Plot Summary:
A recap of the Shuffle world, set ten years in the future. Gods, Demons, and Humans freely visit the other worlds as if traveling overseas, and romance is in the air. Demons, Gods, And Humans together have been falling in love and creating new families, breaking down the wall that once seperated them. Past memories are visited by Rin Tsuchimi and the events that occured between him and Lisianthus, Nerine, Kaede, Asa, and Primula.
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Harem, Fantasy, Magic, Romance, School, Supernatural
Age Rating: PG-13 – Teens 13 or older
No. of Episodes: 12 episodes
Story
Pros: New series | Episode 12
Cons: Summary of the SHUFFLE! 2005
The original “SHUFFLE!” which aired back in 2005 is quite a great anime, compared it with other romance-comedy anime, it has very distinctive and unique characters and good story too.
Now, we have a new series here, so called the “SHUFFLE! Memories”. As what the word, “memories” means, 11 out of 12 episodes of this series is totally a summary of the original 24episodes “SHUFFLE!”. Therefore, everything are from the original series. No new characters, no new story development, summary means recap, not remake. The only episode that I think it saved this series is the final episode, which is a OVA like episode with new story (fan-service actually). I don’t want to talk about the episode as it could spoil the fun of watching yourself.
What SHUFFLE! excels previously is their plot distribution that made the story superbly easy understand. Same goes for this series, the first episode as introduction episode, and then from episode 2 until episode 11, total 10episodes are equally divided to 5 heroines, with one episode about character development and another episode of drama.
I think the previous project is making so much money that the production team is capable of spending a whole lot for a series of summary… I would be happy enough if they just make an OVA…
Points: 26/40
Animation
Studio: asread
Year: 2007
Type: Series
Pros: OP and ED animations | Some improvement
Cons: Almost 90% scenes are recycled
Since this series is just a recap of the original story, most of the scenes are recycled from the previous season’s. Everything works by cut, paste & edit process… I do notice some new scenes in between but not very noticeable…
The production team decided to have dedicated OP and ED for each heroine, thus the OP and ED animations are completely new, and we have 6 versions of OP and 7 versions of ED…
Overall, there’s no different in the content, while the OPs and EDs are looking far more better than ordinary themes… I assume that the production team are working more on the theme songs.
Points: 22/30
Sound
Opening Theme(s):
- “Fateful Encounters” by YURIA (ep 1)
- “memories” by Goto Yuko (eps 2,7)
- “High Tension Dreamer” by Itou Miki (eps 3,8)
- “pray” by Nagami Haruka (eps 4,9)
- “Giri Giri Heart Connection (ぎりぎりHeartコネクション)” by Aoki Sayaka (eps 5,10)
- “pureness” by Hitomi (eps 6,11)
Ending Theme(s):
- “innocence” by Hashimoto Miyuki (ep 1)
- “only one, only love” by Goto Yuko (eps 2,7)
- “wish” by Itou Miki (eps 3,8)
- “Himitsu no Mori (秘密の森)” by Nagami Haruka (eps 4,9)
- “freedom” by Aoki Sayaka (eps 5,10)
- “Magical*Power Station (まじかる☆パワーステーション)” by Hitomi (eps 6,11)
- “natural tone” by Hashimoto Miyuki (ep 12)
Insert Theme(s):
- n/a
As what I mentioned, the budget for this recap series is too much, and someone recommended to have dedicated OP and ED theme for each heroine. As the result, a whooping 13 songs in total, featuring 11 new songs.
The new theme songs are refreshing and suits the character well. Other than that, the BGM used are all from previous season.
Points: 16/20
Personal Rating
Hardcore fans would delighted as their favourite characters are back in action.
If you’re just a ordinary fans, I suggest you to skip all the way to watch the 12th episode only.
7/10
OVERALL POINTS
26 + 22 + 16 + 7 = 71points
71points, GREAT anime [07/03/2010]
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When I watched this it was soon after seeing the first one, and I didn’t make it through more than an episode or two before I found out the only episode that was new was 12. The original episode was really great though, I agree it should have just been an OVA. Didn’t realize the songs were different though, will have to at least go back and check them out.
Thinking back, I’m surprised that I completed the whole series.. =.=||
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