Shakugan no Shana

For more detailed information about the series, check the Shakugan no Shana Wiki
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==Summary==
Shakugan no Shana is an urban fantasy light novel series written by Yashichiro Takahashi and illustrated by Noizi Ito. A total of 26 volumes were published between 2002 and 2012. The light novel was adapted into a manga between 2005 and 2011, that covered the first two arcs in 10 volumes, as well as into an anime television series by J.C. Staff between 2005 and 2012, across three seasons, a few OVAS and a movie, for a total of 77 episodes. A second manga, Shakugan no Shana X: Eternal song, adapted Volume 10 of the light novel between 2007 and 2012, which acts as a prequel and delved into The Great War many centuries ago, featuring the previous titler-holder of "Flame-Haired Burning-Eyed Hunter". 
Shakugan no Shana was extremely popular in Japan, to the point that its titular character, Shana, gave rise to a trope in otaku media of short, small-breasted, long-haired and short-tempered tsunderes that serve as female leads, nowadays referred to as Shana Clone. Shana's voice actress, Rie Kugimiya, would voice over 10 more characters of the same archetype in her career.
==Plot==
The story focuses on Yuji Sakai, a high school boy in Misaki City who inadvertently becomes involved in an age-old conflict between forces of balance and imbalance in the human world. One day, Yuji's Power of Existence, the fundamental power within any biological entity of the human world that functions as “fuel” for one's existence, presence, history, and impact on their surroundings and the world, was eaten away, turning him into a “Torch”, a temporary replacement for a human who had their Power of Existence devoured. In the process, he meets and befriends a nameless red-haired female warrior of the balancing force, a Flame Haze, and names her "Shana". He then accompanies her in her fight against Crimson Denizens, creatures from an alternate universe to the human world called the Crimson Realm, who disrupt the world by consuming the Power of Existence of humans for their selfish needs, with little to no regard to the effect of such an act to the world's balance. Yuji is special however, as he is found to be a "Mystes", a type of Torch that contains a magical object inside them: Yuji's is the "Reiji Maigo" or "Midnight Lost Child", a particularly unique artifact that becomes the target of the largest organization of Crimson Denizens, Bal Masqué.
Many millenia ago, when many Crimson Denizens migrated to the human world, they found out they couldn't properly sustain and manifest themselves in this new environment without consuming Power of Existence. Many of those Crimson Denizens became selfish and started attacking people for their Power of Existence, as they did not wish to give up a part of themselves and live as weaker versions of themselves. This slowly led to the destruction of the world's balance. In response, a number of Crimson Denizens decided to bind themselves in a contract between them and humans to become Flame Hazes, whose main objective is to vanquish Crimson Denizens who destroy the balance.
The many encounters, experiences, and battles of Shana and Yuji lead them to play a key role in this endless conflict between the two forces. Their mindset, vision of the situation, and ways to remedy to it are vastly different however, which becomes the catalyst for the Second Great War between Flame Hazes and Crimson Denizens, with Shana and Yuji on opposite sides of the conflict, and with the fate of both universes at stake.
==Power of the Verse & Terminology==
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The verse starts low at Wall and Small Building level for the weakest characters, and then increases to City Block and Multi-City Block for most Flame Hazes and Crimson Denizens past the early stages of the series. Some specific characters and spells can reach even higher, with the strongest likely reaching low-to-mid Tier 7.
The energy that makes up both the energy source of Unrestricted Spells and the life force of Flame Hazes and Crimson Denizens is often represented as flames. As such, the verse is primarily home to Fire users. Most characters are capable of Time Stop, Flight, Extrasensory Perception and Perception Manipulation, and each character possesses a unique set of spells and magic items with different applications and effects. Some characters possess minor hax abilities of their own, like Power Nullification, Illusion Creation or Durability Negation.
As a result of the verse's cosmology, all Flame Hazes and Crimson Denizens share abilities specific to their races, like Life Manipulation, Nonexistent Physiology, Causality Manipulation, Conceptual Manipulation, Information Manipulation, Existence Erasure and resistance to all these, though only some of these abilities are combat-applicable. The application of most of these abilities is limited to human-like universes, and would not work in vastly different universes, like the Crimson Realm.
