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Forum - View topicREVIEW: Shakugan no Shana III (Final)
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Mad_Scientist
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I'd rate the series higher than a C+, probably because I'm not quite as bothered by Yuji as Theron seemingly is. Still, understand his complaints.
Here's my overall thoughts on the series as a whole, posted from the series thread: Let's talk about what I liked and disliked. Starting with what I disliked. Too many characters, and too many titles At first I thought the anime was doing an ok job balancing so many new characters along with a bunch of returning characters, but in the end things got a bit out of hand. This was especially bad with some of the Flame Haze characters, where every character was essentially two different characters, both with long titles, and in some cases more than one title. It was a bit much to keep track of at times, and I also I felt that overall the story was spread a bit too thin in some cases. Sure, there were new characters I enjoyed like Rebecca, but at the same time there were a whole bunch of characters that were just there, ones who felt like they should be important, but were given so little focus that it was hard to really care about them. The disconnect with the previous seasons This is particularly bad regarding Yuji's character and actions, and there is a related issue with Bal Masque's behavior. Despite my debate with TarTarkas about the severity of Yuji's change, I do feel he has something of a point. In the 3rd season characters seem to suddenly change, and plot points or retconned, ignored, or given tenuous explanations. This is also a problem the 2nd season had as well, though not as extreme. Remember how different Hecate was in Season 1 compared to the later seasons? Remember how at the end of Season 1, Bal Masque was acting like the whole "fount of existence" thing was itself their primary goal, and how in the start of season 2 Bel Peol is suddenly saying that it was all done to serve some larger purpose? Unfortunately for the 3rd season, the disconnect involves Yuji, a much more important character than Hecate. Though at the end I could at least understand why Yuji did what he did, it was a very rough bit of character development, and it wasn't something I would have immediately guessed Yuji would do based on the first and second seasons. Then you got the issue of Bal Masque, which just compounds the Yuji issue. If Bal Masque had always given the impression that they had a clear goal they were working towards, and that all they were doing was for the purpose of achieving that goal, it might have been easier to accept Yuji joining with them after he realized their goal wasn't so bad after all. But that's not the way they were portrayed. Even with the season 2 retcon about the end of season 1, Bal Masque still seemed unfocused and somewhat scatterbrained in their actions, doing evil just because, rather than a focused "ends justify the means" anti-hero/villain group like they were apparently supposed to be. Which as I said above, made it hard to accept Yuji joining them, especially at first. I guess in a way, the above issues aren't specifically with the 3rd season. They are in fact issues with the first two seasons failing to lay the groundwork for season 3. Regardless of where the fault lies, these issues affected my enjoyment of season 3. Though I ultimately came to accept what Yuji did, and I don't think it destroys his character, it was a very rough bit of development. Plot threads with conclusions but no (or incomplete) beginnings This is something that hurt the final episodes of the series I think. We got the climaxes of several different plot threads in addition to the main story... problem is, some of those plot threads hadn't really been developed much. Or at all. This meant the ending was a bit unfocused at times, in my opinion. For example, let's consider Sale and Chiara, and their relationship with Mammon and the professor. Now, I know that Sale is an artificial Flame Haze, and the professor is apparently his creator, but I don't even know what "artificial Flame Haze" really means. There were only a handful of lines that even revealed this relationship (some posters missed it entirely), and in the end, spoiler[Sale killing the professor didn't really have the emotional investment you'd expect from a man killing his creator/father.] And then Mammon... I got the impression that there was some definite relationship between him and Sale/Chiara, but i couldn't tell you what exactly. Overall, Sale and Chiara were better developed than some of the new characters, at least as far as their relationship to each other was concerned, but it felt like a huge chunk of their story was missing. Which apparently was the case. More on that later. Then we get the resolution of the story of the corpse collector, Lamies. Apparently, spoiler[he was trying to restore a portrait, though some translations, including the official nico nico one, don't make