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silverthunder) wrote2008-04-08 07:52 pm
silverthunder) wrote2008-04-08 07:52 pm
Shuffle Review
I have been re-watching Shuffle recently, and realized that I've never actually talked about Shuffle in this journal. Which is odd, because when Cody showed it to me, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's probably my favorite harem anime - and while I realize this isn't saying much considering how little I like harem anime, I honestly did love watching the series. It's one of the ones I want to buy on DVD.
The first thing I want to note about Shuffle is what's obvious about it. Like most harem anime, it was made from a hentai game, which means it's packed full of fanservice and perverted humor. There is one main male character and five main female characters, and each of the five female characters is in love with the main male character. This is a standard formula for harem anime, because they're designed first and foremost to fit male fantasy. The females always outnumber the males, and they like to emphasis that this one ordinary guy is able to attract all of these beautiful and extraordinary girls.
I usually end up disliking harem anime for a few reasons. First of all, I usually can't stand the main male character which makes me irritated with the anime because I don't see what all the fuss is about. I can see one fabulous girl going for him, maybe, but 3 or 4 or even 5? I don't get it. Second, it's not made to fit MY fantasy. If I'm going to imagine myself in anyone's place it's going to end up being one of the girls, and I don't care much for the idea of competing for the affections of the love of my life with four others. Third, the romance is generally divided up and it doesn't seem as special or wonderful if the guy is in love with a bunch of girls. It takes all the fun out of one-on-one passion. Four, having a bunch of girls beating on a guy for random reasons (he's a pervert, he saw them naked by accident, he was breathing - whatever) gets REALLY old REALLY fast, and this happens waaaaaaaay too much in harem anime. Way too much.
Okay. So now that I've outlined what I don't like, I'm going to go through Shuffle and explain why those things don't really have the opportunity to bother me in this series.
Before I get into each of those points, I want to explain a little background on the series itself. The setting has a heavy sci-fic/fantasy aspect to it (that could explain part of what I like about it right there). Basically, there are three realms: the realm of the gods, the realm of demons, and the human realm, which is somewhere in the middle. The three races have decided to peacefully intermingle, and so there are demons and gods attending school with humans just like normal kids. The school that all of the main characters go to is well known to have a mixed student body. The gods and demons are for the most part very much like humans, except that their ears are pointed oddly (very long and thin for demons and short and pointy for gods) and some of them have varying degrees of ability to use magic.
I think that more or less explains everything, without delving into major plot points. So, on to the discussion.
First, the main male character. In this case, Rin. I actually really like Rin, and it's not difficult to see what all the fuss is about. Each girl has a different reason for being in love with him, and the reasons are completely understandable based on his personality and the situation. Rin is one of the nicest guys you'll see in anime. And I don't mean nice as in 'pushover'. I mean nice as in, if you are his friend and you are in any kind of trouble, he will knock himself out trying to help you. He'll help strangers too, and will go out of his way to do so. He has no problems standing up for himself, but he can't stand sitting back and doing nothing when someone is in trouble. He's attractive and fairly smart (a little dense at times, though, and not that observant), and seems like a strong person with a fair amount of confidence. This is not the sort of person who will just meekly put up with being beat on by psycho girls with obvious anger issues (I'm looking at you, Love Hina). This is the sort of person who will go out on a limb and risk his own well-being to help someone else.
Second, the fantasy thing. I honestly don't see this series as something that I'd fantasize about. It's not just about the fanservice and the perverted humor, although the first half of the show focusses on that a great deal before you get to the real meat of the story. This is really a romantic drama with several interwoven stories that are well developed and presented. The "male fantasy" aspect is a bonus, so if you don't buy into it, it doesn't really take away from the series much.
Third, the divided affections thing. Rin does fall in love with one girl and focusses his romantic attention on her by the end of the series. He does not attempt to date all five girls, nor does he agonize over which one to pick. His feelings seem to be very clear to him. At the start of the series, he cares for all of them but does not form a romance with any of them and obviously never developed feelings of that sort. By the end, he still cares for all of them - they're close friends, after all - but he dates only one, and clearly has no intention of leading the rest of them on or changing his mind (although they all continue to nurse feelings for him).
