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.

One thing about Shana that always bugged me was that it quickly became apparent that half the scenes in the OP we would never get to see, and not ‘never get to see’ like real life fans sitting around going ‘I’m a wussy nice guy, now hurry up and jump me, ladies’, but like an in-story ‘I’ve got a big sword and I’m very afraid to use it…and Blutsager doesn’t get much action either.’

Actually, I don’t think we ever saw Three-Eyes (Bel Peol, I’ve heard her name is, although I really don’t know) in the story for more than ten seconds at a time, much less in a fight scene. Just as useless as Uchida and not half as cute … although, I’m incredibly curious about how glasses would work on her…

Hell, the villains needed a boatload (of the Nice variety, etc) of power of existence, plus some mad scientist machinery, plus an ancient artifact treasure thingy hidden inside a main character, plus Konoe, of all things, to change the laws of the universe? I know ordinary high school students who could do it for cheaper.

Wilhelmina better get to Shana quick, before she starts thinking that in order to make babies, you have to concoct some grand overarching scheme involving a giant mecha, the Reiji Maigo, and an irrelevant green-haired girl.

Well, that’s assuming that Wilhemina isn’t busy tapping Outlaw’s resources to do her own research on child creation. Satou’s first mission at Outlaw? I could totally write these doujinshi, now just to get to work on the Wilhelmina x Butter Toast one-off…

The fight scenes in the final episode were quite entertaining, if not wildly confusing and hard to take pictures of. Kind of like auto racing again – there’s stuff happening and things blowing up all over the place, and then all of a sudden Sydonay peels off of the course going “I wouldn’t hit that” to the clock tower and there’s flags (er, bandages) flapping all over the place.

It was also likened somewhere to Touhou. Certainly a lot of the last scenes in this anime felt like they could be translated well to a video game, or at least an action movie.

Maybe one of those war movies with lots of airplanes and dogfights, considering how much low altitude flying all the characters do in this show.

(Andohbytheway, who needs flying chickens when you have flying maids. I know where my vote lies. Flying maids? YES WE CAN!)

Then again, maybe one of those samurai flicks would work better. Hecate and Shana have got the clash-pose-clash-pose-clash-pose stance down pat.

Poor Wilhemina… ouch… ouch… and ouch some more.

(When you can’t think of a joke in your parody, make it funny by directly copying it.)

What genre is the slow-motion pass-by from? Let’s add in one of those two. Now all we need is some symmetrical docking, broken genderbent characters, and gym locker rooms, and we’ll have an epic movie on our hands.

I don’t care anymore. Just shoot me. No way there’s a Reiji Maigo in here. None. I won’t accept it.

(Alternatively, DARKNESS IN MY SOUL, etc.)

Now Kazumi, now is your choice!

Life … or death?

Possibility of Shana III … or certain series end?

Losing Yuji to Shana … or losing Yuji to Shana?

(At this point betting on Shana winning Yuji at the sportsbooks in Vegas returns approximately one penny for every billion dollars spent. Konoe probably has better odds than Yoshida … if the scoreboard had enough digits to approximate their odds any better than 9E99X10:1.)

For a second here I thought Yoshida had instantly gotten her power of existance sucked away and was turned into a Torch, and was unaware of it (i.e. sudden reality shift), but of course that would be too exciting. Instead it appears she just canceled the summon. Didn’t anyone ever tell her not to turn the power off while saving?

That’s right, Kazumi, you wait for Yuji to tell you he doesn’t like you.

Oh wait, in your silly little game with Shana, when deciding which girl to go to, he has to ignore the other one. Good job, Kazumi. Who needs to be an hero when you can get shut down by Yuji and run crying into Ike’s arms.

Actually, I kind of like that idea. Pity the Ike in Shana doesn’t know how to spam super armor with his up+B move though.

Oh, even better plan, Kazumi could enroll in the “Meido Power Training Camp”, run by Hisui and Yoriko, policed by Magical Amber and Wilhelmina, with lessons in spilling drinks all over your master, growing cat ears, and making plum sandwiches. Afraid she’s going to have to start at the bottom with Mako-meido-cakes and Genderswapped Mikuru, though.

!!!

