Shakugan no Shana: Season 2 Part 2

 (TV) (2007-2008)

Shakugan no Shana: Season 2 Part 2 Blu-ray features mediocre video and great audio in this mediocre Blu-ray release
Shana and Alastor, Lord of the Crimson Realm, continue to do battle with the Denizens, who are trying to steal the Power of Existence from mortals. In the last battle, Yuji is revealed to be a mystes, a "torch" of nearly unlimited Power of Existence. Since the Denizens want to capture Yuji and use him to upset the balance of the Realm, Shana resolves to protect Yuji. Yuji then vows to join Shana in her fight.

For more about Shakugan no Shana: Season 2 Part 2 and the Shakugan no Shana: Season 2 Part 2 Blu-ray release, see the Shakugan no Shana: Season 2 Part 2 Blu-ray Review

Starring: Josh Grelle, Kristian Ayre, Tabitha St. Germain, Cherami Leigh

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Shakugan no Shana: Season 2 Part 2 Blu-ray Review

Is this the end of the world?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, December 20, 2012

It's December 20, 2012 as this review is being written and my typically snarky 16 year old son who is keeping track of the so-called Mayan prophecy with some sense of glee has just informed me that "the Apocalypse will be coming to a time zone near you soon" (it has evidently already hit Australia, causing widespread panic among the Mayan population on that island). If that dreaded occurrence comes to pass, it means that two releases that were at one point scheduled for this month, Shakugan no Shana: Movie and Shakugan no Shana S: OVA Series, won't have to be watched, let alone reviewed, but alas there's no escaping either my watching or my reviewing duties for this second half of the second season of Shakugan no Shana: Season 2 Part 2. There's obviously no point in hiding my disappointment not only with this anime's content, which is so repetitive and derivative as to provoke actual disbelief at times, but also with this release's really problematic video presentation. Now there are boatloads of Shakugan no Shana fans out there, as evidenced by the long-livedness of this franchise, something also evidenced by the glut of releases we've been seeing lately and which are obviously slated to continue on into 2013 (if we make it that far), so I am perhaps in the minority in finding this an underwhelming series at best. And to be fair (something that I really do try to be, even when I'm not particularly in love with any given release), the end of the second season has a few redeeming characteristics about it that make it at the very least not the worst arc of the previous two releases (one for Season 1, and Part 1 of Season 2).



Those unfamiliar with the bare outlines of Shakugan no Shana can glance back at the two reviews linked above for at least a cursory explication of some of the salient plot points and a brief discussion of several major characters. But I'd like to spend a little time on a supporting character for this review, for the simple reason that she has continued to fascinate me throughout Shakugan no Shana, no matter what else I may have thought about this franchise in general. While Shana and Yuji are pretty standard characters, ones that could in fact be injected into any number of similarly themed anime without too much fuss and bother, there's one really splendidly bizarre, even troubling, character running around the fringes of Shakugan no Shana that gives the series one of its few distinctive elements.

And so we come to one Margery Daw, certainly not the stuff of typical anime, and in some ways a character that might be more at home in a Douglas Sirk melodrama than an animated feature. Margery is a middle aged woman (more or less—more about that in a moment) who has a major drinking problem. All sorts of episodes throughout the two seasons of Shakugan no Shana find Margery after a drinking binge, nursing a debilitating hangover and barking out demands for either quiet or some kind of quick cure. More often than not she's seen with at least one bottle of spirits surrounding her, and just as frequently that bottle is clutched in her elegant little hand. Now of course Margery isn't just a woman, this being Shakugan no Shana and all, and so she is wont to transform into a giant purple werewolf at times. Margery is curt, dismissive, snarky and kind of a grown up tsundere, and she was (for me, anyway) far and away the best (and sometimes the only) reason to keep watching this series as it trundled along its often predictable path.

