Wading through School – A Shakugan no Shana Second Review

Shana returns in this mixed bag of a sequel.

In my last review, I went over the first series of Shakugan no Shana, which was an anime adapted from a light novel series. Since there are 25 novels in the entire series, there were, of course, follow up shows to the first series, two of them, in fact. There is also a movie and many OVAs that the Shana series has, but I may or may not review them as of this moment. This time, my review is over the second Shana series which is aptly known as Shakugan no Shana Second.

It hasn’t been long since Shana and her allies have thwarted the plans of Bal Masque. Even with the occasional Denizen attack, things for the most part have been peaceful for Yuji and Shana, though that is about to change. With the arrival of a new transfer student that bears a resemblance to one of their foes, the impending love triangle between Yuji, Shana, and Kazumi is about to be thrown out of whack. Also, the secrets behind Yuji’s item that allows him to survive as a Mystes are about to be unraveled, leading to changes that Yuji will not expect.

Since this is a sequel to the first Shana series, it has the same cast of characters for the protagonists. As such, all that is left for them is character progression and expansion. Margery Daw and a few of Yuji’s classmates do see progressions in their characters, as does Yuji and Shana, naturally. As for the antagonists, it is primarly Bal Masque once more, but some new characters like Pheles and Sabrac show up after the mid point of the series and add some new blood on that side of the fence.

Pheles is one of the new characters of this series and also one of the better things about it, due to her actions and ties with other characters.

As for the plot progression in this series, it is rather hit and miss. After an odd start that is sort of a recap, the series goes into focusing on the school life of Yuji and his friends, and, save for the flashback to some of Margery Daw’s past, it goes like this until  half way through series. The plot does get better once that point is reached, however, with the pace and action becoming much more intense and one or two nice twists in regards to Yuji. Until then, it isn’t that terribly exciting.

The music is still pretty solid for the action scenes, as is the case for the opening and ending songs. The music used for the school scenes isn’t that good. It does fit the scenes assigned to it, but can also be rather annoying at the same time.  All in all, the music isn’t as good as of that in the first series, but, as I have stated before, I am not that good of a judge on music, so your tastes could be vastly different from mine.

As for the animation and the quality of the fight scenes, they pretty much follow the same pattern as the plot progression. For the most part, the fight scenes are done rather well, which is paramount for an action show such as this. That is, when there are fight scenes present. In addition, the fight scenes in the early episodes are hilariously one sided in favor for Shana, which could be a pet peeve for those wanting a more fair and interesting fight. That said, the fights with Sabrac are probably the best animated and plotted out fights in the entire second series.

They name drop Sabrac earlier in the series, to build him up as a rather powerful foe and he certainly does not disappoint when he does come onto the scene.

When it comes down to it, the Shakugan no Shana Second series should really only be watched by those who followed the first series. It is not a good starting point for newcomers, and even fans could get annoyed with all the down time that happens in the series. Also, while the show is licensed in the US, Funimation has yet to release any DVDs of it, which may lead you to find other ways to watch it.

-DenjinZ