Oh, that makes more sense. Now the one million dollar question is, how much protection does a Flame Haze with burning wings and a wicked sword need?

“Don’t worry Shana, I’ll save you from the plot! Just let me get into place and angst about myself, yourself, Kazumi, the sudden green-haired girl percieved as a rival to your affections, the falling value of the American dollar, and the fact that I’m being used in a horrible parody of some more famous anime blogger’s style!”

Of course, this wouldn’t work as the angst engine is fully powered by two-girl-drive, and they’d need a gar converter to swap in a Yuji turbocharger. Maybe last season.

“Counterattack, or hug Hecate tightly, counterattack, or hug Hecate tightly… ah, screw it, I’m going to be back for a third season anyway, might as well take the lolipedofin option while I can.”

One thing that really strikes me about the battles of Shana II, is that while they’re quite impressive looking with all the action and impossible-to-get-a-clear-screeenshot-ness, is that they’re always horribly lopsided. Sabrac has been the only real fight that wasn’t incredibly one-sided, and even then both sides only lived as long as they did thanks to cheap tricks, such as Wilhelmina’s bondage bandage gear, and Sabrac’s up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-B-A-start code that gave him far too many lives.

Uh…on topic…that’s right. Bal Masque looked very much in this episode like they could have wiped the floor with Shana and crew, but since they weren’t bright enough to protect their own creation, it acted as an pathetically easy shield for the good guys. See, this is what happens when all you have is ranged attacks.

Not to mention, entrusting your ultimate creation and its defense to some mad scientist who can’t even speak straight, and his bumbling robot. Someone give this guy some taiyaki or something. He really feels like someone who would be more of an insignificant villain, given his comic value, yet he and his robots are essentially the last line of defense. It’s like sending Ralf Schumacher out to drive an F1 … wait …

Final eyecatch, Shana on a snowy night. If you’re wondering why there’s no snow, it’s because she melted it all…without even turning on Flame Haze mode.

Back to the action, Shana’s in. Now Shana II’s a spy movie. Melonpan hand grenades? Mikan boxes as cover? Someone call Hollywood.

Actually, it would never work, because the unwritten rule of Shana is that you have to yell really loud for your attack to be powerful. And you thought Yuuji was just trying to grate your eardrums all along.

Meanwhile, Shana herself has tossed the concept of the spy movie, and just decides to run … a lot.

Run… run… run, run, now Shana
Run… run… run like the wind now
Run… run… run, run, now Shana
Run…

Stop!

I can’t remember where the “I don’t want to dissappear from your heart” line came from – ef, possibly? Meanwhile, a couple dozen fans get their hopes up that maybe Yuuji will go and die to end the show, since Kazumi couldn’t. Then we’d get Kazumi x Shana yuri end, and everyone knows that is Best End.

Alternatively, Shana should have flown straight through Yuuji. There’s always time for comedy!

Back on track (hah), Shana tells Yuuji in very vague terms that bad stuff will happen if they don’t destroy Bal Masque’s weapon of mass destruction. See, we don’t even need details to move the plot along anymore. Way to fearmonger, Shana. You don’t have five years to be stuck in that robot, Yuuji will be toast way before then.

Meanwhile, Shana and Yuuji continue to move backwards in their relationship, as they don’t even try to fake attempting to confess anymore. It’s a sad sign when saving the world is more important than getting the girl in our action anime.

Meanwhile, the collective older-women fanbase holds their breath as everyone’s favorite Margery Daw continues bleeding half to death. I think this is a shrinking faction among the Melonpan Alliance, the Flat Chest Alliance, and the Tsundere Collective. Note that all three describe Shana.

Nevertheless Margery actually is a pretty witty and enjoyably blunt character, and so it’s really distressing watching her -

Wait, she’s all better. Damn right that healing might take a bit, Marcosias, what was that, five minutes of episode time? Reminds me of Murray Walker … “I don’t make mistakes. I make prophecies which immediately turn out to be wrong.”

My first expectation after seeing this shot of the giant suit of armor was that it was going to begin spitting random creatures out of its abdomen. But unfortunately, the Shana II anime does exist, Yuuji is armed with something heavier than a pocketknife, and there’s no “Isn’t it sad, Shana?”. There’s still awesome meido, though.

