URUSAI URUSAI URUSAI!

With the release of the Shakugan no Shana movie and the start of its second season, Shana is back in full force and it’s heavenly! The first season wasn’t anything particularly innovative in terms of concept, but it was played out very well and I enjoyed it a great deal anyways, though one may argue that it was because of the flame haired loli tsundere herself.

The opening montage wastes no time reintroducing some familiar faces, as Yuuji walks to school we get to see his friends Ike, Satou, and Tanaka as well as Shana, Alastor and the ever overprotective Wilhelmina (…de arimasu).

And the air of familiarity doesn’t stop there, more than half the episode is spent on what basically amounts to a recap of the first season. Under the guise that Yuuji is under the spell of a Guze no Tomogara and is trapped inside an ever recurring dream world, Yuuji is forced to relive everything from Shana’s defiant speech to their English teacher to their first encounter with Friagne to their close call with the Aizen twins. Yuuji eventually manages to break out of it by becoming self aware of his dream world.

Back in the real world, Shana snaps at Yuuji for spacing out and has to protect him while his mind stabilizes around the situation. But the guze no tomogara doesn’t seem that strong anyways, Shana effortlessly disperses her attacks and cuts through her with ease, although she disappears with an eerily ominous laugh, smiling through the whole ordeal…

But regardless, Shana and Yuuji finish up, close the fuzetsu and head to school. On their way to school, Yuuji recalls the moment before Shana released Alastor in the final battle of the first season, feeling like she said something important back then, but not being able to remember exactly what it was. But Shana remembers full well about her last minute confession, she blushes and stumbles to tell Yuuji that they were just some last minute words of encouragement, deflecting further questioning with her patented “Urusai urusai urusai!” and storming off to school.

The episode closes with a montage of what the cast has been up to since we last saw them. Shana and Yoshida are still fighting over Yuuji, who seems more or less oblivious to their feelings, Margery Daw is still camping out at Satou’s house, and the relationship between Ogata and Tanaka still hasn’t gone past elementary school blushing and fumbling over words. It also seems like Hecate’s gang is still fully intact, managing to escape despite Alastor unleashing the fury of heaven and hell on them.

First Impressions

So…basically nothing much has changed since the first season. One of the major flaws I thought that Shakugan no Shana had was that it left way too many plot lines without definite conclusions, it was a good ending, but it felt like it was the ending to an arc, not a series, I was left with a lot of “So what will become of _______ now?” type questions. And in that regard, Shakugan no Shana II’s opener was perfect because it reopened all those questions.

The Yoshida vs Shana rivalry, Margery Daw’s confusion as to what to do if not seek revenge, the fate of Hayate, everything was revisited. I hope this means that SnSII will be more of a continuation from the first season and address these issues, hopefully with some definite closure this time. My hopes were leaning more towards Shana and Yuuji leaving the city as they planned and continuing their adventures leaving the past behind, but this might be just as good.

The actual episode itself could have done without the recap though, it’s not as if people are going to understand much from the 15 minute recap they did anyways. People new to the Shana series will have to go back and watch the first season if they want to know the full story, so I think it was a waste to spend half the opener on rehashed footage. But the episode did set up the series to a whole multitude of possibilities in terms of plot, we’ll just have to wait another week to see exactly where we’re heading.

They also wasted no time in bringing back Shana in full tsundere force, which pleases me and I’m sure many others. You guys have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for the return of “Urusai x 3″. I for one welcome the return of our bipolar, loli overlord. Kugimiya Rie = loev.

Technically, animation and music were up to par. The OP and ED get the standard review from me, decent, but neither is too memorable and I’ll probably just skip over them from here on in. Shakugan no Shana’s animation has always been above average in my opinion, and the short fight scene that we got this episode suggests that they haven’t faltered in that area, let’s hope they have enough budget to keep it consistent for the duration of the season.

There’s no question that I’ll be watching the remainder of Shakugan no Shana II. I don’t have exceedingly high expectations for it, seeing as the first was pretty generic in concept, but despite its simplistic nature, the execution was very well done. Here’s hoping that they can capitalize on that and not only excel in execution but bring some innovative script/story writing to the table as well.

As for blogging potential, the question is…

Just how much “OH GOD SHANA IS HOT” are you willing to put up with?

EDIT: Upon further inspection, I just noticed. Hueg melon pan is freaking HUEG!

~ Shirukii ~