Shuffle!
When two doors are discovered in an ancient ruin, the gateways to shinkai, the realm of the shinzoku (Gods) and makai, the realm of the mazoku (Demons) are irreversably opened. The races of human, shinzoku, and mazoku come together in the mortal world and nothing will ever be the same. One day, two new families move next door to a boy who had previously been living a very peaceful life. In one house lived the family of the King of the Gods, and in the other lived the family of the King of the Demons. Both families had one daughter whose single wish to live next to the boy they had fallen in love with years ago has just been fulfilled. Also living with the boy is his childhood friend. With these three girls vying for his affections, the boy finds that his new life filled with despair, jealousy, and just a little hope is beginning.
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| comedy, romance, high-school, drama; 24 episodes | |
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It's been 10 years since the realms of the Gods and the Demons have merged with that of the Humans (via Chojin ex Machina, I guess), and now many from both realms (human-looking except for large/small elvish ears, and magical abilities) live on Earth. High school student Rin Tsuchimi is surprised one day when the lord of each realm (outwardly Soun and Genma types) appears at his school and tells him that he's been presented with the option of dating/marrying one of their daughters, who had both met him many years earlier on a visit to his city. He currently lives with his classmate Kaede Fuyou, who has been taking care of him for many years, and their household increases by one with the later arrival of the demon girl Primula (picture a less-talkative Ruri Hoshino), who also wanted to see Rin. Add to this mix an upperclassman he's known since Junior High school, the Brash Backslapper Asa Shigure, and we have the ingredients of Happy Harem World, right? Not quite. The first half of the series is predictable, with some episodes centered around each girl as they try (overtly or not) to gain points with Rin in your standard harem comedy settings, but the second half gets angsty as one girl goes Norman Osbourne and another goes Alex Forrest as they each realize that she's not the one that Rin likes, but he doesn't have the guts to come out and say it. We also learn about a grim and defining event in Rin and Kaede's past.
As tired as I am with the standard mix of harem girl archetypes put into this kind of anime, it was even more irritating to have 3 girls with the same archetype (timid and/or fawning) as main characters- and then another character who was actually different turned into a fawner eventually. Based on the ero game by Navel, and talk on other forums seems to indicate that for the most part it follows one particular girl's story arc, but then cheats her out of her ending. |
Shuffle! created by Navel. Anime rights belong to Shuffle Media Partners, Omegavision, and FUNimation. Eps 1-12 donated by Timji.
