Oh hey, it's me (airelf aka Poor man's scans aka the MTL dude). I'm sure you saw in one of the release intros, but yeah, the original motivation for translation was to satisfy a dude's request for the Yuji vs Wilhelmina scene in the Light Novel. I actually still have my MTL translation pipeline set up, but the slow part is (of course) MTL to understandable text. The translations stopped due to college (I was 18 when starting the translations). Before, I have only partially translated Amphitheater. Though I will say modern MTL is far better than it was in 2020. Something to add to the video, there was a brief fundraising attempt in one of the SnS discords shortly after I stopped translating. The idea was to hire a professional translator. I wasn't personally involved as I doubted the legal nature of such, so I don't know where that went.
Extremely interesting, informative and thorough analysis. Even though I was aware of about 80% of Shakugan no Shana's unfortunate state, this was great. I love Shakugan no Shana. I love the world, the characters, the relationships, the action, the romance, the themes... But I hate that I've always been unable to experience all of those things in even greater and more detailed fashion from the LNs. I'd love to read the LN, but I don't know Japanese, and learning one of the hardest languages to master just to read a single series is, like you said, ridiculous. Overall, I'm less critical than you of the anime's Friagne arc, I enjoy pre-S3-Yuji fine, and I don't agree the anime is as barebones as you say when it comes to worldbuilding and giving context clues... but I do agree the anime is more than rough at times. Which is frustrating because there's no way to experience the better version, the LN, without Japanese. It's also facinating - and sad - that Shakugan no Shana and Shana as a character were so hugely popular, impactful and influential in Japan that they inspired other creators to make their own stories with SnS as reference. Shana even created her own character archetype, leading to many Shana-like characters in later years, and she even remains popular enough to this day to keep receiving hundreds of fanart every year. Meanwhile, in the West, SnS and Shana don't have that fame. They aren't unpopular per se, but it's a shadow of what they gained in Japan. I can only hope that, someday, someone or some group picks the LN for translation, official or fanmade.
Do you have any examples of characters or anime that use SnS as a reference? I think its really cool that Shana was so popular that she became an archetype.
@@IamLaTerry I forgot the order of which they came out, but Louise (Zero no Tsukaima) and Aisaka Taiga (Toradora) are often cited as Shana expies. Even funnier that they're all voiced by Rie Kugimiya, making her nicknamed the tsundere queen.
There's the famous TsundeRie Quintuplets: Shana, Louise, Nagi, Taiga and Aria. All petite, tsundere and special girls voiced by Rie Kugimiya. Shana is also attributed to Victorique from Gosick and Agnese from Index, among others. Shakugan no Shana was often referenced in other anime, like Railgun, Hayate no Gotoku, Animegataris or Nogizaka Haruka.
Shana archetypes eh? If it's a girl who uses flames, there are several of them. Stella Vermillion from Rakudai Kishi, also Julis-Alexia von Riessfeld from Gakuen Toshi Asterisk. As well as Selesia Upitiria from Re:Creators. Though the last one didn't really use fire type power, she used it when a spinoff of her was announced, but most importantly her partner Charon has tons of parallels to Yuuji Sakai.
Damn I had no clue the series ended up this way. Shakugan No Shana was one of the first animes that I ever watched, and it got me into anime culture as a whole. Really well made video, this was super interesting!
i looooooooove your video, everything is well explained, a really nice work. I'm french, in France we don't even have translation for the manga or novel, that's make me feel so sad... It feel so bad to know that a lot of people just can't read the novel and langa here... I realised the "luck" I had to start working on different language by my own when i was young so now I can speak french english spanish and JAPANESE. everytime I read the japanese manga/LN I feel so sad for people that can't read it. I started a project by myself to translate some stuff of the novel by myself (like sns quiddity or amphiteater) but they're not very legal and it take a lot of time that i can't still manage. I love shakugan no shana and knowing that people can't read the original story and the following of it when you know how good it is, it hurts a lot ;c I'll try to keep doing my translation but that is not my job at all, i'm not used to this so it's probably gonna be in a lot of time but we just can't wait and pray without doing anything. Welp long life to shakugan no shana !!! (read sns harukanaru no uta till the end if u can it's a masterpiece ;c)
Shakugan no Shana is a prime example of a series that I would have liked to read translated but because of resources by the official publisher drops in a whim, but at the same time letting everybody else know that they will receive DMCA. I feel the same way of the Chivarly of the Failed Knight and many other series where a lot of good series are left to limbo for years because of licensing issues or because of bad adaptation. I think if Shakugan had made by Mappa, David Productions or Trigger it would have been a success and the whole series would had been treated differently. It's scary to think how many shows are just left unfinished or untranslated because of bad management or animation ...
licensing issues are always the worse x_X I guess we were even lucky with the anime because of Geneon kicking the bucket and then funi having to pick it back up D:
Honestly whenever I think about it, Shakugan no Shana was always supposed to have that seinen like serious atmosphere in its scenes. The anime totally couldn't follow through that. Either they were limited by the animation capabilities of their time or it was just so bad. As much as I want ufotable to make an anime adaptation of Shakugan no Shana, i don't think I could hope for it. Cloverworks would work just fine too tbh. As well as other studios you mentioned.
@@Zyleace well Shana makes 20 years this year apparently :O We can only be lucky if they decide to remake the anime but stay loyal to the original source material xD Obviously they are still releasing merch for it because they got the 2 figures out of Shana. One with a red Kimono and the other with her flame wings XD
@@OtakuGunsoNY I'm still praying. Several anime also got remakes and Shana is still popular in Japan at least. Or at least release the effing LN to English so others could read damniit
@@Zyleace For real indeed !! I was just thinking the same thing when I heard about that magical high school one with the ice chick and her brother who were also in the dengeki bunko game that I literally bought because Shana was in it XD But yea that series is pretty old even though it got an anime in 2020 and is getting another season. If they can then so can Shakugan no Shana as far as I'm concerned x)
In germany we had to wait till 2021, 16 years in total, for the german dub of the show. And the story how it happened is really incredible. Back in the day, there was a fansubbing group called Emania and they translated Shana from Japanese into German with subs. The special part about this is that after season 3 in 2012, they wanted to bring Shana to german audiences proper with a dub. It took them several years to raise the budget necessary to aquire the license. After reaching this goal, they worked together with german publisher FilmConfect in early 2020, using the old subs as a basis for the dialouge. The dub was recored at TNT Media in Berlin, under the direction of Martin Irnich, CEO at FilmConfect and a pretty known dub director (had the honor to meet him once, really nice guy). The dub for season 1 even recieved german openings and endings which we haven't had heard since the eraly 2000s, so it was kinda special and showed the love of Emania for the project. In total, they licensed season 1, season 2, Shana S (Serason 2's OVAs) and the movie. For multipile reasons, Emania ceased to work with FilmConfect after the release of the OVAs so hopefully season 3 will ever be released here.
As a huge Shana fan it always urked me how the anime portrayed Yuji and Shanas relationship. It went out of its way to show Shana was greatly affected by Yujis words in the beginning about being more than a weapon and having free will, but at the same time downplayed it to Shana just being tsundere and moody. Those words fundamentally changed Shana and made her feel attached and in a way she imprint on Yuji who understandably wasn't mentally ready to handle Shana and her new found emotions. It's easy to see in group scenarios as Shana for a while had almost no social skills and couldn't fathom Yuji hanging out with other people, because in her mind Yuji is the only other person who can understand her and stay by her side. Sure she's tsundere but she's supposed to be emotionally and mentally stunted not just hyper aggressive and then randomly depressed until Yuji arrives. The anime omits important factors in shaping Shanas character and her overall relationships not just with Yuji but with the world around her. The anime paints Shana as a needy asshole who cant live without Yuji for a single second most of the time and Yuji as a dumbass who found an abandoned puppy but after a while got bored of all the responsibilities. And though I love the anime even now it's annoying to see most people write off Shana as just another tsundere from that era of anime because of the adaptation.
You must've watched it dubbed, because what you initially explained in the first paragraph is EXACTLY what I see every time I go through the original Japanese version of the series.
I just started the show not too long ago, I'm currently at like ep 15 & watching the dub. I don't see what you are saying,I can see someone seeing that way if they didn't pay attention though but that's the case with a lot of media,which is then the individual's fault.
@@Burns_RED Nah I'm good,it was my brother's turn to choose the show & he goes with dub since he likes too write while watching show. And as I said I know how to watch a show & I seen enough shows to tell what's something supposed to mean or convey even if the translation ain't a 1to1.
