Shana â…¢#08 — “Ha Ha! We’re Upside Down!”

November 25th, 2011

 

You know they’re reaching when people are giving info dumps while upside down.

Impressions:

I’m amused that they felt like they had to show so much of the flame hazes talking about the attack and Shana’s flashbacks that they had to skip the ED. They only showed the denizens actually attacking for, I don’t know, maybe 5 minutes tops, possibly half that. It begin with Yoshida and Eita at any rate and the action was completely gone again by the twelve minute mark until the credits began rolling. I don’t even know whether to shake my head in disappointment at the legions of CG denizens either or be glad that they didn’t just make one and copy/paste it 30 times like a certain other show. The rest of the time was dramatic music while telling us how they were attacking and how everything was so important. I am soooooo in Bal Masque’s upsidedown quest for the magical widget that will enable them to do something that they seem to have already done. But hey, they’re walking upsidedown.

So that’s about the first 22 minutes. Then the ED begins and Khasim and whose-her-face proceed to basically obliterate the denizen city in seconds. At this point, and only this point, Shana realizes that the room she’s locked in is literally filled with swords. …Sigh… I don’t even know what to say about that. I guess she was too amazed by the fireball-resistant pillows and too busy doing her hair to notice before.

Preview:

Nooooo! Not Afro-Skeleton!

Posted in Shana | 6 Comments »

6 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Nanaya says:
    November 25, 2011 at 11:21 am

    So she, a notorious swordswoman, was kidnapped and locked in her kidnappers’ bedroom. Which contained a bed, a hairbrush and an armory. And then spent the entire time on the bed and having her hair done.

    Japan: putting women back in the kitchen, one plot arc at a time.

    • Aroduc says:
      November 25, 2011 at 3:03 pm

      Hecate did wreck her other room. Maybe they just tossed a bed into the armory and called it a day.

  • FlameStrike says:
    November 25, 2011 at 9:20 pm

    Er what, if you were paying any attention (Well this show HAS been a bit boring so far) you’d know that Shana already tried using the fake swords to escape once. Well, it was mentioned that she hurt herself trying to break that metal bracelet which sealed her powers using a fake display sword. Using a fake display sword to try and fight her way out of an entire friggen enemy castle without her powers would be insanely stupid.

    The only reason she decided to try using the fake swords again is because she saw the explosions, and knew that allied Flame Haze would probably be close by, and most enemies were away from the base, thus she has an actual chance of making an escape.

    I’m all for pointing the flaws of an anime and saying things up straight (For example, upside down info dumping lol.), but when someone points out “plot fails” that are actually their own inability to pay attention/comprehend the plot it gets annoying. If you’re going to go “LOLOL CHARACTERS ARE STUPID I R SO ELITE FOR POINTING IT OUT” make sure it’s not YOU being stupid before blaming the show/characters.

    • Nanaya says:
      November 25, 2011 at 9:56 pm

      1) “It was mentioned” If that is true, no wonder I didn’t remember it.

      2) She’s still supposed to be an elite, notoriously dangerous fighter. In a similar scenario, based on her entire character shown up to now, she would be resisting like all hell. But Yuuji is the captor, so she is all but receptive to it. I stand by my last comment.

  • backspace says:
    November 26, 2011 at 1:20 am

    I just can’t watch this show. The first season kinda just aimlessly meandered without a goal in sight, and it took the entirety of the second season to find an actual sense of direction. Unfortunately, that direction didn’t quite agree with me so I ended up splitting off from it entirely. Reading your reviews pretty much shows me that I made the right decision. It doesn’t really help the fact that I can’t stand most of the characters, with perhaps the sole exception of the protagonist’s dead best friend and the maid, both of whom I am able to tolerate simply due to how comparatively unobtrusive they are.

    To be honest, I’m amazed you’ve managed to cling onto this show for three whole seasons (plus various DVD specials). Maybe you just see something in it that I can’t, but I still can’t help but feel in awe.

  • FlameStrike says:
    November 26, 2011 at 6:33 pm

    @Backspace
    Yeah I know how you feel. You’re not really missing out on much. When I first started watching the series, I was high on loli tsundere fun, but that gets stale, especially after 2 whole season. Now I’m just watching it for the sake of completion. I’ve already invested two series worth of time, I might as well see how it ends. I actually was kind of bored by the first ep and caught up to this point when in one sitting when I had nothing better to do. If you don’t feel invested in the characters, you don’t really need to bother with this series.

    @Nanaya

    1) Hahaha, I guess I can’t fault you there. But my point stands that she did try to escape.

    2) Hm I think I flew off the handle too fast before fully understanding your point. So from what I get (correct me if I’m wrong), your real complaint was with the fact that SnS and anime in general were portraying woman as too weak/falling too easily to the ones they love? If that’s your complaint, it’s a justifiable opinion and there’s nothing I can say against it.

    On the other hand, if you’re saying she acted out of character then I could point to a whole plethora of evidence from past episodes to indicate why she didn’t resist after her initial attempts failed (although I probably couldn’t be bothered). My main point was that escape was really impossible all by herself unless she found a way to remove that chain. She was weaker than a Rinne while her powers were sealed. She tried to escape a few times, failed, then decided to bide her time (As you mentioned, the fact she got to stay close to Yuji probably lowered her incentive to run away, then there’s the whole Alstor is around Yuji’s neck thing).