A blog that will cure your apathy and inspire your dreams... Warning: All who watch anime, play video games, like J-music and K-music, and the like... ARE OTAKU!
Hey everyone!
Have you ever taken a walk through the city one day to find that all of a sudden time just decided to... oh, I don't know... stop? And then a flame haired girl with a wicked-cool katana appears out of nowhere and saves your soul from being eaten by some giant freaky spirit-like monster? Oh, and then you find out that you're actually already dead and your existence is slowly fading away from reality? You know, everyday stuff.
Shana comes from a romance / comedy / action anime entitled Shakugan no Shana (literally: Shana of the Burning Eyes). Voiced by my favorite voice actress, Rie Kugimiya, she stars as a mysterious unnamed Flame Haze in this spectacular anime. Well then--how does she get her name?
Sakai Yuji, the lead male character in the anime, gives her a name: Shana--for proof that she's not "just a Flame Haze" but that she has value as a person. But he's one to talk--he's already dead! (Like he knows what it's like to be human... =P). Yuji learns that his current self is a "torch"--a substitute for people who had their souls "eaten" by "Guze no Tomogara". Unfortunately--it's a torch that loses its flame, which means he only has a limited amount of time to live before his existence is completely dissipated... or does he?
And so the romantic struggle in this anime is between Yuji and Shana--who both struggle to recognize their devotion to each other. Yuji is just typically oblivious while Shana struggles to see how someone like her, who's "just a Flame Haze," and not a human, can have or deserve to have a relationship. Plus, add a third wheel (Yoshida) and the fact that Yuji is hardly real and you've got yourself a complicated romance =P.
And if you didn't know already--part of what makes Shana so unique is her duality: her "human" form and her "flame haze" form. The latter being the one with the flaming red-hot hair :). And somewhat metaphorically, as you might have already read in my Top 5 Moe List (which is quite out-dated), her Flame Haze form resembles her Tsuntsun aspect while her Human form resembles her Deredere aspect.
Other animes have tried mimicking the theme of Shakugan no Shana--most notably Kurokami and Hidan no Aria--but none have risen to the legendary status of SnS.
Besides radiating a fiery personality and capturing people's hearts through moe (kya~), Shana is enveloped in a very fun and unique storyline that's geared more towards romance aspects while still containing just the right amount of action to satisfy a little shounen-hunger.
If you're a fan of Toradora--imagine Toradora with the genre trade-off of slice of life for action and a few details here and there... everything else is practically the same: Taiga and Shana have the same voice actresses and Yuji's name even resembles "Ryuuji" from Toradora!
And so, Shana continues to stand on top of many as a symbol of fire and hope while sitting on her Royal throne on the Board of Legendary Animes (well... don't you think there should be such a board? =P). And by being the first of the Four Tsundere Wonders to reach an anime adaption, Shana has become the essence through which Rie Kugimiya has proudly taken up the title: "Queen of Tsunderes".
Update: The Otaku Reviewers are going to Otakon 2011! :D!
This TSL goes to none other than Anjou Naruko ("Anaru") from AnoHana!
Have you ever had a childhood friend that you lost contact with? Do you ever wish to regain that bond that you once had?
After 10 years everyone seems to have moved on with their lives, separated. No one seems to have remembered both Menma and their friendships.... Until... Until the boy Anaru admires (Jintan, the main character) claims to now be receiving visits from Menma--no, even worse--she's living with him in his house! Bizarre... who would believe it?? But even if something unbelievable comes directly from the person you care about--it makes it that much *points*-->(a bit more) believable.
Anaru (voiced by Haruka Tomatsu) has an episodic polarity much like any other tsunderes nowadays...--don't get me wrong--I love all types of tsunderes quite equally... it's just that I feel bad for poor old "Sebastian"... =P
Her progress doesn't go unnoticed, but sometimes she ends up getting a little down. She seems to always be trying to find who she truly is. And easily impacted by what people around her say, she takes things to heart and ends up in a somewhat depressive state. (But have no fear, Jintan is here)... *ahem*...
It seems that all the childhood friends received the death of Menma in their own way... Anaru's way was to try to replace Menma in Jintan's eyes by wearing her clothing style quite often... She knew that Jintan had feelings for Menma and is quite the jealous tsundere over him. And although she tries to hide it, some of her childhood friends can easily see through her. Almost as if she was transparent (like my opening picture! =P).
So that's all for today!
This TSL goes to Aria from Hidan no Aria!
Some background: The anime is about a school for training students to be special agents called Butei. Their classes consist of half-normal-school curriculum and half-CIA-type-training. So basically Aria meets Kinji and, after he goes all 『ありあをまもる』 "I'm protecting you [Aria]" in an action scene she decides that she wants him on her team. She says "Join my party!" which reminded me of an RPG game =P.
Aria's weapons of choice are two guns and two katanas, making "Aria the Quadra" a very unique addition to the Rie family :)