Four, thevictim guy being beaten on by the girls. Doesn't happen in this series. I think the only tribute to this sort of humor is the way Sia beats on her dad when he embarrasses her (which he seems to do on a regular basis). Rin does not get beaten up or bullied by the girls (except being slapped on the back by Asa, but she's just being boisterous and not abusive or angry). He interacts with them like a normal human being, not a whipped dog.
One thing I've noticed about a lot of harem anime (not all, but most of those that I have seen) is that the girls all seem to get along. They get jealous in a way that doesn't involve them hating each other. In other words, they are all friends and don't hold grudges or try to push each other down. I like this idea, because I'm a big fan of friendships as well as romances. And it's there in Shuffle. However, it doesn't end up being universal.
That's the other thing I have to mention. Shuffle is an angsty series. It doesn't seem so immediately, because the first half of the series is very light and fluffy and funny, but really, that only makes the angst that much better when it does come up. A series that's just angst from beginning to end has a hard time catching hold of my emotions. When it's happy with an angsty edge, it's just perfect. In Shuffle, each of the main characters has a dark secret of some sort, including Rin (although his ties in with Kaede's). The way these are unfolded and explored is well done.
WARNING: Spoilers ahead. I'm going to talk about the angsty secrets in Shuffle, one character at a time. I'll try not to go into too much detail or give too much away, but it's going to explain a little about what I like about each character and what their individual stories add to the series as a whole.
Asa
I started with Asa for a couple of reasons. She's my favorite of the girls, and her back story is one of the least angsty ones. This girl mostly has her head on straight; she is a person who is strong and wise and true to her feelings. She is the girl Rin goes to for advice; unlike the others, she does not present her feelings to him clearly (although she hints at it) but chooses instead to remain in the background as his support. Asa was a physically weak child because of her mother's background, and she resented her mother for it. She ended up hurting her very deeply because of that resentment, and regrets it afterwards. Asa is a strong girl who doesn't display her weak side easily, although she has her moments of stubborn ignorance in the midst of her practical wisdom. She's optimistic in the face of her own adversity, which is pretty formidable. I admire her for a number of reasons - most of the time, anyway.
Lisianthus (Sia)
Sia's secret shows itself late in the series and is perhaps the least explored. The majority of Sia's angst doesn't come from her secret but rather from her desperate fear of rejection and thus her refusal to confront Rin with her feelings - although the former forces her to accept the latter. She builds up their relationship in her mind, often selfishly demanding his undivided attention when she feels he's not focussing on her enough. Sia is a girl full of insecurity and uncertain self-worth which she hides behind a fun-loving exuberance. She has assumed a second personality that is full of the confidence that Sia lacks - the origin is something I won't get into (watch the series or look up the spoilers yourself - they're not hard to find). This doesn't show itself until late in the series, when Sia feels her situation is desperate. I actually think Sia is the girl who reminds me the most of myself - personality-wise, anyway. She's a little vain and spoiled, but essentially just self-conscious.
Nerine
Nerine's secret is hard to explain without giving too much away. The difference between Nerine and the others is that her feelings are often not her own, but are assumed because of events in her past. She is not really concentrating on being her own person, but rather is doing her best to live a life she felt was owed to someone else. This has to do with an illness in her past and ties into Primula's secret very closely. After Primula's story comes to a close, Nerine realizes that a lot of what she felt she had to do and had to feel were things she had deceived herself with. She admits to Rin that while her love for him had not been her own at first, she felt she had fallen for him as herself and wanted to nurture the feeling while she continued to grow and be her own person. I felt a lot of respect for her after she admitted that. Nerine also seems quite perceptive; she realizes Rin's feelings before he has properly expressed them or even admitted them to himself. Next to Asa, I'd say that Nerine is my favorite.
