Shuffle Info (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=5375)
Tracking Thread (http://www.soulriders.org/forum/index.php?topic=1803.0)
Discuss the series here.
Sincerely,
Shuten
I've reached episode 6 of this show.
This one is a classic example of nice set up, poor execution.
This show has/had a lot going for it. The artwork is nice. I don't recall as of yet any real drops in quality so far in the show. They use a number of setting epeatedly throughout the show, and depending on who you ask this either helps or hinders it. I'm of the opinion that it helps. The school, the shopping arcade, and Rin's house are well fleshe out.
The characters designs are above average. They look great, but you'll feel like you've met some of these people in other anime before. The show is uses archetypes readily. Kaede is the girl next door. Premula does double duty as the Ayanami type and the lolita type. blonde-haired guy as the perverted best friend. These are nothing new, but come across pretty well. It feels more like seeing old friends than meeting new people.
The opening and ending music is superior. Yuria and Hashimoto Miyuki sound great.
The setup isn't anything new. Nice Guy meets girl/s who remember some event in their past that the Nice Guy doesn't quite recall just yet. Girl/s is/are in love with him and continue to become more in love as the story progresses. Add to that a girl-next-door/childhood friend and you have the basic set up. Sure, the two girls who show up wanting Rin (the Nice Guy) are from Heaven and Hell but that is pretty much just back story. It won't really be important per se until later on the show when he has to choose who he wants to marry.
The pacing of the first two episodes (introducing the main character, the significant people in his life, the two who come to marry him, and the loli-demon girl) is pretty good. They set up what could have been a rather good show.
I say could have because there are some serious issues with this show and I'm not sure witch of the three (possibly four) is the worst.
To begin, the thing that so far has struck me as one of the worst problems in the show is the music. Dear god but this music blows. I understand that the music came from the game from which the show is based. So did Air's music. But Air's music never made me want to punch someone in the face. The music is just plain bad. There is no getting around it. It grates on the nerves after watching more than one episode. There is one track that plays during the show that I like, and even that is used in such a way as to be intrusive. There is no subtlety whatsoever. Its as if they slapped the music on. Instead of helping bring out the emotion in a scene it jars whatever emotion there is out of it.
Painful. Just painful.
Kazuhiko Sawaguchi did the music. He also helped with the music for Gad Guard. The difference is freaking staggering!
The second problem is all the extraneous characters running around. Specifically, the fathers and the defense force groups. They're meant to be funny.
They fail it. Hard.
The fathers might be funny once every few episodes. The defense forces should have appeared at most one time. However, both keep showing up and do only two things. The first is annoy the hell out of the viewer with their anti-funny antics. The second, and the unexcuseable sin, is they waste screen time that could better be used by other charaters!
Speaking of which, we come to the third problem. The show has some serious pacing issues. I'm not certain how many episodes this show will be. At a glance I'd say maybe 12-13 episodes, tops. Why, then, does the plot move at a snail's pace. There are no less than five different girls who want some Rin, but nothing is happening of any significance. Oh my god a whole episode dedicated to hiding the fact that you can't cook? What the hell? The relationships just don't move and in this kind of show that can be fatal to the viewership. Its even more troubling when they give more time to the fathers and the stupid defense forces than they do to, say, Premula, who is more or less shown to be significant in her opening episode. Air managed to go through not only the story of the three love interests but also the stories of the mother, crow-Yukito, and Yukito's ancestor in 12 episodes. This show hasn't managed to either eliminate or elevate any of the love interests in the equation.
But I won't end it on such a sour note. At least the character interactions are good. I swear, the show is at its best when its Rin vs Blondy (Midoriba Itsuki).
Itsuki is almost as enjoyable to watch as Kutaro Nambura, and that's saying a lot.
Hell, if those two were a yaoi pairing the show might be worth finishing. ^_^
I'm not going to comment too much on anything at the moment, for the record I like the show myself, but I feel I should inform you the show is set to run at least twenty-four episodes. It could run up to twenty-six as well.
Overall I think they've got time to work with to develop things and I really don't think the show is developing anywhere near as slowly as Thepanda seems to think but that's probably just me. Anyways I just figured I should note this is all.
Sincerely,
Shuten
Well, I stopped watching this show at episode 10 and forgot about it completely.
So yesterday I'm browsing 4chan and see this interesting picture that couldn't possibly be from this show, and yet I recognised the characters in it.
One catch-up-mini-marathon later and I'm left wondering WTF happened here? o_O
This is not the same show I gave such a shody review. I hit episode 12 (I think, the episode where you find out the Premura's past) and the whole thing just changes. Its like watching Shuffle! Alternative. I've been transported to some universe where the series is actually interesting.
I'm starting to wonder if someone isn't going to get killed by the end, though. So, Shuten, I'm sorry I ever doubted you, even though I'm almost certain we probably don't agree ass to why(if, even) the show is better now than it was.
I don't have much problem with the first half of the series myself but the second half is definitely far superior. Asa in my opinion definitely wins with her actions thru out the series so far. She's easily my favorite character.
Overall I would say that Shuffle is well on the way to becoming the best H-Game to Anime conversion to come along in years. It's simply a damned well done series that manages, most of the time anyway, to surpass the sum of the parts it began with. There's still room for improvement but overall they've done a fantastic job so far.
Oh and for future reference it's "Primula" and not "Premura".
Sincerely,
Shuten
I blame the subs I was watching. >_>
Primula. Right.
