First Impressions / Shakugan no Shana

Summary:

Ike has been meticulously planning a trip to the amusement park so that Konoe and his friends can have fun, though his true goal is to ride the Ferris wheel with Kazumi. He likes to think that good memories are created through good planning, and he hopes his leadership and reliability will appeal to Kazumi. When they arrive inside the park though, the first ride that Konoe chooses to go on is a go kart ride made for children. Everyone except for Konoe and Shana is embarrassed to be riding with all these kids, and Ike even gets carsick afterwards. When Konoe chooses another children-oriented attraction afterwards, Eita and Keisaku suggest that they split up instead into two groups and go different ways. Unfortunately for the two of them, they get Shana in their group, and she wants to do the bungee jump.

In the other group, Yuuji, Konoe, and Kazumi follow Ike’s lead, however all the dessert stands that Ike had planned to visit are temporarily closed or are under repair. Konoe expresses interest in the roller coaster, so Ike reveals that his research indicates that now is the best time to ride it because there tend to be no people. However, he turns out to be wrong because there’s a huge line. Ike panics over this mistake because he fears he won’t be able to ride the Ferris wheel with Kazumi now, and he tries to make up for it by offering to wait in line while the others go to another attraction. Standing alone, Ike starts despairing over his situation, but Kazumi raises his spirits by coming back with a drink for him and joining him in line. She knows that he’ll get sick from riding the roller coaster, and asks him if there’s anything he can ride, so Ike tells her that the Ferris wheel is okay since he was once able to ride it back during kindergarten. He eventually works up the courage to ask Kazumi to ride the Ferris wheel with him and is overjoyed when she agrees.

Since it’s almost their turn to board the roller coaster, Kazumi heads off to get Yuuji and Konoe. Unfortunately for Ike, the ride operators separate the line right after where he’s standing, and so he’s forced to ride the roller coaster by himself before the others can get there. To add insult to injury, the lines completely clear up after he gets off, and so Konoe and Kazumi are able to ride the coaster after all. Shana meanwhile earns a high score on a virtual game, though Alastor disapproves of her showing off her strength like that. Ogata raves about this accomplishment when the two groups get back together for lunch, but Eita and Keisaku pay more attention to how depressed Ike is. Kazumi revitalizes him by giving him some cookies she made, and Ike suggests they all pair off to tackle a giant maze attraction. The pairs are Yuuji and Konoe, Ike and Kazumi, Keisaku and Shana, and Eita and Ogata.

Once they’re in the maze, to Alastor’s surprise, Keisaku asks Shana if even he can become a Flame Haze. Yuuji and Konoe are meanwhile shown the right direction out by a guy in a bird costume, but Ike – who is paired with Kazumi – is determined to beat everyone else. He specifically asks Kazumi again to ride the Ferris wheel with him if they make it out of the maze first, and his success leads to exactly that. Unfortunately, Ike is not able to capitalize on the experience because he gets sick on the Ferris wheel after all. He becomes depressed afterwards over how he showed such a disgraceful side of himself to her in the end, but Konoe makes him feel better by thanking him for everything. Kazumi thinks that this was a big success since Konoe was happy, and Ike realizes that she’s right.

Preview:

This was a pretty lighthearted episode, not just because of the amusement park setting and the all of the amusing eye-catches, but also because it centered around Ike being overly dramatic with everything that happens and goes wrong with his plans. It came complete with all the serious music pieces playing in the background (despite the setting), and there was one sad violin piece in particular that I’m pretty sure they intentionally used over and over again for effect. I thought overall that it wasn’t a bad episode, but if you’re looking for substance other than Ike character development, there wasn’t much. Keisaku asking about becoming a Flame Haze probably has to do with him wanting to be on equal ground with Margery, and something along those lines is probably the reason they’re exploring Margery’s past in next week’s episode. I imagine it’ll be the most action we’ll have seen in a while, or at least that what I’m hoping for.

61 Comments

  5. Really I’m getting kind of sick of this whole tedious jealousy arc…

    Konoe: Oh woops I’m a dumbass and don’t know what schoolbooks are LOL ^_^~ im cute tho
    Yuji: Oh I’m a nice guy so I’ll help =)
    Shana and Yoshida: omg wtf @_@

    WoodenSwordL
    Reply

  7. It’s Shakugan no Shana: Fumoffu o_O

    I’m beginning to think this is gonna end up like the Tenchi in Tokyo storyline (particularly Sakuya’s “fate” there) … but hopefully they won’t bundle all the action in just the last 2 episodes or something …