To explain the whole kill aspect of Shana, and later Yuji's, fighting style; Think of it like a Sixth Sense of sensing your opponents hostility. Wait for them to open themselves with their agression and strike back. That's what Shana and Yuji's fighting style revolves around. Hope it clears it up a bit.
If they ever decide to adapt the series again, I want them to make some changes that'll improve upon the source material. *One of them is to make Friagne a tragic villain.* Where it's revealed that Marianne was once a human who fell in love with Friagne. However, when she died from an accident, Friagne placed her soul inside of a toy doll meant for their expected child.
So apparently a new volume got announced of the Shakugan no Shana light novel. Sure all info i found about it was in Japanese so who knows if we will ever get it. But I hope that if it does well we will eventually get translations of previous volumes and all.
@@SalmanKING-o2f Yeah the anime & light novel finished a long time ago. The new volume was apparently a Shakugan no Shana S short story or something. It's not a reboot or I doubt they're planning to continue the light novel. Google Shakugan no Shana SIV if u wanna find more info.
@@SalmanKING-o2f Yeah the anime & light novel ended ages ago. The new volume was a Shakugan no Shana S side story or something. It's not like a reboot or an actual sequel. Google Shakugan no Shana SIV for more info. I hope we get a continuation or an actual translation of the whole light novel some day.
It truly is sad. Hundreds of stories gets to shine while a thousand stories doesn't get the opportunity. Stories that I like are either obscure, underrated and possibly forgotten. Finding info is really hard. Officially supporting them is impossible. I wish there was a way to experience it. There is but that's complicated and business related and may not work well but who knows.
This was my fav anime for ages. To this day i still love it even if it's motly because of nostalgia. I also used to think s3 was extremely confusing for me and now it makes a bit more ssense why all those characters were suddenly thrown in there & the huge shift is. I liked the story but I didn't like how confusing it was and how big the shift was. But damn this video. xD Literally making me wanna read the soruce material juist to be slapped in the face by the fact that it's impossible. Now I REALLY want a reboot of this series. PLEASE!
Glad to know other folks out there are into Shakugan no Shana despite it not getting the appreciation it deserves after all these years. Great analysis on everything !! Alot of good points where made xD Season 3 is actually my favorite if I'm gonna be honest even if things did get confusion because at the point it came out I didn't have access to the manga or the light novel. While the anime has it's unfortunate flaws with everything that was changed from the original source material it still goes down as my favorite anime after all these years and the anime that got me into anime. I was even coincidentally lucky enough to basically follow the anime from back when it first started out maybe some episodes in already(December of 2005 was when I found the anime). I think Geneon going out also might have had to do with why the anime didn't do very well because the license was lost until funimation picked it back up in 2011 after season 3 ended to which I got the DVD and bluray set for season 1 back in 2012 or 2013(which ever video of myself I have to look back on). The other weird thing is that I never even got my hands on the manga until a few years ago and never even saw it in the store way back when I first got into the anime back in 2005 x_X I also like the movie's depiction a bit better and choose that over the first 6 episodes of season 1 any time XD Though I'm surprised you didn't mention the battle with Destructive Blade Sabrac in season 2 which was about the highlight of season 2 for me since season 2 is kinda my least favorite of the series ... I guess my autistic behind is just used to info dumping from season 1 and didn't really think much of it. Then the Konoe and Hecate run down I kinda felt like goes hand in hand with how the world works given how everyone had forgotten her and so on and so forth. Shana training Yuji always remains a humorous time with him being told to "feel the kill" and all that jazz. I feel with Shana's upbringing having been so sheltered that it makes sense that she would have been trained in all that herself but wouldn't be the greatest at teaching it. Yuji "feeling the kill" of Shana towards Margery even though she didn't kill her kinda reminds me of the part in the games when you put it in Japanese and the character is all like "Hisatsu !!". Which I'm guessing would have been better worded as either a fetal blow or a knock out blow or as they call it in wrestling circles "the finisher" xD But anyway my thoughts are so scattered and muddled over the place because it's not often that I come across others who are as into Shakugan no Shana if not more than myself on top of having to watch the video over the span of 2 days xD Once again awsome job on the video from one Shana fan to another and I'm glad this was able to generate health discussion and discourse among the fandom itself. It's still a shame that we'll probably never get the original source material and not even completion of the manga x_X
Thank you for this video. Shakugan No Shana was my very first anime, and holds a special place in my heart. However like you mentioned after rewatching it again for the first time in years and noticed a lot more flaws than my younger self. Anyway, great job and have a great day.
For some reason the UA-cam algorithm recommended this video to me (I don't usually search for videos or channels about anime on UA-cam), and I'm quite happy, at almost 34 years old it was one of the ones that I knew existed in my adolescence and I still have in my pending to see, your video is very good and it helped me understand about the series and frankly I didn't know everything about it, hopefully one day I will have a spice & wolf type remake but I highly doubt it...
Shakugan no Shana wasn't my first anime, but it was THE anime that made me a weeb. It's really sad how bad the original content in the first two seasons were. I can't read Japanese too, but I've been browsing the worldbuilding and lore in the wiki, and they're actually really in-depth (although can be convoluted at times) and interesting! For example like that part of the history where Native American Flame Hazes debated whether or not they should interfere in mortal affairs by defending their land from colonizers, which caused a civil war between the Flame Hazes. Or how there was a faction of Denizens trying to break the masquerade and inform everyone about the truth of the world, which led to an information war. It's a shame these great contents don't see the light of the day in the West.
@@TheLettersJaye masquerade is the trope name where the existence of supernatural or otherwise extraordinary things are deliberately hidden from the mainstream society in the setting. Like Crimson Denizens in Shana, the wizarding world in Harry Potter, aliens in Men in Black, and so on. Breaking the masquerade means making this hidden society/information known to the general society. In Shana, one of the Denizen groups attempted this in the novel.
Dude, I totally feel you on this. Shakugan no Shana was my first anime I actually got into by myself too when I was 14 years old. I really wish it got more appreciation and my kingdom for an anime remake along the lines of something like Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood that was way better because it was closer to the original books. Haaaa, we can dream right?
This is probably the longest youtube video I've watched all the way through but it was worth it. I had no idea of the state of the show was like this. But I'm glad you did all the relevant research on this series. Thanks!
Let me start by saying I can't thank you enough for making this video, as someone else who loves this series and also firmly support the idea that season 3 is the best, even before I knew it was the most faithful one. A lot of the original concepts that made the world so interesting are only ever truly explored at season 3 in the anime. We can only hope something happens with it eventually. People still know this series exists, as evident by videos like these. Maybe one day...
Im also a big fan of SnS but i never knew that season 1+2 had THIS MUCH original content ._. Season 3 is the best which i can agree on but as you also said without prior backstory or context it felt like they added characters for the sake of it. Another fun fact for the Eternal Song adaptation and the 10 volumes of the normal manga are all available In germany which is cool but yeah not having the light novel is a huge loss. When i read the manga i was rly surprised how different alone the early arcs were and hearing from some friends how good the LN rly is we can only pray we might get an official or fan translation, or bite the bullet and learn japanese for a few years to be able to read it ._.
if I had the opportunity to learn Japanese properly I probably would have attempted to translate it whether folks read it or not because I want Shakugan no Shana on the map that much xD
I am so unfamiliar with anime that I don’t have personal feelings on this. I can tell you put a ton of work and thought into this though. It takes serious skill to be able to make a video this long, and interesting the entire time-AND for someone who knows nothing about it. Great stuff, man. Looking forward to the next one.
I am a big fan of series like fate/stay night and a certain magical index, and if you know anything about their anime adaptations, there was a ton of cut content that made the pacing and story a lot worse. I love this anime as it's a lot like f/sn and index with great charactars and a fascinating world, but man I can tell the novel is so much better.
that's how it is when transitioning to different medias. I love a certain magical index it's prob my favorite light novel but the way they did the story was rlly dirty in the anime. it got so convoluted and many of the story beats made no sense due to those cuts. If the anime can stick true to the original material they could but anime production requires tons of money to go into it so it makes sense why things are changed or cut to fit into the budget they are placed in.
Just finished this series and could tell right away that so much can been cut from the source material, and like you I found season 3 to be the most enjoyable despite the missing context and mess up of the previous 2 seasons, which really shows how good this story actually is (although I'm still irritated that Shana and Yuji didn't get together until RIGHT AT THE VERY END, I really don't like it when stories do that). It really is unfortunate about the translation state of things, I'm tempted to attempt machine translating it so I can see the story as it actually is, maybe we'll actually will get lucky and a studio will re-adapt this old show. And we don't even have any real fanfiction of this show either which is a shame, this series just dropped off the map.
