Bloody hell…my post got eaten by the intarweb again. In place of a well-written write up I leave you my raw notes and screencaps for this episode. I may rewrite it later when I have more time, but I’m having trouble sticking to any semblance of a schedule during AP Testing season.

Enjoy.

-CCY

===

—

Summer memories reminding me of Air – it won’t end there, will it…?
-> Nerine says last day of break, finish homework?
DIFFERENT TITLE CARD. Foreshadowing and serious. music sucks
my eyes gloss over when faced with math too. or is that the reason, Rin? :P (bowchickabowwow)
the God/Demon game analogy continues; funny that they really treat N/S x Rin as such
summer progression, silent stills of everybody (Itsuki picking up a girl??)
and now back to Kaede, who’s been absent for a bit.
Primula is more conversational than a Nagato type
-> more strange happenings with Primula and the tea (a LOT of tea…)
and Asa shows up ‘hitting on’ Rin during the sketch of course
-> wild theory: importance of Asa’s hair ribbon
-> Even Asa supports a Kaede ending??
Asa seems the most harem-aware, yet doesn’t seem to bring up herself…
Rin is smart and votes for harem ending – also known as peaceful coexistance
There are certainly hints at Asa’s high standing with Rin but it’s not blatantly obvious; and nothing higher than Sia’s level
Kareha: different phrase now? is she the equivalent of a shipper?
Itsuki’s glasses shiny never gets old
Primula likes rainbow, hates turning things to ice (King Midas) and passing out
-> This is where ‘frozen summer’ comes from; thought it would be a time-loop episode
Different eyecatch, now with 100% more loli (and non-loli) cleavage. scary. o_O
this is where the serious part of the story kicks in…?
122 degree fever on Primula, mildly high!
Sia/Nerine hiding things from Rin again with fever?
Primula has 3 cats now?
oshi, God/Demon become USEFUL??
despite Primula’s apparent connection to Nerine, it is revealed that she is an fox/kitsune that took the form of a human “artificial life-form”
-> explains the test-tube bit in the opening
Demon has a nice example of magic with the breaking/unbreaking of glass. impressive.
Annoying vagueness, as expected – we’ll see how this turns out.
Primula can create ‘miracles’ – did this cause her to faint? the power of unleashing miracles unwillingly on the flowers…
-> powers equalling energy drain is reminding me of Cardcaptor Sakura, Sakura Card Arc
and I think this is the first time in ever Kaede and Rin are alone.
Kaede, stop saying you can’t do anything. like, now.
Rimu doesn’t like the demons – perhaps this is a regretting-creation issue?
-> or is it just care for Rin
Connection between Nerine + Primula made (control)
and emotion is proved to be bad? emotion is key to the miracle power
-> also reminding of another anime that shall remain unspoiled (vaguely)
Rin’s working on the boat again.
More Nerine foreshadowing – losing someone a ’second’ time…
-> what was the first…
and a Rimu flashback?? to the time where she was abandoned?
Rin uses the really-super-deep-full-bow to beg Primula to go back – why does it work?
the plants are crying…??
she took her cats and left Rin’s..
this feels like the beginning of a Rimu arc…but will we see her again??

and, why did she get sick…?

With the Sia arc all nice and wrapped up it’s time to get into the deeper stuff of Shuffle as we take a turn toward the dark side…

Next episode, anyway. For now, we get the usual lighthearted interim filler-esque episode.

Although, any episode with Mayumi in it deserves to have it’s filler status revoked. Go, FCA power!

Anyway, it’s summer-time and we skip straight to the end of summer-tutorial hell for Sia and Mayumi, who have managed to survive and flee jubilantly from the classroom.

Mayumi catches up for lost fanservice by giving us about 10 panty shots along the way and subsequently smashing straight into Rin. In true harem style, the two fall on top of each other. Rin gives us a minute-long view of what’s up Mayumi’s skirt, which rightfully angers her.

