“How can I praise you for something stupid like that?!? You pooped in the refrigerator? And you ate all the melonpan?”

In the end, Shakugan no Shana II was like an average NASCAR race. It sounds awesome, there’s a lot of action, fire, and people getting punted into walls, but then you realize you’ve been doing circles for a couple hours and you’re exactly where you started at the beginning.
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What to do when you want to say something about a show where there’s really nothing to be said about it?

Unlike KimiKiss, where I can rant on and on for forever about how Yuumi is going to win lose end up alone turn lesbian for the frog sisters beat the everlasting crap out of Kouichi for being an idiot do something over the last two episodes, and unlike H2O which is really soul-rocking in it’s suck to not-suck conversion, Shana II at this point is pretty straightforward, a show that’s entertaining but not inherently analyzable, kind of like a good action movie.

So what to do when there’s jokes about making babies to be said, complaints to be voiced about Konoe Hecate, and poetic to be waxed about Ike?

The answer: more new features.

Team Zetsubou, which may or may not become a regular feature depending on how lazy and/or utterly insane I am, is a fallback type of humorous episode review / analysis, where everyone’s favorite manic mental characters from the popular dark comedy Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei get wielded as humorous stereotypes to add some flavor and some funny to a post.

All I can really say is that reading it will make more sense than me trying to explain it, although, given the style of the show, it’s doubtful that either makes sense. Still, I hope you enjoy this lighter feature, and until then, enjoy the first trial of Team Zetsubou in reviewing Shakugan no Shana II 22.

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Shakugan no Shana II is a standard action-slash-supernatural romance show revolving around a hardly-normal boy named Yuuji, who secretly harbors a hidden treasure called the Reiji Maigo inside his body. This, combined with his status as a Torch, a sort of copy of a deceased person’s personality, makes him a top target for hunters known as the Guze no Tomogara. It’s up to Shana, a female Flame Haze who fights to keep the balance of the world, to protect him - but could their relationship be something more? Or does Yuuji’s friend Yoshida have something to say about that? Not to mention, a wide array of other main and side characters, including Margery Daw, a far more reckless Flame Haze, Wilhelmina, the Flame Haze with a caring, outspoken personality, and many of Yuuji’s friends from school, who all play roles in the gears of this story.

1/27/08: Episode 15
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1/21/08: Episode 14
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1/16/08 - Episode 13:
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Click here for more information on Track Two.

-CCY

And you always thought that was spring…

Adaptation season may be closer to the truth, as pretty much every show I’ve followed so far is based on an eroge or ren’ai.

This probably says something about the creativity of harem shows nowadays, with probably one completely new romance (Code-E) and one completely new visual novel adaptation (sola) in recent memory, but the content is all fresh to me anyway.

Not to mention, the logistical challenges of adapting premade content still are fairly high, especially with the branching nature of harem-types.

The point still remains that there are a lot of the same shows out there this fall season, and while the moe-bishoujo-hater is probably off cursing somewhere, lovers of either harem, romance, or just general fanservice/moe are having a busy time.

As such it’s time for another triple take, taking looks at three more first episodes, bringing the total to six fall anime so far…
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