Anime Review: Shuffle!

Shuffle! is probably one of the most disturbing harem animes I've ever seen. For those who aren't anime-savvy, harem is a genre which there is one male character surrounded by a bunch of female characters. A popular example is Tenchi Muyo! However, the male lead never settles on which one he wants to date until near the end, and it's always the childhood friend. So, what we get in between is a series of unfortunate events and misunderstandings, the first of which was choosing the watch this anime. What makes Shuffle! so disturbing is that the first half of the series lead you to believe that you're in for a cliched ride. One that you've seen before over and over with slight variation. But be warned, this anime is nothing short of a rapid decent into madness.

Around episode 3, the anime introduces the King of Gods and the King of Demons and their respective daughters. Before this, we have our male lead, Tsuchimi Rin who has been living with his cliche childhood friend, Kaede, after their parents were taken in the same, unexplained-until-episode-18 accident, although Kaede's dad is still alive. Where he is in all this mess, I haven't a clue. And in true harem fashion, nether one of them has had the initiative to really taken their relationship beyond friends even though they practically are husband in wife. But why would they disturb the balance of their friendship when that gray area can be abused to insert more female characters, which, will no doubt, result in some wacky situations.

At this point, the series is rather mind numbing; you don't suspect a thing...

Skipping back to the Kings and their daughters, there exist 3 realms in this anime's universe: the demon's realm, the god's realm and the humans' realm. The Kings have brought their daughters to the human's realm so they can pursue their love for the main character whom of which they've only met once before. Back when each of them were small, they found themselves in a less than dire situation in the human realm (not sure why they were in the human realm to begin with), which Rin helped them out and thus, they've always remembered him and fell in love with him. Because apparently no one else has shown them that much kindness up until this point and all it takes for these girls to fall in love is one simple act of kindness. Their goal is to marry him, and whoever he marries, he becomes the king of that realm, even though I doubt he's qualified to rule over an entire realm. The demon daughter is Nerine and the god daughter is Sia, and both are pretty boring to begin with despite not really being human. They look like humans but come with elf-like ears and magic powers, which are only used for the occasional property damage and overreaction scenes. Sia happens to have the adorable quirk of bashing people with randomly generated chairs. How cute.

Ranting zone warning: what is up with characters causing untold amount of property damage and personal injury to the other people in these animes? Shouldn't this be a problem? How have these people not been arrested? Nerine manages to strip a concrete roof off the school and she isn't even punished for this! Why does every anime treat this like it's no big deal? I understand that perhaps it doesn't strive to be realistic, but are people in this society really okay with magical girls running around and blowing half a city block up every time they overreact to something? Who pays to repair the houses and streets that are decimated? Shuffle! actually does explain why no one is making too big a deal out of it; her dad has a team of wizards to fix it. No, I didn't make that up. Her dad, the King of Demons, has a team of wizards to fix whatever damages Nerine inflicts on the town. Amazing. You never actually get to see the team of wizards so really they might as well not exist at all.

As far as characters go, they all have a personality close to that of a rock for most of the series. Not even an interesting rock. A normal rock you could find anywhere. Several of the girls fall victim to 'cliche anime girl' syndrome by being overly shy and succumbing to illness whenever the plot runs out of stuff for them to do. I really wish I would've kept track of how many times a girl randomly falls over and passes out due to an illness. And its never a slight fever, or an 'I need to lay down' illness. It's always one that makes them pass out cold only to wake up in their bed. If I passed out from a fever, someone better take me to a hospital! I want to know what magical healing powers these beds have that people just ignore common sense and think, 'oh, I better bring them home and put them to bed. That'll solve everything'. No, that doesn't solve everything. These people need to see a doctor! Speaking of healing powers, some of the girls have healing powers. Did they use this on anyone while they were sick? No.

Even the Kings are poor characters. All they do is fill in the background with something comical when the events in the foreground aren't interesting enough. Neither one of them really embodies what you'd think of when you hear the words 'god' or 'demon'. They're both rather silly for being kings of an entire realm, and it also seems they really don't have anything better to do than sit around while their daughters chase around our male lead. The anime even goes out of its way to show them doing mundane things that really have no relevance to anything. These scenes could've been of Aerosmith performing live on the moon to a crowd of cows and it would've had just as much impact on the plot.

One of the characters, Primula, was actually written to have the personality of a rock, or as I call it, Rei Ayanami syndrome. Just blatantly being indifferent to everything around her (except cats) and thus really could be replaced with some sort of furniture piece if you put a dress on it. Actually, the anime does its best to draw some questionable attention to her, which, in this country, would result in a felony charge. I'll leave it at that.

The only character I actually liked was Asa Shigure. Unlike the rest, she felt like a human being. She too likes our protagonist, but expresses it in subtle ways. Wait... subtly?... in and anime!? Yeah, it's there, but just barely. She teases the character in a reasonable manner, even though she has 3 other girls to compete against and she's isn't exactly winning the race (I'd actually place her in last). So she's never that over-the-top, but you can feel her inward struggle. Out of everyone, she's probably the most identifiable, even though she has neon green hair done-up in the Lain style.