She decides to take revenge.

In a oh-so-wrong way. Seriously, Mayumi, whose side are you on?

(I wonder how this scene turned out in the original H-game…)

Right on cue the whole harem shows up and gives Mayumi, who’s still sitting on top of Rin with her hand on his crotch, a bunch of weird, perhaps jealous stares. The fact is mentioned that they’re headed to the beach again and for a minute I was expected a second swimsuit episode.

Instead we get Nerine vs. Mayumi swimsuit comparisons (hint: there’s one large difference), and another cover-up by Mayumi. Market value? Is that what they call it now? Also, note Primula’s stare in the background. She knows the value of loli over loli bust size. Not to mention, purple hair.

We shuffle on over to Kareha’s cafe, and meet the blue-haired pervert kid along the way. I’ve noticed this is the same, decidedly less-perverted kid that Rin helped in the park during his date with Sia. Strange, strange, scary kid.

Mayumi and Kareha converse over Rin’s harem, which despite Kareha’s claims is not a simple love pentagon but something far, far more sinister.

Kareha also asks Mayumi if she plans to turn to the dark side anytime soon. For the love of God Haruhi something, don’t do it!! We need at least one character who hates Rin the pimp. -_-

This is also noted to be one of Kareha’s longest period of sanity, without going all shiny. Thankfully.

Also, for some reason, Mayumi’s two-toned eyes in this scene suddenly reminded me of a certain time traveler. MAYUMI BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEMU! (insert photoshopping)

Rin was smart enough to search Mayumi’s ass while she was raping him and stole her wallet, forcing her to do some Mario-RPG (old-school-version) style compulsory service. Uh, work. You know what I mean.

In the meantime we get a hilarious riff at the ol’ magical girl transformation sequence as Mayumi is a little too exuberant in taking too much off. The sad part is, this actually happens. I’ll attest to it.

Meanwhile, God-chan eats food.

Somehow Mayumi forgets the fact that underwear goes on first and walks out into the cafe, as she puts it, ‘open’ in at least one area. This will be a recurring theme throughout the next few minutes as Mayumi very stiffly tries to cover up.

The fanboys however are very clever and pull the usual trick of knocking things over (this is screaming of that one Megatokyo scene) in order to get some nice panty(-less) shots.

We also wonder how much Kareha knows as she seems all too happy to give Mayumi a ladder-climbing duty.

Not to mention the hilariously brilliant and dramatic face-off between Mayumi and blue-haired-pervert Masato. Surprisingly he is the one that ends up backing off, probably because onee-san’s are decidedly not striped now.

Anyway, Mayumi is finally defeated by a gust of wind, friends of dirty otaku everywhere. Rin makes a token appearance at the end of her sidestory to be annoyingly nice and leave, as he always does, to go flirt with Nerine. Or maybe Kaede. Or Asa. Maybe Primula. Or Sia again. Geez.

Eyecatch!

The second half features the only teacher in the Shuffle! school, Nadeshiko. This is an alternate-point-of-view episode, in that we begin with Mayumi and Sia dashing off from summer school again.

This time around we get a bonus super-secret (and unimportant) meganekko, which despite sensei’s remarks is sort of cute in the homely, down-to-earth way. There is no shame in blue-haired meganekkos. Waiiiiii~

Nadeshiko contemplates her love life and again the viewers pray to every deity there is that she doesn’t end up a part of Rin’s harem as well. That’d be five different levels of wrong, right there.

Meanwhile, God-chan eats food. Running gag.

Nadeshiko comes across the aforementioned Mayumi and Rin tangle on the ground, which Rimu deadpans off as ‘playing doctor’. XD Nadeshiko ends up finding Mayumi’s wallet after she has already dashed off in a panic, and ends up burdening the far-too-helpful Rin with the objective of returning it.

On the way out of the school she ends up being hit on by at least 2 different people.