that clear. But why did he (or I should say she) care about that portrait so much?] Umn... Then we get Pheles and Johann. Well, actually, their story specifically was one where we got the beginning, but when spoiler[Shahar announces the existence of the "heir of two worlds" to everyone, she brings up all these events involving some ancient Flame Haze and Crimson Denizen that were apparently in love with each other and trying to do something similar, except they were stopped by the previous Flame Haze of Alastor, and this all related to events that we saw very brief hints of in earlier flashbacks, assuming this all involves the conflict that Shiro and Wilhelmina were involved with,] and I am completely lost. Apparently, all these events were explained more fully in the Light Novels. Volume 10 is focused on Alastor's previous Flame Haze, while the majority of volume 15 is focused on Sale and Chiara. Lamies story is told at some point as well, though I'm not sure where. Ok, but unfortunately, I don't have the Light Novels. Even if I had perfect English translations of the entire series, the anime series should be able to stand on its own, without requiring people to run to the novels to figure things out. It's easy to blame J.C. Staff and the anime production committee for "butchering" the novels, and indeed that is what some have done, but I don't know all the details that went on behind the scenes of the anime production, how much guidance they were given, and how much is really their fault. But in the end it doesn't really matter whose fault it is, there are issues with the anime that prevent me from enjoying it as much as I would like to. With that out of the way, let's move onto something more positive. Before I discuss what I liked, let's discuss what I didn't care for one way or the other. Animation and art, ok. Generally speaking, if I am invested in a story, I don't really notice things like the animation quality or the art style, unless they are really really good, or really really bad. I don't recall Shana's animation being particularly memorable, so I guess it was at least ok. As for art style, I recall finding the CG animation used for the Snake of the Festival a bit odd looking in a few scenes, and I was disappointed that so many of the Crimson Denizens in the the big crowd scenes were so generic. On the plus side, I liked Yuji's new design, I thought the design of the abyss was pretty cool, and I liked the scenes ofspoiler[ Xanadu's creation.] Overall, the visuals did not wow me, but they did not disappoint me either. Now, onto the things I liked! Voice Acting It's hard to judge voice acting in a language I do not understand, but as much as I could tell, the acting was pretty good. I really enjoyed some of the speeches of various characters, mainly Snake of the Festival/Yuji. I like the voice of that one Crimson Denizen, Decariba or whatever his name was, it was really cool. Overall, while the voice acting didn't utterly stun me, I definitely enjoyed it a lot. Music Ah, now things are looking up. I really liked the soundtracks of the previous two seasons, and I really liked the soundtrack of this one as well. My favorite song is definitely the one that seems to be the theme of the Snake of the Festival, but there were many nice tracks. I also thought both opening and ending songs were good as well, and liked the way they often would integrate the ending song with the last moments of the episode. The storyline parts I liked: Snake of the Festival I complained a lot about various aspects of the plot at the start of this post, but my earlier defense of the series in this thread shows that in fact I enjoyed many aspects of the story as well. Let's get to them. I loved the Snake of the Festival and the core twist behind him. You see, I am a video game player as well as an anime watcher, and so I am quite familiar with the ancient god/demon that was sealed away long ago and is revived by the villains to destroy/rule the world. "Sealed evil in a can" this trope is called on tvtropes. I've always wanted someone to do a twist on it, spoiler[where the ancient sealed evil is actually a misunderstood good guy. And while I don't think Shana is the first to do that twist, it is the first time I have seen it, and I think it did it very well.] I mean, just look at the Snake of the Festival. Ancient god sealed by the (apparent) good guys. Ominous appearance, being a snake with black flame. Somewhat sinister and incredibly awesome theme music. Revived by the (apparent) villains. Likes to give grandiose speeches about changing the world, and is voiced by Aizen's Japanese voice actor. (EDIT) Also occasionally prone to brief fits of maniacal laughter, can't believe I forgot about that. Everything superficial about him screams evil, and at the same time screams "he's so cool I want to root for him anyways." spoiler[And in the end, it turns out he's not evil. He's not without his flaws, but he's definitely not evil. And ultimately he wins, and helps out everybody. The "bad guy" wins and it is a good thing. I like that.] Epic