Review of Shakugan no Shana: Season I

You know an anime is bad when the characters themselves remark on how confusing the whole situation is. I have watched hundreds of anime by now and this is definitely one of those that I would put under my "what the heck is going on" category. It doesn't matter if the art and music is great if you can't follow the plot. The initial setup is interesting, but the rest is just plain incomprehensible. I kept watching this until a little into the second season, thinking it might somehow start making sense, but alas, my hopes were in vain. In fact, I experienced some plot"whiplash", as it were. The first season was a somewhat action-oriented plot. The first several episodes of the second season were almost completely slice-of-life. It was so boring I played solitaire while watching it.... SOLITAIRE. Then, when the action picked up, I couldn't follow it at all. One of the side characters even comments at this point that nothing makes sense. Suffice to say, I stopped watching soon after this.

All in all, the best thing this anime is for is background noise while you are doing something else. If you actually want to watch something, then pick another anime.