The first of which is Generic Ugly Loser Guy, who gets 2 points for trying. Pick-up lines do definitely need to be rated more awesome. Approve.

I wonder how she sliced the bottle in half there (in her demonstration of self-defense). That’s some raw magic skills.

The second is the typical running gag with Itsuki blindly hitting on people without knowing who the hell they are. We’ll file this one under ‘oops.’

She ends up in the cafe with Asa, who takes up the position of really nice advice giver again. Innuendo and stuff happens.

Rin shows up again, not being able to find Mayumi on his own. The two go for a bit of a ride in Nadeshiko’s strange-looking Volksmagen (sic) car. Do they even sell much VW imports in Japan?

Nadeshiko finally returns to her tiny apartment, where she holds a very amusing imaginary conversation with her mother on her answering machine. And also fanservice. (really now, did you not see that coming?)

Flip forward to the two ‘arcs’ converging at the public bath, where Mayumi stares at the wangs of little kids all day. Pedo.

The two girls share a bath scene with vaguely less fanservice than the Shuffle! standard for bath scenes (or did they not label it R-15 as of ep. 11?), and mention how much they just might have in common.

Two hard days, two different ways, and, uh, lots of panties. o_O That’s this series for you.

Next time: More plot, less panties, more loli, less Mayumi.

-CCY

Double digits!

Admittedly, my Shuffle! viewing has tapered off a bit after finishing the brilliantly epic 21st episode . ‘Tis the season of unnecessarily rigorous AP exams, and my anime watching and blogging has suffered as a result of it. But, on the good side of things I can finally catch up with the backlog of Shuffle! posts that I need to get done.

That said, less whine, more Sia.

This episode is, I believe, the temporary conclusion for her arc, but by no means is this fight winding down.

Rather Sia’s obsession with Rin kicks into high gear as we get the typical confession-at-the-beach sequence which turns out to be a scarily planned-out dream by Sia, right up through the marriage at the chapel and the well-wishes of the rest of the harem.

We see that this is not just Sia’s beliefs but also her fathers as he takes along Rimu to play a lot of dress-up as part of practice for Sia’s wedding. Can’t say if Rimu’s having fun in this or not (like she smiles anyway?) but she does look damn cute with her hair down, loli or not.

The next few scenes consist of the rather surprising news that Rin and Sia are going to get hitched. Less surprisingly, this news is rather unfounded in any sort of truth but everyone takes it a bit too much to heart – perhaps because it involves their beloved Rin.

Kaede in particular has a lot of very lonely scenes in the house, something that will be elaborated on in the later episodes. With Rimu out with God-chan and Rin ‘taken’ now it’s a very quiet and sad mood in the house, as Kaede is demoted to ‘quiet person who sits around and cooks/cleans.’

The lighting and sound is excellently done in these scenes to portray the loneliness the characters feel. Even the usually cheerful, if not shy, Nerine gets in on the action. Sad girls in chair.

And this is just a drill, too. Wait until we get the real confession…

Anyway, somewhere in the mix of the contrast of happy God and sad girls we get ugly fanboys, who luckily beat the crap out of each other this time for reasons I have happily forgotten to screencap and take note of. Also on a good note, they WILL be phased out in the coming episodes.

That’s a happy ending if any.

Asa also seems to be getting on a bit of Kaede herself as she is very subtly (not) surprised at Kareha going all shiny in a loud manner over Rin and Sia’s ‘engagement’. Her feelings for Rin, while not as apparent as the others are obviously there behind the genki girl exterior. She even calls the Fuyou household later in the episode, not to speak with Rin but to have a presumed strategy meeting with Kaede. The two have work to do to get their status to the forefront, but somehow you know all it takes it time.

Sia is surprisingly different than most harem girls in that she’s rather keen to keep the peace within the group. While she’s not aware of her father’s blatantly obvious plans to pair her with Rin (even quicker than she imagined), she does mention many times that she doesn’t intend to make this a fight to the death over him. Yay for a cooperative harem!

