Anime Analyze: Shakugan no Shana III (Final)

So let's finish off the series called Shakugan no Shana.  The third and final series is known as Shakugan no Shana III or Final.  Released in 2011, it completed the series that had been going on for two seasons prior. Like the last season, it had two openings, "Light my Fire" by KOTOKO and "Serment" by Mami Kawadi.  I can say right now that this was definitely the better of all three seasons, so lets get into Shakugan no Shana Final!

The third and Final Season of Shakugan no Shana  I have to say was probably the best on out of the three, at least in my opinion.  While not focusing so much on the relationship between Yuji and Shana it focuses on how they really feel about each other after Yuji disappears after the end of the last season.  After Two episodes we find that Yuji has paired with the Snake of the Festival who is a Lord of the Guze, and direct rival of the Flame of Heaven who is paired with Shana.  As Shana deals with the shock that she has to fight Yuji as an enemy and not as a friend, we start to learn more about what it is that the group of Guze no Tomogara called Bal Masque is really planning now that they have their leader back after being sealed for hundreds of years and then freed by Yuji.  As we learn more about the plan and what it might lead to, we learn more about how Yuji has improved as he eventually gains his own unrestricted spell.

Also during this series, we learn more about the system of Flame Hazes around the world, including who leads them as well as prominent members from around the world.  We learn somewhat of how they run things and how they deal with certain situations, which was interesting and very cool to learn about.

This anime worked well to finish out the entire series, having different plot twists constantly throughout the series and keeping the viewers on their toes as to what is going to happen next.  New characters were added nicely and were introduced in a way that showed some back story, but didn't do it in a way that took too long or had too little information.  They did this for both sides of the fight, not just the flame hazes as well which made it more of a show that was focusing on both sides and it made you choose which side of the fight  you wanted to win, and unlike some anime that I have seen, it wasn't clear as to who was going to win, the "good" side did not have an obvious plan that would work which they did very well.

The animation was pretty good, it worked well with the different things that were happening, over all three seasons, the colors of it seemed to blend a lot and that was pretty cool at times, and at other times it was kinda distracting and sometimes what was happening was slightly distracted by it.  Other than, that it was very well put together.

The character development was good depending on the character, because some characters were just there, but others you got to know and got to understand a little bit like I said earlier.  Since one of the main characters changed sides at the beginning of the show essentially, we got to know more about the people that they had been fighting through the first two series of the show.

One thing that I loved about the series was the fighting between the two sides.  The first two shows had decent fight scenes to be sure, but this one brought the entirety of both sides of the fight into battle bringing about full scale war skirmishes.  This made the fight seem much more intense along with the added intensity of what would happen if one side should win or lose.  Having all of the characters brought into play at the same time made for an exiting match and as I mentioned before it was so good that you really could never guess who was going to win or lose.   

Overall, the last series that made up Shakugan no Shana  I think outdid the other two and closed the series out well.  I hope I did a good job not spoiling too much for those people who haven't seen the show, but I would put it on the "must watch" list for anime fans.  The characters were interesting, the plot was exciting, the animation great, and the action fun to watch.

That's my review of Shakugan no Shana Final I hope you enjoyed it and I apologize for the time that it took me to do it, I got really busy getting ready for school again.  More anime reviews to come, and have a great week everyone!

Final Rating: 9.5/10
Total Episodes: 24
RVF: Japanese Dub
MRS: www.nwanime.com