Asa wins, yes. Still, I find Air to be superior but given that there are at least 8 more episodes for me to watch (I'm on 16 now) it could, could, possibly surpass Air. It all depends on how they resolve the load of issues going on right now.
Well as I said it's "well on the way" but I agree it's definitely not quite there yet. As for how things are resolved I think they're doing a fine job so far handling it. Seen up to episode 19 myself and I just can't get over how good this show has become.
By the way which group was spelling it "Premura" anyway? o_O
Sincerely,
Shuten
I think it was KnKF somewhere is episode 12. I couldn't recall how to spell it so I opened an episode and checked.
I'm fairly sure that's how it was spelled. >_>
I see.
Well I've mainly been watching Anime_U & Froth-Bite's releases so far myself and both have gotten the spelling right. Hmm... I must ponder some things for now.
Sincerely,
Shuten
Holy hell, episode 19 was a shocker!
It really puts a lot of the stuff I had problems with about Kaede's character into perspective. Man, my feelings about her have completely changed.
She's freakin' scary. o_O
Heh.
Well episode 21 should see the Kaede arc completely wrapped up which means we should finally see the official start of Asa's arc. Actually one of the nice things about SHUFFLE is that the development of the relationship of Asa and Rin is extremely well handled. There are only two ways one could miss it.
1) They are not truly paying attention.
2) They're deliberately letting their biases get in the way of seeing it.
The two have always been on very good terms with each other even from the early episodes. I would say their development from friends to more than friends, not going to say "lovers' just yet since it's still a bit too early for that, is one of the most natural I've seen.
Anyways for those watching the raws expect a delay between episodes 23 & 24. New Year's programming is going to delay the final episode one week. Actually if 23 ends the way I think it will than those who don't know how a certain event turns out will be driven up the wall with impatience. ;p
Sincerely,
Shuten
You know, after watching 20 raw I feel really, really bad for Kaede. I'm having a hard time seeing this end well for her.
Bastards didn't even give a next episode preview. Genius!
You know, after watching 20 raw I feel really, really bad for Kaede. I'm having a hard time seeing this end well for her. I like Asa (who doesn't? ~_^) but Kaede just jumped leaps and bounds up my list. She looked up to and trusted Asa and Rin has been an ass of late.
Yeah, I said it. The scene where he's playing with Primula and Kaede is trying to talk to him comes to mind. Yeah, he's in love, and yeah, he's worried about Asa but even so you have to admit he has been pretty damn cold.
Can't wait for the next episode. Bastards didn't even give a next episode preview. Genius!
Quote from: "thepanda"Yeah, I said it. The scene where he's playing with Primula and Kaede is trying to talk to him comes to mind. Yeah, he's in love, and yeah, he's worried about Asa but even so you have to admit he has been pretty damn cold.
I'm not sure if I would call it cold so much as him having a one track mind at present. That track being almost exclusively on Asa at the moment. I'm not excusing his behavior. Admittedly he needs to pay better attention to Kaede. However Kaede doesn't do much to help the situation either with her attacking Asa at the end of episode 19. The only thing that ended up doing was driving him further away from her.
Actually I do have to give Rin credit for not taking advantage of Kaede when she literally offered her body to him. Rin has made many mistakes and he's far from perfect but at least he's not a disgusting sleazeball in this regard.
As for the last part where he told Kaede that he was moving out one has to wonder how he could possibly have said it in a manner that wouldn't have hurt Kaede. It honestly would've hurt Kaede no matter how he tried to say it.
In the end 21 should finally see the end of the Kaede arc with Kaede inevitably giving her blessing after much angst and crying. Hell it happened in the game, as part of Asa's story, that way anyway and I don't see any reason why they wouldn't include it. Kaede giving her blessing is an important part of Asa's storyline after all. It ultimately has to happen if the anime is heading towards an Asa victory.
In other words contrary to what some people believe I highly doubt we're going to see Psycho Kaede in episode 21. Angsty Kaede? Sure. Crying Kaede? Absolutely. Psycho Kaede though? Highly unlikely.
I should probably comment on Asa as well but I'll flat out admit that my favorable bias towards her character, she's my favorite of all of them, is getting in the way of my ability to objectively view the situation regarding her so I shall refrain.
Sincerely,
Shuten
I have seen episode 21 raw and I have but one thing to say... BANZAI ASA! BANZAI! @_@
Well okay I lied. I have more than one thing to say. The episode pretty much played out the way I expected it to. Some will probably complain that resolving it with three episodes left is wasteful but I assure you it is not. In order for certain events to work the two must be together for a bit of time before said events occur. Don't make the mistake of assuming there's no more reason to watch now that Rin has made his decision. The climax of Asa's story is well worth waiting for imho and if they do it right the series will have a very strong ending imho.
Oh and one final note my favorite scene was near the end when Kaede returned home after the "event". Primula was just so adorable. ^^
Sincerely,
Shuten
Edit: Almost forgot! Episode 22 will see Nekomimi Primula! ^^
Well the final episode has been watched by yours truly and overall I'm happy with it. The only real major gripe I have is the fact that I think the art took a rather noticable hit in the second half of the episode. Regardless it's been a fun ride.
Could the series overall have been better one might ask?
Sure. Name a series that doesn't have anything it could possibly improve on and I will have to seriously question your sanity. True perfection does not exist. Still all things considered they did a pretty decent job with what they had to work with. Overall I consider this one of the better HGTAs. Definitely not the best but far from the worst.
On a final note I declare that Primula needs her own OVA series! @_@
Sincerely,
Shuten