Anyway, flip over to the eyecatch and Rin coincidentally meets Nerine in a cafe, all dressed up. Gee, I wonder why that happened… Demon-chan is equally fervent to keep his blue-haired daughter in the race and so we get a bit of a juggling act as Rin tries to keep the harem happy.

However, this is most blatantly not Nerine’s arc, as Rin’s plot-exposition walk with her is cut out, leaving us in the dark.

Instead, we get more sad Kaede. She just takes it all this time and has nothing to dish out. Isn’t it sad, Kaede? She in particular personifies the Shuffle! belief of keeling over and giving up once there’s a hint that your loved one is going to end up with someone else (as shared by herself, Asa, and Nerine).

Back to Rin and Nerine in the park where they met for the second time. Sia is quickly losing ground, as much as she doesn’t know it, as Rin spends almost as much time with Nerine in this episode as Sia.

And Nerine gets the real first strike achievement of first serious (yet obvious) confession. Holy crap. She’s serious. Rin’s quickly getting put into a situation where he’s going to need to act quickly…

Sia finally beings to consider the harem ending, as she realizes that she’s been acting rather selfish the last few days and not considering any of the other girls. Sia really doesn’t want to lose her friends in Nerine and Kaede and thus decides to pursue Rin a little less competitively for now – although the Sia in the mirror seems to have different thoughts…

But let’s come back to that later, as Sia’s father comes in at the usual inappropriate time with his usual inappropriate wedding plans. Amusing violence follows, this time with a censorship card – that’s how bad it is. XD

In good news, however, beating the crap out of God-chan really does seem to rejuvenate Sia.

The episode ends with Sia and Rin ending up playing Kanon in the classroom at night again (without the sword-age, of course), and Sia officially places herself on hold now, keeping the peace in the harem.

Things are looking rather good for Rin as the chaos in his life is balancing itself out a bit, but what comes next in Rimu’s “arc” is going to be a ride…

-CCY

Staple of Harem Shows #324 – Beach Episode!!

The obligatory beach episode gets off to an awkward amusing start when topless God- and Demon-chan chase each other across the beach in an entirely heterosexual manner while the rest of the eye-candy – uh, harem watches on.

We get about a million body pans of all the girls, at least one for everyone and TWO for Nerine, who comes equipped with the school-swimsuit, to pander to Rin’s presumed schoolgirl-fetish. (as her father says, anyway) Given that he’s a schoolboy himself I doubt we could call that a fetish but rather something natural. Nerine gains advantage by being, em, overly equipped in the chest area, also.

And on the other end of the scale is Mayumi, who still has two-color eyes, for no reason. She claims to be a rarity in the world (which is likely true, especially in anime) by being flat-chested, and thus is catering to a niche. Itsuki is hilariously candid by saying that although that may be true, Mayumi ranks in as flatter than resident loli Primula. (who, by the way, is in the exact swimsuit Itsuki pictured a few episodes back)

By the way, screw the RRR, SSS, and AAA, I’d go for the FCA all the way. ^^

Strangely, for much of the episode, Rin seems to be rather cool-headed amidst the plethora of superball-chested women, and he doesn’t spend quite as much time being stunned as he usually does. Maybe he’s learned it’s better for his health not to stare this way.

Although he is caught with his hand in the cookie jar (let’s hope it’s the cookie jar anyway) a few times, which Itsuki, as always, never fails to notice and quip about. I’m just glad the fanboy clubs haven’t made their way to the beach.

The first part of this episode is devoted to everyone’s favorite well-proportioned, blue-haired demon, who apparently can’t swim either and thus spends a very long time clinging to Rin, annoying much of the rest of the harem. Rin continues to be oblivious to this and gives Nerine all of his attention in an entirely clean swimming lesson. Sia eventually gets jealous of this and takes care of Nerine himself, giving Rin some time off.

