Shuffle!

Harem at its best?

Genre - Comedy, Drama, Ecchi, Fantasy, Magic, Romance, School, Harem

Length – 24 Episodes

Run - Jul 8, 2005 to Jan 6, 2006

Animation Production – FUNimation EntertainmentL, Lantis, asread

"Fanservice". This is the first thought crossing your mind right? This anime is largely built around just that; well at least in its first half. According to the official description this show has every genre in it except "Slice of life" and "Horror" (though there is a little bit of that in its final episodes). I'll leave my negative and positive comments of the series as a whole until the end.

Let's begin with the back-story. Gods and Demons have made their presence known to humans. The door to each world is open. Many Gods and Demons migrated to the human world. In essence, expect to see people with pointy ears walking down the street and in the classrooms of the school the characters attend. Simple enough right? However, in the first episode of the Anime you are presented with two very peculiar characters that shape the first half of the series, but I will get to them in a little bit.

Rin Tsuchimi is the male protagonist, and also the guy in the middle of the harem. He lost his parents in a car accident and moved in to Kaede's house. Nothing real special about Rin, he is exactly what you would expect from the male lead in a harem Anime; spoiled, pampered, and lazy. To his benefit he does show a courageous side at times and is later revealed to be a very kind person during a flashback. Kaede Fuyou is Rin's childhood friend who grew up with him in the same house after her mother and Rin's parents died in a car accident. "Certain events" led to Kaede completely changing her attitude and began taking care of Rin as form of gratitude. Be wary as she does a momentary 360 degree change in behavior later on in the series. Going back to those peculiar characters I mentioned earlier, they are the daughters of both the king of gods and the king of the devils. Nerine "Lycoris" and Lisianthus "Sia, Kikyou". Both met Rin in the past and fell have been in love with him ever since. They both become Rin's neighbors and start attending Rin's school. To top it all off, both the king of gods and the king demons tell Rin he has to marry either Nerine or Sia. Nerine is probably the most talented person in "Shuffle!". Aside from being kind, she is also a great singer and controls her magic well. She is the least outgoing of the group however. Sia is the complete opposite. She is not afraid of expressing herself and does the best she can to impress Rin and others. Both characters have dark secrets later to be revealed. The final character I am going to talk about is Asa "A-Chan" Shigure seeing how she slowly becomes a very important character. Easily the most energetic character and an excellent cook, she is a close friend of Rin. Asa always greets Rin with a slap on the back and makes it her daily goal to tease him past his limit. Like the previous female characters mentioned, she has her share of secrets.

"Shuffle!" as a whole is well thought of but poorly managed. Some episodes make you feel as though they have been misplaced, think of "The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya". As I stated earlier, the first half of the series is basically just fanservice with a little bit of real plot and drama here and there. Everything after that would be considered to be the "real" story. The way the main character's dark and sad pasts was developed was well thought of seeing how I certainly was not expecting some of the revelations made. The unfortunate part was they all arrived too late and left you wanting more. The romantic aspect of the show is somewhat endearing. The art is okay at best and the soundtrack is better than I thought it would be. Despite its flaws I enjoyed the show. I had my fair share of laughs and liked the "groupies" each female lead has. The use of magic wasn't used extravagantly like other series which is good. This makes the viewer more focused on the story. "So get on with it man what are you going to rate this series?"

Art - (8/10) Sound - (6/10) Plot - (7/10) Enjoyment - (9/10)

Overall
7.5/10

Note: Expect your emotions to be all over the place.