This may be the best SnS review i found on youtube, and as a big fan of this franchise, i'm so happy to see someone give this much love to one of my favorite series of all time ❤🔥
I found massive light novel spoilers that almost nobody in the west knows. The little girl in the shakugan no shana S OP is not Shana. This was written by someone else in the comments of the Opening song: "She's the daughter of Yuji and Shana. Strangely enough, we never learn what her name is. There was supposed to be a sequel series, featuring her and her uncle (Yuji's younger brother) as the protagonists, a prequel series about Shana's mother (the last Crimson Haired Blazing Eyed Hunter) and other spinoffs planned. But sadly, they all got canceled." I dont know if this 100% true since it was written by random guy. If anyone can share more confirm about this I will be very happy.
I really liked this show growing up. The gap release between season 2 & 3 as well as all the things you mentioned really killed that for me. Then I tried to go back years later and just couldn't get into it. The city lifting scene is still pretty good though. Maybe one day a studio will gain interest in remaking it, but realistically the best bet may just be hoping machine translations continue to improve. Not sure how well ChatGPT or adjacent can clean up direct machine translations. I bet it can recognize and translate the meaning behind idioms or will at some point.
You worded how the show felt to me perfectly when you explain that how the constant highs and lows in the writing made it exhausting to keep up with. Great video
-As a lover of stories, I love Shakugan No Shana. I love the very concept of the story, and all the things it can lend itself to. The world immediately beckons my curiosity, and I quickly find myself drawn into it. -As a writer, I can see all of the many problems with the series. The heavy exposition, the pacing, lackluster animation, and of course Yuji himself. These problems can really bring the series down, and this makes me feel heavily conflicted about the series. I want to be able to share the series with some of the people I know, but I can't feel secure in doing that, because I know it has a lot of issues. As a result, it firmly settles into the category of a Guilty Pleasure in my eyes.
one of the first anime i watched outside of the "big ones" back then. I dont really remember what happend tbh but its a show that'll still pop in my head to this day. the opening songs are all bangers though
Wow, I really like your video ! Even though i don't watch shakugan no shana, your review truly enjoyable and informative too. It is really misfortune to you cannot read your favorite series and i hope your video reaching more audience solved its issue 🙏
I have binged watched the entire anime, and I did like some of it, but the later parts feel like I was in a haze. When I got to the final epsidoe, I felt relief but now the light novels and manga might be a better experience.
Thank you for this video. I just recently got into this series thanks to someone, uh, who likes Shana's body type very much. I somehow completely missed this show while growing up. The moment where Shana goes from "Yuji is just an object" to "I can't fight for shit without him" is just so awful, holy shit. Zero build-up. And seeing that Yuji actually hugged Shana after the fight with Margery in the light novel instead of... just walking away, WTF??? Goddamn, what a waste.
Hey Jacob, as insignificant as this may be to say, just wanna let you know i love your content. Although i know you probably want more exposure (which im praying for obvs), just know your work isnt going unappreciated. Luv dude and peace. Good vid as always.
Never heard of this series. Watched this video all the way through tho. From 40:29 all the way to 48:35 this setup and punchline destroyed me, holy shit.
Idk I’m rewatching the series right now and it’s still very enjoyable and I started it like you one of my first anime’s be it nostalgia but man I love it
I also hated the first half of S2 and thought that the third season was always the best. Makes me want to read the light novels more. Though one thing you did skip over is how Yuji becomes a real fighter and hints at his darker side in the 2nd half of season 2.
I was thinking of going over the last half of season 2 but I thought it would be redundant at that point haha. Though I could have mentioned a few of the story beats like I did with the last half of season 1. Thanks for watching!
Wow... Shana was a anime I watched a long time ago when I was young and remember being so confused by how we got to season 3 but falling in love with it regardless. Now knowing what this video has presented all I can really express is how dissapointed I am that we never got the proper telling of shana in the anime, let alone in the west at all. I want to hope that we'll one day get a redone anime of everything that comes before season 3 but this time as the proper light novel telling but I know it won't happen. Nothing like that has really happened in the industry before beyond some incredibly rare somewhat similar cases but i'm almost certain that nothing like that will happen with a series as old and forgotten about as shana, even if it does still hold a special play in the hearts of some like myself.
I'm intrigued that you mentioned that the anime strays from the source material. Now I want to read those untranslated light novels EVEN MORE now. I might go out of my way to learn how to read Japanese just so I can read them.
i believe that some piracy communities have already translated it. Although the wiki is the perfect gateway to get everything, almost everything to know in the series.
I remember Baka tsuki it was how I got into reading lightnovels. The issue with translating these novels is that it's often times not worth it unless you yourself really liked the series. That's especially the case for series in that era. I know a bunch of translators who have dropped or wanted to drop series because they're weren't popular enough or too hard to translate
I agree with most of this video except the end part, considering how often re-adaptations/sequels/reboots are being made as of this decade, I wouldn't be surprised to see a new Shana adaption some years from here on, the IP is still popular in Japan, Shana is still being prominently featured in Dengeki Bunko's crossover games and collabs and also newer spin-off novels and manga have been released, so, I think there's still hope for It
Shakugan no Shana was the first anime I saw translated on the internet. I liked it... but even without knowing the source material, I knew something was wrong because of the pacing issues. Also, I'm glad I'm not the only one who defends season 3, it has its problems, but I think it's the best one. Ironically, despite moving too fast, Season 2 I think is the worst because NOTHING happens in its first half.
i have not watched this yet, i bought the first 3 dvds from a flea market... hoping to watch next week. it looked interesting for my collection. this shall be one of my first animes, ive only watched 4 animes before this one.
Oh I wish I had someone to send this video to, it's great thank you. I had my hopes up when NewPop started adapting the novel to portuguese however they never got past the third volume 🫤. Too bad, we'll probably be in the dark forever or lets hope all these events they are making like last week's concert and the 20th anniversary mean something...who knows
One of the first anime I watch too, one of my first major disappointments. Learning more about it only further cements my disappointment with the anime series, that it could’ve been great. The movie kinda shows this was possible. Shakugan no Shana deserves a remake that faithfully adapts the light novel from start to finish.
my favorite anime of all time I love the show but I have no Illusions about it not being a terrible adaptation of a LN I will sadly never be able to read. I still have hope and dream of them remaking the Anime and doing a faithful adaptation. at least I can buy the new figures though. also I still believe that shana's sword never pierced Friagne its clearly behind him in the shot. All in all thank you for the fantastic video.
God what a blast from the past. I remember first learning about Shana from a custom game wc3. Then I did research and watched the series. I still have the DVDs of season 2 and 3 somewhere 😂
I'm really curious to know your opinion on the Clannad series more specific the difference between the visual novel and anime. Seems like something that you would have watched/will like.
It's been a while since seeing the anime but I remember liking it. I played the VN a few years back and thought that was great. Though I'm positive that After Story holds up after all these years, It'd be interesting to see if the first season still holds up after having played the VN.
This the only major video on this series and it makes me sad. I love this story (even if it’s heavily flawed) that I even bought it all on bluray. Hoping someday it gets a remake.
The fact the main character of an anime hit the bucket in episode 1 blew the socks off my 13 year old mind, idk it was amazing for the time but u aint wrong about how it gets less amazing with each rewatch
I just watched this whole video not long after finishing the rewatch of Shakugan no Shana, it has been about a decade. Watched it during my early anime days and this was my first rewatch of Shakugan no Shana specifically. I loved it, but not as much for season 1 and 2 because of the reasons that are said in this video. I definitely rate season 3 super high, deserves the core memory in my heart. Reason for getting back and actually paying attention, understanding most of the story was because of the damn banger songs that are finally available, they sucked me back in along with happiness and nostalgia. I'm really happy that I am sharing the same thoughts as other like minded people who love this series.(like seriously, everything you said in this video I totally agree and respect) Before rewatching, I still had vivid memories of me first watching it back then and falling in love with the media. As I gradually got older to the point where I feel not as much from listening to Kobou, I realized I could read the light novel and enjoy the series all over again, I was really heart broken when I realized it wasn't picked up by any kind of translators. Time passed and I'm in my 20's, it hurts more and more every time I think that I won't be able to experience the true Shakugan no Shana. so I just yolo'd did a whole rewatch exploration of why I fell in love with the series and be content with that.. man.... cried my ass off again at the season 3 ending again. I really wish and hope that somehow technology evolves in a way that helps people like us to solve this extremely hard problem.
Shana is one of my favorite animes, i didn't read the vn tho. but i can say all the old animes that have our Rie Kugimiya as a main seiyuu like shana and zero no tsukaima are for me the best animes. i miss these tsundere girls. oh... good times.