Primula
Primula is significantly younger than the others. As such, she's not really an eligible candidate for Rin's affections in the anime, although presumably she's there in the game for guys who like lolita characters. She takes the position of a younger sister, despite the fact that she clearly has stronger feelings for him. Primula is an enigmatic character who doesn't talk much. Through the first half of the series, you don't really understand where she came from or why she is there. Additionally, there are not many hints to what kind of personality she might have - for good reason as it turns out. This comes through a lot more in the second half of the series, after her background is revealed and she has begun to stabilize the power inside her - making her free to show more emotion. Both before and after this, however, Primula seems to be a keen observer. She is the first to see what is happening to Kaede, although she struggles with how to warn Rin and ends up ultimately failing because of her own uncertainty.
Kaede (and Rin)
I thought a bit about how to talk about Kaede without revealing too much, and realized that I couldn't say what I wanted to without at least giving one thing away: the fact that Kaede is not the girl Rin ultimately falls in love with. She is the first girl introduced in the series - a girl who Rin has known for years and who he lives in the same house with. Due to a misunderstanding in their past, she treated him horribly when he first moved into the house and after realizing her mistake, she sunk into a sort of self-loathing and regret. She does everything for him - his laundry, his meals, waking him in the morning, etc. Rin accepts this in understanding that this is her apology for how she treated him (which was really awful), but what he misses is that Kaede's devotion to him has developed in an extremely unhealthy way. She falls in love with him and translates it to an obsessive need to care for him, to the point where she becomes depressed if she is not allowed to do this. Kaede doesn't believe herself worthy of a reciprocated love, but she becomes unbalanced and even violent when Rin chooses another girl and begins to leave the house (and her) for long periods of time. Primula becomes aware of the signs of Kaede's deteriorating psyche but is unable to communicate them until it is too late. I found Kaede's story to be the most angsty, and the most poignant. You can almost see her stress boiling up to the surface right up to the point where it explodes and she lashes out. Watching her on screen in those last few episodes nearly had me in tears. You can just feel how furious Rin is with himself when he realizes what's been going on, too. All this time he thought he was protecting Kaede, and in reality he was just feeding her obsession and making things worse.
I found a really well done AMV portraying some of Kaede's story with the theme from Elfen Lied. Very angsty. Totally spoilerific. I'll link to it anyway.
/SPOILERS
The angst in this series is deliciously thick. It's got just the right touches in the right places. I honestly think this kind of drama is addicting, and that's what got me hooked on the series. I can't resist well-done angst.
(Note: the opening video for Shuffle can be found here, for those who are interested. I like the song very much)
With that whole review out of the way, I now feel ready to admit that my plan for Anime Evolution is now to cosplay as Nerine.
The first thing I want to note about Shuffle is what's obvious about it. Like most harem anime, it was made from a hentai game, which means it's packed full of fanservice and perverted humor. There is one main male character and five main female characters, and each of the five female characters is in love with the main male character. This is a standard formula for harem anime, because they're designed first and foremost to fit male fantasy. The females always outnumber the males, and they like to emphasis that this one ordinary guy is able to attract all of these beautiful and extraordinary girls.
I usually end up disliking harem anime for a few reasons. First of all, I usually can't stand the main male character which makes me irritated with the anime because I don't see what all the fuss is about. I can see one fabulous girl going for him, maybe, but 3 or 4 or even 5? I don't get it. Second, it's not made to fit MY fantasy. If I'm going to imagine myself in anyone's place it's going to end up being one of the girls, and I don't care much for the idea of competing for the affections of the love of my life with four others. Third, the romance is generally divided up and it doesn't seem as special or wonderful if the guy is in love with a bunch of girls. It takes all the fun out of one-on-one passion. Four, having a bunch of girls beating on a guy for random reasons (he's a pervert, he saw them naked by accident, he was breathing - whatever) gets REALLY old REALLY fast, and this happens waaaaaaaay too much in harem anime. Way too much.
Okay. So now that I've outlined what I don't like, I'm going to go through Shuffle and explain why those things don't really have the opportunity to bother me in this series.
