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Shana.... The Movie!
Hey, guess who just treated herself to the Shakugan no Shana movie on DVD?! I know, I know. I can't help it. I have this fetish for kick-ass girls with swords. ;)
The Swag
I picked up the "Director's Cut Special Collection" edition of the DVD, as opposed to the (two) regular editions. It cost a pretty penny - 9800 yen - which makes it literally the most expensive R2 DVD I've ever bought. ^^;; But I love Shana, and this was so worth it.
The DCSC edition comes with three discs:
1. The movie, theatrical edition
2. The movie, director's cut, with a couple of optional audio commentary tracks
3. Omake disc
The omake disc, in turn, includes:
1. "Making of" documentary
2. A new Shana-tan short
3. Interviews with the staff and cast
4. Theatrical trailers, including an extended "sneak peek" that totally gives away the ending of the movie (*cough*)
5. TV commercials
6. A new trailer for Shakugan no Shana II
In addition, the whole thing comes packaged with some more bonus goodies:
1. A piece of the original film reel. THIS IS SO COOL. I got a couple frames of Shana sitting on top of Yuuji's roof in the rain.
2. A mini-artbook. Comes with character designs, background paintings, and textless prints of magazine illustrations and movie posters.
3. The complete storyboard for the movie. This is... Well, your mileage will vary. If you're interested in animation, I'm sure that this is probably the coolest extra you could possibly hope for. If you're like me, and, you know, not all that interested in the animation process, then it's just 300 pages of boring sketches.
Pictures of my goodies:
Look at that. It's a freakin' brick.
All the goodies.
Interior foldout: Three, count 'em, three DVDs.
Back of the foldout. O HAY MARGERY'S ASS!
My attempt to take a picture of my little piece of the film reel.
Interior of the mini artbook: Character designs.
Interior of the mini artbook: Some illustration pages. There were a lot of these - just gorgeous!
Review of the Movie
The Shana movie starts over again, from the beginning of the story, and is basically a new animated adaptation of the first Shana novel. In ninety minutes, it covers roughly the same amount of territory as the first six episodes of the first season of the anime. So, obviously, a lot of stuff got cut out and changed. The biggest changes were:
1. Eita and Keisaku are cut out of the story completely, except for a few background appearances. So is Ogata.
2. Margery Daw and Shana don't have time to try to kill each other before becoming partners. Because of the compressed narration, they end up working together pretty quickly.
3. Yoshida is introduced early, and there's an attempt to give her a bigger role in the story. Unfortunately, if you'll remember correctly, Yoshida doesn't actually have a roll in the first story arc. So the best that the movie could do is stick her in the "ruined classroom" bit: In the movie version, it's not Ike who's killed when Friagne attacks Yuuji's school, but rather Yoshida. Then Shana threatens to use Yoshida's power of existence to restore the destroyed classroom, which prompts Yuuji to offer to sacrifice himself instead. That's... pretty much it. Yoshida's only role in the movie is to die, have Yuuji angst over her, and then be brought back to life. (*sigh*) That's pretty lame. But, like I said, Yoshida originally had no role at all in the first story arc, so the movie producers had to do what they had to do. She's just too important of a character to *not* be in the movie, I guess.
4. Alastor. In the movie, we finally get to see what we were cheated out of in the TV series: Alastor in person. Without giving too much away, I will say that Alastor's dramatic appearance at the end of the movie does NOT disappoint. It is a downright awe-inspiring animated sequence. I'm not using those words lightly. I think my jaw literally dropped toward the end.
I like that, despite the hurried pace of the movie, there was still a good deal of time spent dwelling on Yukari's slow and terrible disappearance. That was one of my favorite parts of the TV anime, and I think that to shorten it any would have been to rob the story of most of its emotional impact. On the other hand, in exchange for letting us spend time with Yukari, all of Shana's interactions with Yuuji's classmates are cut out completely. We never get to see the new, acerbic "Yukari" duking it out with her teachers and classmates. That part of the TV version, I sorely missed in the movie.
But other than that, I can't really find anything to complain about in this movie. The animation, from start to finish, is unbelievably gorgeous. In fact, right after finishing the movie, I went back and watched some episodes of the TV anime for comparison... Big mistake. Now that I've seen the movie, the TV anime just looks like total crap! I re-watched the first episode and thought to myself, Wow, I can't believe I used to think that this was pretty... Truly, the movie has spoiled me now. This is what Shana SHOULD look like. I don't know if I'll ever be able to watch the first season of the TV anime again.
I really, really hope that in the wake of Geneon's collapse, some other North American company will pick up Shakugan no Shana and distribute this movie. It's a damn good movie on its own merits, and the perfect gateway drug to Shakugan no Shana for the uninitiated.