scale and intensity While the many characters and plot threads did sometimes prove too much for the series to handle, at the very least the season did manage a very epic feel. Gods and monsters and the possible end of the world and the creation of a new world. Massacres and wars and the alteration of reality. It definitely had nice scope to it, and it provided a true climax. Some series feel like they are building towards something massive, then end in an anti-climax where nothing much happens. Not Shana season 3. It felt like it was building towards something major, and it did. This also relates to another good quality of the series: intensity. From the moment we see Yuji take his throne as the new leader of Bal Masque, the series hits you and makes you wonder just what the heck is going on and what is going to happen. And it never lets up, aside from some slight dragging in some fights near the end. Compared to the previous seasons of Shana, which had clearly defined story arcs, the 3rd season was one massive story where you couldn't stop at any point without being driven mad wondering how it was going to all end. spoiler[Happy ending] spoiler[Ok, I like sad endings sometimes, but I also like happy endings, and I like happy endings to stories that seem like they shouldn't possibly be able to have one, but do, and still make sense. From the moment we learned what Yuji was, Shana was basically saying "there's no way this can have a good ending." Even after we learned that Yuji wasn't going to fade away any time soon thanks to the Midnight Lost Child, the more we learned about the world, the harder it became to imagine any truly conclusive happy ending. Yah, maybe they can defeat Bal Masque and kill them all. That won't stop future Denizens from going after the treasure if they learn of it. That won't change the fact that Denizens still consume people's existence, or the fact that the whole world is really screwed up, and Shana and Yuji are going to spend eternity fighting until they eventually die, and one day in the future a Denizen might just manage to create a distortion so great that it wipes out reality. And then we get season 3, which tells us "by the way, Yuji's evil now", and it becomes apparent the series is doomed to a tragic ending. Except, ultimately, it ends in a better manner than most could have imagined back in season 1, and it does so well.] In conclusion One of my favorite authors is Brandon Sanderson, and one of the things he likes to do is reversals and subversions. Take a common fantasy trope or theme, even (or especially) one he's used himself, and put a new spin on it, or turn it on its head. I felt like that was what the final season of Shana tried to do, and it mostly succeeded. spoiler[I talked about this a bit earlier with the Snake of the Festival and why I loved him, but it goes somewhat beyond just him. I'm reminded of the scene in episode 23 shortly after the creation of Xanadu, when the Snake of the Festival orders Bal Masque to go to Xanadu and complements them for their hard work and sacrifices, and there's that really awesome and triumphant music that just makes the scene so awesome, and then a part of your brain realizes "wait, weren't these guys the villains?" but you realize it's hard to really think that anymore, even considering the spotty characterization Bal Masque got in the anime.] So I love Shana 3 for what it did and what it tried to do, taking all our preconceptions about Bal Masque and any plan they might have, and turning things around, making us wonder just who we should be rooting for. Even if it was a bit rough in it's execution, I still like it. |
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Kit-Tsukasa
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Main problem with this show can be summarized shortly:
7 volumes of dense material in comparison to the first 15. J.C. Staff and co. tried to cram it in 24 episodes like they used to and attempted to get away with lack of terminology explanation or thorough character exploration. I loved the Shana novels, but the anime was sub-par as an adaptation. Art and animation are stuck in 2005-2006 when Shana first premiered. The exception I believe were episode 14 and episode 24 where everything suddenly went HD quality for no apparent reason. Good ending, but obviously storytelling was going to be lackluster. The fact that they cut out the openings and endings numerous time only further supports this. |
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RyanSaotome
 Posts: 4210 Location: Towson, Maryland |
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As a big fan of the previous seasons, I found myself very disappointed with the third series for one major reason: I love this series because of Shana. They tried to throw in all of these new characters with little to no introduction that I don't care about, when I just wanted more Shana screentime. There is something wrong when the titular character sometimes goes entire episodes without being shown, and that happened quite a few times in Shana 3.
