Review: Shuffle

This is one anime that gives me a case of the ups and downs.

Shuffle is about a guy named Rin who has way too many girls who all have the hots for him!  He lives with a girl named Kaede who does everything for him as if she's his mother.  Then comes Asa, who slaps him in the back every chance she gets.  Then comes Sia and Nerine who both wants to marry him.  And finally there's Primula who says she just wanted to meet him.  There are also a few other girls like Kareha and Myumi, but you get the picture.  And while originally it does seem like it's just Kaede, Sia and Nerine who likes him, it eventually becomes clear that all the girls have crushes on him.  This naturally results in him getting mobbed by all the guys every chance they get, although the girls do tend to beat them up to save Rin.

One of the first things to mention that I really liked about this anime is the music.  The opening song really gets into my head and won't come out.  Now the closing song needed a bit of time to grow on me, but once it did I found it almost just as enjoyable as the opening song.  Both of which I will definitely be adding to my playlist of favorite anime songs.

I really liked the first season of this show.  It's fun and hilarious.  Even thought beating him up is their intention, the mobs of guys who jump on Rin are the most comical bullies I've ever seen.  "We are the KKK, the Knights of Kissy Kaede not the mean guys in the sheets.  Now pose one, men!"  And can someone tell me what is up with the tissue - biting crying dude around the corner?

Then here comes Asa beating the hell out of him.  "Hi Rin!" POW!  So naturally, the guys would all follow suit every time they get pissed at him for having all the girls.  "Hey there Rin."  POW!  "How's it hanging Rin."  POW!  "What's up Rin."  POW!  "Yo my man Rin."  POW!  "How's it going Rin?"  POW!  "Nice day Rin."  POW!  Guess that's one way of kicking someone's ass without actually kicking their ass, if you know what I mean.

Then there's Sia and Nerine's fathers who are the main comedians of the show despite being the king of the gods and king of the demons.  It's mainly the king of the gods who does all the crazy stuff and then here comes Sia busting him in the head with a chair.

And then there's Primula who has everyone thinking Rin's a cradle robber.  It's really interesting how the demons are more the way you'd expect the gods to be and vice versa.

However, the second season really sucked.  I think +Funimation would have done better to actually eliminate the whole second season and have the last episode of the first be where Rin decides on the girl he wants.  Shuffle actually starts off at it's peak and then stays there for a while before gradually going downhill.

It starts with Primula getting sick and Rin makes her go back to the demon world so she can get cured, only to end up having to go save her because they were going to make her never come back to the human world.  Apparently she was some kind of test subject for an experiment gone bad.

You then find out that the other girls are mental cases.  First Sia starts losing it and begins having arguments and fights with her own reflection in the mirror.  Then the reflection steals her body so she can kidnap Rin by flashing him?  Then Sia and her reflection get to fighting some more?  Like WTF?  She seriously needs some therapy.  If I saw somebody arguing and fighting with their reflection in a mirror, that'd be a one way trip to the nuthouse!

You then find out that Nerine has another person living inside her body, and I don't mean Rin got her pregnant so get your minds out of the gutter!  Apparently, they made a clone of her to use in those same experiments, but they then had to return the clone back to Nerine's body because she got badly sick and was going to die without her.

Then Kaede starts losing it and gets all paranoid that Rin belongs to her and she won't let the other girls steal him away.  And if it weren't that I knew I had nothing to worry about because she's an anime character on my TV, those crazy eyes of hers would've given me nightmares!  However this one was a bit more predictable as they did provide plenty of clues that Kaede was about to snap.  Although I did get a little worried that she was going to commit suicide after Rin announced that he's moving out, it didn't happen luckily.

About the only two girls that don't lose it are Primula and Asa, although Primula did snap and blow up the house after getting mad that she lost a game of cards.

At least Asa's only real problem was that she'd rather die than to use her magic to save herself because she doesn't want her mother to cry again.  Like dummy, haven't you ever heard of using your magic while your mother's not there to see you doing it, and what kind of mother would NOT cry if you did die?  I guess Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho had it dead right when he said that logic is panic's prey.  But she basically causes Rin to nearly kill himself to force her to use her magic to save both of their lives.

And the really crazy part was that after it was all done, the girls wanted to continue fighting over Rin because he only chose a girlfriend, but he still has to choose a wife.  Which was very interesting as I've always thought that your girlfriend was your future wife.  And that he can have multiple wives in the world of the gods.

One last thing to mention is that +Funimation could've done better with the extras.  The textless opening and closing songs and trailers are great and all, but where's the rest of the extras?  The reversible cover was a nice touch though.

Overall, I think this was a pretty good anime.  While the first season was great and lots of fun with plenty of humor, the second season is very sucky and hard to watch at times.  However, there are some good moments of the second season and it does keep some of the fun of the first season, plus you get to see all the girls completely naked in the intermissions if you're that kind of guy or you're a gay girl.

Street Savvy the Otaku Guy gives Shuffle a(n):

B

Which girl would you choose?