*cues Two-Winged Angel* Oh, and… I don’t care anymore. Just shoot me. No way those wings are going to generate enough thrust. None. I won’t accept it.

I’m sure this feeling that I’m running out of Jason-related gags is analogous to a race driver being told “You don’t have enough fuel to make it to the end,” except instead of pit stops, I refuel at image boards.

“We didn’t give up on our dreams! Our dreams became your dream! That’s what parents are! That’s what family is!”

Seriously, she looks like Akio, and I’m sure a lot of people are pulling for Wilhelmina to get a wife like Sanae. Making a comparison between Shana and Nagisa though… Nagisa would probably use that sword to make a giant dango shishkabob.

Meanwhile, Bal Masque’s final line of defense, the giant suit of armor piloted by Hecate, proves to be only marginally more effective than the mad professor and his hundreds of robot clones. More proof that Bal Masque really could wipe the floor Shana and/or Yuji, but they’re too bound to the Laws of Villainy (rule 3: make deaths long, painful, and very very avoidable) to do so.

Also, I keep looking back at that first sentence and imagining a giant robot spin-off of Shana. Yuuji’s trending the right way; in a couple more seasons he might be able to fill the Kamina role. Yanderes would achieve a great victory with new sniper-rifle-equipped Kazumi. And Shana…well…actually, I haven’t watched Gurren Lagann past episode one yet, so I can’t find any other female characters.

And in the end, the armor and its robot vision is defeated by … Konoe’s memories.

It’s like watching the punter run it in for the winning touchdown, or having the pitcher bat in the winning run. You can’t decide whether you got saved by a miracle or flat-out embarrassed that someone who wasn’t even supposed to be relevant one-upped all of you. At least it’s nothing compared to the red faces at Bal Masque HQ right now.

Speaking of, someone’s going to get sacked for the business decision of putting Konoe’s consciousness in the suit of armor. Hasn’t anyone learned that making non-living entities (usually robots) self-aware is a Very Bad Thing? Either they become sentinent and take over the world, or they end up pulling a divide by zero and bursting into flames.

Or perhaps, here, locking up enough to allow the flames to burst into it. Shana and Yuuji have a little screaming war here, with two pantheon-class Shouts Heard ‘Round The World. And you thought laughable voice acting was reserved for eroge.

REIJI MAIGO GET!

Somehow, I get the feeling that the reuniting of Yuuji and Reiji wasn’t quite as exciting as it could have been. No cries of “My precioussssss”? No innuendos of Yuuji putting the Reiji Maigo into himself and becoming one with it? No Hougucest with Yuuji and Pheles’s beau?

…actually, maybe it’s good they kept this simple.

Looks like someone forgot a semicolon.

And then Hecate cries, instantly pacifying her in the eyes of millions of viewers. Now, is she sad because:
A) She didn’t catch the bird in her hand
B) The failing of unimaginably evil plans is just so sad
C) Lewis Hamilton lost the world championship
D) Pheles is now hooking up with Wilhelmina instead of her (or, alternatively, Chris Hanson has not gotten to Sydonay yet)

What Shana is missing, part five…twelve…three hundred…escape scenes. C’mon, giant collapsing robot-like thing and all they do is jump to Shana and Yuji staring at it? Couldn’t they at least walk out of the flames or something?

C’mon, what these two need is another great bonding scene, and there’s no better way to get closer to someone than when you’re both trying not to die together.

Cue the ending insert song. At this point the 24 clock is loudly counting down the last seconds of the episode. Will the heroes (and by heroes, I mean Shana and Yuji) make it (and by make it, I mean a baby confess) in time?

Also, Kazumi in tears is the right mindset, Kazumi not in christmas meidofuku is not.

Satou gets approximately a fraction of a second of screen time. He’s still alive but quickly becoming first-string on the Uchida Squad. Nayuki does a better CTU agent impression, and…

Ike gets more screentime than him, in probably his second vaguely serious scene in the entire series. I’m not sure of Ike’s place in the story as the spoilers pointed to him getting shipped off to the great green room in the sky, but instead right now he’s stuck in a Fuuko-like state of flux. Real? Torch? We don’t know … but at least he’s not handing out wooden cut-outs of melonpan or something.

