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The following extracts are taken from my ever impending analysis of the anime 'Shuffle!'. Here I take the opportunity to discuss two of my favorite scenes from the show and some of my favorites in all anime. Like with my previous blog post, I keep the analysis fairly brief so please enjoy and if you've anything to add or alternate comments on the style in general, feel free to let me know as feedback is most welcome. Please note the first extract includes spoilers for episode 12 and the second for episode 19 along with general spoilers for the show at large. I hope you enjoy;

"Ep-12-Frozen Summer;
-sees our now familiar gang of characters going about a fairly unremarkable day, its the end of summer and as such Rin, Cia and Narine are working on completion of Holiday Homework, while Kaede and Primula go about more mundane house-work chores. All seems to be in order but from the get go the show drops two small hints of what's soon to come, there's the most obvious one which comes when we see Primula pouring a cup o' tea only for said tea to momentarily crystallize. Its a brief affair, a second later the tea returns to water, with little more then Primula's expression to prove it even happened. Interestingly, on watching this scene blank for a first time, one would be forgiven for thinking this would be the start of a set up for a generic anime arc where the young character loses confidence in their magical abilities, only for the protagonist to help them out and for the two to grow a little closer in the process but shuffle has other plans.

To further implant this idea of a standard light-hearted anime arc, we get the second hint scene. This ones a little less apparent and almost seems out of character for both Rin and the show. While studying with Narine and Cia, we see Rin become aroused and make a hell of a pervy face in reaction to some 'fan-service'. To me this scene stands out so much that it was clearly intentional, as aforementioned, it initially stands to disarm us into thinking this episode will be a repeat of ep11's lighter, more comical and fan-serivicy tone, furthermore though, it serves to show how comfortable Rin has gotten in his daily life. The original troubles and issues that arose of suddenly finding one's self with a gang of female groupies have mostly been resolved, his surget family is running along smoothly and he is enjoying the summer of his youth. In shoen terms, this is Rin letting his guard down to disastrous effect.

Furthermore we now start to see episode 12's wonderful use of literary short hand, firstly in terms of simple characterization, it makes logical sense to see Cia and Rin as the two least prepared for the new school term additionally to that, Keade is most ready in advance but putting this surface level observation aside, the show makes further use of it's usual 'parrel storytelling'. Will talk about this more in greater detail later but for the moment it should be noted that Rin's study group consists of the 'otherworlders' Cia and Narine. These two contrast and parallel each other in many ways and the show likes to use them to highlight moments that are fantisiful or unrealistic, like for example the very scene we're discussing. The two have the most unnatural hair colours to help them stand out and Cia in particular is by far the most 'fanservicy' character in the show. So as mentioned all this builds up to disarm the audience alongside Rin in preparation for the what's to come. It might also be note worthy that Primula is not in this scene, this may seem like a given as she doesn't attend school yet, nor is she considered a member of the harem till about episode 22 but with her running theme of neglect, it's always interesting to see the show make an effort to separate her from the 'other-worlders' of the group.

In comes one of my favorite scenes in all of anime for its brilliant use of literary short hand and simplistic but effective visuals. Cast your mind back to the stage, Primula basked in the summer rays stands watering sun flowers among other plants, in the Fuyo residence's garden. She seems content and why not, she's found a family, a place to belong and has even started taking an interest in interacting with life ( As evidenced by the plants which Rin implies later, that Primula planted and nurtured of her own volition ) and then it happens. Its been a long time in the making, we'd been told that magic can be unstable, volatile, as evidences by Narine and we'd had foreshadowing a plenty to indicate Primula being something more then a normal demon (as normal as you can get when talking fantasy at-least) and so in a matter of moments, we watch a circle of ice spiral out from primula, enveloping the whole garden, all her work and rendering her unconsion but to put it that simply is to do it a major disservice, so lets break this down a little more thoroughly.