This series had so much potential. I heard the novel is way better than how the anime handled it. I haven't finished Season 3 yet, but Season 3 just felt more narratively driven than the previous seasons as the studio cut out important stuff from the novel in Season 1 and Season 2. I just wish the previous seasons followed the novel. It would've been in my top 10 if the studio couldv'e excecuted everything better through the novel.
yeah all those years and i still dont know what was the deal with Silver... and i remember entering season 3 thinking "Am I watching the same anime?" Everything felt completely different to a point when i just couldnt keep interest in the anime. Its sad cause that anime had some pretty interesting mysteries like Silver and Corpse Collector
I recently started reading the light novel and was shocked how much was destroyed in the adaptations... Hopefully they will remake it one day. Still I love it. The anime is what brought me into loving anime.
I think "殺し" doesn't mean "killing" exactly. In that context, "the will of attacking" would be more suitable meaning of "殺し". I'm not very confident because I don't know English much.
This is my favorite series by far even if the anime is completely faithful to the source, but i would love a LN translation of some kind or manga to be done
Quite interesting…. Makes sense now why Shakugan no Shana is really on the underrated side of anime, and I wasn’t aware, but am not surprised either that this anime is not that well-known in the West…. I think I have to thank the Animax channel for introducing me to this series a decade ago, this was my third ever anime when I was starting to get into anime, they were airing the final part at the time I saw it, when I was in the last days of my elementary school (Of course I could’ve never seen the first and second parts, I was too small of a child to enjoy or even be aware of it at the time of their initial release, but I really enjoyed it despite not knowing how botched the anime was in being faithful to the source material 😂 (although it’d be one more half-decade before I fully watched the entire thing and really got to fully appreciate it….) Somehow, being from the Philippines, I think proximity with Japan must have helped immensely with my interest in this anime… although tbh until watching this video, I was completely unaware of how bad the state of Shakugan no Shana was. Side note btw, I love how even the siblings are edited as monkeys in the manga adaptation 😂 Also on another note, I’m both an aspiring mangaka, and I also already have basic knowledge in Japanese, so hm perhaps one day in the future, I can help dig up some more info especially when I’m more fluent in Japanese…. Or even contribute to adding effort to the translations in some way! There must be a lot more info that can be learned from the Japanese side than from the English speaking side…. Much thanks for this video, honestly I can’t express how much I appreciate it! I’m going to mark this video as it’s super important to me on a very personal level! And also…. Now I have another interesting manga to add on my list~ (It’s a good thing I have a huge tendency to get into underrated media, even the gacha games I play are super underrated on the English side 😂)
it could have continued in some way for 3 more well-built seasons perhaps, this anime is something fabulous for me although many don't like it but I don't see it with people's perspective only mine that matters.
I haven't really watched the video but just piecing together from comments.. damn what a mess man. Sad too because I loved this show growing up and was my first "real" anime.
Agreed Ive seen the show multiple times as it is one of my favorites but season 3 always irked me with the way the new cast was introduced, but after seeing it isnt the shows fault, the timing was, I give it slack.
I think we would have gotten further, but I don't think they would have gotten much farther to be honest. I kept reading that the series was so hard to translate the the turnover for translators was over 90%. But who knows, perhaps we would have gotten the volumes slowly over time if VIZ never got involved.
Yeah I can agree with that. I remember getting so into the series but the anime made the info dump go in then out the ears. You can tell it really needed a special or a prequel to demonstrate the world better, I can say i love the anime but for the love of god I hate the second part and the third part puts it in a bow. But since it had to hit 24 ep each and gave more room to build arcs and not the ceiling because i like shana in the first part at least it was more conveyed the mix feelings were getting off her game it becomes a confidence thing but man they buried her worst because she should've been heating the pot for the third part but the water is still room temp. And if you had to watch it waiting till the third part and then watching it to see that happens oh well I guess I waiting months and waiting for years to just tell me the part2 finally didn't matter well kick to the balls for having feelings and building it up. At least the third part just kicks the slice of life for the most part to let it brew. I honestly would say without trying to be nice for my rewatching it's like cooking. 1. It's a good idea to make it. 2. Oh god it's tiring out wrong it's so over. 3. You know what it's not bad after all that.
A over hour long indepth discussion about Shakugan no Shana , let's go your opening lines is almost same as my thoughts ine of first anime i watched years ago and S3 still my favorite after all this time also the OST of the series i always enjoyed and no wonder as same composer did one of my favorite Godzilla movies when i first watched it i enjoyed it especially S3 , but over time rewatches and finding out the novel stuff my enjoyment of the first 2 seasons diminished a lot i do own all 3 (all 6 dvds of S1 and the bluray/dvd combo of S2 and 3 ) JC staff did similar deal with Zero No Tsukaima making that more comedic and fanservice focus and losing a lot of the character development , political intrigue and worldbuilding also S4 's last half was anime only since the novels were not complete then and the author passed away (but left notes behind so someone else could finish it which they did) you have no idea how much energy i spent trying to correct and inform people in S3 when it was available n youtube when i read their ignorant comments (forget stuff not actually shown but they couldnt get even the things that were stated or even hinted at in the series) plus most were Yoshida go away or die lol S3 is best S2 part 3 S2 part 2 S1 part 3 S1 part 2 S1 part 1 S2 part 1
Yikes, youtube comments are always the worse D: One time someone tried to label the clip in season 3 as Yuji "assaulting" Shana if you know what I mean and I reported that video for slander xD
As a fan of the series (even my nickname on the internet is after the character "Shana") it saddens me that I can't read the original material of the series in English or in my native language which is Spanish. My least favourite season I would say is season 2 for being for me honestly the worst of all by far at least until the middle of it when pheles appears. I agree that season 3 is the best of all but that's just it, the first time I saw it I was like WTF? And where the fuck did these characters come from? Bless the wiki for explaining all the remaining lore and being able to find out everything that happens.
I really love your insights about SNS ❤. Its really hard for me to give this series a final closure bc of the state of the other adaptations and not experiencing it's canon storyline with how mediocre anime adaptation of S1 and S2. I hope that some dedicated fans would decide to translate all volumes 😢. Btw How about your thoughts about all the OVA? Are they adaptations of the original LN or some of them are anime original contents?
Thank you for watching the video! As far as I know the OVAs were all anime original. I don't remember seeing any silly short stories in the LN. There were a few in the 5th volumes of the manga that were similar to the OVAs but that was released a few years afterwards.
It is probably somehow Yuji's fault that we don't have more of the series translated into English.
Yeah, Yuji sucks.
I don’t get it guys, what did bro do?
What? How is it his fault?
yuji is the best and he is based as fuck also literally me
Damn you suck as a person then if you're like him
Oh hey, it's me (airelf aka Poor man's scans aka the MTL dude). I'm sure you saw in one of the release intros, but yeah, the original motivation for translation was to satisfy a dude's request for the Yuji vs Wilhelmina scene in the Light Novel.
I actually still have my MTL translation pipeline set up, but the slow part is (of course) MTL to understandable text. The translations stopped due to college (I was 18 when starting the translations). Before, I have only partially translated Amphitheater.
Though I will say modern MTL is far better than it was in 2020.
Something to add to the video, there was a brief fundraising attempt in one of the SnS discords shortly after I stopped translating. The idea was to hire a professional translator. I wasn't personally involved as I doubted the legal nature of such, so I don't know where that went.
Extremely interesting, informative and thorough analysis. Even though I was aware of about 80% of Shakugan no Shana's unfortunate state, this was great.
I love Shakugan no Shana. I love the world, the characters, the relationships, the action, the romance, the themes... But I hate that I've always been unable to experience all of those things in even greater and more detailed fashion from the LNs. I'd love to read the LN, but I don't know Japanese, and learning one of the hardest languages to master just to read a single series is, like you said, ridiculous.
Overall, I'm less critical than you of the anime's Friagne arc, I enjoy pre-S3-Yuji fine, and I don't agree the anime is as barebones as you say when it comes to worldbuilding and giving context clues... but I do agree the anime is more than rough at times. Which is frustrating because there's no way to experience the better version, the LN, without Japanese.
It's also facinating - and sad - that Shakugan no Shana and Shana as a character were so hugely popular, impactful and influential in Japan that they inspired other creators to make their own stories with SnS as reference. Shana even created her own character archetype, leading to many Shana-like characters in later years, and she even remains popular enough to this day to keep receiving hundreds of fanart every year.
Meanwhile, in the West, SnS and Shana don't have that fame. They aren't unpopular per se, but it's a shadow of what they gained in Japan.