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*Flame Haze: A former human that has made a contract with a Crimson Lord to gain power. Humans become Flame Hazes by making contracts with Crimson Lords who fear the spread of Distortions and have resolved to killing their brethren to prevent it: the duty of Flame Hazes is to protect the balance of the world. When the contract is made, the human loses the past, present and future they once had and accepts the Lord's existence, acting as their vessel. This causes them to lose their identity, presence, history and very own existence of their humanity, and they also stop possessing any information related to them as it was erased from existence the moment they lost their human nature. The Lord then dwells with the Flame Haze's body. The Flame Haze's physical age becomes fixed and they become immortal, due to becoming displaced from the flow of the world and the flow of time. In exchange, they are granted power by the Lord, and their abilities are shaped by their own mentality. A majority of humans who become Flame Hazes do so because of hatred toward or a desire for revenge against Crimson Denizens after falling victim to them in some way. Though they are all meant to destroy Denizens, they usually act alone in order to prioritize their own personal matters. This leads to a weak sense of solidarity, and Flame Hazes can even have fights with each other over a difference in opinion. Flame Hazes go by a title which describe their ability in general. Flame Hazes can regulate their non-existence in regard to human-like worlds, as they can make themselves exist in the eyes of human-like existences if they desire.
*Crimson Denizen: A Crimson Denizen, also simply called Denizen, is an inhabitant of the Crimson Realm. Denizens are existences who are loyal to their own desires and seek pleasure. They mostly act with wild abandon, but can form factions and organizations when required. Many Denizens have existed for millennia, and though they do distinguish between young and elderly Denizens, there is no mention of whether Denizens "die naturally" or even how old they are. Upon being "born" in the Crimson Realm, they immediately possess consciousness and knowledge of their own powers and begin their struggle for survival right away. Denizens who have migrated to the human world, as they aren't native to it, need to consume Power of Existence in order to manifest themselves, and they do so by taking it from humans, which are beings similar to themselves. Using Power of Existence, they can "bring forth miracles that should not be possible in this world" in the form of spells, and so much of the Power of Existence they take is used to fulfill their desires. When a Denizen is killed, all human memories of them and objects they leave behind disappear from existence on a human-level (other Denizens and Flame Hazes will remember them due to resisting the memory wipe caused by existence erasure). Denizens who come to the human world usually possess two distinct names: True Names given to them since their birth in the Crimson Realm (and refers to their traits and powers they possess), and Aliases that mostly come from humans that fear and revere them, mythical or folkloric names from human history, or one-self's fondness. In the human world, the true name becomes like a surname, while the alias functions as a first name.
**Crimson Lord: The term given to Crimson Denizens who possess great power. The main difference between Lords and Denizens is that Lords possess a better ability to harness Power of Existence and utilize it. Even though normal Denizens can take possession of a great amount of Power of Existence, they cannot master it and would even succumb under that much power. The author, Yashichiro Takahashi, compares the difference between Crimson Lords and Crimson Denizens to that of a "warship" and a "motorboat"; if you apply the amount of gasoline warships use into motorboats, they won't become faster and would even sink into the sea because of the weight of that fuel.
**Crimson God: The term to describe Crimson Lords that possess an unquantifiable level of power compared to others, to the point they embody the Crimson Realm's very laws. Only 3 Crimson Gods are known: Alastor the God of Retribution (contracted to Shana), Snake of the Festival the God of Creation, and Shaher the God of Guidance.
*Crimson Realm: An alternate world in which Crimson Denizens originate. It is described as "an adjacent world which cannot be reached" which has a harsh environment, causing many Denizens to escape it and migrate to the human world.
*Power of Existence: A fundamental energy required to exist in the human world. It comprises every living and non-living thing and is essentially "how something gives an impact on its surroundings". Humans are born oblivious to the concept of existence, but all possess a certain amount of Power of Existence from the moment they are born, which increases or decreases depending on how influential they become. Usually, historical figures, influential nobles, royalty or other famous people possess a larger amount of Power of Existence. People who pass away or are killed, by means other than being consumed by Denizens, retain a small amount of Power of Existence, which allows other people to remember them even though they are no longer living. Without Power of Existence, a person or object stops existing on a fundamental and human-world sense and all their traces and possessions also vanish; the world moves on as if they had never existed at all. That energy is also needed by Crimson Denizens in order to manifest themselves and survive in the human world: without it, they would be forced into a low-power hibernation state (which goes against their very nature) or, worse, die. It is also the main requirement for the casting of Unrestricted Spells. Power of Existence is usually undetectable by humans, with Crimson Denizens and Flame Hazes as the only ones who can see and interact with it.