I really wished they just kept the characters they actually developed in previous seasons, along with Shana, to fight the final battles. Its kinda tough to care about all these characters randomly appearing and fighting crucial battles... like I still don't know what that Cowboy guy and the blonde haired girl were doing there at the end, or anything about them. |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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As someone who really enjoyed the Shana franchise, I was completely disappointed with Shana 3. I ended up dropping it somewhere around halfway through (I think episode 15?)
The writing for the third season was just absolutely atrocious. So many things happen that do not make a lick of sense. I'll go ahead and list some of the stuff that really annoyed me. -Bal Masque apparently grew a gigantic legion in a matter of weeks/months. When Shana and Wilhelmina went to rescue Yuuji inside Seireiden at the end of the first season, there are only a handful of denizens that are there. If they truly had a massive army then why did the army not show up during that period? -Shana's ability to summon Tenmoku Ikko came out of nowhere. It was never foreshadowed nor explained. She just yelled really loudly and then *poof* Tenmoku Ikko appears. -There was absolutely no reason for the denizens to go and attack Earth. Hell, their god ordered them to protect Seireiden. What part of attacking Earth is going to protect Seireiden? It was horrible writing forcing the tomogara away so that Rebecca and Khamsin only have to fight lion boy because apparently everyone else is away. -The Flame Haze in the first season were built up as entities that are very territorial and are known for working alone. It was mentioned that if two Flame Haze were in the same area, there would be an inevitable fight for the territory. In Shana III there's this huge organization that apparently a bunch of Flame Hazes belong to who work together. This goes against everything that had been built up prior. -Crimson Lords have always been the strongest of the crimson realm. Their power is enormous and are not meant to be taken lightly. How is it then, that Shana easily defeats a Crimson Lord without even breaking a sweat (the camel guy if you've forgotten). Heck, Friagne put up a better fight than Joe Camel. -When Yuuji/Snake of the Festival is declaring his grand order about Xanadu and whatnot, he goes on and on about his path is about peace. Mere seconds later after a bunch of Flame Haze start doubting their purpose and think that Yuuji's plan would be best, they are immediately slaughtered. It was at this time that I stopped watching. There is no justification for this. If there are those from the enemy side who are now reconsidering their position you do not slaughter them. Especially if you just gave a big speech about how you want peace. As far as animation goes, it's honestly really bad. Maybe it got better in the second half, but the first half is laughable. Hell, there's a scene either just before or after Snake gets its body back where there's like a 30 second freeze frame of Snake/Yuuji talking and (of course) his cloak is blowing in the wind. Except that JC Staff only put two frames for the cloak animation, so it's just back-and-forth on two frames of animation and it looks soooo terrible. In all honesty, after rewatching the first season of Shana, I'm pretty sure it had much more fluid animation than Shana III had. A B- is certainly very generous as I would consider it below average, especially for a shounen action show. |
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superdry
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I enjoyed the final season, but I can definitely agree with the problems people have mentioned here and other places.
Way too many characters and a lot of little plot stuff that most likely made no sense to anyone who didn't read the novels. To me, the final season was geared more towards novel readers which led to people have mentioned. Other than that JC Staff, I think did a decent job cramming the last third of the novels into a 2-cour series. |
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Draconarius
 Posts: 11 Location: Australia |
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Like Megiddo, I loved Shana 1 and 2, but this final series I just hate, pretty much for the exact same reasons he mentioned.
I have to give special mention for the ending, though. People say Mai-HiME cheated on its ending, in my opinion Shana 3 one-ups it. spoiler[Yuji switches sides for no reason, beats Shana -- his supposed one great love -- to a pulp multiple times, kick-starts a war, gets a lot of people killed, and in the end... he and Snake of the Festival win. SotF gets his dream, Yuji and Shana get together, and everyone lives happily ever after. There are no consequences for Yuji turning traitor and being directly responsible for a lot of deaths. Further, all of the Flame Hazes who fought and died, did so for nothing. It was, no hyperbole intended, the worst ending to any work of fiction I've read or watched.] |
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Ermat_46
Posts: 743 Location: Philippines |
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The last arc (after Dantalian) is J.C. Staff original content.
