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Shakugan no Shana
Anime Review
Hair of flame and eyes ablaze. That's what they say about this Flame Haze. Shakugan no Shana thrusts you into what seems like a normal version of Japan, except this one has a hidden mythology, where extradimensional demons phase into our world, consume humans and then are killed by Flame Hazes, who set everything right -- sort of.
They can't actually restore the people, so temporary duplicates called Flames are put in their place, which look and act like the original people, ... for a while. As the flame slowly dies, the person's "existence" in this reality also slowly fades, until no one remembers them, and all trace that they ever existed is slowly removed. This eases the "impact" of the person having died in the first place...
This concept alone would have made a great and fascinating story, but unfortunately, it's glossed over for shounen romance and action series which hits almost every trope and cliche of the genre, and which would have had me reaching for the remote to kill it, and yet somehow I couldn't quite bring myself to stop watching. Despite the tired replay of something we've all seen a dozen times, there's something marvelously compelling about this version.
 Naturally, as with any series that starts with a whole mythology to learn, there's a plethora of terminology as well as rules of the game to familiarize yourself with. Don't bother. The show itself glosses over it and even throws stuff out the window if it suits the plot. And yet despite me wanting to stop every time my suspension of disbelief was shattered, I just couldn't stop. In fact, I found myself wanting to know what happened next even more.
So, either I'm a sucker for this genre, or this show is better than I think it is. The above average production value and the interesting fight sequences might be part of what kept me coming back for more, but I really have no idea why I didn't shut it off when I had the chance, before I got totally sucked into it -- the real reason could be that it was just some good mindless fun.
 And oh, by the way, the main character of the series, Yuji, starts off dead. And by that I mean, he's a flame -- the replacement for his real self that was killed even before the series starts. And yet Shana, the Flame Haze he meets by chance, who *knows* he's going to fade away, still doesn't understand herself what's attracting her to him. And Yuji, now armed with the knowledge that he's going to be erased from existence makes a desperate attempt to leave his mark on the world.
So, yeah, there's a bit more going on in this series than just monster of the week. *That* could be what kept me glued to the TV, even though I wanted to not watch this series. Give it a chance. You might be surprised.
Reviewed by Brian Cirulnick, April 2013
Below: Scenes from Shakugan no Shana.
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