Shuffle! (2005–2006) User Reviews

Fun show with surprising depth

[Pritcher · 7/10 · 14 December 2006]

Admittedly it has been nearly a year now since I watched, "Shuffle!", and I've seen many anime shows before and after this and some of them sort of run together in my mind. The plot is outlandish but that's pretty common for the genre. Rin is a seemingly normal young man in school who was orphaned as a young boy. He has since lived with his childhood friend, Kaede who lost her mother in the same accident that he lost both of his parents. Everything changes one day when a devil princess moves into the house next to them and a princess of the gods moves in on the other side. Each are there to win his affections and become his bride.

This show is enjoyable enough from the start but it's really just typical harem anime fare with excessive fan-service. The fan-service, (mostly lots of big bouncy breasts), is understandable considered the source material and it may be a deal breaker for some and a deal maker for others. The story is serviceable but seems to run on rails as Rin works his way through the girls, so to speak. He spends time with them and seems to have made his choice but then he doesn't.

That's the first half of the show; the second half is what took me by surprise. About midway through the series things start to get deeper and darker and just all around cooler. Kaede's breakdown was intense and probably the highlight of the show for me. I've seen a few harem anime shows and that's the first time I ever thought one of the harem girls might actually snap and kill off some of her competition.

In the end, "Shuffle!", is a good watch. The main story is kind of weak but the characters are mostly likable and their development is pretty strong. It's a fun show that might surprise you with it's character's depth, especially after the somewhat misleading beginning episodes. If you like the harem style shows then I recommend this one.

Mehta, it was alright...

[kzjd-938-513566 · 6/10 · 2 April 2020]

The show was ok to watch to kill some time, but it doesn't really have any sort of plot what so ever. The first 15ish episodes just jump all over the place, then after that the demon and god princesses aren't even in like 5 episodes and then the show decides to start to have a story that goes episode to episode for like the last 6 episodes. All to finish with the main "plot" of the show not really being that relevant. Several times I was planning on watching something else but I got lazy and just decided to tough it out. Although I was glad that this show at least had an ending, and they could carry it on if they ever wanted to.

Romance with devils and gods

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 15 February 2010]

As this series can currently be watched legally on line on Funimation's YouTube channel I thought I'd give it a go and I'm glad that I did as it was pretty good. Before it started I knew little about it but the characters are introduced well and are all fairly distinctive.

Rin Tsuchimi is a high school student who's life gets very complicated when the kings of the World of Devils and the World of Gods turn up in his class and tell him that he is to pick which of their daughters, Nerine and Lisianthus, he wishes to marry and later become king of that realm himself. This being a harem anime these aren't the only two girls interested in him. Kaede in who's house he lives is besotted by him and he is also close to Asa a girl in a class above him. For most of the series he can't decide which of the girls he wishes to date. As it becomes apparent which of the girls he likes to tome of the series takes a drastic mood swing as one of the other girls has a dramatic breakdown, even when that has past things don't get too much better for the group as the girl he loves becomes sick but refuses to do the one thing which could save her, this leads to Rin taking drastic action. I've avoided naming names here to avoid spoiling the end.

This was a fun series and I was genuinely interested to see who Rin would pick. As well as the central story there is plenty of comedy early on, three of the girls have large fan clubs who don't like their attentions being directed at Rin so he must evade them, as the story progresses these groups disappear though. There is a reasonable amount of fanservice although it doesn't go too far too often, there are occasional shots of the girls' undies or bare chests which some viewers might not be too keen on.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.

Ehhhhhhhhh

[whales-25270 · 5/10 · 12 February 2021]

So this anime is all over the place. You have a goddess with a split personality, a demon who is depressed because of a lost half, a girl who is basically a psychopath, and another that is terminally ill. The show overall was pretty good at first, had a great introduction to the girls but as the show continued, it deteriorated fast.... and then the ending was crap shoot but still I couldn't look away from time to time. It's a 5/10 for me!