First Impressions / OVA/Movie / Shakugan no Shana

OP Sequence

OP: 「Prophecy」 by 川田まみ (Kawada Mami)
Watch the OP!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming ▼

Summary:

Shana and Yuuji are digging through Friagne’s old pile of Treasure Tools on a very hot day, and Yuuji comes across a telescope-like object. When he peers through it at Shana, something suddenly happens, and when the two regain consciousness, they discover that they’ve switched bodies. Alastor realizes that what Yuuji had used was the Reshuffle, but it’s easy enough for the two to return to normal by using it again. He wants them to hurry though and do it before anyone else finds out what happened, but the problem is that Yuuji dropped the item, and Keisaku and Eita return with ice cream at this very moment. This leaves Shana and Yuuji no choice but to use her coat to store all the objects in the area so that they can sift through them later in a place where there won’t be anyone else. Fumbling with their new identities, the two excuse themselves and make their way outside, but everywhere they try to go, they run into people they know. They even run into Wilhelmina, and when she starts to suspect something is up, Yuuji freezes her by using Shana’s body to say that she loves her.

The two eventually return home, and Yuuji is tired from all the running around in Shana’s body. Shana isn’t feeling so well either in Yuuji’s body, so Yuuji is in a rush to find the Reshuffle and brings out all the junk from earlier. The problem is that he dumps it all right on top of them, and Shana has to protect him from the falling debris. Yuuji gets knocked out in the process, leaving Shana on top of him and tempted to kiss him. Before she can though, Yuuji’s mother comes to see what’s going on, so Shana uses her own body to create a Fuuzetsu. When Yuuji finally wakes up, Shana has him store away the junk again, but while it’s all flying around, she manages to grab the Reshuffle. The two then use it to return to their own bodies, and Yuuji realizes that he needs to use the bathroom because Shana had eaten too much ice cream in it earlier. While Yuuji’s gone, Alastor explains to Shana that the reason he didn’t want anyone to know what had happened is because, in order to work, the Reshuffle requires that there not be a wall between the two people’s hearts, and Alastor didn’t want others to know that her and Yuuji’s relationship was at that point.

ED Sequence

ED: 「All in good time」 by 川田まみ (Kawada Mami)
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming ▼

I didn’t think much of the opening song (or the animation that went with it), but I liked the ending song as a good, somewhat soothing way to end the episode.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this OVA since I haven’t really been paying attention to Shana news, and I had only heard that it was supposed to develop the characters a bit prior to the upcoming third series. In that regard, this first episode of Shana S did its job pretty well despite the rather silly premise of body switching. Certainly they milked it for some fanservice and comedy (admittedly it was amusing to hear Yuuji saying Shana’s trademark lines), and ultimately this wasn’t very plot heavy, but it’s clear that Yuuji and Shana came away from this understanding each other a lot better. The ironic thing though is that Yuuji was acting like a helpless girl most of the time and Shana ended up being the strong and protective one. In any case, I also liked how the episode ended on a high note with Alastor tying things together and talking about the two’s relationship. I’m hoping for a little more progress though in the episodes to come (three more, four in total), and I wonder what they’re going to cover. The next DVD/BR is due out February of next year.

43 Comments

  8. It’s pretty damn pathetic when you’re a guy stuck in a female’s body and you’re FAR more feminine than they are! Or most of the women around you for that fact!

    Yuji, some advice: Stay in Shana’s body and get yourself a man-friend. Lord knows that’s the only way you’ll get a d!ck.

    Remy
    Reply

  9. I feel sorry for Yuji in the end though. Shana ate all that ice-cream and Yuji was the one to take the fall.
    This came across my mind suddenly though; What happens if Yuji and Kazumi were the one to switch bodies or Shana and Kazumi switched bodies.
    Shana-tan G was what I really liked. Though they should change it to Shakugan no Yuji-tan G XD.