I can only hope that, someday, someone or some group picks the LN for translation, official or fanmade.
Do you have any examples of characters or anime that use SnS as a reference? I think its really cool that Shana was so popular that she became an archetype.
@@IamLaTerry I forgot the order of which they came out, but Louise (Zero no Tsukaima) and Aisaka Taiga (Toradora) are often cited as Shana expies. Even funnier that they're all voiced by Rie Kugimiya, making her nicknamed the tsundere queen.
There's the famous TsundeRie Quintuplets: Shana, Louise, Nagi, Taiga and Aria. All petite, tsundere and special girls voiced by Rie Kugimiya. Shana is also attributed to Victorique from Gosick and Agnese from Index, among others. Shakugan no Shana was often referenced in other anime, like Railgun, Hayate no Gotoku, Animegataris or Nogizaka Haruka.
@@IamLaTerry Toradora is a notable one atleast xD I never did see Familiar of Zero but I know that one is similar as well
Shana archetypes eh? If it's a girl who uses flames, there are several of them. Stella Vermillion from Rakudai Kishi, also Julis-Alexia von Riessfeld from Gakuen Toshi Asterisk. As well as Selesia Upitiria from Re:Creators. Though the last one didn't really use fire type power, she used it when a spinoff of her was announced, but most importantly her partner Charon has tons of parallels to Yuuji Sakai.
Damn I had no clue the series ended up this way. Shakugan No Shana was one of the first animes that I ever watched, and it got me into anime culture as a whole. Really well made video, this was super interesting!
i looooooooove your video, everything is well explained, a really nice work. I'm french, in France we don't even have translation for the manga or novel, that's make me feel so sad... It feel so bad to know that a lot of people just can't read the novel and langa here... I realised the "luck" I had to start working on different language by my own when i was young so now I can speak french english spanish and JAPANESE. everytime I read the japanese manga/LN I feel so sad for people that can't read it. I started a project by myself to translate some stuff of the novel by myself (like sns quiddity or amphiteater) but they're not very legal and it take a lot of time that i can't still manage. I love shakugan no shana and knowing that people can't read the original story and the following of it when you know how good it is, it hurts a lot ;c I'll try to keep doing my translation but that is not my job at all, i'm not used to this so it's probably gonna be in a lot of time but we just can't wait and pray without doing anything. Welp long life to shakugan no shana !!! (read sns harukanaru no uta till the end if u can it's a masterpiece ;c)
Shakugan no Shana is a prime example of a series that I would have liked to read translated but because of resources by the official publisher drops in a whim, but at the same time letting everybody else know that they will receive DMCA. I feel the same way of the Chivarly of the Failed Knight and many other series where a lot of good series are left to limbo for years because of licensing issues or because of bad adaptation. I think if Shakugan had made by Mappa, David Productions or Trigger it would have been a success and the whole series would had been treated differently. It's scary to think how many shows are just left unfinished or untranslated because of bad management or animation ...
licensing issues are always the worse x_X I guess we were even lucky with the anime because of Geneon kicking the bucket and then funi having to pick it back up D:
Honestly whenever I think about it, Shakugan no Shana was always supposed to have that seinen like serious atmosphere in its scenes. The anime totally couldn't follow through that. Either they were limited by the animation capabilities of their time or it was just so bad. As much as I want ufotable to make an anime adaptation of Shakugan no Shana, i don't think I could hope for it. Cloverworks would work just fine too tbh. As well as other studios you mentioned.
@@Zyleace well Shana makes 20 years this year apparently :O We can only be lucky if they decide to remake the anime but stay loyal to the original source material xD Obviously they are still releasing merch for it because they got the 2 figures out of Shana. One with a red Kimono and the other with her flame wings XD
@@OtakuGunsoNY I'm still praying. Several anime also got remakes and Shana is still popular in Japan at least. Or at least release the effing LN to English so others could read damniit
@@Zyleace For real indeed !! I was just thinking the same thing when I heard about that magical high school one with the ice chick and her brother who were also in the dengeki bunko game that I literally bought because Shana was in it XD But yea that series is pretty old even though it got an anime in 2020 and is getting another season. If they can then so can Shakugan no Shana as far as I'm concerned x)
In germany we had to wait till 2021, 16 years in total, for the german dub of the show. And the story how it happened is really incredible.
Back in the day, there was a fansubbing group called Emania and they translated Shana from Japanese into German with subs. The special part about this is that after season 3 in 2012, they wanted to bring Shana to german audiences proper with a dub. It took them several years to raise the budget necessary to aquire the license. After reaching this goal, they worked together with german publisher FilmConfect in early 2020, using the old subs as a basis for the dialouge.
The dub was recored at TNT Media in Berlin, under the direction of Martin Irnich, CEO at FilmConfect and a pretty known dub director (had the honor to meet him once, really nice guy). The dub for season 1 even recieved german openings and endings which we haven't had heard since the eraly 2000s, so it was kinda special and showed the love of Emania for the project.
In total, they licensed season 1, season 2, Shana S (Serason 2's OVAs) and the movie. For multipile reasons, Emania ceased to work with FilmConfect after the release of the OVAs so hopefully season 3 will ever be released here.
As a huge Shana fan it always urked me how the anime portrayed Yuji and Shanas relationship. It went out of its way to show Shana was greatly affected by Yujis words in the beginning about being more than a weapon and having free will, but at the same time downplayed it to Shana just being tsundere and moody. Those words fundamentally changed Shana and made her feel attached and in a way she imprint on Yuji who understandably wasn't mentally ready to handle Shana and her new found emotions. It's easy to see in group scenarios as Shana for a while had almost no social skills and couldn't fathom Yuji hanging out with other people, because in her mind Yuji is the only other person who can understand her and stay by her side. Sure she's tsundere but she's supposed to be emotionally and mentally stunted not just hyper aggressive and then randomly depressed until Yuji arrives. The anime omits important factors in shaping Shanas character and her overall relationships not just with Yuji but with the world around her.
The anime paints Shana as a needy asshole who cant live without Yuji for a single second most of the time and Yuji as a dumbass who found an abandoned puppy but after a while got bored of all the responsibilities. And though I love the anime even now it's annoying to see most people write off Shana as just another tsundere from that era of anime because of the adaptation.
You must've watched it dubbed, because what you initially explained in the first paragraph is EXACTLY what I see every time I go through the original Japanese version of the series.
I just started the show not too long ago, I'm currently at like ep 15 & watching the dub.
I don't see what you are saying,I can see someone seeing that way if they didn't pay attention though but that's the case with a lot of media,which is then the individual's fault.
@@creaturetransylvania8943 Watch the original Japanese, not the dub
@@Burns_RED Nah I'm good,it was my brother's turn to choose the show & he goes with dub since he likes too write while watching show.
And as I said I know how to watch a show & I seen enough shows to tell what's something supposed to mean or convey even if the translation ain't a 1to1.
@@creaturetransylvania8943 Dubs ruin anime. Your loss. It's going to make zero sense later on.
To explain the whole kill aspect of Shana, and later Yuji's, fighting style; Think of it like a Sixth Sense of sensing your opponents hostility. Wait for them to open themselves with their agression and strike back. That's what Shana and Yuji's fighting style revolves around.
Hope it clears it up a bit.
If they ever decide to adapt the series again, I want them to make some changes that'll improve upon the source material.
*One of them is to make Friagne a tragic villain.* Where it's revealed that Marianne was once a human who fell in love with Friagne. However, when she died from an accident, Friagne placed her soul inside of a toy doll meant for their expected child.
One of the best uploads-once-in-a-blue-moon channels. We back baby
So apparently a new volume got announced of the Shakugan no Shana light novel. Sure all info i found about it was in Japanese so who knows if we will ever get it. But I hope that if it does well we will eventually get translations of previous volumes and all.
I dont understand .didnt the anime finished I hope there is more story . Is it a sequel
@@SalmanKING-o2f Yeah the anime & light novel finished a long time ago.
The new volume was apparently a Shakugan no Shana S short story or something.
It's not a reboot or I doubt they're planning to continue the light novel.
Google Shakugan no Shana SIV if u wanna find more info.
@@SalmanKING-o2f Yeah the anime & light novel ended ages ago.
The new volume was a Shakugan no Shana S side story or something.
It's not like a reboot or an actual sequel.
Google Shakugan no Shana SIV for more info.
I hope we get a continuation or an actual translation of the whole light novel some day.
perhaps a epilogue showing more of yuji and shana after the events, or most probably a side story
It truly is sad. Hundreds of stories gets to shine while a thousand stories doesn't get the opportunity. Stories that I like are either obscure, underrated and possibly forgotten. Finding info is really hard. Officially supporting them is impossible. I wish there was a way to experience it. There is but that's complicated and business related and may not work well but who knows.
