I’m up to Shuffle! 14 now in the Shuffleathon, and we’re getting to the real gritty stuff – I’ll mention that it is essentially a Primula arc then, but for the sake of the readers who are trying to remain unspoiled (all 3 of you) I’ll keep quiet and stick to the notes I have for the 6th episode, and ignore the advance knowledge.

Anyway, I bring up Primula as this episode seems to be the latest in a series of character introduction, and now it’s time for everyone’s favorite Shuffle! to shine.

Disregard the fact that she’s probably the only loli.

I have some vague mention of ‘backstory, yay!’ in my notes as the first thing about this episode – I don’t have a screenshot handy to remember what was vaguely hinted at about Primula in this episode (as opposed to latter ones – the rabbit hole goes deep), but I would imagine that the Nerine/Sia duo were stepping all over each other in the segment and generally keeping Rin – as well as you – in the dark.

Let’s just say there are reasons why Primula is so emotionless.

There’s a lot to do with Rimu and cats in this episode – for a while I was confused on her connection to cats (her first scene was at the Cat Crane Game machine), and noted that she was carrying around her favorite cat this morning (the one that appears in the OP). I’m not sure if it was always like that (like Mayumi’s two-toned eyes) but it’s more apparent now.

It’s also more apparent when she happens to tear a hole in the cat, complete with dramatic.
Triple.
Take!

Yeah, I shouldn’t have laughed. The cat as you would expect has some huge significance to Primula. It’s not a magical talisman or a living object (Kero-chan…) or anything silly but it does seem like something she’s had for a long time.

A connection is also drawn between her and someone that looks like Nerine (as the notes say), who gave Rimu the cat doll back when they were both even more loli than before. Yes, that’s possible.

And then we flip forward to the obligatory school scene where Itsuki flips off a bunch of innuendo-laced lines and mocks Rin’s pedophilia obsession, masking his interest in it by teasing Rin about it. OK, maybe that part wasn’t true but who knows? Itsuki’s quite the womanizer.

Although, I must say, he is a large improvement over the usual ‘harem’s perverted friend’, proving to be successful with the ladies and damn bishie even though he has glasses.

And even though I’m a straight guy. Eek.

He has a lot of great lines too, such as the one screen-capped, which seems like an obvious jab at dating-sim traditions and cliches, such as the one above which allows for convienent sexing of people like Akiha Tohno without breaking too many laws or moral boundaries.

But, on a tangent, I wonder how they legitimatized Primula as Officially Older Than 18 in the original Shuffle! H-game, since I would imagine she has her share of H-scenes. Because, seriously, are you going to tell me she’s that old? She is screamingly obviously The Official Lolicon Character.

Oh yeah, I suppose I should mention Primula stumbled her way to Rin’s school in a broken-cat-induced haze, where she is brushed off quite harshly by the Harem Master Rin who has too many girls to deal with a loli that is Not Legal. I hope.

Speaking of Harem Master, Rin seems to have quite the reputation now, what with Mayumi’s crack at Rin having ‘another lover’. I wonder who is the fanon True Girl For Rin in his school. That’d be interesting, shipping inside an anime.

Also, ridiculously funny about how Nerine and Sia go squee about being “Rin’s lovers”. Seems neither of them really minds that they’re not the only one in the competition.

So, anyway, Primula goes away and we finally get to the eyecatch, whereupon we are treated to the One Minute Flashback again (although it was across an eyecatch) where Rin feels really guilty about brushing Rimu off, and so he runs off in the rain (because somebody’s sad, of course) to find her.

He finds her standing by the closed arcade again (what is the time schedule on that thing?) and also finds her breasts. Rimu’s cute with hair down but the gratutious fanservice is a bit scary at times given my above rant on How Old Is Rimu Anyway – just in case you, the viewer, did not get the fact there Rimu has nothing on under there, in the rain, you get treated to a slow, full-screen pan. Yay.

Oh, and if you’re wondering, yes, you get more Rimu fanservice of the same caliber in later episodes although it’s not as completely out of place, arguably.

Although Rimu’s rack appears to be a Plot Point as the girls drag Rin on a underwear hunt to find suitable clothes for Rimu. Does that really happen in real life? (not the Rin dragging-along) Scary.

Rin goes through a sequence of nosebleeding to death and the fanboys get more fapping opportunities as we have many scenes of Rin’s harem asking him how they would look in various massive-cleavage outfits.

Notably absent, unsurprisingly, is Primula, who is probably being shuffled around behind the scenes, and Kaede, who is perhaps more modest, sane, and shy than all the other girls combined. I give her bonus points for that.

Eventually Rin runs away and goes to the Silky Game arcade, which will show up many times as The Place Where I Met Primula. I’m not sure what the song playing today is but last time it was the OP song so I imagine there’s another cameo here.

Rin decides to go buy a cat plushy for Rimu and sneaks in a what?-dam reference to the giant mecha show which is apparently ungodly huge in Japan (I’m reminded of the Haruhi reference to it – is every anime obligated to have one?).

Anyway, stuff happens back at the Harem Hunt and I assume since I didn’t get a shot of Primula in her new outfit that it was a little risque, which is backed up by the notes that Kareha-senpai got all shiny again (which is freaking annoying. my, my, my, die), and that Kaede swooned/passed out. Clearly she is feeling the incredible threat to her position as the Destined Girl at the moment.

If you only knew this was the start, Kaede.

And that’s about it for the episode as Rin comes back with a mysterious souvenir gift for Rimu, which, as you expect, is a cat. A cute one. But not as cute as Rimu with the cat, which is a sight that would make 99.5% of viewers melt.

Primula freaking smiles for once. It’s awesome.

And a Plot Point. Keep your eye on it.

Overall, I liked this episode, and hated the gratuitous fanservice (although this would prove to be only the start). This is argubly the first episode when I started liking and connecting to the Shuffle! heroines as opposed to just acknowledging the harem – Rimu’s pretty cute in this episode and Kaede gets some sympathy points (which I fear is going to be a recurring theme).

Carry onward, episode 7. Next up: The Shocking Shigure.
-CCY