    Chaos
    Reply

  11. So I read somewhere that the 3rd season will begin shortly after the four-episode ova is done. But you mentioned that the next DVD should be out in February, so am I to understand that Shana S won’t be done airing for months, and in turn, the 3rd season won’t air for months? I was seriously expecting Shana S to air over maybe a month, and then see the 3rd season by this winter!

    Eclipse
    Reply

  16. Though the story is full of fanservice material, believe or not, this story is canon, since it’s taken straight from the short story excerpt written by author Takahashi Yashiro himself. The story is included in series illustrator Ito Noiji’s Shana art collection book “Gu-ren”.

    http://www.mukyaa.com/other-otaku-stuff/54/noizi-ito-art-collection

    It actually started with Ito drawing a picture of a strong-looking Yuji and weak-looking Shana out of her amusement, and author Takahashi decided to go along with the amusing idea and came up with this story.

    Chronologically, this takes place between novels volume 9 and 11, or anime seasons 1 and 2, just after Wilhelmina arrived but before Yuji began his serious training into awesomeness, hence why he still looked like a wimp. lol

    Kinny Riddle
    Reply

  17. Wow this isn,t what i envisioned for Shakugan no Shana S OVA when it came back on air but i can’t complain since they claim there is a 3rd season coming out unfortunately that is still far away

    GEMINI
    Reply

  19. “The last DVD won’t be out until August next year, so the earliest the third season would start is probably Fall 2010.”

    WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!???

    Oh… Well I guess that’s okay that way Railgun would be finished in production. Still keeping my fingers crossed for some improvement. I didn’t see any significant improvement in the animation department on this OVA. >_<

    megalith
    Reply

  20. I’ve been waiting this for so long. The episode was very good and puts my hopes up for season 3. Second was really good and the ending was great, but nothing compered with the story of the novels.

    haseo0408
    Reply

  21. This made me thought, “What in the hell?!” I mean… logically, just one part really is ridiculous. You can’t kiss yourself and imagine it as someone else. That’s like… some kind of twisted, I don’t know what the hell to call it. But, it was a good episode I guess.

    Maximatum99
    Reply

  23. it was a bit of a letdown to find out they have to hide their feelings for eachother. If you were hoping for some sort of romantic progression this ep made it clear it’s still a long long way.

    outcast
    Reply

  29. BTW, Omni, are you gonna blog the two Shana-tan specials: Shana-tan Revenge and Shana-tan G? God, those were hilarious, making full use of Kugimiya’s role in Hayate no Gotoku and Toradora, as well as a cameo by Index-tan.

    Kinny Riddle
    Reply

  37. Show Spoiler ▼

    p00pi
    Reply

  38. I’m glad Shana’s come back, but still..
    First of all, these OVA episodes are wondering me, also it’s annoying to wait another year or so for 4 episodes to come out…
    Then there is something else that really bugs me, it’s my opinion how this series is going to end, not how it SHOULD end but how it most likely will, my theory, and I really hate that theory:

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Show Spoiler ▼

    The Flame Hazes are about to win and something bad is heading towards Yuji, maybe an attack of one of them. Shana gets in the way to protect evil Yuji cause she loves him. Ofc Shana gets hurt, and the moment Yuji notices what just happend he turn good again, telling Shana not to die and so on but Shana will most likely die and they’ll have a last talk about love and stuff before the end. Then there will be a time gap and you’ll most likely see Yuji grown up with this little Shana kid from the Shakugan no Shana S opening at his side, his daughter (and maybe Yoshida’s (-.-) too), reincarnation of Shana. That’s a way to end the series and many ppl will consider this a “goood” ending, but I’ll hate it and I hope some others do too. Also it’s an explanation why we get 4 OVAs dealing with the ShanaxYuji relationship, because there won’t be much time for that in the third series, with Yuji turning evil and stuff.

    Now this was alot from my side, I repeat that this ending is just my theory and I repeat that I’d hate this kind of ending.

    virox
    Reply

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