We get some more amusing moments away from Rin as Itsuki pulls the ‘hitting-on-the-teacher’ gag by accident (and this won’t be the only time), and Rimu starts a running gag with the building of many sand castles which will be pwned by waves at any empty moment in the episode.

Rimu has her appeals too, apparently.

We have a couple moments of quiet, the first being with Asa relaxing in a floaty thing, and Rin getting his first moment of relaxation in about 10 episodes (hard, giving that this is only the 9th). Both’s rest are quickly destroyed as a wave of perversion washes over Asa, stripping her of
her swimsuit.

Which, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of ever happening before. Only in H-games, kiddies.

Asa quickly shuffles over to Rin to demonstrate the fact that she is not wearing anything above the waste, which as I imagine short-circuits Rin’s mind into a thousand pieces.

Asa is subtle as always. Once again, she is the most straightforward and genki of the girls. Meanwhile, Rin dare not look back, or down, because he’s gay. Or perhaps, afraid that he’ll die if he does.

Although he must be rather innately excited by all the squishy. We don’t need the obvious cupping of the hands (that’s what it is, right? right!?), Rin.

Anyway, Asa with Rin as body shield runs off to the changing room, where Sia and Nerine come across him. Unfortunately a harem fight does not break out, although Rin comes very close to getting his second groping of the day. He does, however, express a surprising and hilariously candid view of the fanservice all around him. (pictured above)

Sia in particular seems a bit jealous that Rin did not wait to have a threesome with her and Asa (ok, that’s a bit of a stretch of the truth), which Rin fervently denies. The tension is broken by a fainting spell by Asa, which she of course plays off as nothing important.

But every detail is always important in anime. You know something’s wrong with Asa.

(I do.)

Skip forward to the lunch scene hosted by sugoi chef-u Kaede, where all the guys but Rin prove to have a particularly ravenous appetite. I wonder where they get all the food to feed the Yukito-class eaters.

Also, Asa head-knuckles herself. Squee at your own discretion.

Anyway, the plot finally settles down and kicks in as Sia’s arc continues (after Asa and Nerine’s earlier introductions in the episode) when she gets her wish to be alone with Rin granted a little too enthusiastically.

Their beach float thing floats out to freaking sea, which is marginally less believable than a wave washing away Asa’s top. Also, note Rin has a really hilarious scream here.

Plot? In my fanservice? It’s more likely than you think.

Anyway, the two find themselves stranded somewhere else, and they spend a bit exploring until Sia exploits the usual trope and conveniently busts an ankle, forcing the ever-heroic Rin to carry her. Aww.

Sia makes a comment that “they might not be in their own world anymore,” which seems very possible given the power of the gods and demons. What would be really amusing if blue giants started to come out of nowhere and trash the landscape; closed space ftw.

Rin shows definite bias towards being attracted to Sia, which seems rather blasphemous but can be passed off as a side effect of Sia’s arc. Rin is being put in a very dangerous position though, as he will have to let Sia down later. Everybody knows the first character to have an arc never wins, ever.

The situation gets more dangerous as Rin and Sia come across a malicious animal (wolf/dog?), which freaks them both out for a bit. Rin acts the hero and orders Sia to run away if the beast gets him; Sia obviously refuses due to her incredible crush on Rin. She would never, ever leave him.

And then the beast jumps and they both run like pansies, Rin taking Sia by the hand…right off a cliff. It’s rather shocking that they didn’t end up on top of each other in a awkward situation again.

The pair end up, just like last episode, staring at the moon again in a romantic manner. They seem resigned to the fact that they are alone in this world, and resolve to become Adam and Eve together.

We get a hand-holding moment, and I don’t even know who says the above line but it could be either of the two really, as Rin is being rather nice to all of his harem.

Sia doesn’t seem to mind all the H-game screwing that’s about to come up with the aforementioned Adam and Eve situation. However, note that Primula is walking by in the background. It seems Rin and Sia got a little too carried away with the ‘lost in their own world’ idea’…because they’re not. It turns out they just floated around the perimeter of the island.

