The rumors of my blogging laziness have been greatly exaggerated.

In the midst of the working world and of real life another Rapidfire post rises from the ashes to inject a thousand-odd words of anime ranting and raving into the bloodstream of a starved anime fan.

Well, in all honesty I hope you’ve been reading elsewhere too, so you shouldn’t be starving, but in any case, I’m just starting to go off on random tangents, having already written all the content out of my head (yes, the pre-jump section comes last here) and now desperately typing random, fourth-wall referential content in an attempt to fill space.

In case you’re interested in what’s on board for today, there’s a news section announcing a new Shuffle!-like substance for the PC, a short metarant involving ads and websites, and a good long analytical-type thing about Howl’s Moving Castle - one of the popular Miyazaki films - and the power of emotional connection versus logical appeal.

Well … uh … how about that Nagato?
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The “12 Days of Christmas” series is a joint feature by some members of the Anime Blogging Collective recognizing twelve moments, twelve series, or just twelve things about anime that we’ve enjoyed over the past year, that really make us enjoy loving what we do, and that is being an anime fan. Feel free to join in the list-making fun too if you wish. We hope you enjoy this feature.

Connection is one of the most powerful things of anime. It can turn the mundane into the interesting, and the interesting into the legendary.

For your average impressionable teenage boy, being able to connect to an anime isn’t very hard, especially in a sea of harem shows full of equal amounts of uninspiring, bland if not unusually nice guys.

Even with all the escapism offered by such shows, there comes a point where as cute as it is to see another “gee well I like X but don’t feel like confessing for another 23 episodes” premise, the raw cliche factor of it drags down the entire feel of the show.

And so when something different, a different view on the topic comes up, it’s enough to make me sit up and notice. A character with a viewpoint, a reasoning different than the norm, and a viewpoint interesting enough to really drive a point home.

One might say that trying to learn anything about real life from anime, especially the incredibly unrealistic harem genre, is ridiculous. But sometimes, you come across a gem in the rough.

Enter Shuffle! 16.
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Another step towards complete anime geekery (one might say, to abuse more Japanese words, hikikomori-dom) is made with the purchase now of even more completely incomprehensible things from Japanese bookstores. The Haruhi Suzumiya artbook ‘fanbook’ and Shuffle! On the Stage artbook ‘visual guide’ were purchased for a combined total of less than 20 dollars, thanks to the awesome factor of a Los Angeles chain of stores called “Book Off”, which I found had lots of cheap things (these), lots of really cheap things (a $1 section including English manga, random Japanese artbooks and magazines, and a Gran Turismo 2 guide. Old-school’d.), and lots of really strange things (a strange manga title I didn’t bother to look into: “Rape+2Ï€r”). That are cheap.

While I am unable to provide pictures for these two I can still review them and provide some information, of which was sorely lacking when I tried to research these two the day before. (when drooling over them at twice-the-price Kinokuniya.)

Jump!
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Report No.: 75
Date of Report: July 17, 2007
Time of Report: 11:22 AM

Subject: Shuffle! Memories the 12th
Age: 25 minutes
Sex: Unstated. Tests report “Yes, please”
Race: Japanese animation

Background: Known history of insanity in family, especially in earlier Shuffle! generations 1 through 12. Fanservice abuse often common through the years, leading to unhealthily low amounts of plotline and occurances of Type-II (a.k.a Hit or Miss) Humor. Suffered from Beach Episode Disease.

Cause of Death: Appears to be natural causes. Many suspicious suspects, better known as “main characters”, are currently being investigated as possible contributing factors to death, to be explored in “after jump” segment.

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(on a side note before we begin, if anyone could assist in suggesting ways to acquire the 3rd issue of Comp H’s for cheaper than Amazon’s $30 shipping rate, me love you long time. thanks!)

“As long as Rin-kun is happy, then everything will be fine.”

It’s why I watched Shuffle. It’s why you should too.

Today begins another flavor of content, full series recaps. Instead of recounting series episode-by-episode it’s time to write some more all-encompassing content in reviewing the series as a whole.

Episode recaps will likely continue for newer, more recent series (such as Lucky Star and the upcoming summer season) but for older series these types of posts will probably become the norm, since most of you have watched this sort of stuff ten times over.

So, how about Shuffle!? On the face of it it’s a very generic harem show, with one typically bland protagonist choosing between five typically varied girls, but there is a lot more depth to it than first meets the eye.

Here’s the non-spoilery version for those looking to watch Shuffle!, and bonus details with spoilers can be found after the jump.

Shuffle doesn’t really kick in until about halfway through - episode 12 is where the serious content starts, and it hits high gear around 16. Still, I would reccomend watching some of the early episode to familiarize oneself with the characters, if only so that the later parts can hit harder. Still, since Shuffle! is hitting R1 DVD this fall and it’s a bit hard to come by online (by, y’know, legal means), if you could only buy some DVDs, pick up the 5th for sure (17-20, projecting 4 episodes a DVD) and, if possible, the 4th and 6th as well.

I would reccomend Shuffle! for those who like the “Sad Girls in Snow” genre (to steal a cliche), which I attribute to most visual-novels such as Kanon, AIR, Tsukihime, and yes, Shuffle. What I mean by that, is that, although these appear to be harem anime on the surface, each character has a compelling story to tell, instead of just being rehashed fluff. At the least, they are emotionally powerful rehashed fluff.

Shuffle! is similar to anime like the Key ones and Tsukihime in this regard, but it differs in that it is more tilted toward its fanservicey origins. So if you like panties and breasts, Shuffle! will be something you enjoy at least partially. And if you like serious storytelling with twists and tears, you will also enjoy Shuffle!.

As such, Shuffle! will probably be enjoyed by the latter audience, who can stand the former. If you’re just in Shuffle! for the dirty aspects of it, the first half is nearly all yours. I would suggest, if you’re into that sort of thing, check out the Shuffle! series of h-games, which seem significantly more biased towards ero content.

Still, for anyone who is not overly disturbed by fanservice (and if you are, there’s always the fast-forward button, or your eyelids), I would give Shuffle! a strong recommendation. Spoilers ensue after the jump.
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