Shakugan no Shana was a roller-coaster in two ways: my emotions towards the characters, plot, etc and my emotions towards the show itself. The first needs no explanation, but as for the second there were a few points where the show was not very appealing to me. In particular, without giving anything away, a particular story arc in the middle of the season I didn't enjoy at all. For 3-4 episodes the show was really a drag, and at the point I almost lost faith in the show itself (if you've seen it and are curious what part this is, PM me and I'll let you know).
The beginning dragged a bit, and was a bit hard to follow. I consider myself as a quick learner, but it still took me a bit to pick up on all the terms and such required to understand what's going on and enjoy the story as it should be enjoyed. Another part I didn't like at times was the pace: the plot seemed to come to a screeching halt right in the middle. The show's rife with slow-motion explosions and slow drifting camera-sweeps which add to a particular tone the creators were going for, a kind of solemn brooding atmosphere, but when it got to those parts I found my interest waning fast.
So now you're probably wondering, well if he disliked all that stuff about it why did he give it an 8/10? In my opinion, Shakugan no Shana is amazing at what it does, which the truth be told encompasses just about everything. There's just about every theme I could ever want in an anime, from humor to drama, action to deep, thought evoking moments which you literally needed to pause the show and digest. I really enjoyed all of those things, the premise, the plot (when it was moving), and especially the characters. Rie Kugimiya and Satoshi Hino are brilliant. They really give life to their characters through subtle changes in their voices. Some might consider voice acting to be a sort of sub-art to live-action acting, but I tend to disagree. Voice actors have to work extra hard to put their own personalities into the characters so that they, as actors, can be seen through the mask of the animation. It's no easy task to put your own personal style into a character when the character is just a drawing. These two pull it off, however, and make Shana and Yuuji very lifelike and enjoyable to watch. I wouldn't like to give the impression that the other characters are unimportant, though. The supporting characters are just as brilliant, and I found myself at times even siding with Yoshida over Shana (which is probably forbidden, I know).
The interactions between brilliantly created characters, whether in scenes of action, drama or comedy, as well as a truly enthralling premise and a plot that despite its occasional stagnation manages to come back just in the nick of time pull this series up from what could have been a train wreck to being one of my favorite anime of all time. I'm earnestly looking forward to the next season. I'm hoping that it can make up for the mistakes this one made and surpass it in every way to become something beyond remarkable.