The Swag
I picked up the "Director's Cut Special Collection" edition of the DVD, as opposed to the (two) regular editions. It cost a pretty penny - 9800 yen - which makes it literally the most expensive R2 DVD I've ever bought. ^^;; But I love Shana, and this was so worth it.
The DCSC edition comes with three discs:
1. The movie, theatrical edition
2. The movie, director's cut, with a couple of optional audio commentary tracks
3. Omake disc
The omake disc, in turn, includes:
1. "Making of" documentary
2. A new Shana-tan short
3. Interviews with the staff and cast
4. Theatrical trailers, including an extended "sneak peek" that totally gives away the ending of the movie (*cough*)
5. TV commercials
6. A new trailer for Shakugan no Shana II
In addition, the whole thing comes packaged with some more bonus goodies:
1. A piece of the original film reel. THIS IS SO COOL. I got a couple frames of Shana sitting on top of Yuuji's roof in the rain.
2. A mini-artbook. Comes with character designs, background paintings, and textless prints of magazine illustrations and movie posters.
3. The complete storyboard for the movie. This is... Well, your mileage will vary. If you're interested in animation, I'm sure that this is probably the coolest extra you could possibly hope for. If you're like me, and, you know, not all that interested in the animation process, then it's just 300 pages of boring sketches.
Pictures of my goodies:
Look at that. It's a freakin' brick.
All the goodies.
Interior foldout: Three, count 'em, three DVDs.
Back of the foldout. O HAY MARGERY'S ASS!
My attempt to take a picture of my little piece of the film reel.
Interior of the mini artbook: Character designs.
Interior of the mini artbook: Some illustration pages. There were a lot of these - just gorgeous!
Review of the Movie
The Shana movie starts over again, from the beginning of the story, and is basically a new animated adaptation of the first Shana novel. In ninety minutes, it covers roughly the same amount of territory as the first six episodes of the first season of the anime. So, obviously, a lot of stuff got cut out and changed. The biggest changes were:
1. Eita and Keisaku are cut out of the story completely, except for a few background appearances. So is Ogata.
2. Margery Daw and Shana don't have time to try to kill each other before becoming partners. Because of the compressed narration, they end up working together pretty quickly.
3. Yoshida is introduced early, and there's an attempt to give her a bigger role in the story. Unfortunately, if you'll remember correctly, Yoshida doesn't actually have a roll in the first story arc. So the best that the movie could do is stick her in the "ruined classroom" bit: In the movie version, it's not Ike who's killed when Friagne attacks Yuuji's school, but rather Yoshida. Then Shana threatens to use Yoshida's power of existence to restore the destroyed classroom, which prompts Yuuji to offer to sacrifice himself instead. That's... pretty much it. Yoshida's only role in the movie is to die, have Yuuji angst over her, and then be brought back to life. (*sigh*) That's pretty lame. But, like I said, Yoshida originally had no role at all in the first story arc, so the movie producers had to do what they had to do. She's just too important of a character to *not* be in the movie, I guess.
4. Alastor. In the movie, we finally get to see what we were cheated out of in the TV series: Alastor in person. Without giving too much away, I will say that Alastor's dramatic appearance at the end of the movie does NOT disappoint. It is a downright awe-inspiring animated sequence. I'm not using those words lightly. I think my jaw literally dropped toward the end.
I like that, despite the hurried pace of the movie, there was still a good deal of time spent dwelling on Yukari's slow and terrible disappearance. That was one of my favorite parts of the TV anime, and I think that to shorten it any would have been to rob the story of most of its emotional impact. On the other hand, in exchange for letting us spend time with Yukari, all of Shana's interactions with Yuuji's classmates are cut out completely. We never get to see the new, acerbic "Yukari" duking it out with her teachers and classmates. That part of the TV version, I sorely missed in the movie.
But other than that, I can't really find anything to complain about in this movie. The animation, from start to finish, is unbelievably gorgeous. In fact, right after finishing the movie, I went back and watched some episodes of the TV anime for comparison... Big mistake. Now that I've seen the movie, the TV anime just looks like total crap! I re-watched the first episode and thought to myself, Wow, I can't believe I used to think that this was pretty... Truly, the movie has spoiled me now. This is what Shana SHOULD look like. I don't know if I'll ever be able to watch the first season of the TV anime again.
I really, really hope that in the wake of Geneon's collapse, some other North American company will pick up Shakugan no Shana and distribute this movie. It's a damn good movie on its own merits, and the perfect gateway drug to Shakugan no Shana for the uninitiated.
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(I assume, however, that a fansub of the movie will show up eventually, as Shana is no longer licensed.)
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(Yeah, you're right. Eclipse FTW! :O )
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