starting Shakugan No Shana, and i'm confused

[acolyte_to_jippity]

I've sat through 5 episodes of this...thing. When can it be considered "good"? or, for that matter, even "decent"?

so far...it's really bad. the story is pretty confusing, the characters are a stereotypical Tsundere, and an annoying. fairly stupid kid.
the overall visual style is too...soft. almost as if they were trying for Moe, but managed to settle on a style that, somehow, ends up being worse.
The "fight" scenes are pure crap so far, boring and one-dimensional.

it's possibly just me being jaded by the awesomeness of guilty crown (i'm working through that atm as well) and hidan no aria (LOVED IT! just finished it), but I don't understand why so many people I know recommended SnS to me. it's not good. at all.


it seems like it should be awesome, something of a cross between Fate/Stay Night and Hidan no Aria...but it's not.



at least so far. please let me know when(if) it ever becomes alright, so I know if i'll be able to stop and not waste any more time on it.

[ZERO]

I have only seen the move which was all the material from the first season.

Even with the movie I am still not sure what people really love about this series. Your time would be better spent watching Ga-Rei Zero which I think it more what your looking for.

They key to understand here is that it is supposed to be a magical girl series of which for that genera this is pretty good. Obviously not Nanoha good but a good show for the genera.

[acolyte_to_jippity]

I have only seen the move which was all the material from the first season.

Even with the movie I am still not sure what people really love about this series. Your time would be better spent watching Ga-Rei Zero which I think it more what your looking for.

They key to understand here is that it is supposed to be a magical girl series of which for that genera this is pretty good. Obviously not Nanoha good but a good show for the genera.

it's definately not magical girl genre. it's much closer to whatever you'd call Fate/Stay Night. i'll look into this Ga-rei thingy though. wikipedia makes it seem like it's worth a look. honestly, i wish hidan no aria went on longer.

i also grabbed zero no tsukaima...and it's pretty bad as well. :sigh:

[blackmail242]

Honestly I haven't seen the anime but I read the manga and am up to date on it. It's not great but its not horrible... anything I don't get I go back re-read and try to develop a new understanding.

That aside Ga-rei is definitely worth your time

[Bane of Soldiers]

Well, I'd like to start off with the kinda-irrelevant note that since Shakugan no Shana came first, Aria H Kanzaki is commonly called the cheap knockoff of Shana, because she is the origin of the Rie-Kugimiya-tsundere-archetype XD

Edit: In addition to the above statement, I'd also say that SnS's male protagonist develops over the seasons (becomes less idiotic and not as slow) and argue that he is less flat and much more memorable than the male lead from Hidan no Aria. I think I forgot that guy's name in about three months after watching the anime, since the show likes to focuses more on fanservice and the title character.


@Zero,
The movie is not a summary of the first season. What she does at the end of the movie and the first season is the same, if I recall correctly, but the movie only covers the first antagonist's arc (Friagne the Hunter, or whatever his name was). So, around 8-12 episodes, if I recall. Bal Masque, Margery Daw, Hecate, and others are yet to enter the scene. Also, I wouldn't consider the show magical girl. In a broad and generalized definition, probably. But it just doesn't ring with the "magical girl" genre. Don't quote me, the only show I've seen closest to that genre is Madoka. Heh. Heh. Heheheh. So yeah... don't take my word for it xD




Personally, the moment I get into an anime with a negative mindset, it often doesn't change. Hate to be pessimistic and be generalizing all anime experiences, but if you're like that, where you can't change your mindset and you start nitpicking at anything, then it's best you stop watching if you can use that time for other things.


Despite that, I will try and post some encouraging-ish/insightful-ish (at least I hope) thoughts


I just finished the third season last weekend, and looking back, I had enjoyed all 72 episodes to the title, specials/ovas noninclusive. From what recall, all three seasons are pretty different.

Season 1, you see a lot more tsundere; introducing characters, developing characters.
Season 2, less tsundere, more "I can't tell him;" fights scale down, as this season focuses on a love triangle and "behind-the-scenes" plot development in preparation of season 3.
Season 3 scales the fighting up a lot (still reminiscent of past seasons, but more in depth, just a lot more battling in general and the characters are more involved. Also switches from single/doubles battle to several battles going on at once). For a good portion of the third season, you don't see the main male lead. Reasons why... is a spoiler, until you reach season 3 episode 1. Although the plot gets way more confusing if you aren't a reader of the light novel. Confusing enough to bug you, but not enough to hinder progress. I looked up the stuff after I finished the season.





General stuff about season I
Because I loved the first season a lot, I purposely took my time between seasons (Season 1 in october of 2011, season 2 in april 2012, and season 3 in august-september 2012). Thus, I can only remember some of my thoughts, but I honestly couldn't tell you where it gets "good" because I loved the show from episode 1. Idk, I really liked the adaption of Noizi Itou's light novel art. I thought the art was fantastic for a show coming out of 2006, better than Fate/Stay Night's. Not as sharp as Hidan no Aria (2011) or redjuice's Guilty Crown (2011) (just because you mentioned them), but I didn't feel like the art was going for the moe appeal. Like, at all. Unlike shows today, old artwork doesn't radiate that "moe intent;" it just happens, as an origin of the moe phenomena (imo). The show is split into arcs, typically beginning after the end of a conclusive encounter, so if you can't take it any more, those could be good indicators to give up.




Other
I agree with you on Zero no Tsukaima. I personally felt that Louise... was one of the lesser forms of the tsundere type. The adaption did not create much diversity in the scenarios either.