Or would that be better off than being dragged off by that one glasses girl every other scene? …I think I just answered that myself. Ike should totally hook up with her; Hiiragi managed to score a strict class rep using about 3 minutes of KimiKiss’s screentime, I’m sure Ike could borrow that much somewhere…

Meanwhile as the time winds down, Yuuji actually gets back to one of the core conflicts of the show in getting ready to solve the love triangle in probably what has been one of the least heated romantic conflicts ever. I feel like I’m watching Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon fight for the lead, except they stay on opposite sides of the track, and at every turn one of them backs off the throttle to let the other guy through. And then Kyle Petty comes along to get laughed at and both the other guys pull off the track.

I mean, wow. Nothing says “I want Yuuji” like rolling over and letting a green-haired loli stomp all over you. At the very least Sydonay should have jumped in and gone “Nuh-uh, Hecate-clone’s mine.”

I’m turning tsundere I think I’m turning tsundere I really think so…

We’re up to special thanks in the credits already, but no worries, there’s always overtime after the final credit rolls.

And I still can’t decide what is more world-rockingly brain-paralyzingly meme-lockingly adorable, tsuntsun desu~ Shana…

Or “open wide for the melonpan” grin deredere Shana. For once I actually agree with the chosen ending girl. These ten seconds almost made the entire series for me. Despite it all I’m falling for the charms of Shana…although, for Shana, I’m not so sure.

Makes me wonder what would happen if they made a show made of pure concentrated moe – not even any jokes or fanservice or anything- like if they took a shy quiet clumsy meganekko and raised the alternating current on the tsundere generator to a thousand amps and drew her in chibi SD form half the time while having her spout monosyllabic phrases. I can see the headlines now; “Millions of puddles of melted anime fans found in front of computers worldwide; new show causes viewers to spontaneously combust from moe overload”.

Undoubtedly, Bandai Visual USA will license it and people will praise them for only charging $100 for a one-minute clip.

JCStaff! Are you watching the shot clock at all!? We’ve moved to a slow pan over a disconnected scene now without any words or explanation… but no need to panic yet.

Unrelated monologue and image! A white towel won’t save you from this!

On a scale of 1 to 10, the “don’t tell me this is happening” level of this, with the end of KimiKiss being a 10, and any episode of School Days being a 100, this is probably a solid 7, saved only by the fact that all signs point to new season.

C’mon, a parting shot, a confession at least? I don’t want to break out the “no way there’s an X on this” line again.

Going, going…

And Shana II is outta here. I feel somewhat ripped off considering that Ike was the only one with an audible face-to-face confession in the entire 24 episodes, and that

These two had the most relationship development out of anyone. I think Shana went backwards, if the blotted-out confession from episode 1 was actually supposed to have happened. The marvels of progress.

The next thing you know, they’ll say that Yuuji didn’t go to Shana at all. Yoshida was sad because she remembered she’s a side character, and Shana was joyously happy because she saw the melon-pan truck drive by. Yuuji, of course, took the harem’s lead option and got out of there before one of them broke out the boxcutters … or, in Shana’s case, worse.

Then again, Wilhelmina looked like she could have been waiting for something too… a shock ending de arimasu would probably be the most interesting result at this point. C’mon. Wilhelmina needs love. She’s stuck in that dead zone, not quite involved with anyone enough to land in the Nayuki Club, not quite tortured enough to land in Sacchin Society. And undoubtedly she is the most important issue of this show.

*crickets chirp, tumbleweed blows past, leaves swirl to create that ‘awkward silence’ effect*

Yup…these are my readers… or lack thereof.

-CCY

(In the end this was a lot harder to pull off than I first expected, one, because I’m horrible with sports references outside of auto racing, and two, because it’s hard to force humor, especially in the referential, meme-prone Jason style. Hopefully it wasn’t too bad, but I’m a lot happier with the humor work I’ve done for Team Zetsubou. I’ve tagged this under that because that’s my general ‘funny’ tag, nevertheless.

Sidetracked by Shiori will stay for another day, then it’s back to M3 as usual.)

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.

Who
is
this
Sacchin
and
why
is
she
sad?
Meet Me at Club Nayuki
Shakugan no Shana II – Episode 22

Sensei! It’s happened again!

