HomeAnimeShakugan no Shana: The Movie - Anime Review

Shakugan no Shana: The Movie – Anime Review

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You can be forgiven for not having read the light novel series of Shakugan no Shana, which despite spanning 26-volumes in total within Japan over ten years only had its first two released internationally by Viz Media before being dropped… a fate unfortunately shared by the manga series which saw six out of ten volumes published. But with some fortune the demand has continued for the anime series which a couple of years back was license rescued by Funimation Entertainment and has had pretty much every installment dubbed into English.

One of the later localized releases has been Shakugan no Shana: The Movie, a 2007 animated feature film produced by J.C. Staff which attempts to re-tell the events present in the first light novel volume which was told over the first six episodes of the TV anime series. Having enjoyed that particular volume of the light novel AND that particular arc of the anime, I was curious to see how they would handle a standalone film dedicated to that one arc. How did it fare? Read on to find out!

Storyline

For those who are not familiar with the franchise, Shakugan no Shana follows a high school student named Yuji Sakai who discovers that he is now dead, having some time ago been consumed by a being known as a “Crimson Denizen” that enters the human realm to feed off the Power of Existence held by each and every human. He only remains alive by the “Torch” within him, that over time will inevitably burn out and cause him to vanish from the world without a trace. With limited time remaining but harboring a special ability, he comes across the “Flaming-Haired Blazing-Eyed Hunter” Shana, a Flame Haze who hunts down and destroys Crimson Denizens from the human world. With his unique ability piquing her interest…. she decides to protect him…..

This movie focuses on the arc where Yuji and Shana both first meet, and later go up against Friagne, a Crimson Denizen with a doll fetish who has been stealing an excessive amount of humans Power of Existence and is considered a strong threat due the number of “Treasure Tools”, objects that similar to the one housed in Yuji grant the holder special abilities, he possesses.

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Shakugan no Shana in my opinion handles its action and more serious storylines well, but is often held back at times by the schoolyard romance elements – in particular the love triangle between Yuji, Shana and Yoshida that remains present across all three main anime series in addition to the OVA releases. While some of these elements are still present to a degree, they are watered down and never amount to anything noteworthy that hinders what makes this series great, instead allowing the roles of Yuji and Shana to shine.

The handling of the primary antagonist and the primary battle also received much more attention than the original TV installment making for an experience that came across better than their original attempt in the TV anime. Despite these benefits, they don’t lend much attention to the character of Margery Daw who despite being an interesting character is portrayed as just being a “Rival Flame Haze” more than anything else.. In the end, even if you are not interested in watching Yuji fret about as he discovers that he is essentially a dead man walking, the final battle which has been designed to be more closer to the original source material has been well handled and worth sitting through the first half for.

If you are not certain if you are willing to put down the extra money to purchase the full first season of Shakugan no Shana this movie adaptation should provide a decent look at what you can expect, and as someone who has watched the original anime adaptation of the arc it still offered quite a pleasing experience.

Design / Music / Voice Acting

The good thing about anime movies in comparison to their TV counterparts is that the studio usually manages to find some way to make the visuals and animation even stronger than before, and this is no exception with J.C. Staff and Shakugan no Shana: The Movie. While looking better, there is inevitably nothing special to say about the “daily life” element of the story where Yuji and Shana are not directly going up against a Crimson Denizen at that point. But whenever there is a battle to be had, particularly in the latter half where the studio opted to go for a completely new battle, the improvements are numerous and a pleasure to watch from start to finish. Character designs, environment designs and battle animations all benefit from the transition to feature film.

The nifty thing about Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Australia’s release is that unlike other anime publishers in Australia they offer the series as part of a DVD and Blu-ray disc combo for a reasonable price – giving you the option of what to watch on. If possible, I strongly recommend checking it out on Blu-ray which make the action scenes all the more impressive with brighter and crisper visuals.

Shakugan no Shana: The Movie lacks an opening sequence or theme for that matter, although does at least feature your staple ending (Black Background / White Scrolling Text) with a nice theme song  (Tenjou wo Kakeru Monotachi by Love Planet Five) playing during it. The rest of the musical backing produced by Kō Ōtani who was also behind the music for the TV series hit the mark and as always adds that extra bit of intensity to a battle.

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As with all other Shakugan no Shana releases, this feature film features both the original Japanese dub and a newly produced English one. Interestingly, given that the first season was dubbed by Geneon Entertainment when they were still active in North America, this is the first time that all the English voice actors have voiced their respective characters at this point in the Shakugan no Shana chronology.

While I would be tempted to say that the Japanese dub is the way to go, the English dub still does a solid job of representing the characters, tone and mood set by their counterparts. Cherami Leigh and Josh Grelle do satisfactory performances as Shana and Yuji respectively (Maybe not to the standard set by Rie Kugimiya / Satoshi Hino), while some personal highlights include J. Michael Tatum as Friagne, Colleen Clinkenbeard as Margery Daw and Kent Williams as Alastor.

Extra Content

Shakugan no Shana: The Movie in Australia comes with the usual book-style slipcase that all other Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment anime releases have in the past, although this time lacks any sort of text behind the flap which is usually set aside for describing extra content.

Despite not listing anything, there is a small set of on-disc content present in this release including a “Review Lesson” in the “Why? What? Shana! Ask Anything Question Box” mini-series, a theatrical version of Shakugan no Shana-Tan, promo videos, DVD commercials and a US Trailer for the movie. There isn’t anything really special in this release, and given this is Funimation I would have loved to have seen them include a special audio commentary featuring the main voice cast.

Final Words on Shakugan no Shana: The Movie

Shakugan no Shana: The Movie is overall an above average adaptation of the original light novel that benefits from sticking with the source material rather than adapting it to suit the TV anime format. While some of the returning content is still dull, they managed to omit a lot of the “high school romance” plot and stuck with / improved what in my opinion makes Shakugan no Shana such an enjoyable watch – the action and supernatural elements to its storyline. Given some of the content is rehashed from the TV series there may not be enough value to warrant a purchase for everyone…. but fans and newcomers alike should find some value in this installment.

With an open conclusion and no further feature film installments however, no other arc in the series has received this sort of treatment. Therefore to enjoy the storyline further you currently have no other option but to pick up the TV series, all three of which are available in stores across Australia and other countries.

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.
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