame, unfunny, and they were repeated - many times. The side characters are such stupid and superficial people who just happen to have no other worries than caring about keitaro and naru. It's like who cares!!!! Let them play stupid/pointless/boring childish games and get own with your own damn lives! They are ridiculous since their actions are completely devoid of any logic whatsoever and their brainlessness is agitating. It's a whole lotta BS with a lot of we just happen to _ for absolutely no reason except that we can. I'm pretty much convinced the sole purpose of the characters was to irritate the viewers. Practically all of them are/act stupid, annoying, over-the-top on many frustrating levels (especially in the ridiculous stupid filler plots they're placed in) like Mutsumi who is so smart but never everevereverever makes it to the exam, Naru who is violent and immature and a main character who beats up Keitaro over'n over'n over'n over for no decent reason most of the time, and much more. And isn't that a contradiction that she can do all that however many times yet she can't confess her feelings to the dweeb - Sara McDougal is probably one of the most annoying characters in this anime though she's got some stiff competition. They tried to do that joke they've been repeating in this anime with her and they did it in their exhibitionistic exhibitionistic way and it only made it fail harder. However the honor or dishonor doing that joke the most goes to Naru. Putting these kinds of characters together it just amplifies what's already there, it gets dumber, more frustrating, more over-the-top, lamer than thought possible. Though it is usually a good thing that each character is "unique", each girl is too damn TYPICAL. apparently the “unique” trait that caters to whatever individual fetish you may have (I'm not sure cause I don't have one...). It's [almost like] insulting the viewer's intelligence. Every single character behaves just like I predict. When all there is a simple silly misunderstanding which could have been solved through 30 seconds of talking, Love Hina drags it out 20 min or even 40 min! Adding furthur insult to injury, almost all the characters seem blatantly ripped off~ The LH characters are clearly reminiscent of characters/anime that are just better- actually likable and actually good. They include more than what I'll mention here, of course. Even though they may have similar traits, the Love Hina versions of the characters are dull at best and more than annoying as hell at worst and there's nothing likable or special or memorable about them - it's like they have no souls. ++Shinobu - they just pound her gag into the ground and it's just not cute or funny or amusing in the first place and it only gets worse and worse every single time they do it. But also she just seems to be ripped off from Anna (Battle Athletes Victory) ++Su - she is clearly ripped off Ed (Cowboy Bebop), Tanya (Battle Athletes V), who are better characters, since they aren't annoying and are likable which is something none of the Love Hina characters can pull off unfortunately. You can even find pictures of them doing the exact same poses. Su is 1-dimensional with her ''annoying' going on all the time. Not to mention the inventions thing with her added to it because it was just so ridiculous, awful, to the point of utter frustration and feeling insulted. It was executed to be as idiotic as possible and to draw attention apparently. Also there's an episode for her which was unbelievably stupid and supernatural and out-of-place. Oh and it's probably taboo too, and/or awful stereotyping, it makes it that much worse, it just has to go there. ++Motoko - there’s a bunch of anime characters there are just dressed like her and act like her. She's also the dreaded men-hating female stereotype. They made it worse by having Keitaro fly when she swings her kendo stick at him; it's completely idiotic, so NOT funny, and obviously another annoying attempt to emphasize like everything else in this anime. She has at least one completely idiotic-plot-holed in the most utterly painfully dumb way, so NOT funny, and unnecessary plot/episode (completely frustrating and insulting to the viewer) about her also... I despise how they exploit the whole "traditional Japanese- kendo,- etc" among other things to try to be "cool" "gimmicky" because it comes off lame with their intention deafeningly obvious. Like what I said about 1-dimensionalness her entire point in the anime can be summed up as "OMG I have sword secret art of death blah! I hate men!". ++Mutusmi - She is a clone from Excel Saga (Hyatt). You can even find pics of them doing the exact same pose. (Excel saga manga came out before Love Hina's). The way they use her 1-dimensional trait is always in this very frustrating, irritating, unfunny way. ++Keitaro- a loser guy in a harem... Spineless wimp characters are really annoying I forgot to mention there's also a turtle, and it's really moronic and the