Shuffle!

In present times, Gods and Demons coexist together with Humans after the door between each of these worlds had opened. Tsuchimi Rin is a normal young high school student attending Verbena Academy, spending his days living peacefully with his childhood friend Kaede. Unexpectedly, one day the King of Gods, the King of Demons and their families move into be Rin's next door neighbors. Apparently the daughter of the Gods, Sia, and the daughter of the demons, Nerine, are both deeply in love with Rin after having met him in the past. Along with his playful friendship with upperclassmen Asa and his encounter with the silent but cute Primula, Rin has much on his hands dealing with the affections of each of these girls. Based on the eroge by Navel.

Shigure, Asa Main

Itou, Miki Japanese

Fuyou, Kaede Main

Gotou, Yuuko Japanese

Primula Main

Hitomi Japanese

Eustoma, Lisianthus Main

Aoki, Sayaka Japanese

Nerine Main

Nagami, Haruka Japanese

Tsuchimi, Rin Main

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Thyme, Mayumi Supporting

Inoue, Miki Japanese

Kareha Supporting

Hinata, Yura Japanese

Shigure, Ama Supporting

Yuria Japanese

Eustoma Supporting

Kosugi, Juurouta Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Takechi, Tsuneo Producer

Suzuki, Tomoko Producer

Hiramatsu, Kiyonori Producer

Reviews

Sep 17, 2023

bpoilspill1

Recommended

Shuffle while at first seems like an early two thousands harem fan service show which it kind of is deviated from others to me at least because of the sound design and music the music that plays throughout the episodes reminds me of majula in dark souls 2 it's a welcoming sound that is also somewhat sinister like something made by puppet combo which was enough to raise this show from a 6 to a 8 in my opinion. If you are turned away at first but you liked the atmosphere from dark souls 2 or like puppet combo there's a decent chance you will ... grow to like it if only for the ambience.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Nov 15, 2021

WolfGoddess77

Mixed Feelings

Based on the eroge visual novel, Shuffle! tells the story of Tsuchimi Rin, your basic clueless, bland protagonist (who ends up becoming something of an asshole) who tries to navigate his life while being surrounded by a bunch of girls who all want to marry him.

To be honest, a lot of the girls' motivations don't make much sense to me, which I'll be going into in a moment.

The art is nice to look at, with no terribly glaring flaws, even if some of the characters' designs can be a little odd (for example, what's with the abundance of random ribbons wrapped around locks of hair?). ... There's also some uncomfortable nudity in the show, as the person you see naked the most is a little girl...yeah. Do with that what you will.

The sound is average, both dubbed and subbed, with some popular VAs in both versions.

I will admit that I've never played the visual novel, which I'm sure has a lot more content that was left out of the anime, but I must say, given the number of adaptations are out there, this one is fairly decent. (That's not to say it's necessarily GOOD, but they managed to explain most everything, rather than leaving dozens of loose ends, like some adaptations do.)

And now, the section that I had the most problems with, which is going to contain massive spoilers, so stop here if you haven't already seen the anime/don't mind being spoiled. Ranting incoming...

THE CHARACTERS.

Tsuchimi Rin is not the most unlikable protagonist ever created, but sometimes I just want to hit him upside the head with the Clue Bat a few dozen times. His behavior towards some of the girls at certain points is just abhorrent. He treats them like absolute shit!

The best example I can think of is late in the series, when one of the characters has a psychotic break, and tries to kill one of the girls who's been spending a lot of time with Rin, because she wants him for herself. (Not kidding. We almost go full School Days with this girl.) Instead of getting her proper help, even though she's both a danger to herself and others, his solution is to move out of the house and leave her there alone.

Lisianthus (shortened to Sia) is one of the many girls in Rin's harem. Cheerful and friendly, Sia is the princess of the gods. She has a bit of a temper, usually when it comes to her father, who she will lay the smackdown on with a folding chair, a la WWE.

Sia also has a secret--she has a split personality that sometimes surfaces. In the womb, Sia was one half of a set of twins, but her sister, Kikyo, was fated to die. Unwilling to let this happen, Sia decided to absorb Kikyo's soul, with the result that her consciousness sometimes overrides Sia's. Kikyo is much more forward than Sia, and ends up trying to force herself on Rin (whose obliviousness shows up full-force again, because he can't tell that something is very wrong with "Sia"'s behavior. Moron.)

She came to the human world with her father once when she was a little girl, and ended up getting separated from him. While she was lost, she met Rin, who played with her until her father found her. That is seriously her motivation for loving and wanting to marry him.

Nerine is the princess of the devils, and has known Sia since they were children (perhaps even since birth). Unlike Sia, Nerine is quiet and soft spoken, though she won't hesitate to use her formidable powers when something does manage to make her angry.

Her backstory is very similar to Sia's (seriously, they couldn't come up with ANY other backstory to make her unique?) in that she once had a "sister", though in Nerine's case, it wasn't a twin, but a clone, named Lycoris. As a child, Nerine was very sickly, and her condition deteriorated to the point that she would have died. Lycoris learned about this, and decided to sacrifice herself, reasoning that her spirit would make Nerine strong enough to survive.

Unlike Sia, though, Lycoris was fully absorbed by Nerine, so rather than a split personality, Nerine inherited Lycoris's feelings, and her beautiful singing voice.

