Shakugan no Shana the Movie Blu-ray Review
Cutting to the chase(s) turns out to be a very good thing for Shana.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, January 19, 2013
There's an oft-quoted adage that says "less is more", and there's no better example of the veracity of that general
sentiment than
Shakugan no Shana The Movie. The
Shakugan no Shana franchise has a fairly sizable
fanbase, and those fans have been greeted with a number of Blu-ray releases over the past several months, including
Shakugan no Shana:
Season 1,
Shakugan no Shana: Season 2 Part 1 and
Shakugan no Shana: Season 2 Part 2. (
Shakugan no Shana S: OVA Series will
be released simultaneously with
Shakugan no Shana The Movie and later on down the line in 2013 fans can
look forward to
Shakugan no Shana: Season 3 Part 1 and
Shakugan no Shana: Season 3 Part 2.) But the glut of releases only
points out one problem with the series, a problem that afflicts many anime that try to keep going like the veritable
Energizer Bunny when the figurative creative juices have run dry: there's simply too
much of the show to
ultimately enjoy after a while. Even longtime aficionados are on record stating how tiresome certain aspects of
Shakugan no Shana become after a while, and that, coupled with a certain derivative quality that overhangs the
entire offering, make sitting through season after season of the show something of a task, at least at times. And that's
why
Shakugan no Shana The Movie may in fact end up being more appreciated by some who have been left
cold, at least generally speaking, by the long running anime. That was certainly the case with me. I haven't been
exactly shy in voicing some of my complaints about the anime taken as a whole, but I found this so-called
Reader's
Digest version of much of the first season of the anime actually
much more enjoyable than the actual series.
Is it missing salient content? Undoubtedly. Will "real" fans probably pine for the series anyway, since that version
offers clearer storytelling and more character development? Probably—though not necessarily. The nice thing about
Shakugan no Shana The Movie is that it actually manages to impart
most (if not all) of the major plot
points and character beats of the series' opening arc, without wasting a bunch of time on tangential items. As such, it
might almost be thought of as a feature film analog to
Dragon Ball Z Kai, that "slimmed down" and revised
version of the original
Dragon Ball Z series.
Shakugan no Shana is one of those franchises which really doesn't bear much furious logical examination, and is
instead a show where certain aspects must simply be taken at face value, without argument, in order for any semblance
of entertainment value to remain. The series (and this film redaction) is also full of at times almost funny "specialized"
verbiage, which is given in brief bursts with equally brief explanatory exposition that helps to at least potentially anchor
those not that familiar with the franchise in what's about to happen.
We therefore meet the film's hero, Yuji (sometimes transliterated Yuuji) Sakai, a kid who is muddling along in school with
his best buddy Ike, until one day when everyone around him is apparently frozen by some kind of unseen magical spell
and all of whom then find themselves under attack by a mutant baby that looks like the illegitimate child of the Michelin
Man and some demon from the third ring of hell. Yuji is about to be consumed by this oversized tot himself until suddenly
a young girl with a flaming sword appears and quickly dispatches—at least for a moment—the demonic baby and its
"parent", another demon who appears in a variety of forms throughout a fairly short battle. The young protectress is the
film's heroine, a nameless "flame haze" (there's that "specialized" verbiage I mentioned) whom Yuji christens Shana, kind
of against the young girl's will.
The two characters then form a sort of
Odd Couple bond as Shana decides to stick around after figuring out that Yuji is what's
known as a "Mystes" ("specialized" verbiage alert) and in fact reveals to the shocked young man that he is (how to put this delicately?) not
among the living. This is one of
Shakugan no Shana's biggest plot conceits and it's unfortunately the one that requires the biggest
suspension of disbelief, especially in this film where we really are divorced from any context (not that the series gives that much more, to be
frank about it). We're simply presented with a handful of facts, including that Yuji is dead (or "almost" dead, to quote Monty Python), that
his city is full of other "pod people" known as "torches" and that he bears a special "gift" within him that designates him a "Mystes". Some
anime fans thrive on this sort of mythology, while others may want to roll their eyes (at the very least) in bemused detachment.
Oh, but wait, there's more: the "bad guys" in this franchise are known as Crimson Denizens, and they might be fairly described as
succubuses (or is that succubi?) from another dimension who transport to Earth to suck the living daylights (and anything else) out of
unsuspecting humans. That sets up the central conflict of the film, where Shana and Yuji find themselves attempting to prevent a
catastrophe that won't just affect Yuji himself, but his entire city. The film does a really smart job of offering just enough information to
present the plot fairly cogently without getting tied down in a bunch of tangential material that, yes, may give the series more "color", but
which also tends to make it a trial to sit through (at least for some).
There's some kind of surprisingly philosophical content here as well, especially after Yuji becomes aware of his own existence (or
nonexistence as it were) and even more especially when he sees people around him disappearing into thin air as their torches extinguish.
There's a rather nice little plotline here (included in the series as well) with a sweet classmate of Yuji's who "evaporates" in this way, and it's
rather unexpectedly touching. Shana "replaces” this girl as a sort of magical
döppelgänger, but Yuji will have none of it, wanting to
remember the girl in her "original" form. It's a nice piece of real feeling emotion in a film that is more apt to exploit bombast.
Shakugan no Shana the Movie Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation
Color me surprised, if not actually shocked, but I really kind of
liked this film version of
Shakugan no Shana. It still defies
credulity, as if one were expected to really believe a fantasy like this to begin with, but somehow it worked much better for me in this cut down,
straight to the point version. Longtime fans will probably still want to stick with the series, if for no other reason than that they get more "bang
for their buck", so to speak, but others who are curious about the
Shakugan no Shana franchise would do well to start out with this
offering, as you get all the basics with none of the filler (why does that sound kind of familiar?). This Blu-ray offers a high definition presentation
that is perhaps just a little sharper than the series, and the audio is great. This may be some sign of an impending apocalypse, but
Shakugan no Shana The Movie comes
Recommended.