*Divine Vessel: Special items used by the Flame Hazes' contracted Crimson Lords to express their will and talk, while their real bodies reside within the contractors' body. They work akin to the eyes and ears of contracted Crimson Lords. To contain the immense energy they possess, the contracted Crimson Lord has to stay in a hibernation-like state in order to do so. These Crimson Lords can telepathically converse with their contractors. If a Divine Vessel is damaged or destroyed, it can be repaired or recreated since the Crimson Lords reside in the contractors' bodies, not the Divine Vessel. Divine Vessels can teleport themselves back to wherever their contractors are.
*Rinne: Beings who act as servants for certain Crimson Denizens. They are created when a Denizen blows Power of Existence into an inorganic object. Rinne are diverse in appearance and abilities based on the master's preferences and the object being used. They can consume humans and collect Power of Existence to give to their master, but cannot maintain their existences without receiving constant replenishment of Power of Existence from their master. Without their master, they will disappear because they are unable to convert Power of Existence for their own usage. In that sense, they are unstable existences. Rinne are usually weak enough to be easily dealt with by Flame Haze, but are still powerful enough to easily dispose of humans.
*Unrestricted Spell: The general term used to refer to the various spells and mysterious phenomena Crimson Denizens and Flame Haze can bring about by manipulating Power of Existence, and the methods or techniques used to do so. Unrestricted Spells have no standard form and their manifested phenomena are based on the nature of the Denizen or Flame Haze causing it. Patterns called Unrestricted Spell Insignias can appear when an Unrestricted Spell is activated, sometimes amplifying or supporting its effects. They also show the configuration and flow of Power of Existence of an Unrestricted Spell. One who excels at the use of Unrestricted Spells is called an Unrestricted Spell Master.
*Treasure Tool: An object which has the power to contain or activate spells or cause various phenomena to occur. They require Power of Existence to activate, and though Unrestricted Spells can be housed inside them, they aren't Unrestricted Spells themselves. A Treasure Tool is created when a Denizen and a human, each representing their own world, have the same desire as one another. If worked out with the right Unrestricted Spells and physical materials, a Treasure Tool for the sole purpose of fulfilling that desire will be created. Most Denizens and Flame Hazes possess one or more of these, and would try to acquire as many as they can.
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==Supporters/Opponents/Neutral==
===Supporters===
*GoldenScorpions
===Opponents===
===Neutral===
==Characters==
===Flame Hazes===
Shana Icon.jpg|Shana|link=Shana (Shakugan no Shana)
Rebecca Icon.jpg|Rebecca|link=Rebecca Reed
Ernest Icon.jpg|Ernest|link=Ernest Flieder
YuXuan Icon.jpg|Yu Xuan|link=Yu Xuan
Yurii Icon.png|Yurii|link=Yurii Chvojka
===Crimson Denizens===
====Bal Masqué====
Fecor icon.png|Fecor|link=Fecor
Orgon Icon.jpg|Orgon|link=Orgon
Purson Icon.png|Purson|link=Purson
Vual Icon.jpg|Vual|link=Vual
====Aizen Siblings====
Tiriel Icon2.png|Tiriel|link=Tiriel
Sorath Icon2.png|Sorath|link=Sorath
====Unaffiliated====
Friagne Icon.jpg|Friagne|link=Friagne
Mare Icon.png|Mare|link=Mare (Shakugan no Shana)
Merihim Icon.jpg|Merihim|link=Merihim
Leanan-sidhe Icon.png|Leanan-sidhe / Lamies|link=Leanan-sidhe
===Others===
Tenmoku Icon.png|Tenmoku Ikko|link=Tenmoku Ikko
Category:Verses
Category:Shakugan no Shana
Category:Light Novels
Category:Manga
Category:Anime
Category:Games
Category:J.C.Staff
Category:2000s