A difficult review....

Written by Jernrazn on April 5, 2012 at 9:53 PM

This one is almost painful to review but I wanted to review it and give a susinct and direct oppinion of why its this way.

This is an OVA series though I would say its more like an OVA in an OVA... Its only 4 episodes [watch when downloading the 3-4 you want to avoid any that say 'G" as its actually the 5th episode which is not an episode but a comedic shortcomming]

So in short its 4 Episodes with 4 episodes of random specials thrown in...

The first 4 are pretty standard epicness for Shakugan no Shana.. it looses it tie to the general plot though accuratly stated.. Its somwhere between the start of seaon 2 and the end of Season 2 [evidenced by the continued flashbacks to the end of seaons 2]. The story for the first half are good. The first being a interesting episode which tested both the visual artists and the voice actors to an extent. While the next one was a heartwarming one.. and the last two could be described as a prequill to the actual episode 1 seaon 1 from Shana's point of view.. The last 4 episodes are random.. and although they try to be funny they often actually fail. They get some jokes but honestly they are trying so hard.. combining the fairly epic disjointed 4 early episodes with the random quack episodes makes a average of a good.

The Dialogue shows through on both sides of the OVAs- the "mini-characters" voices must have been fairly hard to do and are done well while trying to keep focused in the quack episodes must have been hard. A superb job.

The animation still is a solid good. And much to the credit of the show even in the quack episodes the drawing are well detailed and good. It shows a special commitment to drawing and animation when that is done...

Entertainment... honestly If you go into this with the right attitude you will be fine.. the First 4 episodes are epic though compley disjoined well the 4th is a continuation of the 3rd so they are tied..However they are mostly random and extras that couldnt be added to the original series. To me it feels like the lack of a major vilian group robbed the luster of the show and made this OVA very hard action wise.. though it still shines as far as some comedy although limited, and hearwarming to a new degree.

That said..... If your not prepared your going to be ultimatly shocked. Disjointed news.. random quack episdoes dont seem to be a problem unless you relize this show needs the driving plot to be epic.. thats why this is an averge series.. without the main plot its just additionals....

this was hard to review due to the fact I loved the first two seaons... luckily although a VERY scary twist has begun with the 3rd season.. I have to say two things. Season III gains back all of its luster.