About recommendations
The reason why people recommend this show to you is because you liked Hidan no Aria... a fair portion of these two shows' fans are fans of the voice actress, and the characters she voice get into a lot of the same scenes and character types, all as a result of this somewhat abnormal popularity. (Although that doesn't mean these fans ignore the other aspects of perfectly fine anime.) I forgot to mention this, but although I recommended all of those other shows because you liked Aria (Shakugan no Shana, Zero no Tsukaima, Toradora, etc.), I'd recommend that you don't watch these shows in a small period of time. Else you'd get a jaded and tired feeling on overused scenarios, character types, settings, situations, etc; you might even come to hate the voice behind the female lead if things get that bad. So, unless you absolutely don't mind the voice and absolutely love this specific tsundere type, I advise spacing the time between watching these related titles.

[ZERO]

Please keep in mind that Madoka is a deconstruction of the genera and not representative of the genera itself see: http://www.ibisgaming.com/content.php/138-Review-Puella-Magi-Madoka-Magica

[Bane of Soldiers]

Please keep in mind that Madoka is a deconstruction of the genera and not representative of the genera itself see: http://www.ibisgaming.com/content.php/138-Review-Puella-Magi-Madoka-Magica

I know xD. Hence the part where I say "I don't know anything about the magical girl genre." Doubt two episodes of Cardcaptor Sakura from 8 years ago counts. :P

[acolyte_to_jippity]

dude, i went into SnS without any kind of negative mindset at all. like, seriously. I was really interested in it, and some of the promotional pics looked awesome. but...the show just sucks. saying the male lead develops over the seasons is all well and good, but until that happens he's a smiling shinji ikari, with less brain activity. I wouldn't even say it's just ignorance. Fate/Stay Night's male lead was ignorant. But he also had a personality. the one in SnS seems like he's just...there. He's not a lead at all, more like someone they put in because they needed to have some reason to follow Shanna around (not entirely sure why people would want to follow her around anyway, she's not all that interesting and/or entertaining)


I would never recommend this to anyone. I cannot really see anything about it that is redeeming in any way. as i was writing this, i finished episode 7. no anime should take that long to become almost good.

so yeah, that's about 6 gigs worth of space that can be freed up.

[Bane of Soldiers]

That statement was supposed to include starting a show and continuing shows that you just can't seem to get into.

I get what you mean about Yuji just "being there." The most interesting thing about him was his relation to the Crimson Denizens and Shana specifically, which is what develops the most. But he does seem to keep that almost mindless selflessness throughout the seasons (in some form :smirk:) and I can definitely see how that makes him a very uninteresting character, as I am drawing blanks on other things to describe his personality because "stupidly selfless" describes him very well :lmao:

[ZERO]

dude, i went into SnS without any kind of negative mindset at all. like, seriously. I was really interested in it, and some of the promotional pics looked awesome. but...the show just sucks. saying the male lead develops over the seasons is all well and good, but until that happens he's a smiling shinji ikari, with less brain activity. I wouldn't even say it's just ignorance. Fate/Stay Night's male lead was ignorant. But he also had a personality. the one in SnS seems like he's just...there. He's not a lead at all, more like someone they put in because they needed to have some reason to follow Shanna around (not entirely sure why people would want to follow her around anyway, she's not all that interesting and/or entertaining)


I would never recommend this to anyone. I cannot really see anything about it that is redeeming in any way. as i was writing this, i finished episode 7. no anime should take that long to become almost good.

so yeah, that's about 6 gigs worth of space that can be freed up.

I think then part of the problem you are having here is your expecting the level of depth and development from a series which comes from Type-Moon to be standard. Let me make it clear that the amount of depth found in Type-Moon series is NOT NORMAL. This is often why they are so celebrated. If it it Type-Moon style stuff you are interested in I suggest watching more Type-Moon series such as:

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works
Fate/Zero
Kara no Kyoukai
Tsukihime

Also it should be noted that characters from all Type-Moon series have relations to eathother. I will not show the relation chart b/c == spoliers.

[acolyte_to_jippity]

I think then part of the problem you are having here is your expecting the level of depth and development from a series which comes from Type-Moon to be standard. Let me make it clear that the amount of depth found in Type-Moon series is NOT NORMAL. This is often why they are so celebrated. If it it Type-Moon style stuff you are interested in I suggest watching more Type-Moon series such as:

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works
Fate/Zero
Kara no Kyoukai
Tsukihime

Also it should be noted that characters from all Type-Moon series have relations to eathother. I will not show the relation chart b/c == spoliers.

I am simply bringing up fate/stay night because it's an example that's still in my mind, and because it's male lead was somewhat similar to start out (in that he was ignorant as hell). but it was mostly to just highlight how shallow and empty SnS's lead is. perhaps my shinji ikari comparison is better. SnS's lead if basically shinji, if shinji smiled, and lacked the brain capacity to have any angst...which basically means he could have been replaced with a lampshade, and the show wouldn't lose anything (tape an envelope to the inside, and a duracell battery as well to simulate the whole 'mistes' and 'flame' aspect of his so called "character")

[taz1stP]

acco that show is one that i didn't really get into but if u are looking for good ones u can just look at our list of anime we have and it shouldn't be hard to find good ones. i can list a few if u want.

[mastercheff]

This may be a random suggestion, but you might like Ben-To. It's got a fairly fast start and pretty short so it wouldn't make too big of a dent if you have a large back log.

[taz1stP]

that one was a good one but there are a few that just ended that were just amazing and they are going to have a deff second season.