Shuffle! Memories

[dojikyo]

Unless. Shuffle! Memories is Shuffle Really?Really! animated, a Kaede ending is unnecessary. It would be better if it was a remake of the first season along the lines of what Vexx and the others have said. Work on the Kaede and Asa arcs. They could just change Asa into being unable to use magic until it became necessary. I'll take cheesy, DragonballZ/Bleach logic over the "logic" behind Asa choice that was used in Shuffle. And seriously rework the animation in the 2nd half of the last episode.

edit: Stopped by Navel Site. I can't read Japanese but the front page makes it look like 50% of Navel is based on Shuffle and the characters. Which means the next Shuffle anime needs to be better than the first 3 episodes of Lovely Idol and the entirety of Soul Link.

[Vexx]

My guess is that Navel is pretty much wrecked their gravytrain if they don't get some positive vibes with Memories, after SoulLink dropped into a blackhole. I've got ungood feelings about how well their software Really?Really! is going to do just based on the premise (I'm still trying to understand how it might help Kaede to recover from her coma by "bonking a lot of girls" while in her mind... but maybe it is just being poorly explained ).

We're halfway through November.... they'd better start marketing Memories a bit better than they have.

[andiyar]

I believe that Memories begins airing in what, January? Not too long to wait then, but still not much information out and about - at least, not much "concrete" information. It makes me wonder idly though, with Kadokawa Shouten mentioning (or at least hinting at) Shuffle! being licensed at Otakon earlier this year, though they didn't name the distributor, for reasons as yet unknown...

At any rate, Shuffle! Memories will give me something to watch alongside Kanon come January ^^


-Andiyar

[M L Monster]

hey guys I'm planning on watching Shuffle atm but since Memories is gonne air, should i go on and watch the original series?

[Skyfall]

Er.... of course ? Whats the use of watching "memories" about something if you have not seen the real thing ?

[haiz123321]

Originally Posted by M L Monster

hey guys I'm planning on watching Shuffle atm but since Memories is gonne air, should i go on and watch the original series?

watch the real thing then watch memories once its out since its gonna be something like season 2

[andiyar]

@ haiz123321

Actually, Memories has been described as a 'Director's Cut' of the original series, with a new OP and new ED. It's not a second season at all.

@ M L Monster

Honestly, I don't know. It might be best to wait for Memories, as if it really is just a new version of Shuffle!, as the magic-8-ball so far indicates, then you would effectively be watching the show twice - and additionally, Memories may (at least hopefully) resolve a few of the issues that some of us had with Shuffle! towards the end.

That said, if you don't want to wait, Shuffle! is a fun and entertaining show. It has its flaws, true, but it is still worth a watch. Do you want to wait until January for a possibly better and retouched version? Or would you rather just watch the original now, and maybe the new version later?


-Andiyar

[haiz123321]

@andiyar

so ur say shuffle memories is something like gundam seed destiny final plus?

[andiyar]

@ haiz123321

Well, I had to look that up as I'm not exactly a Gundam fan, but from what I can tell Final Plus is something like an alternative ending to Seed Destiny, is it not? In that sense, we can't say if Memories will contain an alternate ending, as we obviously won't know until it airs. That said, no, Memories is not an OVA alternate ending or something of the kind - it's a Director's Cut version of the entire TV show, with an additional character path (guessed at being possibly Kareha) and a new OP and ED. It's a new version of the TV show, with possible changes, but we don't know. It's not just an alternative ending, and it isn't a sequel.


-Andiyar

[M L Monster]

Thanks for the replies.

I've made up my mind to watch the original series first and then go on with Memories.

It might be fun spotting out the changes that'll be coming out in Memories.

[Skyfall]

Originally Posted by andiyar

@ haiz123321

Well, I had to look that up as I'm not exactly a Gundam fan, but from what I can tell Final Plus is something like an alternative ending to Seed Destiny, is it not?

-Andiyar

No, it is not It is an extended version of the final episode with extra scenes added and gives a bit more closure than the original last ep.

[haiz123321]

well i still duno what he means by director cut though but i got a rough idea on it XD i guess what hes saying is that its prolly shuffle but with more footage >_< i think

[Vexx]

Pretty close... a "director's cut" means that he can take footage that wasn't used (because of time constraints) or decisions he later thought wasn't so hot and change those. You might call it "Shuffle 2.0 - New and Improved (we hope)".

[RecurringNightmare]

They have a new article here on Shuffle Memories. I don't have any skills whatsoever in reading Japanese, so if someone could translate that for us it would be awsome.