What’s happened again, Kitsu?

Kazumi and Shana, they were going to confess to Yuuji, using proper stationery and technique and everything at the proper time, and then, and then, HECATE APPEARED AGAIN! She always appears at the most improper times to interrupt the really important moments!

(You couldn’t see that one coming a mile away? gg noob no re epic fail roflcopter. Still, Hecate needs to gtfo.)

Let’s not worry about that, ladies. What’s more important here than the interruption is the wonderful fact that Kazumi and Shana are settling their dispute the correct and Japanese animation way by peacefully working together to solve their issue of who gets Yuuji peacefully.

AHHH EF THAT WHO AM I KIDDING!? It’s stupid, no one acts like that especially not these two were were totally at war last season, but now in this season first they trip over themselves getting out of the way for a green-headed loli and now they’re being this indecisive about the love of their damn lives!? Putting all the choice on Yuuji, that’s a stupid idea! Poor guy doesn’t know what to do and he’ll probably end up picking the one that will slice his head off if he makes the wrong choice anyway! Give me a break, I ought to sue.

…also, I like eating McDonalds, shooting people in the head, and having large American breasts.

I, for one, liked this episode. It was romantic, funny, hinted at action, and, most importantly, encouraged a Shana x Kazumi pairing!

Wait, I thought you only liked yaoi couples?

Genderbending! It’s going to be the next big thing, right behind Wilhelmina x Bread. Wilhelmina is totally tsundere for bread.

You have a point…wait, those pairings aren’t proper and heterosexual AT ALL!

Still, talking about Wilhelmina, I was rather impressed with her character in this episode. She did the proper thing and didn’t spend too long drowning in her own angst like other characters in this show are oft to do. It was quite possibly the fastest conflict resolution this series has ever done, and I think that’s the proper way to do it. As opposed to spending ten episodes on it. I hope to see more of her love-love backstory in the future.

How about some other side characters next? How about Yuuji’s father, dropping the bomb that 1) he’s child number two, and 2) there’s soon to be child number three. Speaking of… Sensei, want to help me show Shana how to make some babies.

UWAHGAHARBLEAX – NO!

…All right, a speaking line!

(Yuuji’s parents must have been going at it a lot if they had to work for 14 years to get Yuuji … not to mention, they had only a few weeks for number three. Is that what side characters do when the main guys are off fighting?

Or, maybe, Yuuji’s dad cast a Fuzetsu and said “Honey, we’ve got the space-time continuum to ourselves, and we ain’t coming out till we got some babies.)

That aside I didn’t see any proper point in this segment of the show, as Yuuji’s parents are kind of sideshow characters and they don’t tend to drive much long-term plot aside from jokes about babies. I don’t see how this contributes much to the main story, although that certainly hasn’t stopped many slice-of-life shows, much less the first half of this series. I suppose it might be important if we ever get a third season of Shana, but that’s tentative in itself.

Speaking of, word is that the series is heading towards an anime original ending, closing out with Hecate. It seems like Yoshida’s life or death will be pivotal to any potential second season; she makes up a lot of the romance drama despite being an obviously outclassed character, and if she summons Pheles now, that will be the end of her and of most of the show, ruling out any random deux ex-es. There’s certainly material for a third season and I wouldn’t doubt it’s possible, but in terms of English fan love, Shana II’s getting hammered hard on the forums.

It’s not like the American opinions matter anyway, we Japanese have sensible taste and enjoy this show quite a lot, according to the forums.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE DON’T MATTER DON’T MAKE ME NUKE YOU.

…also, I like baseball, beer, and large American breasts.

What’s really frustrating about Yoshida’s character from an analytical perspective is that the only way she can stop really being sort of a necessary annoyance and obstruction is to sacrifice herself and summon Pheles, showing that her love for Yuuji goes beyond her life.

But if she does that, she will really redeem her character, which would suck because she would then be dead. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

(Game over. Time paradox.)

Speaking of bad situations, Ike was up to all manners of “Jiiiiii~” today, and is quite possibly the most interesting link in the Yoshida-Yuuji-Shana triangle. Although, truthfully, he’s not really playing a part in the triangle at all.