J.C. Staff being masters of butchering. Nothing to see here.
Okay. I'll try to justify this in the context of Yuuji/Snake's original plan. spoiler[Basically, it was explained in episode 23 that the power of Reiji Maigo to regenerate the power of existence comes from the left-over PoE that comes from when Tomogara converts PoE to some form of energy. They had Dantalian create a hougu to basically collect all those left-over PoE so that Yuuji/Snake would be able to execute the creation without relying on that huge tower, because he knows that it might be tampered by the Flame Hazes, which happened. Basically, more conflicts would mean more left-over PoE, which means more power for Yuuji/Snake.] The "attacking-as-distraction" aspect of this plan (in episode 5-6) was already discussed in the previous review. But if you won't believe this, I'm pretty sure that with this aspect (in the spoilers), the plan would at least make sense.
That's a generalization. I don't remember how Shana explained it, but if you have a bunch of persons that have a same goal or objective, sooner or later, there would be a union/groupings. Of course, that organization may not have everyone in its scope, but I think that the scope is big enough to warrant a mention. Also, the only flame hazes that we saw are too few (Shana, Margery, Wilhelmina, and Khamsin). Season 2 introduced us to the Outlaws. So having a bigger organization isn't far-fetch'd.
Shana is contracted to Alastor, the one who is in equal power to the Snake.
See the spoiler. It might help to justify this. Hint: In episode 19, Yuuji told Johan that "Telling her the entire plan could endanger the resistance to the creation of Xanadu" (spoiler[from SS-Eclipse. Don't know what Niconico's version is, but I trust their translation.]). One big question is that why would Yuuji/Snake want the Flame Hazes to resist the creation of Xanadu. If there is no resistance to the creation of Xanadu, then there wouldn't be any problem. Here Yuuji/Snake implied that their real plan isn't really about removing resistance regarding the creation of Xanadu.
I'm sensing from your post that you're still applying the black-or-white morality that was supposed to be broken down by season 3 (though I agree that this show failed to completely destroy this "flame hazes as the good and tomogara as the bad" image that the first 2 seasons depicts. All of the tomogaras shown prior to season 3, except Pheles and Lammie are "villain-like". We weren't shown how a Guze no Tomogara and a human can have a good relationship or how a Guze no Tomogara cannot live without humans. Pheles-Johan dynamic isn't enough. It's lacking.) I think this is more of a "I want to preserve the status quo" vs. "I want to drastically change the system" type of conflict. The Flame Haze are more of the "I want to preserve the status quo" as it is really their goal (to minimize the distortions), and not to protect the human race. Snake's camp is more on the "I want to drastically change the system" camp, and this is risky so the Flame Hazes perceived him as a threat, thus the start of the conflict. If we look at in this perspective, then not all deaths should have meaning. Yes, there were wasted deaths. There were wasted resources, but this is the reality of having a conflict. In a war, lives are wasted, deaths can be meaningful, but it doesn't mean that all deaths are and must be meaningful, and that is the reality of it. I find the ending to be much deeper as it seems. spoiler[This whole arc is rooted in Yuuji's lack of trust in Shana. As shown, Yuuji doesn't need to trust Shana (thus, he need not to tell her his real plans), and trusting Shana might put a risk to his plans (see the spoilered one), and the anime ended it with Shana saying "The last thing I allow is for you to be alone". This gave Yuuji a reassurance that whatever he do, even if he didn't trust Shana, she would still want to be with him. He is not allowed to act selfishly as he wants, but it doesn't mean that Shana will just let him do what he wants. Shana told him that "I'll stop you if I think you're wrong", is I think, telling us that her trust is not just a blind "I believe in you, you do everything", but that she's ready to trust him but if he starts being derailed, she's going to tell him that "You're wrong." That is, I think, what separates the romance aspect of the whole show apart from other romance shows. It isn't shallow as it seems.] All in all, the show has an interesting concept, a good mythology (back story). It aspires to be big with its "I'll change the world for you" motifs, Yuuji as a villain is alpha-tier, but all-in-all the whole show is sadly, less than the sum of its parts. Last edited by Ermat_46 on Thu Apr 26, 2012 7:27 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Megiddo
Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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One of the best written and executed arcs isn't even in the novel? JC Staff seriously came up with the idea of Hecate acting as an endless reservoir to link with the Reiji Maigo to supply endless power of existence? Holy crap. They also came up with the idea of having Alastor manifest itself in true form so that the balance from all the excess PoE didn't destroy the earth? Wow. Whoever came up with that at JC Staff should have written the novels instead. That's better than practically everything else in Shana. But then again, JC Staff also came up with the torturous Fumina Konoe arc. EDIT: That said, I did like some stuff from Shana III. I liked seeing the truth behind why Margery wants to kill Silver. How it wasn't a simple sob story because she was distraught over her parents deaths. That was a dark touch that I would have liked to see more in the series. |
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Ryu Shoji
Posts: 676 Location: Cambridge, United Kingdom |
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I have to say, I agree so much with comments made by previous posters. I did enjoy this series, but at the same time, I thought it could have been a lot better (maybe it would have made a lot more sense if Viz Media hadn't cancelled the light novels?!).
Another point about characters appearing out of nowhere: there was the whole appearance of the Hyakki Yakou. They suddenly appear at the end as if non-light novel readers are supposed to know who they are (even Margery makes recognises them) then they flew off towards Xanadu in a camper van? Erm... I will also agree with comments about Sale's connection to Dantalion and to a lesser degree, Chiara's to Mammon. Personally, I found Sale and Chiara to be rather appealing characters. Also, what about Samuel Demantius' connection to Haborym? Sale, Chiara and Samuel Demantius were three characters I found myself liking for no real reason in particular, so it was such a shame to not see them getting the development they deserved. Another thing I found is, that it was very hard for me to actually support the Flame Haze in the final battle. In fact, didn't the Gods of the Earth make some comments along the lines of spoiler[going to go to Xanadu and kill a bunch of Denizens just to show them who's boss]? In regards to the final battle...sure, there were loads of fights going on - but how many of them actually ended? We had SouthValley going on about how he was going to "Kill and kill and kill" yet the only things he did kill were generic denizens. It's as if the only significant characters to die during the final battle were spoiler[Sydonay, Dantalion and Khamsin] (I wouldn't count spoiler[Mammon and Domino] because quite frankly, they didn't do much at all. So considering it was a full scale war...I expected a few more casualties. Personally, I would give the series: Overall (Sub): C Story: D+ Animation: C Art: C Music: B |
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Ermat_46
Posts: 743 Location: Philippines |
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More like Season 2 and the huge lag is what killed Shana 3. Season 1 has is over-all decent-to-good. The whole Fumina Konoe arc wouldn't have been a waste IF the characters that were supposedly developed weren't just thrown in the fridge come Season 3 (like Ike and Oga). It wouldn't be an annoyance IF the characters that were in season 3 were introduced earlier in Season 2. There were interesting characters. J.C.Staff should've invented an arc that would've helped in the worldbuilding instead of doing the generic SoL route. Though you can't blame J.C.Staff entirely as they might not been expecting a 3rd season at that time. Same with season 1. They wrote the ending of season 1 without expecting a season 2. |
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BigOnAnime
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 1255 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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As someone who really loved the first two seasons three years ago, I must say, I'm still disappointed with the third season. Really the only episode that was actually worth watching was 24, mainly due to that decent ending we got.