I would also like to note that one of the minor characters has heterochromia, Mayumi. Not really significant, just random. She's also the target of the running 'flat-chested' jokes. Because there has to be one as deemed by the latest harem quota of stereotypes. The rest of the supporting cast really don't add anything to the anime, nor have any qualities that would make you remember them.

The main character himself isn't even that interesting. Why all these girls like him, sans the daughters (who's reasons are very questionable to begin with) and the one he's been living with, is really a mystery. In true harem fashion, he gets all this attention without really doing anything at all. In fact, he stands around the entire anime watching as these girls try to prove themselves worthy of his love. What exactly has this idiot done that makes him so incredible? Why shouldn't he have to prove his love to them as well? Idiots. It's interesting to note that his voice actor is the same as Kyon's from Haruhi, and they look similar. They also sit in the exact same seat in class. I've seen way too many animes when I'm making connections like that.

One other thing I have to address is the obsession random groups of guys have on some of these girls. Every now and then, Rin will be ambushed by a club of guys that are devoted to idolizing one of the girls who want to marry him. Anytime he seems to get close to one of the girls, these guys show up and beat the living daylights out of him. This really has no point being in the anime and was probably added for some more comic relief. Also, one of the clubs has the initial of KKK. They even go out of their way to call themselves that. Someone in japan should've fact-checked that before finalizing it...

Episode 9 is the obligatory 'go to the beach' episode which only serves the purpose of having more fan service in a concentrated area. Throughout the episode you'll get to experience the entire girl cast in their bathing suits as well as everyone doing mundane, beach things. Of course, what is a beach episode without some hijinx. The cliche scenario of one girl losing her top and dragging the lead male into the situation happens about halfway through and is met with misunderstanding and embarrassing moments as predicted. The episode isn't without it tense moments though. Our main character and Sia-chan manage to accidentally cast adrift while sleeping on beach mats deep into the ocean, barely within eye-shot of the island they were on. How this exactly happened with the weight of them on the beach mats, the reach of the tide of the ocean and the attention of their entire group is beyond me. If someone I was with was sleeping on a beach mat and the tide was close enough to actually carry them away, I'd think that would be one thing I'd take notice of pretty quickly, or at least think about while I was busy doing whatever it was the rest of the entire cast was doing.

Something in this anime seems quite off at this point.. but you don't know what...

There is one episode that gets a little serious when one of the girls is mistakingly thought to be engaged to Rin due to everyone's stupidity. This makes all the eligible female cast examine their feelings and the feelings of their rivals in a sobering look at how competition for someone's love means someone's heart has to be broken (a fact that should've dawned on them all at the beginning, but these characters are slow). Of course, this one serious episode comes and goes, seemingly forgetting all about the drama that could've ensued.

Or does it?...

If this were a silent hill game, you'd be hearing war sirens as your surroundings slowly degraded to rust and decay at this point; deformed figures crawling their way out of the darkness. Your flashlight is your only friend.

Halfway through the series, episode 12 exactly, the story decides that it's done being a typical harem anime and starts focusing in on the secrets behind certain girls. The secrets slowly reveal a troubling past that each of the girls has had to live with, but has never really surfaced until this point in the story. The transition is so abrupt that it doesn't feel natural. It's like someone just flipped a rail switch and decided that this train was going to a new destination. One of the goals of the new story arch is to get you to be more emotionally attached to Primula as a character, but since she has zero emotion or personality, it's like trying to be emotionally attached to a stapler. All the while, the rest of the cast does their best to stand around and look depressed while, ultimately, none of the obvious plot holes in this story are addressed (internal rhyme scheme ftw). This is also the only point in the story you actually see any of the other realms. Very disappointing.

One by one the dominoes fall...

Soon a few of the other girls gradually reveal something they've been hiding the entire time, but the treatment is just poorly handled. Key Animations, they didn't do this anime, is a famous for harem animes that have girls with secrets, and the story gradually moves from one to the next, fleshing out their respective stories in a natural manner; it's this pattern that Shuffle! tries to replicate, but does a terrible job.

Primula's story arch takes about 3 episodes to start, develop, climax and disappear without a trace. The conclusion isn't satisfying nor does it really make sense, all it did was add in some more padding to the series before going back into a seemingly facade of harem nonsense. Primula really doesn't have much of a role in the anime after this. Considering the anime worked hard to give her some extra attention, she gets thrown aside by the plot really quickly, which makes her arch seem very cheap.

Nerine's past was covered during Primula's, so she too felt like she was short-changed by the plot. The less I explain what happens with her the better. I'm not sure I can make sense of it enough to write about it.

Moving on to Sia.

Nerine, in a fourth wall breaking moment, tells Sia that its her turn next. Ominous. Her turn to do what? Reveal her past? Is Nerine really calling attention to the fact that the plot is systematically going through each girl's personal story with all the subtly of a elephant flying a jet into a nuclear power plant!?