That’s not true! How could a person so close to me be forcefully shut out of a romance story? Anyone can win as long as they have deep love!

Kafuka, you don’t even know this guy, you’ve just watched this TV show of him!

That didn’t stop me from putting ten posters of Wilhelmina x Bread genderbending yaoi on my walls.

…

WHY DO I HAVE NO LINES, WHEN I’M THE OMNIPRESENT AUTHOR’S FAVORITE CHARACTER BY MILES!?

Uh, I mean…sen~sei~

Anyway, Ike. So he goes off and gets his hands in Shana and Kazumi’s wonderfully proper business, messing it all up again.

That’s not true! Ike is just acting out of deep love! It’s a wonderful thing for anyone to be told “I love you” and it’s a beautiful thing that Ike decided to act the way he did. Even Kazumi was moved by his words.

Uh, Kafuka? She was all distraught and curled up in her bed after that…

She was moved by his words!

But she was still too infatuated by Yuuji to even consider going after Ike. Even he probably knew that!

*wields giant cross* SHE WAS MOVED BY HIS WORDS.

Oshi- wait, that’s not a proper way to swear! And swearing isn’t proper! Wait, wait, wait, that doesn’t make any sense…

Anyway, it was a sweet scene to see Ike win the way he did.

(u kidding noob? Ike got pwned hard, it was epic fail -)

GIANT CROSS.

(Meru has exited #zetsubou: “Holy shit it’s a lion get to the chopper”)

Ike completely deserved to sweep Kazumi right off the feet into his arms. He was completely underrepresented throughout the whole show, continuing to get dragged off by that one council girl with glasses -

sweet lord yes meganekko 5/5 A++ would buy again.

…I’M IN DESPAIR! BEING TAKEN OVER BY THE AUTHOR’S FETISHIST MIND HAS LEFT ME IN DESPAIR!

– and in general getting beaten up by every other character. I’m sure many people could sympathize with his situation of being stuck with a crush he knows won’t work out in the end, and he did the honorable thing of not repressing his feelings and telling it to Kazumi straight, even when he knew he would be crushed.

Hell, you crazy, girl? He was totally hoping to score her on the rebound, since they’re in the same boat -

The same NICE boat.

…DESPAIR!

– of having no hope at all of scoring their true loves. Well, at least, Kazumi didn’t, so Ike was hoping she’d totally put out to him. Plus, he totally mindscrewed her! Imagine all the effort it takes to muster up the courage to confess to one guy and all of a sudden another one jumps on you!

GIANT EM-EFING CROSS.

Aside from the fact that I’m totally freaked out for my life here, I would have to agree with Kafuka that Ike’s actions here was really something touching. He deserves his moment in the spotlight after getting hammered on for so long, and I think it’s only fair that his feelings be expressed as well. They may not all be winners in love but they can say Ike went out with all guns firing, and did the right thing in getting his feelings out so that he can move on in his life.

Hell no, he should have kept stalking her until Yuuji finally blindsides her with the truth. Jiii~ power!

On that note, what happens if Kazuki really does end up sacrificing herself? Will the power-of-existence eating consume the fact that she ever really was there? Or will we get uber-mega-broken Ike? Either way is kind of sad.

I have two answers for you. One, ritual suicide,

and two, Jerry Springer. “He made the love of my life use up her power of existence to save his stupid loli tsundere!” GIVE ‘IM THE CHAIR, IKE!

…Uh, let’s see…any other ground we forgot to cover.

Oh, wait, yeah. Sabrac’s not dead. What the hell?

THEY PLAYED AN INSERT SONG! HOW COULD THAT NOT KILL HIM!?

I guess they still have to give him a proper death at the hands of white panti – er, Shana. But Hecate looks to be the main villain for the closing episodes (are we going to 24 or 26?), so I’m not sure where they’ll fit Sabrac. Maybe as a distraction while Hecate pseudo-rapes Yuuji again.

To the doujin machine~! Hecate-kun x Reiji Maigo x Yuuji!

Alright Chiri, I’ll take over from here since you and I have the exact same relevance here in actually talking normally about the show.

Hey, speaking of, where’s that “Don’t say normal!” girl? Did we miss some characters?

