Shana â…¢ #01 — Hit Her With Your Hair
October 28th, 2011
Good job, Kabuki Quantum Fighter.
Impressions:
A little bit fast for a first episode, but mostly solid. Everything moved along at a fairly decent clip, and while the action was not exactly impressive, it was at least present and characters didn’t announce what they were going to do, then reflect upon it afterwards. There were quite a number of niggling details that the episode had problems with though. For starters, the action just was passable, but the show’s definitely done better, particularly with its direction and choreography. Yuuji/Snake Pliskin standing there impassively while people shoot exploding things throw him at a bridge before the smoke clears and he’s still standing there perfectly fine, is much less imposing than… well… doing anything. It’s probably part of the power level creep that Japan is so fond of. "I am so good, that I can just stand here. God forbid I’m good because I know some awesome moves or spells or anything like that. Standing still is the best way to be friendly to the budget show how badass I am."
From there, devoting about a third of the episode to the Silver seemed… a bit out of place. You’d think that if this show had had about fifty minutes of recap before this episode, they would have remembered to cover that so they wouldn’t have to interrupt a fight with a PTSD flashback sequence of stills, but apparently no. That broke up the flow of the episode something fierce. Rule #2 of flashbacks: They come AFTER emotional highs, not during them. Do not pause the story in progress to fill in gaps. Margery’s panic attack did not need immediate explanation right then and there. The ending was also a little terrible. It really should have ended with Shana getting crushed by Yuuji’s flame, not with him going to see Yoshida and effectively kicking over their little scale model of the city. How many times do they think that they can sell Yoshida getting rejected anyway?
Overall though, it was worlds beyond the hypothetical three episodes of recap that didn’t come before it. Still far from perfect, but much more of what I want to see from the show.
Preview:
Sexy time apparently.
Posted in Shana | 4 Comments »
aubrey 
Anonymous 
ark noir
I still can’t figure out why he suddenly looks like japan’s version of a chinese warlord (or something? I get that impression, at least). Did they explain this as part of that silver combine and I wasn’t paying attention, or did he hit existential puberty offscreen?
Also, it made me laugh more than it should have that when he knocks shana unconscious the first thing that comes to mind is to carry her off to his room. Way to not be as creepy as possible.