Shana, Saber, and Ito Noizi ramblings.

[nenena]

Oh yeah, guess who found the Ito Noizi "Guren" artbook at Book-Off today?! ;)

Most unfortunately, "Guren" contains no artwork from the Suzumiya Haruhi novels. I don't understand why, as the novels definitely pre-date the artbook and were quite popular even before the anime, but... Whatever. The book is about 1/3 Shakugan no Shana artwork, and that's why I bought it. The other stuff included in the book is basically original artworks, a couple manga that nobody has ever heard of like Yumemiru Vampire, and some official doujinshi illustrations for Tales of Symphonia and Demonbane.

My only guess is that Suzumiya Haruhi illustrations were excluded from this collection so that they could be bundled together later in a future Suzumiya Haruhi artbook. Also, there's been much more Shana output than what's included in this book, so maybe in the future...

You know what? I don't even like Ito Noizi that much as an artist. It's just that she happens to have designed and illustrated a couple of my favorite series, like Shana and Suzumiya Haruhi, so I guess I'm fangirling her for that reason. I mean, I look at her other stuff in the Guren artbook, and it's just kind of generic bishoujo crap. I.E., Nanatsuiro Drops. And if you go back and look at her early work, like the illustrations for the first Suzumiya Haruhi novel, it's just... crap. I mean, the first Suzumiya Haruhi novel is pretty bad, illustration-wise. Mostly what kills it is when she tries to fit multiple "panels" of action in a single page of illustrations, but the end result is so poorly-arranged and bizarre-looking that it just *doesn't work*. But even when she's not trying to squish multiple panels of action onto one poorly-arranged single page, Noizi's artwork is still pretty bad - sloppy line work, crap shading, generic poses and facial expressions, an overuse of those cheek lines to indicate "cuteness" on every single character, including Kyon. Fortunately, Noizi's work gets much better in later Haruhi and Shana novels. Some of the latest Shana stuff is just downright gorgeous. I don't think that Noizi has ever really managed to infuse any of her Suzumiya Haruhi work with as much surreal beauty as she sometimes achieves in her Shana work, but then again... Suzumiya Haruhi doesn't have the beautiful characters that Shana has, and Haruhi also has much less of a supernatural element, so maybe that's why.

I'm currently up to episode 17 of Shakugan no Shana, and working through the first novel. So far it's fitting into the same mold as Fate/Stay Night almost exactly. Shana herself is thirty-two flavors of awesome, and I am fangirling her so much right now. Unfortunately, her male counterpart, Yuuji, is about a thousand times more useless than Fate/Stay Night's Shirou. But, on the other hand, Yuuji is in his own way more cute and sweet and less annoying than Shirou. Which means that he's useless in a battle against a Crimson Denizen, but at least he doesn't have this "I'M GUNNA JUMP IN FRONT OF JOO AND PROTECT JOO BECUZ UR A GIRL" hangup.

The supporting casts of both series are about equal in their mix of obnoxiousness and awesomness. Fate/Stay Night has the magician Rin as its potentially awesome (but ruined by bad writing) supporting female character. Shana has Margery Daw, a sorceress named after a Mother Goose character who kills her enemies with nursery rhymes, and is accompanied by a foul-mouthed talking book and two pet delinquent high school students. Of course, both Rin and Margery Daw are potentially cool female characters who are somewhat tainted by the way that they fit into bishoujo archetypes. Rin tries to kill Shirou but then falls in love with him, because there is no other way that she can act in a bishoujo series. Margery Daw is the resident big-boobed, boozy, sexy older woman. Both Fate/Stay Night and Shana have the sweet-good-cook-yamato-nadeshiko-classmate love interest, being Sakura and Yoshida, respectively. And Fate has its archetypical witch and dominatrix characters, and Shana has the ninja maid. Even the best friend of the hero in both series is almost the exact same character. Isse and Ike, they are almost the exact same character.

Where Fate edges out Shana, however, is its supporting cast of mythological hero bishounen. Shana has some pretty interesting villains, notably the poor king who falls in love with a doll in the first story arc (don't ask), but none of that can compare to a series in which the likes of Heracles and Alexander the Great are running around and fighting each other.

Both series have very complicated plots, developed backstories, and fascinating premises. Both series have the absolutely amazing, beautiful, wonderful, totally fangirlable main heroines. Both series notably have awesome music, too. I haven't finished Shana yet, so I can't make a definitive statement about which series I ultimately like better. Maybe I shouldn't have to decide, but both series are SO SIMILAR that I can't help but compare.

Also, which sword is better: Saber's Excalibur, or Shana's Nietono no Shana? Which would win in a duel? Curious minds want to know!