Shakugan no SHANA Second

Information of Anime

Yuuji Sakai & Shana are still battling it out with the Denizens from upsetting the balance of the world.  However, Yuuji's Reiji Maigo is creating a stir as the mysteries of it are starting to be revealled.

Shakugan no SHANA Second is a direct sequel to Shakugan no SHANA.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

The show picks up where the first season left off.  The first part focuses the love triangle between Yuuji, Shana, & Kazumi Yoshida.  The two girls would later understand one another & become friends.  But, they remain rivals for Yuuji's love in a friendly way.  This battle is restored when a girl named Fumina Konoe transfers into their class.  Yuuji & the others suspect that Konoe is Hectres based on her appearance.  However, they come to a conclusion that she's not after several situations.

The show moves from a love drama to action when Yuuji's training is showing some improvements to the point where he produces a silver frame which is very rare.  Plus, Margery Dow is looking for the silver since she became a Flame Haze.  The mystery would soon lead up to what the Reiji Maigo was created for.  Reiji Maigo was created based on the love between a Guze named Pheles & an once human Johan.  Johan is sealed in the Reiji Maigo & has a keeper to protect the mystes.  When Wilhelmina Carmel reported this to Yuuji & Shana, she finds Pheles & tells her about it.  Plus, she tells Margery about the silver.  This leads to a mess as more mysteries of the Reiji Maigo keep appearing.  Also, Hectres appears & the viewers discover that Konoe who seals Reiji Maigo inside Yuuji, is a Faux for Hectres.

After the sealing, the Reiji Maigo starts acting up & leads to more mysteries behind it.  A lot of information comes up such as new characters, paths that the characters are taking, & more about the organization that the Flame Hazes are working at called Outlaw where normal people support the Flame Hazes from the back.  One of the major part is Yuuji now going to do some fighting in battles & he's become a stronger fighter.  Plus, he's manages to dish out some interesting plans on defeating some tough enemies.  Also, Kazumi now joins in for the fights & Keisaku Satou plan to join Outlaw.  During these fights, Shana & Kazumi are still trying to get Yuuji to chose one of them.  To make it more interesting, Hayato Ike confesses to Kazumi finally.  When Shana & Kazumi send out a letter to Yuuji to choose one of them during Christmas Eve, it gets interrupted.

Hectres appears in front of Yuuji & takes his Reiji Maigo from him which leaves him empty as the power of existence is fading from him.  Hectres takes the Reiji Maigo to create a large Tomogara called Statue of Pride.  While Yuuji is fighting to get it back, Shana & the others are fighting outside to prevent the Tomogara from activating.  In the nick of time, they managed to get the Reiji Maigo back before Yuuji faded away & stop the Statue of Pride from taking flight in destroying the world.

The show ends with Yuuji continuing to meet either Shana or Kazumi as the girl he chooses.  However, the answer isn't very unclear even though we see Shana smile at the end.

My Personal Review

Shakugan no SHANA Second is a bit different than the first season.  I found this season to be a bit more enjoyable & laidback.  Plus, a bit more story driven.

Animation

The same as the first season.  The drawings are unique.  Shana's eyes looks like the eyes of a female loli character.  Big, wide & sharp points on the eyelash ends.  The designs look similar to Gad Guard's, but more in a cute way.  So cute, it's hard to believe that the show contains some pretty violent stuff.  Even the Guze no Tagaras look pretty unique.  But the drawings are clean.  It's not my style, but it's pretty attractive.

The backgrounds have that eerie feeling as well when the world is put under a spell.  But most of the time, it's not drawn too clean.  It's pretty blurry at times & the lines aren't too sharp.  The tones are good though.  It gives off some effect of the buildings & structures.  Also, they don't mess up together with the characters.

The animation movements are smooth.  Although the fight scenes are pretty interesting to watch some times, it's pretty much eye candy.  The movements look pretty natural to me & there isn't any distortion or breaks that I noticed.

Sound

The sound effect are ok.  Nothing too silly, mainly natural.  The volume level is about right since I didn't hear any fuzzes.

The same ones as the first season.  No need to readapt to no voices.  The seiyuus here aren't too bad.  Everything is the same as before & the seiyuus continue to give a good performance of their characters.

The music is symphony based & isn't too exciting to listen too.  It didn't help establish a mood while I was watching it.  The opening & ending theme songs are more techno/upbeat based.  There are some recycled songs from the first season with a bit of a remix on some of them.

Story

The show seems to have two approaches.  The first half of the show is a calm love drama. There are fights involved, but it's kept in a minimal level.  The second half is where things pick up about the Reiji Maigo.  There are some mentioning about it in the first half, but the second half is where it gets the most attention.  Aside from more action, the story moves pretty fast as a lot of things are thrown at the viewers.  You have Reiji Maigo being a silver & a mystes from past lovers.  Too many things get squeezed here & makes the storyline a bit rushed to get in explained in time.

During the fighting arc, it's interesting to see how much Yuuji's character develops from a weak Mystes to a strong & intelligent one.  He seems to do it with a lot of style though.  This is pretty much thanks to those love battle arcs between him, Shana, & Kazumi.  Plus, Kazumi's character is built up at a slower pace as she manages to get herself involved in the action with a strong determination.

As for the ending, it still shows the anime series having more room for continuation.  The girl that Yuuji chooses is still not clear & the mysteries of Reiji Maigo lingers with nothing solved or explained.  In a way, it's a cliffhanger on both the love & action sides.

Overall Conclusion

Shakugan no SHANA Second is a pretty good anime. This one is more story focused & different from the first season in terms of the theme approach.  However, you would need to watch the first season to understand what the heck is going on & what some of the terms mean.

 Shakugan no SHANA Second gets an 8.5/10 from me.  The show is quite deep, well written, & a bit different from the first season.  It's much easier to follow as well.  It's still got nice character developments & interesting fight scenes.  However, when we get to the Reiji Maigo part, information just comes to you like a waterfall.  Although it's interesting to learn about it, information is just cramped.  Plus, the ending still leaves a lot of things unresolved even though it ends the show quite well.

Last updated on April 17, 2008