Eventually we get to the near-kiss situation again, which is really surprising coming this early how strongly Rin feels for Sia (or at least, goes along with Sia’s plans). Unsurprisingly the kiss is broken in a timely fashion by the showing up of the entire harem. They sound like they’ve been witnessing the situation for quite a while, which is scary.

As you would imagine the only happy ones in the group are Itsuki and Mayumi, who are very excited to see their Rin in the midst of another scoop-worthy story. Everyone else is rather sad at losing ground in harem status to Sia, especially Kaede. I think I’m going to need to put the ‘Isn’t it sad, Kaede?’ line in every episode from here on out.

Oh yeah, and at the end of the episode, somehow Primula, who is ignoring Rin because she knows she’ll get an arc later on, has built a huge, absolutely kickass castle. Major awesome points.

Of course, the ever-present waves of the castle win again. Sad Primula in sand.

All in all, Sia is clearly topping the standings so far in Rin’s harem, with Asa pulling in second from all the squishy straight-forwardness she laid on Rin earlier in the episode. Nerine pulls in a few points from her swim lessons with Rin while Kaede and Primula continue to bring up the rear. Sia’s still in her arc though, so she can be expected to be Rin’s #1 for a while now, but there is no doubt that after her arc ends someone else will step forward to take the spotlight.

For now though, number 10 appears to be another Sia episode, possibly one of her last however. We shall see.

-CCY

We’ve hit the third-of-the-way mark here in Shuffle!land, and all the characters have been introduced, so now it is time to go into the typical harem-game arc period, where we focus intensely on one character for a period of time.

Having foresight dating up to Episode 19, I must say that Shuffle! executes the arcs much more fluidly than the Key works I’ve watched so far, in that I’ve been fooled into asking myself “Just whose arc is this anyway?” many times.

First up in line (always a bad sign) is the ever-genki (which serves for pretty much everyone but Rimu and Nerine) Sia, who gets off to a quick start by Nayuki-ing Rin in the morning.

OK, not really, but I just like to scream that “Asa da yo~” line whenever I get a chance.

Sia is amusingly straightforward, as she has tended to be, asking Rin out on a date straight away. No time to waste shuffling around being depressive in her episodes, no way!

By the way, the title for this episode is “A Date With Panties”. o_O Is that fanservice I smell? Just maybe, maybe…

Sia goes hardcore Risa Harada on the date prep, going totally overboard with the obsession. Let’s count the similarities:

1) Fortune telling obsession. Sia makes note of the Leo fortune which states that love is in the air. I wondered if this was to apply to Sia or Rin, although I assume Sia was hoping that the time would be right for Rin, too.

2) Wanting to know EXACTLY what to wear, down to, the, uh, panties, as titled. Sia one-ups Risa by discovering, that, in this strange fortune-telling world, “love fortune is determined by panties”, as screencapped above. XD Much contemplation ensues.

P.S. They are not just underwear, they are battle panties.

Anyway, speaking of fanservice we get a panty shot of God-chan, Sia’s father, which thankfully I happened to forget to screenshot. Not exactly equal opportunity fanservice though, I must say :P Speaking of him, all Sia’s references to “this must be a sign from God” are a lot more strange, and hilarious, given that her father is, uh, God. Hmm XD

Before the date officially kicks underway we get our 15 seconds of Kaede fame as always, with Rimu acting as the voice of reason, and a source of worry for Kaede by making all sort of Rin x Sia implications. Kaede seems to be forcing herself into the Tomoyo Trap by saying “If Rin is happy, then I am,” but we know how true that quote will turn out to be.

Date? What date? We also get a God vs. Demon board-game-athon, with the two discussing the Nerine vs. Sia battle (cue harem unrest) while playing everything from chess to Monopoly (pictured), which I’m surprised has made it to Japan. Also, we get one of the best moments in the anime so far when Demon lays down a Critical Royal Straight Flush…Turbo R (with giant waves in the background) while playing mah-jong. XD I laughed hard for many minutes straight.