episode the turtle was introduced was unbelievably dumb, over-the-top, and what made it so lame was the characters actually took it seriously. They are the perfect example of a horribly annoying cast of characters in an anime, especially if you've seen Battle Athletes Victory! TV series [To the end I suppose] . Romance To start off with, the main characters are loathsome and annoying. The characters themselves are awful and I hate depise both so forget about a romance. Ultimately their relationship is really shallow, contrived, and unconvincing. This goes back to what was mentioned earlier about a fantasy/ romantic+comedy genre crap - this "loser" gets with this "hot" girl. Out of all the ridiculous and idiotic stuff they try to pull off the Naru and Keitaro attraction is one of the worst. MUSIC Like ALL of the BGM (instrumental music) was irritating but it does goes with the repulsive atmosphere of this show with its unnecessary over-the-top-just plain annoying elements... But seriously I never encountered BMG that actually bothered me (to that degree anyways), it's odd. It's like this show is meant to repulse me in every single way possible. It doesn't really fit with scenes that well, it's just NOISE to piss off viewers more (I really think that's the goal of the creators or their deluded minds thinking this noise is actually bgm). The music is awful computer generated stuff that pierces the brain. As far as the voice actors (referring to the Japanese cast), most were okay and good, but there were two that were REALLY unpleasant to listen to. That isn't a complete weakness per say because that is fitting for the characters but nonetheless contradicting... The over-acting emphasized the stupidity and ridiculousness of the episode plots like this anime has done with every aspect of this show. However, who can blame them, the plots are just that awful. But on a positive note, the opening and the ending songs were good but the opening song gets old and annoying fast but nonetheless that goes this anime's obnoxious style. The ending song is really nice and the visual with it really make the show seem as if it's profound, good,- just ironic. Also, whenever the “caper” music starts up, you know you’re in a lot of trouble. It was kind of the director to have such obvious audio cues, to get the viewer prepared. ANIMATION It's average at most, considering the year it was made and comparing it to other anime made around that time. The animation is cheap and dull-looking mostly and at times it looks bad with "ugly" colors (you know some "new" anime with colors that are sometimes too bright/blinding or just plain ugly, for example that b naru's yellow shirt/red skirt is such an UGLY COMBO). Of course they abuse the animation to emphasize like everything else. They did whatever exaggeration with the animation (click and drag like 99% of the time) completely convinced I, upon seeing it would be impressed and drawn in like I've never seen anime in my life but I was actually unimpressed/could care less. Something about it was trying too hard, it's like... pathetic. On a disturbing note, some of the girls' && aren't consistent. We all know it's on purpose; SO pathetic. You can say this with just about every ecchi or harem show so it's not too significant. Love Hina is a great example of ugly digital animation; this is not, of course, helped by the fact that it is ugly in the first place. Uno Makoto’s character designs are, not to put too fine a point on it, hideous. The characters boast a sort of “fat” look to their faces and there’s something a bit off shape about them all. They look pasted on top of their backgrounds, and the fan service looks unnatural. Shinobu in profile boasts a head rather too large for her body. There’s just something artificial about the whole look that makes one ill at ease. Occasionally the animation is so bad that characters reach for entirely the wrong things. CLOSING: There aren't many anime series that I actively despise with every fiber of my being. Love Hina is one of those offending shows. Actually, I never knew I could actually hate an anime show till I saw this. I found the series to be mind-numbingly painful to watch. this anime is deluded that anything that's annoying, frustrating, tedious, stupid is like cool or amusing or interesting or something that's actually pleasant, etc. The only things I do recommend from this anime are the songs if they're in your taste of music. Speaking of which, this anime is tasteless in nearly every aspect. Yeah people call everything they hate "stupid" but I'm not just saying it because I hate it, stupid is Love Hina and Love Hina is stupid. If you think I left anything out just let me know and I'll try to include it (seriously). But seriously, this was some awesome catharsis (writing the review) and and and I HOPE YOU ENJOYED READING IT (haters and lovers included).
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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