Who knows, maybe someday there will be 3 more seasons to make my heart happy.
@@EmersonR666 we wish indeed
My favorite reviewer is back!
Thank you for the extended monkey dance sequence
YO! Glad to have you back :D
This was my fav anime for ages. To this day i still love it even if it's motly because of nostalgia.
I also used to think s3 was extremely confusing for me and now it makes a bit more ssense why all those characters were suddenly thrown in there & the huge shift is. I liked the story but I didn't like how confusing it was and how big the shift was.
But damn this video. xD
Literally making me wanna read the soruce material juist to be slapped in the face by the fact that it's impossible.
Now I REALLY want a reboot of this series. PLEASE!
Glad to know other folks out there are into Shakugan no Shana despite it not getting the appreciation it deserves after all these years. Great analysis on everything !! Alot of good points where made xD Season 3 is actually my favorite if I'm gonna be honest even if things did get confusion because at the point it came out I didn't have access to the manga or the light novel. While the anime has it's unfortunate flaws with everything that was changed from the original source material it still goes down as my favorite anime after all these years and the anime that got me into anime. I was even coincidentally lucky enough to basically follow the anime from back when it first started out maybe some episodes in already(December of 2005 was when I found the anime).
I think Geneon going out also might have had to do with why the anime didn't do very well because the license was lost until funimation picked it back up in 2011 after season 3 ended to which I got the DVD and bluray set for season 1 back in 2012 or 2013(which ever video of myself I have to look back on). The other weird thing is that I never even got my hands on the manga until a few years ago and never even saw it in the store way back when I first got into the anime back in 2005 x_X I also like the movie's depiction a bit better and choose that over the first 6 episodes of season 1 any time XD Though I'm surprised you didn't mention the battle with Destructive Blade Sabrac in season 2 which was about the highlight of season 2 for me since season 2 is kinda my least favorite of the series ... I guess my autistic behind is just used to info dumping from season 1 and didn't really think much of it. Then the Konoe and Hecate run down I kinda felt like goes hand in hand with how the world works given how everyone had forgotten her and so on and so forth.
Shana training Yuji always remains a humorous time with him being told to "feel the kill" and all that jazz. I feel with Shana's upbringing having been so sheltered that it makes sense that she would have been trained in all that herself but wouldn't be the greatest at teaching it. Yuji "feeling the kill" of Shana towards Margery even though she didn't kill her kinda reminds me of the part in the games when you put it in Japanese and the character is all like "Hisatsu !!". Which I'm guessing would have been better worded as either a fetal blow or a knock out blow or as they call it in wrestling circles "the finisher" xD But anyway my thoughts are so scattered and muddled over the place because it's not often that I come across others who are as into Shakugan no Shana if not more than myself on top of having to watch the video over the span of 2 days xD
Once again awsome job on the video from one Shana fan to another and I'm glad this was able to generate health discussion and discourse among the fandom itself. It's still a shame that we'll probably never get the original source material and not even completion of the manga x_X
Thank you for this video. Shakugan No Shana was my very first anime, and holds a special place in my heart. However like you mentioned after rewatching it again for the first time in years and noticed a lot more flaws than my younger self. Anyway, great job and have a great day.
oh boy, i can’t wait to watch a 2hr long video on a topic i don’t care about! thanks, jacob!! :) /gen
Then don't watch?..
@@WhatTheDogDoin0493 oh no this was 100% genuine i was actually excited this video is awesome
For some reason the UA-cam algorithm recommended this video to me (I don't usually search for videos or channels about anime on UA-cam), and I'm quite happy, at almost 34 years old it was one of the ones that I knew existed in my adolescence and I still have in my pending to see, your video is very good and it helped me understand about the series and frankly I didn't know everything about it, hopefully one day I will have a spice & wolf type remake but I highly doubt it...
Shakugan no Shana wasn't my first anime, but it was THE anime that made me a weeb. It's really sad how bad the original content in the first two seasons were.
I can't read Japanese too, but I've been browsing the worldbuilding and lore in the wiki, and they're actually really in-depth (although can be convoluted at times) and interesting! For example like that part of the history where Native American Flame Hazes debated whether or not they should interfere in mortal affairs by defending their land from colonizers, which caused a civil war between the Flame Hazes. Or how there was a faction of Denizens trying to break the masquerade and inform everyone about the truth of the world, which led to an information war. It's a shame these great contents don't see the light of the day in the West.
The best we have is Shakugan no Shana wiki which I have bookmarked atleast x_X
Break the masquerade? What does that mean?
@@TheLettersJaye masquerade is the trope name where the existence of supernatural or otherwise extraordinary things are deliberately hidden from the mainstream society in the setting. Like Crimson Denizens in Shana, the wizarding world in Harry Potter, aliens in Men in Black, and so on.
Breaking the masquerade means making this hidden society/information known to the general society. In Shana, one of the Denizen groups attempted this in the novel.
He's back
Dude, I totally feel you on this. Shakugan no Shana was my first anime I actually got into by myself too when I was 14 years old. I really wish it got more appreciation and my kingdom for an anime remake along the lines of something like Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood that was way better because it was closer to the original books. Haaaa, we can dream right?
I really REALLY love that you kept doing the monkey joke for so long, it must have taken a lot of editing to do!
Oh my god, Baka Ysuki, I hadn't thought about them in 20 years. They were where i got my first scanlations
This is probably the longest youtube video I've watched all the way through but it was worth it. I had no idea of the state of the show was like this. But I'm glad you did all the relevant research on this series. Thanks!
Let me start by saying I can't thank you enough for making this video, as someone else who loves this series and also firmly support the idea that season 3 is the best, even before I knew it was the most faithful one.
A lot of the original concepts that made the world so interesting are only ever truly explored at season 3 in the anime.
We can only hope something happens with it eventually. People still know this series exists, as evident by videos like these. Maybe one day...
I'm so happy you've finally uploaded again
WE ARE SO BACK
Im also a big fan of SnS but i never knew that season 1+2 had THIS MUCH original content ._.
Season 3 is the best which i can agree on but as you also said without prior backstory or context it felt like they added characters for the sake of it.
Another fun fact for the Eternal Song adaptation and the 10 volumes of the normal manga are all available In germany which is cool but yeah not having the light novel is a huge loss.
When i read the manga i was rly surprised how different alone the early arcs were and hearing from some friends how good the LN rly is we can only pray we might get an official or fan translation, or bite the bullet and learn japanese for a few years to be able to read it ._.
if I had the opportunity to learn Japanese properly I probably would have attempted to translate it whether folks read it or not because I want Shakugan no Shana on the map that much xD
This is like a time machine back to high school for me
I am so unfamiliar with anime that I don’t have personal feelings on this. I can tell you put a ton of work and thought into this though. It takes serious skill to be able to make a video this long, and interesting the entire time-AND for someone who knows nothing about it.
Great stuff, man. Looking forward to the next one.
I am a big fan of series like fate/stay night and a certain magical index, and if you know anything about their anime adaptations, there was a ton of cut content that made the pacing and story a lot worse. I love this anime as it's a lot like f/sn and index with great charactars and a fascinating world, but man I can tell the novel is so much better.
that's how it is when transitioning to different medias. I love a certain magical index it's prob my favorite light novel but the way they did the story was rlly dirty in the anime. it got so convoluted and many of the story beats made no sense due to those cuts. If the anime can stick true to the original material they could but anime production requires tons of money to go into it so it makes sense why things are changed or cut to fit into the budget they are placed in.
Just finished this series and could tell right away that so much can been cut from the source material, and like you I found season 3 to be the most enjoyable despite the missing context and mess up of the previous 2 seasons, which really shows how good this story actually is (although I'm still irritated that Shana and Yuji didn't get together until RIGHT AT THE VERY END, I really don't like it when stories do that).
It really is unfortunate about the translation state of things, I'm tempted to attempt machine translating it so I can see the story as it actually is, maybe we'll actually will get lucky and a studio will re-adapt this old show. And we don't even have any real fanfiction of this show either which is a shame, this series just dropped off the map.
This may be the best SnS review i found on youtube, and as a big fan of this franchise, i'm so happy to see someone give this much love to one of my favorite series of all time ❤🔥
I found massive light novel spoilers that almost nobody in the west knows. The little girl in the shakugan no shana S OP is not Shana.
This was written by someone else in the comments of the Opening song:
"She's the daughter of Yuji and Shana.
Strangely enough, we never learn what her name is.
