Name: Shakugan no Shana
Score: 7.5/10, 4/5
Length: 3 Seasons of 24 episodes, 5 OVAs, 12 short-form specials
Genre: Action, Drama, Romance, School Life, Magical
WARNINGS: Underage ecchi and romance
Summary: Like most people Sakai Yuuji has for the most part lived a fairly normal life, unaware of the world that exists alongside his own that prays upon humanity without it even noticing. When a being from this unknown world decides to take to kill for it's next meal, luck would have it that Yuuji would be at the center of it all. Before the monster makes a meal of him though, salvation comes in the form of a young girl with eyes and hair as red as fire. Now that he's seen all this though, there's no way Yuuji can go back to his old life, not when the time he has left can be counted on the face of a clock.
Review: While Shakugan no Shana is, for the most part, a character-driven action story filled enough with magic and swordplay to make the journey fun to watch, it is also something much more. Unlike a lot of it's contemporaries (i.e. action romances meant for teens), there's a strange amount of complexity and depth to the show. Almost every character has a depth to them that it takes some time to unpack the truth of who they are and their motivations, and it's rarely as simple as just being good or evil. While I wouldn't go so far as to call them realistic, they are certainly compelling. More than that though, they show a surprising amount of growth and cross lines that you rarely see addressed in show's that'd be considered more mature. While frustrating at times due to the plot being a tad convoluted, it is in the end a fun action series with romance that is equal parts sweet and unpleasant, or in other words tsundere to the core.