Before I get into each of those points, I want to explain a little background on the series itself. The setting has a heavy sci-fic/fantasy aspect to it (that could explain part of what I like about it right there). Basically, there are three realms: the realm of the gods, the realm of demons, and the human realm, which is somewhere in the middle. The three races have decided to peacefully intermingle, and so there are demons and gods attending school with humans just like normal kids. The school that all of the main characters go to is well known to have a mixed student body. The gods and demons are for the most part very much like humans, except that their ears are pointed oddly (very long and thin for demons and short and pointy for gods) and some of them have varying degrees of ability to use magic.
I think that more or less explains everything, without delving into major plot points. So, on to the discussion.
First, the main male character. In this case, Rin. I actually really like Rin, and it's not difficult to see what all the fuss is about. Each girl has a different reason for being in love with him, and the reasons are completely understandable based on his personality and the situation. Rin is one of the nicest guys you'll see in anime. And I don't mean nice as in 'pushover'. I mean nice as in, if you are his friend and you are in any kind of trouble, he will knock himself out trying to help you. He'll help strangers too, and will go out of his way to do so. He has no problems standing up for himself, but he can't stand sitting back and doing nothing when someone is in trouble. He's attractive and fairly smart (a little dense at times, though, and not that observant), and seems like a strong person with a fair amount of confidence. This is not the sort of person who will just meekly put up with being beat on by psycho girls with obvious anger issues (I'm looking at you, Love Hina). This is the sort of person who will go out on a limb and risk his own well-being to help someone else.
Second, the fantasy thing. I honestly don't see this series as something that I'd fantasize about. It's not just about the fanservice and the perverted humor, although the first half of the show focusses on that a great deal before you get to the real meat of the story. This is really a romantic drama with several interwoven stories that are well developed and presented. The "male fantasy" aspect is a bonus, so if you don't buy into it, it doesn't really take away from the series much.
Third, the divided affections thing. Rin does fall in love with one girl and focusses his romantic attention on her by the end of the series. He does not attempt to date all five girls, nor does he agonize over which one to pick. His feelings seem to be very clear to him. At the start of the series, he cares for all of them but does not form a romance with any of them and obviously never developed feelings of that sort. By the end, he still cares for all of them - they're close friends, after all - but he dates only one, and clearly has no intention of leading the rest of them on or changing his mind (although they all continue to nurse feelings for him).
Four, the
One thing I've noticed about a lot of harem anime (not all, but most of those that I have seen) is that the girls all seem to get along. They get jealous in a way that doesn't involve them hating each other. In other words, they are all friends and don't hold grudges or try to push each other down. I like this idea, because I'm a big fan of friendships as well as romances. And it's there in Shuffle. However, it doesn't end up being universal.
That's the other thing I have to mention. Shuffle is an angsty series. It doesn't seem so immediately, because the first half of the series is very light and fluffy and funny, but really, that only makes the angst that much better when it does come up. A series that's just angst from beginning to end has a hard time catching hold of my emotions. When it's happy with an angsty edge, it's just perfect. In Shuffle, each of the main characters has a dark secret of some sort, including Rin (although his ties in with Kaede's). The way these are unfolded and explored is well done.
WARNING: Spoilers ahead. I'm going to talk about the angsty secrets in Shuffle, one character at a time. I'll try not to go into too much detail or give too much away, but it's going to explain a little about what I like about each character and what their individual stories add to the series as a whole.
Asa
I started with Asa for a couple of reasons. She's my favorite of the girls, and her back story is one of the least angsty ones. This girl mostly has her head on straight; she is a person who is strong and wise and true to her feelings. She is the girl Rin goes to for advice; unlike the others, she does not present her feelings to him clearly (although she hints at it) but chooses instead to remain in the background as his support. Asa was a physically weak child because of her mother's background, and she resented her mother for it. She ended up hurting her very deeply because of that resentment, and regrets it afterwards. Asa is a strong girl who doesn't display her weak side easily, although she has her moments of stubborn ignorance in the midst of her practical wisdom. She's optimistic in the face of her own adversity, which is pretty formidable. I admire her for a number of reasons - most of the time, anyway.