There was supposed to be a sequel series, featuring her and her uncle (Yuji's younger brother) as the protagonists, a prequel series about Shana's mother (the last Crimson Haired Blazing Eyed Hunter) and other spinoffs planned.
But sadly, they all got canceled."
I dont know if this 100% true since it was written by random guy. If anyone can share more confirm about this I will be very happy.
I really liked this show growing up. The gap release between season 2 & 3 as well as all the things you mentioned really killed that for me. Then I tried to go back years later and just couldn't get into it. The city lifting scene is still pretty good though. Maybe one day a studio will gain interest in remaking it, but realistically the best bet may just be hoping machine translations continue to improve. Not sure how well ChatGPT or adjacent can clean up direct machine translations. I bet it can recognize and translate the meaning behind idioms or will at some point.
loved the video
NO WAY HES BACK
always exciting when you drop a new video! can't wait to have the time to watch.
You worded how the show felt to me perfectly when you explain that how the constant highs and lows in the writing made it exhausting to keep up with. Great video
-As a lover of stories, I love Shakugan No Shana. I love the very concept of the story, and all the things it can lend itself to. The world immediately beckons my curiosity, and I quickly find myself drawn into it.
-As a writer, I can see all of the many problems with the series. The heavy exposition, the pacing, lackluster animation, and of course Yuji himself. These problems can really bring the series down, and this makes me feel heavily conflicted about the series.
I want to be able to share the series with some of the people I know, but I can't feel secure in doing that, because I know it has a lot of issues. As a result, it firmly settles into the category of a Guilty Pleasure in my eyes.
shana and yuji character development is huge they look so different when the series first started
one of the first anime i watched outside of the "big ones" back then. I dont really remember what happend tbh but its a show that'll still pop in my head to this day. the opening songs are all bangers though
Love how you breakdown and deliver on what is good and bad on Shana. Season 3 is the best.
Wow, I really like your video !
Even though i don't watch shakugan no shana, your review truly enjoyable and informative too.
It is really misfortune to you cannot read your favorite series and i hope your video reaching more audience solved its issue 🙏
I have binged watched the entire anime, and I did like some of it, but the later parts feel like I was in a haze. When I got to the final epsidoe, I felt relief but now the light novels and manga might be a better experience.
Thank you for this video. I just recently got into this series thanks to someone, uh, who likes Shana's body type very much. I somehow completely missed this show while growing up. The moment where Shana goes from "Yuji is just an object" to "I can't fight for shit without him" is just so awful, holy shit. Zero build-up. And seeing that Yuji actually hugged Shana after the fight with Margery in the light novel instead of... just walking away, WTF??? Goddamn, what a waste.
You like petite girls too? Based.
Hey Jacob, as insignificant as this may be to say, just wanna let you know i love your content. Although i know you probably want more exposure (which im praying for obvs), just know your work isnt going unappreciated. Luv dude and peace. Good vid as always.
That genuinely means a lot. Thank you 🙂
Never heard of this series.
Watched this video all the way through tho.
From 40:29 all the way to 48:35 this setup and punchline destroyed me, holy shit.
Idk I’m rewatching the series right now and it’s still very enjoyable and I started it like you one of my first anime’s be it nostalgia but man I love it
I also hated the first half of S2 and thought that the third season was always the best. Makes me want to read the light novels more. Though one thing you did skip over is how Yuji becomes a real fighter and hints at his darker side in the 2nd half of season 2.
I was thinking of going over the last half of season 2 but I thought it would be redundant at that point haha. Though I could have mentioned a few of the story beats like I did with the last half of season 1. Thanks for watching!
Wow... Shana was a anime I watched a long time ago when I was young and remember being so confused by how we got to season 3 but falling in love with it regardless. Now knowing what this video has presented all I can really express is how dissapointed I am that we never got the proper telling of shana in the anime, let alone in the west at all. I want to hope that we'll one day get a redone anime of everything that comes before season 3 but this time as the proper light novel telling but I know it won't happen. Nothing like that has really happened in the industry before beyond some incredibly rare somewhat similar cases but i'm almost certain that nothing like that will happen with a series as old and forgotten about as shana, even if it does still hold a special play in the hearts of some like myself.
I'm intrigued that you mentioned that the anime strays from the source material. Now I want to read those untranslated light novels EVEN MORE now. I might go out of my way to learn how to read Japanese just so I can read them.
i believe that some piracy communities have already translated it. Although the wiki is the perfect gateway to get everything, almost everything to know in the series.
I mean, Wilhelmina is an actual name. An extremely unpopular, middle ages sounding name, but it's real.
The Netherlands had a queen in the past with exactly that name
Its just the female form of William
I remember Baka tsuki it was how I got into reading lightnovels. The issue with translating these novels is that it's often times not worth it unless you yourself really liked the series. That's especially the case for series in that era. I know a bunch of translators who have dropped or wanted to drop series because they're weren't popular enough or too hard to translate
I agree with most of this video except the end part, considering how often re-adaptations/sequels/reboots are being made as of this decade, I wouldn't be surprised to see a new Shana adaption some years from here on, the IP is still popular in Japan, Shana is still being prominently featured in Dengeki Bunko's crossover games and collabs and also newer spin-off novels and manga have been released, so, I think there's still hope for It
New Jacob arc?!
The monkey scene caught me off guard, underrated channel that just needs a viral video to reach its full potential
It's not letting me like this video and I've tried 4 seperate times because I enjoyed it so much
I still remember watching this show on tv at 12 am... on Wednesday and Thursday... going to school next morning is hell....
Shakugan no Shana was the first anime I saw translated on the internet. I liked it... but even without knowing the source material, I knew something was wrong because of the pacing issues.
Also, I'm glad I'm not the only one who defends season 3, it has its problems, but I think it's the best one.
Ironically, despite moving too fast, Season 2 I think is the worst because NOTHING happens in its first half.
Its nice to see content to this show that got me into anime. Sad to about the content we don't get in the anime tho
i have not watched this yet, i bought the first 3 dvds from a flea market... hoping to watch next week. it looked interesting for my collection. this shall be one of my first animes, ive only watched 4 animes before this one.
It's so hard being a Shana fan outside Japan :'(
I can't even read the light novels beyond volume TWO...
As someone who has been tried to read them for at least a decade... i relate... it's just so sad this great story doesn't receive the love it needs
Nostalgic, this was my very first anime when I was a kid that got me into the Otaku culture. Glad that people still talk about this up to this day.
it's so sad the translation of the LN never went far enough. it's one of my fav LN series ever.
Oh I wish I had someone to send this video to, it's great thank you.
I had my hopes up when NewPop started adapting the novel to portuguese however they never got past the third volume 🫤.
Too bad, we'll probably be in the dark forever or lets hope all these events they are making like last week's concert and the 20th anniversary mean something...who knows
One of the first anime I watch too, one of my first major disappointments. Learning more about it only further cements my disappointment with the anime series, that it could’ve been great. The movie kinda shows this was possible. Shakugan no Shana deserves a remake that faithfully adapts the light novel from start to finish.
my list of untranslated japanese media is growing so learning japanese might actually end up being the only solution
Shana and Yuji are an iconic anime couple that truly showed us how they merged each other's drastically different worlds.
i know literally nothing about the subject of this vid, but knowing you, its gonna be hella interesting, especially since its on adaptational issues
my favorite anime of all time I love the show but I have no Illusions about it not being a terrible adaptation of a LN I will sadly never be able to read. I still have hope and dream of them remaking the Anime and doing a faithful adaptation. at least I can buy the new figures though. also I still believe that shana's sword never pierced Friagne its clearly behind him in the shot. All in all thank you for the fantastic video.
God what a blast from the past. I remember first learning about Shana from a custom game wc3. Then I did research and watched the series. I still have the DVDs of season 2 and 3 somewhere 😂
I'm really curious to know your opinion on the Clannad series more specific the difference between the visual novel and anime. Seems like something that you would have watched/will like.
It's been a while since seeing the anime but I remember liking it. I played the VN a few years back and thought that was great. Though I'm positive that After Story holds up after all these years, It'd be interesting to see if the first season still holds up after having played the VN.
This the only major video on this series and it makes me sad. I love this story (even if it’s heavily flawed) that I even bought it all on bluray. Hoping someday it gets a remake.
The fact the main character of an anime hit the bucket in episode 1 blew the socks off my 13 year old mind, idk it was amazing for the time
but u aint wrong about how it gets less amazing with each rewatch
I just watched this whole video not long after finishing the rewatch of Shakugan no Shana, it has been about a decade.
Watched it during my early anime days and this was my first rewatch of Shakugan no Shana specifically. I loved it, but not as much for season 1 and 2 because of the reasons that are said in this video.
