Shuffle! Anime Review

SHUFFLE! SCORE: 8.5

INTRODUCTION & SYNOPSIS

It's actually rather quite difficult to say what Shuffle! is actually about. It's one of those shows that episode after episode, you really don't see what's coming and just have to be along for the ride! I will say the obvious about it, it's ecchi at times and a classic Harem anime in which all of the girls magically love the main male protagonist, and it is basically his destiny to have story archs with each of these girls. There was a bit of a unique twist to this show though, in the world that our main character Rin lives in, gods and demons live among the humans. However, the odd part about this is, that this isn't really even a focal point. It's just kind of the way it is. The show starts out as a happy-go-lucky show about adorable girls infatuated with the average but sweet male protagonist, but slowly transitions into a dramatic romance series with an intensely dark side to it. I can promise you this, by around episode 18 or 19, you won't know what the hell just happened.

PROS

As I touched on in the intro, Shuffle! has the element of surprise on its side. It's not done in the typical shocking way, but rather, it's just very unexpected. This is something truly enjoyable about the series, and not to be overlooked. It's honesty what made me want to keep watching the show, since harems aren't super interesting for girls to watch normally.

In addition to that, I also really enjoyed the setting, character designs, and character growth in this anime. The setting of a normal everyday school that also happens to have gods and demons, was quite cool and it almost made it seem like this was a feasible thing. I actually liked how they down-played this aspect and focused on comedy, romance, and drama instead. Additionally, the character designs were top notch. All of the girls were super cute looking, and I wanted all of their clothes! You have Sia, the spunky and girly Princess to the Gods who is always hitting her father (king of the gods) over the head for saying stupid things and embarrassing her "Dad shut up!" Narine, the Princess of the Demon world, was also a fun character who couldn't cook anything other than an omelet, and makes Rin omelets all the time; she had a really interesting back story too! Then we have, Kaede, who has lived with Rin since her parents died and always cooks and cleans for him, and the reason why and her back story, blew my mind, it was really unexpected! Then, there is Asa, the sort of Yankee-ish girl who is good friends with Rin, but is always sick; again, when we find out why she is sick, that also will blow your mind. Then we have Primula (Rimu), my favorite girl! She is the loli type. She is a little bit younger than the rest, she's a demon, and a secret experiment in the demon world. She's just so kawaii! It is really surprising to see how much development each of the girls get even with only 24 episodes. The character development is seriously commendable, as all of the girls have inner conflicts resolved and change as people by the end.

I also want to add, that as the series continues, you can see why all of the girls like Rin so much. Once they get to Kaede's story arch, I really saw it. I thought, wow, this guy really is a great person. &They actually have him pick a girl! I gotta say, I was surprised.

Lastly, I appreciated the touches they gave the show that added production value and detail. For example, in between scenes on happy and fun episodes, there was an adorable little cat that shot a beam out of his hands, while on more dramatic episodes they had an ecchi/drama type scene divider. The music in this anime also stood out to me. It wasn't anything crazy, but the opening song and filler songs were all really nice. One of the elevator music type songs I even downloaded. It also goes without saying that the artwork was really good. I enjoyed the art style a lot and it was consistently good excluding the last episode's animation which I will get to in the cons. 

CONS

First off for the cons, this show was a tad bit all over the place. I couldn't decide whether I watched something light-hearted, or impossibly deep. Whether I watched a happy and cute show, or a dark and depressing show. It skipped around between the two, and it confused me. Pretty much the whole first half of the show is very fluffy, ecchi, cute, nice harem, and then BAM deep dark storyline ensues; then, it does a little tango between light and dark the rest of the way. It even has some lulls of boring, which is never good for an entertainment medium.

Next, I have a small problem with our leading man Rin. He is a bit clueless. It's almost irritating at times. He doesn't seem to even notice the way girls around him feel, aside from the girl he ends up choosing, which comes to the bigger problem - I didn't really like her all that much. She wasn't my favorite, and probably because she gets the least development. After he picks her and says he loves her, then she gets some development, but not really romantically with Rin, more inwardly. I just don't see how he fell in love with her so fast, when he spent so much more time with the other girls. Which leads me in to my next con.. All of the girls decide to continue to pine after him, even though he already chose one. What is that?! They don't get to move on with their lives? Irritating.

Lastly, I was sooooooooooooooo disappointed with the animation of the last episode. It's like all of the animation staff got sick, so amateurs did the whole thing. People would be talking without their lips moving. The art style was slightly less detailed and kind of had a different feel to it. It was a major let down.

FINAL THOUGHTS

All and all, this was a surprisingly good harem anime, with a unique take. I enjoyed myself watching it and would recommend it. It can get a bit dark towards the end, and sad, but if you like major drama, this show delivers! All said, taking it's shortcomings into account, I give Shuffle! an 8.5 out of 10! I'd say try it out, disclaiming you should be at least older than 16 and be alright with ecchi/harem style anime. It definitely is unique, and I haven't seen anything else like it.