Further into the darkness, this anime goes.

Sia's story gets my personal attention for ripping off Evangelion, right down to the camera angles and sound track. Not only that, but it has the most bat-crap-dumb reasoning I've ever heard in an anime. From what I gathered, her back story is supposed to make you more endearing towards her cause of wanting to be loved by Rin, but it comes off as really really really really REALLY insane. This girl isn't charming or cute, she's psychotic in a very alarming way. She no longer lives on planet normal, she's across the galaxy in another region of crazy. The fact that Rin doesn't turn around and run screaming from this girl is a testament to his own stupidity.

The very last thread of sanity has just snapped...

Finally, we get to the childhood friend, Kaede's turn. All signs point to this character being the one who Rin will finally choose, so I guess this is who we root for now. But what really startled me about her back-story is: she's probably the most psychotic one of them all. After her mom's accident, she lost the will to live and thus had to be admitted to a hospital to be looked after. In an attempt to snap her back into reality, Rin confesses that he was the reason his parents and Kaede's mom died. His reasoning is because, if he hadn't asked them to come home, they wouldn't have gotten into the collision which killed them. This isn't the truth, it was actually Kaede's request that sent them on the trip that got them killed, hence why she probably went into shock. Rin was just taking the burden so she could live with herself. I guess she completely forgot about how it was her and not him because, upon hearing this, she returns to the world and greets Rin's confession with a firm choke-hold. She literally tries to strangle the life out of him. What the heck... And it doesn't stop there. Remember, they now have to live together with her father. So during all this, she's coming up with ways to ignore or inflict pain upon Rin out of sight of her father. And Rin, being the idiot he is, takes it all without saying a word to anyone. She even goes as far as to injure him with an exacto-knife. What is wrong with this girl?! What kind of child plots out one's misery like this? Are we supposed to be feeling sorry for her? Because I don't.

What's really weird is that her actions don't reflect any of this until it's time for the plot to focus on her. It's like this series had no foresight. So why Rin is actually living with this person for so many years is beyond me. The writers don't clearly address a resolution to make these two the friends they are. Kaede's psycho-lever is thrown into hyper-drive when she starts getting jealous because Rin is hanging out with Asa more for some reason in the later episodes. Kaede goes from a character that would make you say, "I wish she would do something" to "oh my god, what is she going to do!?". I could almost hear the last sane thread in her head snap in one scene as she was stirring a pot full of...nothing. Kaede then becomes an intense character to watch as everyone one of Rin's action pushes her a little further into her own madness. Why the hell wasn't this anime focusing on this the entire time? It literally could've been made as a horror anime instead of a harem and been one-hundred times more engaging to watch. And even after Kaede flips her psycho-switch, the characters still hang around her like she's normal. Either they're incredibly stupid, or they're just as crazy as she it. Oh wait, some of them are! Rin even has the audacity to tell her "she hasn't been acting normal recently." Wow, way to take notice of your surroundings there Rin. Have fun being murdered in your sleep by the mayor of crazy town.

There is no escape...

What's probably the most disturbing of all is how the anime handles these mentally unstable characters. There's really no resolution for any of them to get better. The anime ends with Rin finally choosing of them but they all still love him and actively pursue him. This isn't a healthy mentality, these people need help. This anime lures you in with a false sense of security; spoon-feeding you cliche after cliche. This is probably one of the most horrifying animes I've ever seen, and I'm honestly disappointed. I kinda wish the plot did a better job of fostering the themes and settings because, despite being so disturbing, it was really engaging. The first half really sets the contrast meter high when all hell breaks lose. But the execution was way off. There were unneeded story elements and characters. It seemed like it had the hardest time focusing on what it wanted to do that it just threw everything in without any real structure. The realms and the Kings are never really fleshed out or taken advantage of; and ultimately weren't needed. The last 3 episodes could've been cut out as they did nothing but tie up some pointless loose ends.

What this anime succeeded in doing was creating a scenario where the affection of almost all the girls in the anime drove them all to their own madness. I've never seen an anime do that before, and that's what I was most impressed with. I wish they had focused more on that, because that's where all the best dialog came from, that's where all the best scenes were. It's a shame it took so long for this anime to get to this point (around episode 17). If it cut the cliche in half, removed the plot involving anything to do with gods or demons and slowly reveal each character's insanity a little more slowly, this anime would've been amazing. But it just fails at so many critical points.

The animation is nothing special, nor are there any particularly impressive moments. At least it has some hand-drawn feel to it. I've always appreciated the charm that comes with that. There were some profile and three-quarter turn shots that could've been handled better, but overall, it's average. The soundtrack didn't do much to accent the situations the anime threw at you. This was a big element lacking in the second half; the score failed to capture the sinister nature of some of the dialog between characters. These scenes could've been made much more intense with the proper atmosphere.

I could only timidly recommend this anime. There's so much wrong with it, but some of that wrong is what makes it so right.