Shuffle, Vol. 1
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Movie Reviews of Shuffle, Vol. 1
Movie Review: This Year's Harem Series
Summary: 4 Stars
Despite two very weak lead characters, a supporting cast filled with charming characters keeps this series interesting. While harem series are generally predictable in nature, this series has inserted enough humor and twists into the first four episodes to keep me very interested in seeing more. Very recommended. Movie Review: Worthy of Any Fan Shelf
Summary: 4 Stars
If you are relatively new to anime and appreciate what are termed school harem shows, you will enjoy Shuffle!, as it is one of the best of this genre to come along in years. On the other hand, if you are an anime veteran (years of avid fandom), you might see this story as cliche and formulaic, since many of the individual setups and gags have been done before. However, I would suggest Shuffle! to any fan of harem or school drama for the aspects that are unique as well as it being a well-told story.
Seasoned harem fans will compare it to Love Hina and Girls Bravo, and a long list of Urusei Yatsura and Tenchi imitators, but Shuffle!'s early comedic focus serves primarily to endear you to the characters and provide lighthearted, if stock, entertainment. This mood won't last, however, as it begins to resemble more straight school dramas like Da Capo, To Heart, Canvas and more recently Clannad. In fact, Shuffle! veers further toward melodrama than would seem appropriate given its initial chapters, but along with its fantasy/sci-fi elements, thus provides a deeper experience.
Shuffle!, along with most modern harem anime series, is an adaptation of text-based games called visual novels in Japan, the most popular type being dating simulation games (Shuffle! was the second highest-selling computer game for the second half of January 2004 in Japan). The player is more or less surrounded by beautiful girls matching various standard character types and works toward developing a romantic relationship with each one of the characters in turn. These game adaptations are definitely hit-and-miss, since most of the self-paced games provide little to the animation producer beyond characters and story concepts. Note that the lead character, the male protagonist, must always be an original creation since in the game this is the player, who obviously is not one of the characters. Fortunately, Shuffle! was directed by Naoto Hosoda, a veteran of Boogiepop Phantom, R.O.D. the TV, Utawarerumono, DearS and several other highly successful anime series.
But Shuffle exceeds those low expectations and becomes a worthy series that stands on its own. The creators rapidly set the stage, drawing the viewer into its somewhat zany universe of humans, demons and gods without wasting time. The pacing and editing are excellent, the music and sound are superior to most such series, and the animation is on par with all but the highest quality anime. While hardcore anime fans will recognize similarities to well-worn character archetypes amongst the girls, each is written with sufficient depth to make them unique, interesting and attractive to all but the most jaded viewer. The plot is continually engaging, and the characters all change and grow in often dramatic and unpredicted ways.
Maybe most significantly for genre fans, Rin Tsuchimi, the male protagonist is a well-written, complex character deserving of the attention garnered from the girls; far different from the wimpy, irritatingly clueless and introverted male leads typical of standard harem shows (think the absolute opposite of Yukinari in Girls Bravo).
If you like harem series, Shuffle! is one of those worth buying, because you will watch it more than once in the coming years. Out of the 100 or so new animated TV series produced every year in Japan, generally only 5 or 6 merit the cost of purchase on DVD in the U.S. by non-collectors, though many more are licensed and released here. For the hardcore harem fan, Shuffle! is a required purchase. For the casual anime fan, especially new fans looking to expand their library with quality titles that represent good animated story-telling in the context of modern Japanese culture, Shuffle! is certainly worth the investment.
Movie Review: Shuffle! is best :eng101:
Summary: 5 Stars
To be honest, I was quite worried about watching Shuffle! again for the first time in almost three years. If you're not already aware, I have something of an adamant fanaticism towards the franchise, but since the show's conclusion back in early 2006, my passion for it has been kept alive through buying merch of questionable taste, playing the games with little knowledge of Japanese, and generally fanboying over it. Shuffle! Memories, a short recap of the show which aired in 2007 brought it all back to me in digest form, but I actually stopped watching that because I wasn't a fan of how it was cut together. That, and I also called into question whether or not I still liked the series. Thankfully, upon completing this first disc, I can gladly say this show is just as wonderful as a I remember it being.
Story is, Rin Tsuchimi is the object of many a girl's affection. His adoring childhood friend Kaede pampers him daily; his senior Asa teases him lovingly at every turn; the princesses of the World of Gods and World of Demons, Sia and Nerine, want to be his bride and a certain deadpan loli called Primula is inexplicably attached to him. In other words, he has quite the harem on his hands. These early episodes focus on introducing the cast, the world in which they inhabit and then they get started on fleshing out each girl one-by-one come episode three. It's pretty standard harem/bishoujo game adaptation fare, but its beauty lies in the execution.