    – T

    Tolitz
    Reply

  15. Whats with so much of all these?
    https://randomc.net/image/Shakugan%20no%20Shana/Shakugan%20no%20Shana%20II%20-%2007%20-%20Large%2007.jpg
    https://randomc.net/image/Shakugan%20no%20Shana/Shakugan%20no%20Shana%20II%20-%2007%20-%20Large%2004.jpg
    https://randomc.net/image/Shakugan%20no%20Shana/Shakugan%20no%20Shana%20II%20-%2007%20-%20Large%2016.jpg
    https://randomc.net/image/Shakugan%20no%20Shana/Shakugan%20no%20Shana%20II%20-%2007%20-%20Large%2027.jpg (this one is very cute though)

    Max score wow a true jedi indeed 😀
    https://randomc.net/image/Shakugan%20no%20Shana/Shakugan%20no%20Shana%20II%20-%2007%20-%20Large%2021.jpg

    setsuke
    Reply

  17. Is this action anime or lolicon love story

    Neither, and yet a little both. If you had watched the entire first season, you’d know that. And that’s what pisses me off about people who complain about a lack of action. Jeez, at least the focus this episode wasn’t on Konoe and all the relationship stuff you guys all hate. It was just a comedy episode about Ike, done in a similar style to the OVA episode.

    Tokkan
    Reply

  20. We waited a 2 year for this? it is worst then StrikerS.

    Not really. StrikerS was… how shall I put it… about 10 times slower than this. Aside from that, the first 7 eps of the first season of Shana weren’t particularly great either. And this episode wasn’t really that bad, anyway.

    Tokkan
    Reply

  22. s2 is nothing like s1. s1 had an interesting plot unfolding with the introduction of flame hazes and tomogura and all that stuff. there was good fight action and character interaction. they kept introducing new flame hazes and new enemies which all tied together

    s2 so far has been completely about the jealously/romance thing. its just plain boring. im tired of seeing konoe acting like a 5yr old for 20 mins every week. there is no new characters, fighting, or insight into the whole tomogura/flame haze thing so far at all. and now they are already gonna do a flashback arc about margery? she isnt even one of the primary characters.

    shana 2 is joining naruto and bleach in the too boring to stand anymore pile.

    John
    Reply

  23. sometimes i wonder why i still watch this show :/

    Oh please, the Konoe stuff was over last episode, this episode is comedy in the style of the OVA episode and next episode is some Margery focus. If you’re still saying that, why were you watching Shana in the first place? Did you watch the first season?

    Tokkan
    Reply

  24. s2 so far has been completely about the jealously/romance thing.
    4 episodes (eps 3-6) is only slightly over half of the current episodes. That’s not completely.

    im tired of seeing konoe acting like a 5yr old for 20 mins every week.
    You’ll be glad to know there was barely any focus on her at all this week. The focus was mostly on Ike.

    there is no new characters
    Once again, only 7 episodes in. This is not an entirely new series where everyone of the first few episode needs at least 5 or so recurring character introduced (and not in each). Show Spoiler ▼

    fighting, or insight into the whole tomogura/flame haze thing so far at all.
    We know that Bal Masque are up to something, and we’ve learned about that Kaikin thing. The Crimson World stuff is still there. And there was action in the first 2 episodes.

    and now they are already gonna do a flashback arc about margery? she isnt even one of the primary characters.
    Um, she’s still one of the most major secondary characters, and it’s a break from all the focus on the three primaries (Yuji, Shana, Yoshida).

    shana 2 is joining naruto and bleach in the too boring to stand anymore pile.
    So what if you feel that way? Nobody’s making you watch.

    Tokkan
    Reply

  25. you are kidding yourself if you think the pacing is the same as s1. there is just nothing interesting going on. all they have done is show that yuji is getting SLIGHTLY stronger, added some fuel to the shana/yoshida jealously, and let us know that bal masque is alive. they could have crammed this all into 2 episodes if they wanted.

    this past ep reminded me of the water park ep from last season. except last season there was a lot of stuff going on so i didnt mind a break. this time its the opposite. season is nearing the 1/3 mark and nothing happening yet.

    and of course no ones forcing me to watch. im just giving my comments…this is a comment section after all

    John
    Reply

  26. you are kidding yourself if you think the pacing is the same as s1. there is just nothing interesting going on.

    Having recently rewatched season 1, I can honestly say that the pacing of the first 8 episode of the first season was twice as horrible. And believe me, Shakugan no Shana is in my top 10 for anime. It’s not that there’s nothing happening, it’s that the stuff that’s happening is trivial compared to what happened in the first episodes of Shana.

    Tokkan
    Reply

  27. The pacing for the first part of the 1st season is slow because of the “introduction” phase. Even so, there was plenty of action. And we at least get to see some action in between the light-hearted school events.