When they were little, (again, just like Sia) Lycoris went to the human world, and met Rin, falling in love with him. When Nerine absorbed her spirit, those feelings transferred to Nerine, and drives her to want to marry him, though she eventually comes to realize that her feelings for Rin are actually her own, and not Lycoris's.

Primula is perhaps the most uncomfortable character in the series. Looking like a child of twelve or so, she starts out emotionless and nearly mute, but as the series progresses, she starts to open up more. She is also the one we get to see naked the most. (WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, DEVELOPERS?! WHY?!)

Primula comes from the same world as Sia and Nerine, and is an artificial lifeform, like Lycoris was. The entire reason why she comes to the human world is because of what Lycoris told her about Rin, making her want to meet him.

However, as Primula's emotions start to grow, her powers surface, making her sick enough that she could die if she doesn't return to her own world for treatment. But she refuses, not wanting to leave Rin. This is where I start to get angry. She is a LITTLE GIRL. She is not old enough or mature enough to make decisions for herself. Pick her up, and TAKE HER BACK. If you know she's going to die if she stays, don't leave her there! There's a REASON why minors can't make serious decisions on their own!

Kaede is the (doormat) childhood friend of Rin, who he ended up living with after his parents and her mother died in an accident. She is basically his live-in servant, cooking meals for him, cleaning up after him, etc. etc. This is to make up for the way she treated him shortly after they lost their parents. Blaming him for the accident, she seriously abuses him for a while, including dropping a box cutter on him so it slices his face open. Later on, it's revealed that Rin wasn't to blame, which made Kaede change her behavior.

I can't find myself to feel sorry for her when Rin starts spending time with other girls, because she absolutely refuses to tell him that she has feelings for him. (Although this is partly on him, because he's too dense to realize that himself.)

She is the one who has a psychotic break when Rin beings spending less and less time at home with her, though she eventually snaps herself out of it, and life continues as usual. (WHY DID NO ONE GET THIS GIRL HELP?! SHE ALMOST MURDERED SOMEONE!)

Asa is the last of Rin's harem, and fills the spot of the cheerful, happy-go-lucky girl. Like Kaede, Asa has known Rin for a while, though she's a year older than him. As a child, Asa was very sickly, and blamed her mother, Ama (who I adore) for her weak body. Ama is a devil, and Asa is a half-blood. Because she inherited her father's human body, it's not strong enough to house the power of her devil blood, resulting in her getting very sick, and nearly dying. The only way to fix this is for Asa to release her power, which she refuses to do.

This is why my opinion of Asa went WAY down. She behaves like an idiot. Even though it's the only way to SAVE HER LIFE, she refuses to use her power, because she wants to deny the part of her that has devil blood. Using it won't hurt her, or anyone else, yet she still won't do it. It's a flimsy excuse at best, and leaves me wanting to pull my hair out. There is no reason for her to be so stubborn about it.

There are a couple of other minor characters, but they don't play much of a part. There's a blonde girl who really wants to dress Primula up in sexy lingerie (WHY, DEVELOPERS?!), and another half-blood girl whose only real contribution to the story is one episode where she loses her panties and tries not to flash everyone while wearing a short skirt.

Final verdict, this show COULD have been good, because it actually has a resolution, and Rin picks someone to be with, but some of the characters' motivations are so STUPID that it makes you want to beat your head against the wall.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Dec 5, 2023

MxS7HGS

Not Recommended

I wanted to like this show, but the story was all over the place. It became interesting later on, but it was too late at that point. It's a good thing there was plenty of fan service. I was able to entertain myself with that.

The first half is mostly a comedy, with the girls all trying to get Rin's attention and the other boys in the school getting angry about it. The second half of the series is darker and more serious, as it delves into the main characters' backgrounds and deals with their issues and problems. Rin is an okay male lead for a ... typical harem show because he seems like an average guy, not a loser or a jerk. However, my main issue is the story and pointless demons and gods theme. They could have been normal humans, and it wouldn't change the story at all. There are only 2 or 3 scenes throughout the entire series where their magic matters and even these are executed badly. Also, In the first episode, we meet two girls who seem to be competing for the main character's heart, but one of them rarely appears, and there is no real competition. Both of them give up on him at one point. There are a few nice dramatic moments, but after being bored by the rest of the show, they didn't really have an impact on me.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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	Poll: Shuffle! Episode 24 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) babykeiji - Apr 12, 2008	199 replies	by Tsukasa_Rio »» Dec 10, 12:13 AM
	Poll: Shuffle! Episode 21 Discussion ( 1 2 ) babykeiji - Apr 12, 2008	78 replies	by Tsukasa_Rio »» Dec 9, 10:04 PM
	Poll: Shuffle! Episode 20 Discussion ( 1 2 ) voidbringer - May 27, 2008	91 replies	by Tsukasa_Rio »» Dec 9, 9:44 PM
	Poll: Shuffle! Episode 19 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) babykeiji - Apr 12, 2008	126 replies	by Tsukasa_Rio »» Dec 9, 9:16 PM
	Poll: Shuffle! Episode 18 Discussion ( 1 2 ) babykeiji - Apr 12, 2008	54 replies	by Tsukasa_Rio »» Dec 9, 8:59 PM

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