I have nothing against the harem formula, but at the same time I don't really seek it out as a means of entertainment. In fact, what grabbed me about Shuffle! initially was the character designs. Luckily there was far more to it than that. The show simply hits me in all the right places. I like it when things are over-the-top and celebrate what they are almost shamelessly. In the same way that Giant Robo loves being a crazy, overdone, epic adventure story, Shuffle! loves being a moe moe harem show. All the girls are adorable and well dressed, they all have cute voices, and they are ALL deredere to some extent. But beyond that, the show delivers entertainment in the form of decently done character interaction and heaping helpings of quirky humour. What will really help you get into this show is if you find a character to latch onto, since in these early episodes, each of the girls gets roughly equal amounts of screentime. Kaede's my personal preference.
The animation for Shuffle! is handled by newcomer studio asread, who had only previously done various inbetweening jobs for a number of a studios. Their work here is extremely well done, but in a few cuts you can see that they're green behind the ears. There's also something of a consistency issue between episodes, but for the most part the show looks good. All the girls' designs are converted from the game's two art styles to anime's singular style very well and they all look extremely beautiful. The soundtrack is typical eroge-sounding stuff which does the job, and the opening and ending songs along with their respective animations are some of my favourites. The voice cast is brilliant, with some notables being Yuuko Gotou as Kaede, Sayaka Aoki as Sia and hitomi as Primula. Gotou especially just does a wonderful job at sounding like a loving and caring young girl that I simply melt into goo. GOO! Didn't watch the dub.
FUNimation's DVD release is mostly competent, with some minor issues here and there. The biggest mistake in this release was having KyoAni's name show up in the opening logos for the DVD, since they did nothing at all. The sequence of logos seemed similar to that of the Haruhi DVDs, so I suspect Kadokawa sent them that and neglected to remove the KyoAni logo. That little snafu aside, the subs on this DVD seem mostly okay, but there was a noticeable number of instances where phrases like "it is" and "they are" could have been contracted for the sake of flow, but besides that I found nothing wrong. The video quality seems good enough, though it sadly only feels like a slight step up from the TV raws I watched, but I suppose that's more an issue with the animation than anything else. The menus are well designed and easy to navigate, and the extras are pretty sparse- textless opening and ending plus a small fold-out poster.
Shuffle! is not for everyone. It's a harem show, pure and simple, but one that's extremely well done and caters more towards guys with a deredere leaning. To me it's actually something of a healing show, at least in these opening episodes- watching it just feels so calming and relaxing. So basically it's like Aria for men even lonelier than the men watching Aria! At least at the moment, things'll heat up come DVD number 4!
review shamelessly stolen from my blog: http://blog.mistakesofyouth.com/2008/03/09/shuffle-dvd-1-review/
Movie Review: Amazing
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the most amazing Anime i have ever watched. The emotion and plot and how easy it was to actually relate to real life just brought me into the movie made me feel like i was right there in it Movie Review: Disappointing.
Summary: 2 Stars
I just finished this disc and in retrospect the whole thing was... lame. All very cliche, boring stuff. I was pretty much drawn to it based on the cover (someone did their job well -_-) because of the cute girl with funny ears and sunflowers. That's basically all the show has going for it. The characters really aren't especially cute and they're all very plastic. I can accept an anime with sub par animation and a great story. I can accept an anime with stunning animation and a less than stellar story. But I can't accept Shuffle!'s mediocrity. I personally don't mind "harem" anime shows in general if done well (and I consider myself quite a feminist), but I can't stand when they make girls seem like utterly mindless robots without any emotion besides their unexplicable undying love for the protagonist (except for maybe a little sadness when they can't do something right for him. but not even jealousy/competitiveness towards each other!). Many of these types of shows are charming and show much more depth. This one has the charm and depth of a kiddie pool. It doesn't have any qualities that make it worth watching compared to similar series.
I'm giving it 2 stars because the reviews thus far are too positive (though 2 1/2 would suffice..). But really, I just want to reach anyone who is considering buying this. I was expecting better; I should have done my research. If you're looking for a real quality anime (or even for just a few laughs), don't bother with it unless you absolutely thrive on this type of anime despite how good or bad it is.
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