Lisianthus (Sia)
Sia's secret shows itself late in the series and is perhaps the least explored. The majority of Sia's angst doesn't come from her secret but rather from her desperate fear of rejection and thus her refusal to confront Rin with her feelings - although the former forces her to accept the latter. She builds up their relationship in her mind, often selfishly demanding his undivided attention when she feels he's not focussing on her enough. Sia is a girl full of insecurity and uncertain self-worth which she hides behind a fun-loving exuberance. She has assumed a second personality that is full of the confidence that Sia lacks - the origin is something I won't get into (watch the series or look up the spoilers yourself - they're not hard to find). This doesn't show itself until late in the series, when Sia feels her situation is desperate. I actually think Sia is the girl who reminds me the most of myself - personality-wise, anyway. She's a little vain and spoiled, but essentially just self-conscious.
Nerine
Nerine's secret is hard to explain without giving too much away. The difference between Nerine and the others is that her feelings are often not her own, but are assumed because of events in her past. She is not really concentrating on being her own person, but rather is doing her best to live a life she felt was owed to someone else. This has to do with an illness in her past and ties into Primula's secret very closely. After Primula's story comes to a close, Nerine realizes that a lot of what she felt she had to do and had to feel were things she had deceived herself with. She admits to Rin that while her love for him had not been her own at first, she felt she had fallen for him as herself and wanted to nurture the feeling while she continued to grow and be her own person. I felt a lot of respect for her after she admitted that. Nerine also seems quite perceptive; she realizes Rin's feelings before he has properly expressed them or even admitted them to himself. Next to Asa, I'd say that Nerine is my favorite.
Primula
Primula is significantly younger than the others. As such, she's not really an eligible candidate for Rin's affections in the anime, although presumably she's there in the game for guys who like lolita characters. She takes the position of a younger sister, despite the fact that she clearly has stronger feelings for him. Primula is an enigmatic character who doesn't talk much. Through the first half of the series, you don't really understand where she came from or why she is there. Additionally, there are not many hints to what kind of personality she might have - for good reason as it turns out. This comes through a lot more in the second half of the series, after her background is revealed and she has begun to stabilize the power inside her - making her free to show more emotion. Both before and after this, however, Primula seems to be a keen observer. She is the first to see what is happening to Kaede, although she struggles with how to warn Rin and ends up ultimately failing because of her own uncertainty.
Kaede (and Rin)
I thought a bit about how to talk about Kaede without revealing too much, and realized that I couldn't say what I wanted to without at least giving one thing away: the fact that Kaede is not the girl Rin ultimately falls in love with. She is the first girl introduced in the series - a girl who Rin has known for years and who he lives in the same house with. Due to a misunderstanding in their past, she treated him horribly when he first moved into the house and after realizing her mistake, she sunk into a sort of self-loathing and regret. She does everything for him - his laundry, his meals, waking him in the morning, etc. Rin accepts this in understanding that this is her apology for how she treated him (which was really awful), but what he misses is that Kaede's devotion to him has developed in an extremely unhealthy way. She falls in love with him and translates it to an obsessive need to care for him, to the point where she becomes depressed if she is not allowed to do this. Kaede doesn't believe herself worthy of a reciprocated love, but she becomes unbalanced and even violent when Rin chooses another girl and begins to leave the house (and her) for long periods of time. Primula becomes aware of the signs of Kaede's deteriorating psyche but is unable to communicate them until it is too late. I found Kaede's story to be the most angsty, and the most poignant. You can almost see her stress boiling up to the surface right up to the point where it explodes and she lashes out. Watching her on screen in those last few episodes nearly had me in tears. You can just feel how furious Rin is with himself when he realizes what's been going on, too. All this time he thought he was protecting Kaede, and in reality he was just feeding her obsession and making things worse.
I found a really well done AMV portraying some of Kaede's story with the theme from Elfen Lied. Very angsty. Totally spoilerific. I'll link to it anyway.
/SPOILERS
The angst in this series is deliciously thick. It's got just the right touches in the right places. I honestly think this kind of drama is addicting, and that's what got me hooked on the series. I can't resist well-done angst.
(Note: the opening video for Shuffle can be found here, for those who are interested. I like the song very much)
With that whole review out of the way, I now feel ready to admit that my plan for Anime Evolution is now to cosplay as Nerine.
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