Shakugan no Shana, to me, is a coming of age story smashed up with romance and lots of fantasy, or perhaps I should say romance smashed with coming of age. Regardless of that the series revolves around questions such as "what path should I follow" "Who am I?" and "Do I love?" which, in contrast to the flashy animation and unrealistic setting, feel rather off time to time.
Shakugan No Shana doesn't gave a very complicated setting. Parallel to world of humans exists the world of Guze, from which Guze no Tomogara also called Crimson Denizen, traveled to the world of humans. Being existences foreign to the world of men these creatures soon notice that they can't continue existing like they used to without ample supply of power of existence, which conveniently can be gained by devouring the existence of humans. However, some of the Tomogara soon notice that the devouring causes interference in the balance of the world. Aiming to secure the balance of the world they contract themselves with humans, creating an existence called Flame Haze, and hunt for their kind that disturb the balance.
The series protagonist, Flame Haze contracted to the Flame of Heaven Alastor, named Shana (after her sword Nieto No Shana) by Sakai Yuji, is a young looking girl with dark hair and eyes. When she battles her eyes and hair lit with flames and she wears a long leather cloak.
The series male protagonist Sakai Yuji is an ordinary kid who gets pulled in to the world of Flame Haze and Tomogara by chance, which he later describes as fate.
Under the surface Sakai and Shana are very similar characters, in sense of both development and characteristics. Both characters start of with solid footing, find themselves confused with events and feelings they don't understand, look for their own road to cope and finally arrive to conclusion.
Large amount of the series rotates around the interactions of Shana and Yuji. Due to this nature whether one will enjoy the series or not comes down to connecting with the feelings of the characters.
Time to time I found myself irritated with the shallow feeling the series left. It could be because of the highly unrealistic setting, the art style which didn't really fit the mentality sometimes or simply because the characters didn't feel consistently genuine, but the series certainly lacked something. One major fact for me was that after the ending climax I felt like the conclusion could have been reached in much easier way. Like most of the series was pointless.
Then again life isn't always that easy. Sometimes things just have to be done. And in sense that's one of the points the series is trying to drive in. That love and life all full of bumps that may seem like they are ridiculous or not realistic, that there are events that should not happen yet happen, in sense that's what it's all about isn't it. Because if everything was logical and reasonable we would call them facts not feelings right?
Shakugan No Shana is story wise lot about giving it a chance and stepping into the characters. If you keep thinking about what is plausible and what is not you will evidently miss what you could claim by rather accepting "this is what is happening" and then proceeding to consider the series from there on. Because albeit feeling shallow and try-hard at times Shakugan No Shana has the moments that will just leave you overflowing with emotions.
The series has very beautiful visuals. The scenery looks amazing from individuals to landscapes, characters are stunning, battles look great and rather than feeling like tricks are used to achieve things the series consistently delivers from beginning to end.
The series has a very styled and generic anime feel to it having everything from big eyes to clothes teared in implicate way.
One of the best parts of the show are the various different special skills the Flame haze and Tomagara use in battle, rendered in visually stunning fashion with little competition. Music wise the series is solid with vocals that emphasize the story and acoustics that help build appropriate mood.
All in all I feel bit confused with Shakugan no Shana. In the end when I evaluate it it's nothing that special, yet the fact also remains that I feel very satisfied with the series. I suppose in the end the feeling invoked by the ending scene is worth more than any analysis of the characters or plot could be, and every viewer will have to see it for themselves.