This final arc of the second season has some fitfully interesting content as Pheles attempts to reunite with Johan, whom Pheles insists is magically linked with Yuji. In the meantime, a laundry list of other nefarious Denizen show up for this or that episode, temporarily diverting attention away from the main storyline and providing the expected battle element that is de rigeur for this series. The relationship between Yuji and Shana is somewhat deepened, especially in the last two or three episodes of the season, after Yuji has evolved in a sort of way beyond what might be termed a chrysalis state of being. Still, anyone has seen any given episode of Shakugan no Shana will not have much new to see in this set of episodes. At least there's always Margery, stumbling through the background and dissing most of the other characters in the show.

Shakugan no Shana: Season 2 Part 2 Blu-ray, Video Quality

 

If there's any unexpected good news to be had with regard to Shakugan no Shana: Season 2 Part 2, it's that this FUNimation Entertainment release's AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1 actually manages to look halfway decent (at least for an upconversion) quite a bit of the time. This set of episodes does not suffer from the omnipresent banding that really hobbled Part 1 of the second season, for whatever reason. The general image here is still really soft looking, and line detail can vary from looking at least adequate to having a bad case of the "jaggies" in some quick motion sequences. Colors are generally pretty well saturated and robust looking. As much as I've disliked the overall series, I have grown to really like JC Staff's animation with regard to this outing, and it really is a shame that it couldn't have received a genuine HD master and a decent high definition presentation, and a lot of the series is quite lovely to look at, even if the content is just as often middling at best.

Shakugan no Shana: Season 2 Part 2 Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 

As with Shakugan no Shana: Season 2 Part 1, this second part of Season 2 also features an English dub delivered via a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix as well as the original Japanese language track delivered via a Dolby TrueHD 2.0 mix. This is pretty much "more of the same" in terms of both languages, with very good fidelity and some excellent surround activity in the 5.1 mix, at least insofar as the requisite battle sequences go (an opening episode tornado—something following the kind of homage to The Wizard of Oz that finished up Part 1 of this season—has a nice, swirling panning effect that's very effective). Dialogue is always clean and clear, and some of the English language voice work is exceptionally well done. Dynamic range is also very wide throughout this arc of episodes.

Shakugan no Shana: Season 2 Part 2 Blu-ray, Special Features and Extras

 

• Episode 21 Commentary featuring Christopher Bevins, Justin Cook and Kent Williams. Since Bevins is the ADR Director, this commentary tends to focus on voice acting, at least when the participants aren't giggling manically and cracking pretty stupid jokes.


• Shakugan no Shana-tan Revenge (HD; 7:10)


• Naze Nani Shana II (HD; 17:24) includes:

  Why? What? Shana! Ask Anything Question Box: Colorful Wind Pheles and Chakra of Wind

  Why? What? Shana! Ask Anything Question Box: Giralda

  Why? What? Shana! Ask Anything Question Box: Destruction Blade Sabrae

  Why? What? Shana! Ask Anything Question Box: Effigy of Pride

• Textless Opening Song – Joint (HD; 1:37)


• Textless Opening Song – Blaze (HD; 1:32)


• Textless Closing Song – triangle (HD; 1:32)


• Textless Closing Song – Sociometry (HD; 1:32)


• Textless Closing Song – sense (HD; 1:44)


• Trailers for other FUNimation Entertainment Releases

Shakugan no Shana: Season 2 Part 2 Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation

 

Maybe Shakugan no Shana simply wore me down over the course of the two previous releases, because truth be told, I didn't outright hate this final arc of episodes, and in fact I grew to rather like some of the supporting characters like Margery Daw. But there's simply no denying how repetitive and derivative this series is, something that obviously doesn't bother its hordes of fans but which really grated on my nerves quite a bit of the time. This final arc of episodes has at least relatively sharper looking video than the first half of Season 2 did, and it isn't nearly as prone to the banding issue that was so noticeable in that first volume. The audio continues to be quite well done, and there is about the same amount of supplements as on previous releases. Fans may be marginally more pleased with this second volume due to the slightly better video quality.