Shakugan no Shana – 02

Short Summary:
Shana tells Yuuji more about the Rinne and the Guze no Tomogara and how he’s pretty much screwed. They walk past a group of boys and Yuuji sees a dim torch go out in one of them. The other boys continue past them as if the one who disappeared never existed. After Shana gets some of her favorite melon bread, they continue home. Yuuji keeps wondering if he’s really going to disappear and if it’s not all just a dream. Shana reveals to him that she is the flame haze, and then wonders privately about the Rinne and the Misutesu (Yuuji). Over breakfast the next day, Yuuji is glad that his mother has no torch, but worries about what would happen with his parents if he died. On the way to school, he sees Hirai Yukari and, refusing to believe her fate, he decides to get more involved with her and raise her spirits. His efforts seem to be rewarded when she smiles during lunch. After school, he drags his friend Ike along with her to the music store and the arcade. After Shana calls Yuuji away, Ike goes to play a video game, paying no attention to Hirai. Shana tries to convince Yuuji that it’s futile, but Yuuji is bent on helping her. He returns to find her gone, and after yelling at Ike a bit, he goes to look for her alone. He finds her by the river, admiring the photo stickers the three of them took earlier. Yuuji tries to give her hope by talking about tomorrow, but she soon disappears right in front of him. Shana arrives to say that Hirai is now gone and no one remembers her. Yuuji refuses to believe that, saying that he remembers her. To Shana’s surprise, Yuuji proclaims that she isn’t the Flame Haze: she’ll be called Shana; and that he isn’t a torch: he’s Sakai Yuuji.

The first fifteen minutes of this episode felt really really boring. I’m not a big fan of Yuuji, or any of the characters introduced so far except for Shana herself. I hate to put it this way, but without some action, this series just doesn’t keep my attention. The Hirai matter is slightly more interesting, but only at the end once she disappears. In fact, the biggest impact of the episode is probably the last few lines, where Yuuji decides that he needs to qualify his own existence as a person instead of a torch (and does the same for Shana).
The animation is fairly good, but I really didn’t feel that there was much to show off unlike episode one. It’s probably a bad sign that my favorite parts of the episode are the opening and ending songs. I still think this show has a lot of potential though. We’ll see how next week turns out, since there seem to be several dastardly looking people in the preview.