Shuffle

I think I am a sucker for a harem anime. A nerdy doofus of a guy gets surrounded by a bunch of voluptuous women and for some reason they fawn over the doofus and try to win his affections. And the doofus is such a doofus that he doesn't know how to act around them and takes them for granted. Yeah, I can dig a show like that because I'm pretty much a nerdy doofus, too.

But not all of them (harem shows, not nerdy doofuses) are created equal. Tenchi Muyo is undoubtedly the king of these type of shows, but there are others that range from really good to derivative junk food for the brain. Girls Bravo is derivative junk food, but I still liked it okay enough. I mean, it was fun and stupid and I was in the mood for that. So it worked for me.

Other harem style shows like School Days are just screwed up. Really screwed up. I'm talking about "women getting pushed too far and going on killing sprees" type of screwed up.

And I think that Shuffle bridges the gap between Girls Bravo and School Days quite nicely.

The story starts innocently enough. Rin Tsuchimi is your average seventeen year old Japanese high school kid. And one day he gets chosen to be either the king of the gods or the king of the demons. You see, this is a world where gods and demons live in harmony on earth with humans even though both of them have their own respective worlds, too. The king of demons chooses Rin as the one to marry his daughter and the king of the gods does the same. To make matters worse, they both move in right next to Rin's house so they can keep an eye on him.

Rin is already living with a girl named Kaede who cooks for him, but he doesn't have a relationship with her like you might think. I'm not going to spoil things, but they just are not an item even though it looks like they should be.

So Rin basically has three girls in his life now and he's chased by these groups that want to keep the girls all to themselves. The groups are just silly and stupid moments in the show and they basically go away before too long. Pay them no mind if you can help it.

In addition to the three girls vying for his affections there a few others out there with feelings for Rin. And they are all smokin' hot. Again, this is typical of harem anime shows and if you are a fan of this type of show then you obviously aren't too offended by the sexism that could be inferred by this. But if this offends you then it probably isn't for you.

Now if you know me then you know I love a good twist. I mean, the genre bending type of twist. A heist story turns into a vampire story. An sci-fi movie turns into a horror movie. I just eat that stuff up because it's kind of like getting two different stories for the price of one. Of course, it's got to be handled well or else it will suck, but the same can be said of just about everything else.

Well, Shuffle is one those shows that makes the transition to stupid harem comedy to a kind stupid but heartfelt dramedy to a full blown "holy shit, one of these characters is about to kill everyone" suspenseful type of drama. In some ways it is kind of like School Days, but these characters are all pretty likeable despite their flaws whereas I just hated everyone in School Days and I was glad when some of those assholes got their asses killed.

The transition takes place at halfway through the show during episode 13. And then at about episode 19 or so the comedy almost entirely disappears and you might want to check to make sure someone isn't about to creep up on you because it does get hairy.

There is full frontal female nudity in the show. Quite a few pantyshots, too. So if you're into fanservice then consider this one to be on your list of "must watch" shows.

If you don't like shows that get too heavy or too dark then you'll want to steer clear.

It's all a matter of taste. I enjoyed the show and I'm glad I purchased it. I'll rewatch it eventually.

FYI: This show is based off an adult visual novel, but there are no graphic sex scenes in the show. And that's a good thing.