Anyway, finally kicking off with the Rin and Sia’s main event-o, it seems that Sia’s falling into the predictable ‘date is too well meticulously planned out’ trap, which will as typical be followed by the ‘too-well-planned date falls apart’ gag.

We throw in, also, an appearance by Mayumi, who is having too much fun rocking the block on the karaoke machine and likes to announce everything over the microphone, including Rin and Sia’s date. Comedy ensues.

We move on to the rare outdoors clothing outfit, which I didn’t even know existed, and Sia picks out some adorable matching outfit shirts, with that cat on it again. Something with Shuffle! and cats? Also, Itsuki and Nerine are the next to show up in the ‘everybody interrupts the date’ gag – it’s anyone’s guess what those two are doing spending time together though. They’re probably both after Rin, although bishie Itsuki and his shiny glasses are probably enough to set him straight. Itsuki is too damn awesome for someone named Itsuki.

Anyway, neko eyecatch, and the typical ‘transition into a completely unrelated scene’ trick is pulled off with some random girl confession to the viewer that she loves them…and wants to kick their ass at mahjong! That’s right, it’s not the movies (as is so typical), but rather the arcade. Nice. Now, where’s that whack-a-mole game? (Record: 00)

We catch Rimu at the cat crane game machine again along with Kaede. Rimu is typically blank, while Kaede has that “I’m in the way, so I’m going to be depressed and run away” look to her face, which she pulls off rather well. And often.

Transition to Kareha-sempai’s cafe, which will make a lot of entertaining appearances! Sia is daring as typical and orders the couple’s drink, which gives Rin a spit-take and the look of UTTER HORROR again as he glances around at all the other couples drinking the same…and Kareha, who is shiny and ‘my, my, my’ as always.

Luckily there seems to be a shocking lack of gossip at school.

Sia takes the train with Rin in order to go somewhere else where they know nobody at all, except of course for the last character in the picture, Asa, who notices the two on the train and quietly backs off in Kaede fashion. Didn’t know she had that side to her…

Plot exposition ensues as Sia relates how the train ride was like how Rin first met her – for those who care, it’s because she was lost on a train and Rin helped her. It sure doesn’t take much for girls to fall in love with nice guys in Japan, apparently. Of note is that Shuffle!’s flashbacks take place 8 years ago, which is notable for being one year superior to Kanon. Rin’s an even younger pimp than Yuuichi.

Anyway, we end up in a park somewhere that I swear has been featured in this anime before, where Rin decides to unknowingly wreck Sia’s dinner plans by being too damn nice to lost kids (still) and playing with the blue-haired pervert named Masato whose main line is “Onee-sama’s panties are striped~”. Kids these days. Sheesh.

It’s finally sunset and that’s the end of the ‘completely ruined’ date as the two ride the train back, with Sia sleeping on Rin’s shoulder, I believe. Aww. Also, Rin has no shame as he picks up Sia’s diary and reads it, learning of all the plans he wrecked to pieces in the process. Surprising is his lack of reaction to the “I love you, Rin!” in the diary. Talk about obviousbat.

Rin’s school turns out to be very pretty and peaceful at night, as opposed to other, demon-harboring schools (this scene reminded me of Mai, I swear), and the two share another sweet moment. At this point Sia is racking up major Rin points, moreso than any other girl but this is likely attributed to the fact that it’s her arc.

The episode, which I consider one of the best and funniest so far, draws to a close and Rin nearly negates all the Sia advances when he insists “it’s still a little early for a next time…” when Sia asks him to go out with her again, but he makes the save with the above screenshot, which shows that he’s just interested in getting to know (and screwing) all of his harem before making a choice.

Except for Kaede, because nobody likes Kaede. Isn’t it sad, Kaede?

-CCY