I definitely rate season 3 super high, deserves the core memory in my heart.
Reason for getting back and actually paying attention, understanding most of the story was because of the damn banger songs that are finally available, they sucked me back in along with happiness and nostalgia.
I'm really happy that I am sharing the same thoughts as other like minded people who love this series.(like seriously, everything you said in this video I totally agree and respect)
Before rewatching, I still had vivid memories of me first watching it back then and falling in love with the media.
As I gradually got older to the point where I feel not as much from listening to Kobou, I realized I could read the light novel and enjoy the series all over again, I was really heart broken when I realized it wasn't picked up by any kind of translators.
Time passed and I'm in my 20's, it hurts more and more every time I think that I won't be able to experience the true Shakugan no Shana.
so I just yolo'd did a whole rewatch exploration of why I fell in love with the series and be content with that.. man.... cried my ass off again at the season 3 ending again.
I really wish and hope that somehow technology evolves in a way that helps people like us to solve this extremely hard problem.
Shana is one of my favorite animes, i didn't read the vn tho.
but i can say all the old animes that have our Rie Kugimiya as a main seiyuu like shana and zero no tsukaima are for me the best animes. i miss these tsundere girls.
oh... good times.
Are we the same person? I also loved Shakugan no Shana and regard Season 3 as the best.
This series had so much potential. I heard the novel is way better than how the anime handled it. I haven't finished Season 3 yet, but Season 3 just felt more narratively driven than the previous seasons as the studio cut out important stuff from the novel in Season 1 and Season 2. I just wish the previous seasons followed the novel. It would've been in my top 10 if the studio couldv'e excecuted everything better through the novel.
yeah all those years and i still dont know what was the deal with Silver... and i remember entering season 3 thinking "Am I watching the same anime?"
Everything felt completely different to a point when i just couldnt keep interest in the anime.
Its sad cause that anime had some pretty interesting mysteries like Silver and Corpse Collector
faliure of adapting earlier stuff
I recently started reading the light novel and was shocked how much was destroyed in the adaptations... Hopefully they will remake it one day.
Still I love it. The anime is what brought me into loving anime.
Oh, I planned to read this light novel because I remember liking the anime when I first watched it. Pretty sad to hear the state of the LN’s
I think "殺し" doesn't mean "killing" exactly.
In that context, "the will of attacking" would be more suitable meaning of "殺し".
I'm not very confident because I don't know English much.
This is my favorite series by far even if the anime is completely faithful to the source, but i would love a LN translation of some kind or manga to be done
it’s really underrated!
Quite interesting…. Makes sense now why Shakugan no Shana is really on the underrated side of anime, and I wasn’t aware, but am not surprised either that this anime is not that well-known in the West….
I think I have to thank the Animax channel for introducing me to this series a decade ago, this was my third ever anime when I was starting to get into anime, they were airing the final part at the time I saw it, when I was in the last days of my elementary school (Of course I could’ve never seen the first and second parts, I was too small of a child to enjoy or even be aware of it at the time of their initial release, but I really enjoyed it despite not knowing how botched the anime was in being faithful to the source material 😂 (although it’d be one more half-decade before I fully watched the entire thing and really got to fully appreciate it….)
Somehow, being from the Philippines, I think proximity with Japan must have helped immensely with my interest in this anime… although tbh until watching this video, I was completely unaware of how bad the state of Shakugan no Shana was.
Side note btw, I love how even the siblings are edited as monkeys in the manga adaptation 😂
Also on another note, I’m both an aspiring mangaka, and I also already have basic knowledge in Japanese, so hm perhaps one day in the future, I can help dig up some more info especially when I’m more fluent in Japanese…. Or even contribute to adding effort to the translations in some way! There must be a lot more info that can be learned from the Japanese side than from the English speaking side….
Much thanks for this video, honestly I can’t express how much I appreciate it! I’m going to mark this video as it’s super important to me on a very personal level! And also…. Now I have another interesting manga to add on my list~ (It’s a good thing I have a huge tendency to get into underrated media, even the gacha games I play are super underrated on the English side 😂)
ive watched this series couple of times and its one of my all time favorites but didnt know the series have other elements in it
it could have continued in some way for 3 more well-built seasons perhaps, this anime is something fabulous for me although many don't like it but I don't see it with people's perspective only mine that matters.
I haven't really watched the video but just piecing together from comments.. damn what a mess man. Sad too because I loved this show growing up and was my first "real" anime.
still hope for a remake. It desrves one. Maybe we will hear soemthing next year, 20th anniversary and all.
Thx man, now i know why s3 is confusing but it's not s3 fault actually
season 3 is still the best despite the confusion xD
@@OtakuGunsoNY i agree with you
Agreed
Ive seen the show multiple times as it is one of my favorites but season 3 always irked me with the way the new cast was introduced, but after seeing it isnt the shows fault, the timing was, I give it slack.
I wish those first two official english light novel volumes never came out because that stopped all fan translations at the time.
I think we would have gotten further, but I don't think they would have gotten much farther to be honest. I kept reading that the series was so hard to translate the the turnover for translators was over 90%. But who knows, perhaps we would have gotten the volumes slowly over time if VIZ never got involved.
thanks to you
you unlocked a memory and this is basically the reason why i dont watch anime anymore
Yeah I can agree with that. I remember getting so into the series but the anime made the info dump go in then out the ears. You can tell it really needed a special or a prequel to demonstrate the world better, I can say i love the anime but for the love of god I hate the second part and the third part puts it in a bow. But since it had to hit 24 ep each and gave more room to build arcs and not the ceiling because i like shana in the first part at least it was more conveyed the mix feelings were getting off her game it becomes a confidence thing but man they buried her worst because she should've been heating the pot for the third part but the water is still room temp. And if you had to watch it waiting till the third part and then watching it to see that happens oh well I guess I waiting months and waiting for years to just tell me the part2 finally didn't matter well kick to the balls for having feelings and building it up. At least the third part just kicks the slice of life for the most part to let it brew. I honestly would say without trying to be nice for my rewatching it's like cooking. 1. It's a good idea to make it. 2. Oh god it's tiring out wrong it's so over. 3. You know what it's not bad after all that.
A over hour long indepth discussion about Shakugan no Shana , let's go
your opening lines is almost same as my thoughts
ine of first anime i watched years ago and S3 still my favorite after all this time
also the OST of the series i always enjoyed and no wonder as same composer did one of my favorite Godzilla movies
when i first watched it i enjoyed it especially S3 , but over time rewatches and finding out the novel stuff my enjoyment of the first 2 seasons diminished a lot i do own all 3 (all 6 dvds of S1 and the bluray/dvd combo of S2 and 3 ) JC staff did similar deal with Zero No Tsukaima making that more comedic and fanservice focus and losing a lot of the character development , political intrigue and worldbuilding also S4 's last half was anime only since the novels were not complete then and the author passed away (but left notes behind so someone else could finish it which they did)
you have no idea how much energy i spent trying to correct and inform people in S3 when it was available n youtube when i read their ignorant comments (forget stuff not actually shown but they couldnt get even the things that were stated or even hinted at in the series)
plus most were Yoshida go away or die lol
S3 is best
S2 part 3
S2 part 2
S1 part 3
S1 part 2
S1 part 1
S2 part 1
Yikes, youtube comments are always the worse D: One time someone tried to label the clip in season 3 as Yuji "assaulting" Shana if you know what I mean and I reported that video for slander xD
Ah. No wonder I didn't care for Zero No Tsukaima.
Interesting. I always heard the name if this show but here in latin america it was never aired or published i think
As a fan of the series (even my nickname on the internet is after the character "Shana") it saddens me that I can't read the original material of the series in English or in my native language which is Spanish. My least favourite season I would say is season 2 for being for me honestly the worst of all by far at least until the middle of it when pheles appears. I agree that season 3 is the best of all but that's just it, the first time I saw it I was like WTF? And where the fuck did these characters come from?
Bless the wiki for explaining all the remaining lore and being able to find out everything that happens.
I really love your insights about SNS ❤. Its really hard for me to give this series a final closure bc of the state of the other adaptations and not experiencing it's canon storyline with how mediocre anime adaptation of S1 and S2. I hope that some dedicated fans would decide to translate all volumes 😢. Btw How about your thoughts about all the OVA? Are they adaptations of the original LN or some of them are anime original contents?
Thank you for watching the video! As far as I know the OVAs were all anime original. I don't remember seeing any silly short stories in the LN. There were a few in the 5th volumes of the manga that were similar to the OVAs but that was released a few years afterwards.