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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So you wanna watch a harem anime. Or maybe you’re just amused by my post title.

In any case, the harem genre is one that enjoys a negative reputation from anime viewers, mainly due to the core nature of it being one guy surrounded by many girls waiting to jump him - rather pandering, even I will admit.

Of course, such a stereotype is the same as assuming that all shonen action shows involve men in spiky hair screaming, or all shoujo romances feature blond-haired ambigously-gendered prettyboys surrounded by sparkles and flowers, or, more pertinently, that all anime is hentai. So it’s my job today to recommend some of the better harem-type shows out there with a fun little activity - and I don’t mean fun like your teacher’s definition of “fun”, trust me, so it’ll be OK.

The problem with the harem genre, and the reason it has gets a bad rap from so many people is that, admittedly, it does vary wildly in quality. There are piles of pandering shows which are nothing more than the stereotype I mentioned above. But not all of them belong in this pile.

Rather, many shows have a harem setup only in appearance, and belong to a greater genre I usually term the ‘visual novel’ shows, after works like Kanon or Tsukihime that were originally visual novels, that have a skewed male:female ratio for sure, but have a more refined (or at least more refined pandering to emotional fools like me) taste.

So here’s a little quiz I devised on a boring weekend to help you determine which visual-novel / harem-type anime might suit you. Amuse yourself, at least to see if you’ve seen what I’ve recommended and whether it suits you or not. It’s all about what personally appeals the best in such a diverse genre like this.

Enjoy! (Yeah, everything’s after the jump. Keep going…) (more…)

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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Paradoxes and deep posts are so much fun.

Fillers are quite often one of the most dreaded parts of anime that cause us to sigh, roll our eyes, press the fast forward button and/or maybe write a long drawn-out post complaining how this is the twentieth episode we’ve had with Absolutely Nothing Happening.

They come in many interesting if not always entertaining flavors such as The Beach Episode (pictured), The Convienently One Episode Long Conflict, And Now For Some Of Our Other Characters That Still Exist, and everyone’s favorite, The Recap.

Now naturally the entertainment value depends on many different things, such as originality, quality, and how many fillers you’ve seen in a row. But from a story perspective, I’ve always struggled with the stigma of filler as something completely devoid of content.

Maybe it’s a faulty definition of filler, but I’ve found that filler episodes, per se, may actually be necessary to the overarching feel of the series in the end in leaving a good impression. This may not be the case for more shonen material (Fights O’ The Week) or whatnot, but at least in my specialty genre, romance/harem/harem-likes, I almost find filler to be useful at times.

(Minor blatantly obvious spoilers for Da Capo and huge ending/plot spoilers for Shuffle ahead.)
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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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Well, here it is. The big one. The arc that elevates Shuffle! from “Ah, a good light-hearted harem eroge adaptation” to “It’s like Key, but with breasts.” Which is true mainly because here, the plot gets more serious, more interesting, and thankfully, a bit less fanservicey than is the norm for this series.

Not a lot to say that won’t spoil this episode to death, since it has some large exposition, but to say the least it involves several years’ worth of buildup, although, from the anime where everybody knew somebody back in the ‘promised girl’ flashback age, that shouldn’t say much.

XWindow: Jump out in.
This should. Someone - or at the going rate, more than one someone - is out to get Rin. Who? Why? Are they successful?

Well, of course, the last answer is kind of a no, as having your harem lead die would be a bit of a downer. But then again, there’s always Itsuki, who’s too shiny-glasses awesome in this series to be called by that name which graces that of lower-grade espers and drivers of Levins.

Anyway, find out next time on - what, this isn’t a TV commercial? There’s more? After the jump (spoiler safe through Shuffle! 19). Fine, be that way. Can’t I stretch this out over two days of suspense?

Don’t give me that ‘everybody’s already seen the anime’ look. It’s coming to R1 soon, and then I’ll laugh at you fools who said nobody cares about Shuffle anymore! Mwhahahahahah!

Er, sorry, that acts up. I wonder if Shuffle! still does have a decent fanbase - although, from the looks of the AnimeSuki forums (the ones I browse frequently) it’s much more chaotic and cutthroat (with those stupid fanclubs) than other harem anime. Possibly because they learn from example, if this episode is any cue.

Additionally, I wonder how the censoring will work on the Shuffle! R1s. I’d like to know if I am able to buy the DVD without putting on a trenchcoat and a fake mustache.
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(you should know what that means…and also, certainly, it could fit as a horror movie title in this way too)

It’s showtime! We’re about ready to hit the climax of Shuffle! with 4 straight episode of raw awesome, and here’s the first of the four.

The light-hearted title card is back, and it is screaming Very Important Episode at the top of its lungs. It’s kokuhaku (confession) time this episode, and so we’re getting down to crunch time - and don’t expect, even after the main two get together, that things are going to be all better.

Well, what’s to say? Let’s get this mission started. And what a mission it is - that subtitle says “secret strategic meeting for the date”. This is Spartaaaaaaaa business. This recap is spoiler-free, covering only Shuffle 18, so if you’ve gotten this far, keep going.
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Not quite the same ring as Wai for Mai~ , but Kaede’s a strong character with a strong story and a strong runner-up for best Shuffle! character. So, catchphrase’d for the token witty title.

And now, time for some time paradoxing.

So, Shuffle! Memories is a recap series, half the length of the original with the story split up into multiple parts. Each main heroine gets 2 episode for a total ten, there’s one intro episode (the previous one), and one new episode (finally!) at the end for a total of 12.

However, the dividing up of the story does strange and awkward things to the flow of the plot. Kaede Fuyou, the first girl featured in Shuf!Memo, was one of the last to get a story arc in the original series. So now, instead of starting out with some of the lighthearted stuff and then going into the more serious plots (I think the arcs built off of and eclipsed each other in the original), we’re going straight into the deep end.

Each character is split up into two parts, so Kaede’s entire story isn’t laid out at once, but we get a significant enough chunk of it that I’m forced to issue a spoiler warning for through Shuffle! 21 or so. Somehow, I’ve managed to overtake my blogging of the entire Shuffle! series with the 2nd episode recap of its…recap series.

Not to mention…a recap of a recap? Strange, isn’t it.
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