    I don’t really mind a “filler arc”… Semi-expected it because of 1st season’s deviation with the main storyline. But this filler is basically like a adaptation of a dating sim. At least keep up the spirit of the story.

    I really wish they would hurry up and match up with the novel storyline again, as I really like the next story arc.

    Meh
    Reply

  28. Season 1 would’ve been interesting if they followed up on all its story content. Instead all it gave was meaningless fights over and over. Only thing it had going for it was Shana moe. However Shana moe was so good that it made the show great, despite failing everything else.

    Face it guys, it was plain.

    Season 2 is all about meaningless slice of lifes. But it still has Shana moe.

    It’s fine.

    Rembr
    Reply

  29. somehow I got a feeling that they will ignore the minor char like eita keisaku or yuji’s other friend soon. because on the opening both yuji and shana new outfit like from different “world” especialy yuji’s, and at previous ep there is a brief time that maybe give a clue that yuji will leave the city(become one of hlame haze LOL)..

    chiwasu
    Reply

  30. It’s quite interesting that we’re at a bit over 1/3 of the series, yet the character orientation of the first seven episodes has been on Konoe…this is not shakugan no “shana” anymore, if you review the screencaps of all seven episodes, you will realize that shana got pathetically little screen time relative to Konoe. I almost feel if Shana has fell out of the favor of the storyline writers, the producer and director of the series. This series has successfully established the “let’s fawn over Konoe” impression, yet she is fundamentally not as cute as she is portrayed—cuteness as measured in every possible way, and, no, I do not equate childishness with cuteness…

    no shana
    Reply

  31. Yeah, it has been quiet but they say that the longer the calm, the bigger the storm that is about to strike. Especially with Pheles coming to Misaki soon along with the resurrection of the Ceremonial Snake of the Festival a.k.a. the Silver.

    Or it could be that the writers were a bit… addicted into figuring out the idea of Hecate adapting to human life.

    By the way, I don’t see how the anime has to be completely faithful to the light novels. Otherwise, everything would be completely repetitive that the writers and producers would have wasted their time and resources.

    capoexecutor
    Reply

  32. somehow I got a feeling that they will ignore the minor char like eita keisaku or yuji’s other friend soon. because on the opening both yuji and shana new outfit like from different “world” especialy yuji’s, and at previous ep there is a brief time that maybe give a clue that yuji will leave the city(become one of hlame haze LOL)..

    Actually Show Spoiler ▼

    It’s quite interesting that we’re at a bit over 1/3 of the series, yet the character orientation of the first seven episodes has been on Konoe…this is not shakugan no “shana” anymore, if you review the screencaps of all seven episodes, you will realize that shana got pathetically little screen time relative to Konoe.

    Um, first off. A third of the series would be 8 episodes, this is only the seventh. Second, in the episodes with Konoe in them (3-7), Shana’s pretty much had equal screen time to her, aside from 7 where she had like twice the screen time as her. Or haven’t you watched episode 7?

    I think I’ve overstated my points here, so I’ll probably take a month off from even reading these ridiculous hyperboles about Konoe’s presence and the quality of this show that we’ve been getting for a weekly basic for about… how long? In short, you people will see no more of me.

    Tokkan
    Reply

  34. “Hmm, I just had a awkward feeling about something called a Guze no Tomogara, I don’t remember what it was but somehow it felt more important than Ike character development..”

    Vandro was right, lol!!!!
    What happened to the storyline and i miss Shana beating the shit out Yuji when she is jealous/embarrass…

    seeker4life
    Reply

  36. capoexecutor: I don’t know exactly what constitutes a spoiler here, but you might want to put tags around that sort of stuff just in case.

    As for following the light novels, I agree… except the anime deviation so far has been an absolute bore. If the writers want to write new materials, at least make sure the material’s good. Episodes 3-7 can be condensed into 1 to 1 1/2 episodes easily. No need to drag things out like this.

    Meh
    Reply

  38. @capoexecutor: it’s a good thing you didn’t mention *who* the spoilery characters actually are, because that would have been sn “uber” spoiler right there ^^;

    I doubt we will even to that point in the novel…

    mewmew
    Reply

  39. @ John

    “shana 2 is joining naruto and bleach in the too boring to stand anymore pile.”

    I disagree. Naruto and Bleach are amazingly fun in comparison to Shana 2. At least Naruto/Bleach has ACTION.

    Shippoyasha
    Reply

  40. Tokkan

    Man, I’m amazed you even bother to try and get the point accross about what the show is and what it’s trying to do to all the, should I say it? Hell why not, IDIOTS that post in here about there being no fights.