We missed a lot of characters. This doesn’t represent the Zetsubou class properly at all!

Maria’s still here! Even though Maria got no speaking lines, Maria is glad just to be here. Mega Megane Moe is such a nice blog!

I’M IN DESPAIR! EGOISTICAL SELF-REFERENCES HAVE LEFT ME IN DESPAIR!

C’mon, sen~sei~, we’re almost done, let me speak for a bit here. So, what we have to look forward to in the next few episodes goes something like this: exciting Hecate action, boring Hecate action, hopefully more awesome Sabrac and Wilhelmina fights, generally a lot of exciting action fight scenes, and absolutely no resolution between Yuuji, Shana and Kazumi until the last five seconds. I’m looking forward to it, in the end. Shana II might turn out to be a reasonably well done show after all.

(Well, if it weren’t so damn predictable all the time in regards to the romantic elements.)

And that’s that for the first outing of the Team Zetsubou Review. If you enjoyed it, please send donations in the form of love letters, cash, or sanity. And remember, stay in despair, kids! See, watch:

I’M IN DESPAIR! FORCING MYSELF TO BE IN DESPAIR HAS LEFT ME IN DESPAIR!
I’M IN DESPAIR! BEING IN DESPAIR ABOUT BEING IN DESPAIR LEAVES ME IN EVEN MORE DESPAIR!
I’M IN DESPAIR! YET AGAIN BEING IN DESPAIR ABOUT…

-CCY

(Dear God no I am not putting an alt-image on every one of those pictures.)

1/27/08: Episode 15
Show ▼

1/21/08: Episode 14
Show ▼

1/16/08 – Episode 13:
Show ▼

Click here for more information on Track Two.

-CCY

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…

ef – a tale of memories is perhaps the most and least traditional of the harem shows so far. The concept is almost blindingly average; there may not be many ways to introduce the male and female “leads” to each other other than a chance meeting, but when you get two pairs of utter strangers united in the first episode, one starts to wonder just how many times you’ve seen this before, and the mind instead turns to wondering just how are they going to make the established (i.e. osananajimi) characters lose this time.

On the flip side, being a Shaft show the art style of ef was spectacularly nonstandard, with plenty of innovative camera angles, cut-out shots (i.e. black background with the sky background filling in a girl’s profile), and more. It was refreshing as always, and yet was sane enough that it didn’t really kill the mood of the show at all.

The show features what appears to be a parallel story as well, with two male leads (which took a long time for me to figure out with their similar designs, I must admit) befriending two different girls, with the connection seeming to be through a six-degrees-type relation between some sisters. It certainly seems promising, as more and more shows are moving away from the one-strong (or weak)-male-lead syndrome that gets a bit ridiculous at times.

Overall, ef does a great job at proving that the first episode really doesn’t tell much about the series, as it could really go either way at the moment.

The two lead female characters are adorable, especially the eyepatch-girl, but they tread the line between believable and just overly weak, whether it be being ridiculously friendly or emotional around their respective “partners.” The male leads don’t seem too bad, and I enjoyed their little speech about “wanting to be the knight in shining armor,” but really, they’re just so nondescript at this point I can’t say much about them.

This seems to sum up my opinion of the whole show so far, in that it feels awfully…done before and forgettable. I remember watching this episode, liking it a lot – and forgetting about it. Maybe it’s the fault of watching so many shows, maybe it’s the passage of time – but ef hasn’t made an imprint yet. This isn’t to be confused though with a lack of promise; I hope that the second episode will bring back the good memories of…3 days ago, and prove that Shaft can do romance as well as they did despair.

On a final note, any show that features a combined Lucky Star / Touhou reference (and, yes, a Nice Boat) deserves at least a double eyebrow raise.

Next up on the list is KimiKiss Pure Rouge, which gives off the feel that it’s more of a romance aimed at girls, or at least at both genders. I say this because of the impressive gender-neutral feel of the show. Again, there are two equally balanced male leads, and the female cast is varied without pandering to any particular stereotype.

It’s a different type of show than the other ones airing so far which certainly seem more fantasy-based in either setting or characters; KimiKiss gives off the feel that you’re entering a show that has been going for quite a while now. The characters are established, whether it be the three guys, the quiet girl that Kouichi likes, or even the returning childhood friend, Mao. Even the chance encounters between Mao and Rebel Guy, or Kazuki and Delinquent Genius, don’t feel overly forced.