First off we see the hose Primula is wielding, eject ice rather then water, this immediately frightens her and she lets go of the hose almost involuntarily ( In much the same way as is happening with her powers ). It wrights violently imploring snake like imagery (Which should come as relevant considering the shows use of religious imagery) before we move to a close up of her, as a cruel white light emits out from her on the ground and here's the first big instant of short hand. The image subconsionly brings out an idea of bed wetting, further added to by Primula's childish get up, dungarees, pigtails and all. In a lesser show this might come across as perverse but in Shuffles case it's used to subtly implant the idea of a loss of control in the minds of the viewer. If a child wets the bed its frowned upon and if a young teenager still does it, they'd be seen as immature, maybe even taken to a Doctor ( something that presently happens to Primula ).

There's no moment where Primula or anyone else in the scene has to convey the fact that she's lost control. Far to often in anime characters will explain what's going on in any given moment or battle but here with the simple use of her expression and the visual bedwetting metaphor, all the information we need is seamlessly communicated without any dialogue what-so-ever. But the scenes still not done. For one lets talk about the choice of magic the writers use. In the case of all other magic users in the show, were shown vague explosions, particle effects and the like but Primula seemingly quite deliberately uses some form of 'Ice Magic'. The use of this cold blue tone acts as further short hand as it brings to mind the numbing, cruel and lonely sensations and emotions that modern media has come to make us associate with ice.

Rounding out the scene, as already mentioned, we witness the flowers Primula's poured her time into, freeze to ice, along with the garden tree, patio door and with a specific focus on both the sunflowers and a shattering cicada. Now here we have a few more things of significant but subtle note. Flowers and sunflowers in particular are used as a theme of sorts through-out the show, as will discuss in greater note later but it should be clear to most that their freezing helps to represent summer ending at Primula's hand, in an unnatural, unplanned way ( another running theme of Primula being her unnatural nature ). It should also be pointed out, that while flowers are often used to represent how the other girls are in the bloom of their youth (the shows tag line), Primula is stagnant, she isn't a fully fledged person like the others (This even extends to her depictions during the intro song).

The shattering Cicada is a fairly 'anime/Japanese centric' piece of imagery. Anyone whose experienced the likes of Kagura Project or Higarushi will already be aware of the broud range of symbolism these noisy creatures are often used for. Here the shattering initially serves to convey the end of summer, same as the frozen sunflowers but it goes a step further, acting as foreshadowing towards the lethal nature of Primulas magic. It lets us know straight away that there's a chance for her to hurt those around herself and with hindsight, represents how her magic may very well be lethal to herself as-well.

To end on our primary analysis of this scene's use of visual metaphors and literary short hand, lets come back to her ice magic, as-well as the whole result of the frozen garden ( or frozen summer if you like ). Something else we can interpret as the scene telling us is the unique nature of Primula, as stated primarily that she's not natural, a construct of some sort but we can get more then that. The scene helps to reinforce the idea that Primula is something dangerous, almost weapon like, 'something' to be wary and cautions of. The frozen garden of plants, she tried to grow, inspires sickening imagery of failed live, as though primula constitutes infertility, an inability to feel emotions or be human, an inability to lead a normal life and someone who can never give life.

It's some pretty heavy topics, that the show doesn't ever try to address head on but instead in more metaphoric and quiet ways."


Some 10,000 words later;


"Now you'll all be glad to hear they're are only two more scenes which I would list as 'favorites', that's not to say I won't still be gushing galore over the rest of what's left but rather to put emphasis on just how good I think those two scenes are and the one we now find ourselves on is a strong contender for what I think is the strongest of them all, with only episode 12's Primula breakdown as competition. Technically speaking the Keade's breakdown trounces Primula's, the animations jumps massively in quality (And it always looks great to begin with) additionally the score plays its heart out as we get a distorted version of the everyday-life theme. The scene also acts as the only possibly climax for Keade and it's some glorious release of built up tension but I suppose we shouldn't get to far ahead of ourselves.