    Since when was this show ever about fights? For those who even watched s1, this show was NEVER about Shana going around slicing shit up. Get your heads in gear and maybe, just maybe, try to think about it a bit. As for what s2 is doing, it’s giving you character development not done in s1, unlike Naruto and Bleach, since you people liked to bring those two up, this show doesn’t need 100+ eps to give you character development. And you don’t get ANY character development from going through one fight to another. Even Bleach and Naruto have spans of eps that DON”T HAVE ACTION which are used to develope the characters. Hell, Naruto used a shitload of FILLERS, just to develope secondary characters no one gives a shit about.

    Shana is about her and Yuji, and this stuff with Konae gives you a good chunk of Shana and Yuji development, but if that’s too much for most of you to understand then it’s best you go back to your pointless action flicks with pretty zoomlines.

    GP
    Reply

  41. Anyone notice Shana’s skirt seems to defy gravity when she bungee jumps?

    Rarely is there any worthwhile significant character development in an anime filler that deviates from the original source – the novels for Shana.

    Last episode moved the story slightly because the scene with Margery parting her advice to Yoshida and Ogata in Satou’s mansion was taken straight from novel volume 8.

    To be fair and give credit where it’s due, this episode was quite funny and entertaining, but could have been better saved as a special OVA much like that Ogata OVA. A pity, really.

    Kinny Riddle
    Reply

  42. I didn’t leave any spoilers. Just go to Wikipedia.org and look up the characters for the show.

    Would Shana actually put Satou through boot camp if the latter was serious about training?

    capoexecutor
    Reply

  43. the problem is these episodes are not character development. they are filler. and although s1 wasn’t primarily about fighting, there was a good dose of action there. that isn’t the case in s2

    character development would be introducing some new material. we have known about the yuji jealously triangle since ep3. we have known that ike likes yoshida since s1. need something fresh or at least make some kind of progress in those points. there is a reason that the ogata ova in s1 was an ova and not an episode…because it didn’t advance the story at all. just like this past ep

    John
    Reply

  45. wanna watch real battle scene of Shana? wait for the 13th episode which is going to go on air early next year. till then, it looks like we are going to get some more romantic or “love-come” episodes.

    calde
    Reply

  48. After rewatching SnS S1, I came to the conclusion that there was actually more action in every individual episode than there has been in this entire series so far. Now, please, all of you, get AIDS.

    kkjjkh
    Reply

  52. Uhm, I dunno why everyone is complaining. The only real reason I watched the first season was because of Shana vs Yuuji development. I never cared about the battles. They aren’t worth caring about. In S1 we had, what? 5 seconds of Show Spoiler ▼

    That was REALLY cool, I’ll give you that. Then the battle with Friagne was OK at best. The movie portrayed it A LOT BETTER. The Balle Masque battles weren’t cool. Shana’s battles in the past weren’t cool. Basically, after ep12, SnS’s action had died and the show became Shakugan no Drama.
    And S2… I remember Wilhelmina saying in some OVA that it’d have twice as much action as S1 had. I’m glad this hasn’t been proven to be true so far. I’d happy with 24 eps of lovelove.

    People are expecting action out of an anime based on a light novel. wtf. I REALLY hope those narutards and bleachfags gtfo my Shana already.

    knuck
    Reply

  53. When Bungee Jumping, shouldn’t the strap be also around the waist? If it’s just the ankles, leg joints may become dislocated because there’s such a large weight to carry underneath to ankles.

    Crev
    Reply

  54. Totally agree with what GP and Tokkan said. What’s wrong with character development? The most interesting part of a show is it’s characters, as they help shape the show. There’s nothing wrong with character development.

    Tokkan and GP FTW
    Reply

  58. Well… The question is not about battles (but some action is welcome, indeed). But about suspense. Development of characters is a bad joke. What are you, intelectuals? That’s shagukan no shana: it isn’t Planetes. The characters are moorons all the time (with the adults exceptions, of course). But what will happens in the next episode is all about the series issue. The matter here is that nothing is going happen there’s a lot of time.

    Joe Sargent
    Reply

  60. the show isn’t about Shana slicing and swinging her sword around to entertain you.

    and to GP, AMENN!

    “Anyone notice Shana’s skirt seems to defy gravity when she bungee jumps?”
    x’DDD I noticed that, I found it hilarious.

    It might be just me, but Konoe’s voice annoys the hell out of me. x.x; When I first heard it, in the endings of S1, I had to lower down the volume. lmao, it’ so damn high and soft, I dislike it. Not hate it, dislike.

    The episode was interesting, and very dramatic xD But, alot of “screen time” has been focusing on Konoe. It makes me dislike her, x) uh-ohhh. But I loved the random, animal people who held signs, and pointed right directions when you’re lost in a maze. YAYY.

    NinjaKitten
    Reply

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