[kaizer63]

So I just finished watching Shuffle! a few days ago and I've got mixed feelings about it. As far as just having something mildly entertaining to watch it was great and I finally got to know the feeling of having 'my girl' win.

On the other hand, that was one of the worst endings to a series I've seen in a while, topped only by Myself; Yourself. I don't really have any (real) complaints about the series until the Asa arc either. The Kaede arc really felt out of place to me, but it was a good out of place and I enjoyed the sudden change in atmosphere and the distinct lack of Nerine never bothered me. But, Asa was bad and so was her conclusion. I think "because it'll make mom sad" is possibly the most contrived reason anyone could come up with to NOT save their lives, especially given that it's made clear that her mom loves her more than anything and the last thing she wants to see is her dead. I saw Asa as one of the most level-headed characters throughout the whole thing and then they just dump this on you? If I wasn't so close to the end I might've dropped the series right there.

I also might be the only person who wasn't satisfied with how Rin got Asa to use her magic. I saw it coming from the moment he picked up the knife and never used it leaving me with no sense of suspense. It might be ingenious, but it was just a little to predictable. The whole scene also made Asa's decision to die make a lot less sense given the reason she saved him was by using the same logic she was denying in saving herself. (That is, if he, someone I care about, dies I'll be alone and cry. Wasn't her mother supposed to feel the same way about her...)

Besides the trainwreck ending, the series was about average. The animation fluctuated between "good-enough for me" and "bad" but it wasn't consistently bad enough for me to care.

Characterizations, until the end, were actually quite good and I enjoyed the more gradual growth of Primula and how Kaede slowly slipped into psycho mode starting with the first episode. Since I never really saw Nerine as "in the game" I really enjoyed watching her slowly opening up to her non-Rin related peers. Sia was interesting, but I never really saw her go anywhere. In fact, she actually regressed a bit in my eyes after she had to write herself out (the first time) for plot reasons. At least she didn't have a complete turn-around though. Also, loved the two Kings and Mayumi was one of the most entertaining side-characters ever.

I can't really comment much on the voice acting, but it was again, good. I actually watched half of the series in dub on hulu before I decided to get subs. Amazingly, I think the dub did a better job for Sia, spot-on for Asa, Mayumi, Kareha, the Kings, and Ama, and Primula would've been perfect had she ever spoken above 2 decibels so that you could actually hear her (that's the reason why I switched to subs actually).

So, despite using no numbers whatsoever before now, I'd have to rate the series at about 6.4. I've seen much larger train wrecks than this and it gave me enough enjoyment that I can ignore the what happened in the end and will probably watch it again some day.

EDIT:
And while this is waaay late to the party, I do have an answer for what Vexx called a plothole--why Rin and Kaede didn't know about Asa's sickness: The simple answer is because they didn't know her then. The long way is that Asa mention she got sick when she was little, and while I don't think she specifically said she got better as she got older, saying she was sick when she was little does imply she got better. That, and she's obviously not sick before the plot says so. After she was older and better, she never actually met the two until her third year of junior high. I don't remember the exact episode for this, but I'm fairly certain it's around when they start dating. Since Asa's a year older than the them and was a second year student, third year by the end of the series that means (assuming they met at the beginning of her third year of junior high) they've at best known each other for 4 years by the time they start dating. She's long since been "grown" out of her childhood sicknesses and the other two are none the wiser. Of course, why she suddenly got sick again... that is the plothole.