This season had so many problems, many Theron and Megiddo covered already, one of the biggest having a bunch of characters poofing out of nowhere, them not bothering to develop them at all, so you're left not going to care when anything happens to them. I found many episodes to be a chore to watch even, such as episode 14 (Easily one of the worst, if not the worst episode in the entire show), that one had so many issues I'm not even going to bother trying to list them. I still don't know who to blame for this being garbage, J.C. Staff, or the author. Overall, it's a massive disappointment. The only reason why I didn't drop it was just so I could see the ending. Though you can pretty much just skip straight to episode 24, and still have an idea of what's going on. |
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Thatguy3331
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To be honest, I'm not a giant fan of shana. I've watched it and enjoyed the first season, but sort of cared less for the second season (I think this mostly stemmed from the fact that I watched the dub first and didn't want to switch to subs
 ) Season 3 I soley watched because I felt as though I should watch its conclusion given I saw the first two seasons (sort of like how I am with bleach, ever since I found out its was on its final arc) and to me season 3 was a pretty curious case.
I found out yuji was evil thanks to a wiki, and went "WTH?!" when I realized that dude with the long hair was him, and I thought for sure that this was going to end horridly. spoiler[however it didn't. I'm definetly glad it wasn't going to be this tragic ending,] but when I finished watching the final episode, I was sort of left with "thats it?" I was glad they stopped dicking around and hadspoiler[Yuji and shan kiss and ultimatly be together (at that point I found the triangle pointless, it was crushed in the second or third ep *not that I disliked kazumi, but it was glaringly obvious*)] but all in all what sort of killed it for me was me not caring about some of the newer characters, lack of understanding with some of the terminology (a similar problem I have with index, though I enjoy that one more) and, to a minor extent, the fact the animation and art was STILL THE WAY IT WAS BEFORE! I thought since it was 2011 and that this would be the FINAL season that all the stops would be pulled out. I was wrong. All in all though, I don't hate this series, but I think I'll always remember it as "that one anime with that one firery tsundere and that other guy who acctually did something in the end". |
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Ferian
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That's better than most other stuff in the Shana anime. Or do you claim to have read the novels? |
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Megiddo
Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Should I have stated explicitly that I was referring to the anime when in the same post I express awe that something from the anime wasn't in the novel? I would think that any cognizant reader at that point would realize that I have not read the novels (well, other than the ones Viz published). I suppose if you wish for redundancy then yes, I'm referring to Shana animated content only. Though I have heard that Shana III was by far the most faithful to the original work, and it was by far my least favorite season. Couple that with one of my favorite arcs not even being in the novels and I think you can see why I made that remark. In hindsight though, I suppose the quip could be taken as seriously and not in jest as I intended. That is unfortunate. |
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Mad_Scientist
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 3013 |
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Odd, because I thought the ending arc of season 1 was one of the weakest parts of it. It also completely contradicts later events and makes Bal Masque look like a bunch of scatterbrained idiots who have no idea what they are planning. Regarding your long list of complaints, most of those involve the first half of the season, and were already discussed a lot in the talkback thread for that review. I disagree with them all, but I'll leave it at that for now and focus on the complaints that involve the second half.
Why are you surprised that Friagne put up a better fight then the camel guy, when Friagne was himself a Crimson Lord, one who was known for killing Flame Hazes? Given what a (relatively) weak and inexperienced Shana was able to do against a Crimson Lord known for killing Flame Hazes, it's not surprising to me at all that the Shana of season 3 was able to easily beat another Crimson Lord. Even among Crimson Lords, there are a lot of variations in power, and I got the impression that the camel guy was not one of the stronger ones.
I've heard that this scene went down a bit differently in the novels and made more sense, but I haven't found a translation of that volume so I can't confirm it. It might have just been a standard "the book is better" comment. Regardless, this scene was very flawed in the anime, which is all we have to go on. My only defense for this scene is rather a defense of the rest of the series. I didn't have issues with any of the other things you did, so I was able to tolerate this odd and frankly head scratching turn. |
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