I prefaced this scene with the short section on Primula's role because it comes in to play in a big way here. While searching for Keade, intending to apologies as she perceives Keade's melancholy as fault of hers. Primula checks in Rin's room only to find that Keade has blacked Asa out of a series of pictures that Rin took with her on one of their dates. Primula's face drops and all the while we have cuts of Rin and Asa returning home from another day out, with Keade approaching to greet them. Primula's reaction here is masterful, for one thing the slow pace of her finding the photo's is done expertly and while in an actual horror movie you might find a note book full of "Kill Asa" or some such, the scribbled out picture serves much the same purpose but furthermore it's the importance of this being Primula. While we've been watching her develop and change more and more she is still in our mind's the mute girl who displays no emotions.

This isn't unheard of in anime, Yuki Nagato would be used to much the same effect in 'The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya' where in if she's panicking then you really know it's something deadly. The point being, any of the characters could of been used for this moment (Putting aside why the others would be in Keade's house) but because it's Primula it adds one more extra layer of tension to an already cooked to tipping point moment, when we see the emotionless girl react with such anxiety.

Further on this also puts us in Primula's perspective, with much of the following shots essentially being shot from an onlookers point of view and my what shots. First off Asa doesn't just enter the house, she bounds in with a skip and a jump. Keep in mind that Japan is a nation of extreme politeness, even for good friends like these, Asa's disregard for convention as she playfully salutes her way through the front door, is completely out of line, especially with consideration for how conservatively tradionalist Keade is. With that said I doubt this minor transgression of manor's deserves what comes next, as mentioned the animation abounds as the camera finally lifts itself from it's stationary home and begins to shake violently alongside Keade who throws Asa against the door. As also talked about the music is a wrapped twisted version of what we're most used to and there's a plethora of filming and animation tricks snuck in here that you won't even notice till a re-watch.

My favorite of these is when the camera at a slightly awkward low to the ground angle, hones in on Asa as she collapses in on herself, her illness now resurfacing once more. If you look closely one of her eyes is actually shaking violently. It's really easy to miss but your sub-conscious picks up on all these little details making the scene twice as terrifying as might otherwise of been. As I say, I love this scene while not as narratively symbolic as episode twelve's might of been, the varied use of classic horror movie cinematography and enhanced animation turn this into the shows most fidelitically impressive scene. I could go on lamenting it's brilliance but I think I've made the point. So lasted the scene fades out as we come to the episode ending with the last point of note being that the next time is just Keade monologuing to herself, capped off by Primula's usual 'join us next time' line. Simple but eerie and once more highly effective.


This scene marks the turning point of Keade's arc and while we've already discussed how it isn't necessarily the worst thing she ever does, it's pretty high up there. In one action she realizes all her pent up anger in an act that vizirates everyone's thrust. While she may claim to of not intended any harm it's worth remembering she's well aware of Asa's illness, which has also been wonderfully foreshadowed. In that is what I think is this scenes biggest triumph, this is the most dramatic Shuffle ever gets with out the use of fantasy elements being involved and what's great is how natural it feels. Keade isn't hitting Asa because the plot demanded it, nor does Asa's illness come from nowhere, instead the entire set-piece is carefully built up to throughout the show making this feel incredibly worthy and far removed from the cheap dramatics of lesser drama's. Furthermore as we've already discussed at length when talking about Keade's character, while this is her 'yandere moment' it's important that for however bad it is to shove a sickly individual, this is still recoverable from, feeding back into her theme of retribution.

I spoke about this in my 'Full Metal Panic' review/essay but it should once more be noted that I love scenes like these because of how grounded they are. Despite their reputation, rom-com and harem anime are to me some of the most heart-felt out there. Without the need for a forced narrative or drama for the sake of drama we're instead presented with well thought out scenes that are grounded in human emotions we can all relate to. To reiterate from earlier, we are meant to sympathies with Keade even in a scene like this, were meant to understand her desperation and I think the moment does a great job of conveying that while also being a highly entertaining Yandere moment with some amazing production values."


I hope you enjoyed these short extracts, all feedback is most welcome,
Thanks for reading.