As such, KimiKiss is an anime that’s a bit harder to grasp onto, especially with a slow opening like the first episode provided. Mao’s return and the first half as a whole was admittedly on the bread and butter side but once the school day started the episode picked up in pace, introducing many of the characters above, and probably some more. The sheer complexity of the possible relationships certainly has a girls’-show feel to it (a la Marmalade Boy) compared to most harem show “triangles”, where you take all the girls and draw lines to one guy in the center.

All this means though is that KimiKiss will be a noteworthy show if only because it will sort out those who like more ‘real’ romance than those who just enjoy the simplistic harem romances. I can’t claim to swear allegiance to either side yet but KimiKiss will be a test as to how much concentrated relationship-spaghetti one can handle.

It certainly leaves a lot of interesting ends open at the first episode anyway, with the “secondary” male Kazuki getting his first kiss already, the issue of the relationship between Kouichi and that quiet girl he always blushes at, and the reason for Mao’s return among others being interesting discussion topics. At which point though this ceases to be interesting and instead becomes confusing, though, is an excellent question.

Shakugan no Shana II is the odd one out here, being of the supernatural action-romance crossbreed variety. The Shana series is a strong one with a wide fanbase and something along the line of 17 light novels, a couple games, a manga, a movie, and two anime series, and I’m beginning to see why.

As mentioned extensively in my review of the movie, Shana isn’t a series that’s designed to randomly mindrape you, and instead is more of a show that surprises you with the path from point A to point B. It lays out most of the cornerstones for you – time loop enemy, increasingly-complex Shana/Yuuji/Kazumi/Ike love square-type, action happens, but how everything is going to get resolved is the interesting point.

Time loops or repetition in general are always a somewhat controversial topic for me in anime; on one side, it’s kind of cool to see what you’ve seen before; on the other, you’re seeing what you’re seen before. Still, the logical fallacies and the inner desires/conflicts of characters which can be seen in the dream-like sequences in Shana can still generate some interest (case 1: Yuuji jumping off the ladder yet still floating to the top), although, as in the case of the Torch theory, I may be giving Shana more credit than it desires.

A lot of my enjoyment from Shana, and confusion as well, may stem from my relative newness to the series as well; what’s old to some people is still new to me. This applies to both canned-ish footage from the first series, and, more crucially, to terminology and characters as well. As such, anyone outside of the core love triangle and (the soon-to-be-defunct, I imagine) Friange are completely new.

Hopefully figuring out just what role the obscurely named villians, Maid De Arimasu and Minami Nagato Green-Hair Girl play in the scheme of things won’t be a huge trial by fire. It seems that they’re trying to keep things relatively straightforward so far, at least in the romance section, with the apparent recap of Shana’s non-confession, Kazumi’s obsession, and Ike’s challenger entry.

Shana seems like the series that could work relatively well, at least with me, as long as it doesn’t devolve too hard into a monster-of-the-week show; there seems to be an overarching plot or conspiracy at least, but we’ll find out. It certainly can occupy the status of ‘light watching’ for now, anyway, compared to all the budding drama/tear-fests that we know visual novel adaptations are. The best way to put it is; I like what I see so far, but I don’t know how much of it I’ve seen.

And, with one more off-hand comment, the Shana OP rocks almost as hard as the M;Y OP. Literally.

So far the fall season has been quite pleasant so far on the adaptation side as a whole. A lot of series have shown a lot of possibility to become great shows; instead of being a huge, breakout show, there’s a bunch of solid shows. Clannad and Myself;Yourself are top picks from the old school of harem shows with strong and way moe characters. KimiKiss looks good for the more traditional romance crowd. ef’s the Shaft title which could go any way. Shana II is Shana, which I understand means a lot.

D.C. II is the one show that’s really dissapointed me so far; the second episode failed to continue with any of the interesting “progress” from episode 1, and the characters aren’t anything spectacular. But even with this show, I expect to make it to the end, if only to prove myself that there was nothing there.

With any luck though, this could be a very thrilling fall season…if you can keep your characters straight.

-CCY