I went ahead and stuck it in one of those online translator things, and, from what was understandable, it seems that we may have some story changes.

[Vexx]

They're still being pretty vague .... but I'm starting to get the impression this version may be much more Primula-centered. ((How's that for odd?))

They mention a re-edited compilation of some kind... some focus on Primula... and a complete new story but I can't tell if they mean *within* the series or the series plot *is* new. The blogger does mention he's trying to chase down the details of the storyline and to expect a followup story.
Okay.. that's my sucky attempt. After that, I ran it through a couple of translators and got not much better out of those.
I see they've put Gotou and the others in sailor suits for a show a few posts down.

[ponydash]

I THINK what he's going on about is a completely new story for each of the characters, but it'll probably be either a sub-story or an aside to the original story. I still wouldn't quite understand if they changed the overall story too much or changed the girl that Rin ended up with, as this is being marketed as a Directors Cut of the original anime, not an entirely new one.

One thing they might do (and this links in with calling it Memories) is to have the whole story told in flashback form, which would indeed open up sub-storylines which could be told from the character's point of view.

[Sian]

as long Kareha makes her move on Rin (since she admitted to Asa is ep 22(?) that she also loved him) ... and more on how Asa reacts after thought about it ... might also be a road that leads to more Kaede happiness since that ends up in Asa and Rin, who problerly have fewest problems with it since it end out with that noone is hurt after everything is said and done, to accept the True Harem ending with Rin as groom for both Kareha, Asa, Sia, Nerine, Kaede and prehaps even Primula

[Searcher]

Originally Posted by Vexx
a "director's cut" means that he can take footage that wasn't used (because of time constraints) or decisions he later thought wasn't so hot and change those

So in retrospect we get secondhand footage.
I had to laugh at the part of "decisions he later thought wasn't so hot"
So we got is asa logic on magic, i hate to see what decisions he didn't put in.

Their are still people who think that memories will be good
Have they forgotten what crap Navel put out , remember Soul Link people.

Mine advice for those people is to look in the mirror each hour and say a thousand times, "It's Navel, it's going to suck".
Do that each day untill memories comes out and you will be fine

[Vexx]

That's pretty much my expectation: its going to suck (especially after the nuclear train wreck of Soul Link and what I'm discovering about Really?Really! the software game). However, I'll probably take a look anyway in the hopes of getting a few decent sidestories out of some of the characters.
I'd really like to see Mayumi and Itsuki have a few lightbulbs go off about each other.

That's not *quite* what a "director's cut" means ... it just means that the director has fewer constraints about what they want to do:
1) The director's cut of Bladerunner dropped the "40s pulp fiction narration" that the director thought insulted the audience.
2) The director's cut of the LOTR movies restored a lot of the cuts that damaged character development and exposition in order to keep the moviehouses from whining about the length.
3) The remaster of THX-1138 (at least in my opinion) improved the movie dramatically (thought the first version was pretty good as well).
OTOH,
3) The director's cut of Apocalypse Now was a trainwreck and ruined the pacing of the film.

Director's cut is *usually* a Good Thing. It really depends on what they let him do and whether he was part of the problem in the first place. We don't know where the real incompetence lay in the original version of Shuffle! (though the motivations in the Asa arc were a lame bit of reasoning iced with dramatic music to begin with and *should* have been rewritten to make more sense).

[andiyar]

I still think it's just a bit unfair to blame Navel for the problems that occurred in the anime developments of their games, especially Soul Link. Yes, Soul Link was badly animated, had pretty bad dialogue and was inconsistant. Despite that, I felt that there was an interesting story underneath - it just wasn't been displayed well, if at all.

But I don't blame Navel for it - rather I blame Picture Magic and the members of the Soul Link Media Project. Navel, or pretty much any other game studio (with the possible exception of key when working with KyoAni) have exactly zero control over what happens in an animated adaptation, except in exceptional circumstances. Same applies for manga-ka and writers of light novels being adapted for anime. They simply sign away the rights to allow said production group to make an anime, accept a cheque, possibly a royalty agreement - and that's their total involvement. They'd supply source material, but that's it, they would have no control over the end product.

Navel's stories have all shown potential to be great to me (having not, admittedly, delved into Really?Really!) but have suffered in the adaption process. Blame where blame is due, my friends. Blame the anime producers/directors/etc, because it is their fault. Navel doesn't have any control... they just get money. And isn't that what capitalism is all about? ^^;;

-Andiyar