Twelve Moments in Anime 2007 - #9: Shuffle! 16

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The "12 Days of Christmas" series is a joint feature by some members of the Anime Blogging Collective recognizing twelve moments, twelve series, or just twelve things about anime that we've enjoyed over the past year, that really make us enjoy loving what we do, and that is being an anime fan. Feel free to join in the list-making fun too if you wish. We hope you enjoy this feature.

Connection is one of the most powerful things of anime. It can turn the mundane into the interesting, and the interesting into the legendary.

For your average impressionable teenage boy, being able to connect to an anime isn't very hard, especially in a sea of harem shows full of equal amounts of uninspiring, bland if not unusually nice guys.

Even with all the escapism offered by such shows, there comes a point where as cute as it is to see another "gee well I like X but don't feel like confessing for another 23 episodes" premise, the raw cliche factor of it drags down the entire feel of the show.

And so when something different, a different view on the topic comes up, it's enough to make me sit up and notice. A character with a viewpoint, a reasoning different than the norm, and a viewpoint interesting enough to really drive a point home.

One might say that trying to learn anything about real life from anime, especially the incredibly unrealistic harem genre, is ridiculous. But sometimes, you come across a gem in the rough.

Enter Shuffle! 16.


12 Moments of Anime 2007
#9 Shuffle! - 16
"Sia vs. Sia"

Shuffle! would probably be the last thing on a list resembling anything close to real romance. Tally it up - you've got one guy, his childhood friend, two otherworldly world princesses, one artiicial loli form, and...uh...Asa.

It's definitely a show that leans a lot towards the escapist side in the first half or so, with fanservice left and right. Even the more dramatic parts that Shuffle is remembered for could be considered the same - like most visual novel shows, as intense and emotional the plot is, it usually boils down to something involving the guy bailing the girl out of some danger.

Your eye-rolling mileage may vary; some are more cheesy than others, usually depending on the amount of character development the guy recieves - because an interesting show doesn't just show how the girl changes and falls for the guy but also how the girl can change the guy himself.

Y'know, beyond the whole 'blushing and stuttering' mess.

It's this kind of balance that, suprisingly, Shuffle! of all shows, pulls out of its hat right in the middle of it all. The balance is of a different kind that's equally interesting, in discovering the other side of romance.

Lisianthus is an oft-ignored in Shuffle!, her arcs falling in the worst spots: at the beginning, and between the first 'real' arc of Primula's and the most memorable arc of Asa and Kaede's.

Her personality can be considered to border on grating, with Nerine's elegant demeanor, Primula's silent stares, or Asa's cheerfulness preferred by many to Sia's hyperactive stalker attitude - which Kikyou, her alter ego, takes to an incredible level.

But, as such, one could say she has the most to gain. In the same reason that tsunderes are so highly valued, I see a lot of worth in Sia in how her outlook on Rin - or her outlook on her love life in general - changes.

Originally, Sia was very straightforward, almost pushy in her obsession over Rin (right down to the 'battle panties', right?), letting nothing stand in her way in her eternal quest to win Rin's heart. This is reflected in Kikyou, who takes this desire and amplifies it many times.

However, as the writing begins to appear on the wall for her relationship (as Rin takes a turn for the Asa), some revelations hit her. She begins to wonder if it's really all right to be fighting a losing battle like this, if it's right to try to take Rin's love from her friend Asa.

We see the Daidouji-special 'If My Beloved is Happy Card' played, as Sia tries to convince herself that as long as she can be with Rin as a friend, as long as he can be happy, then Sia can be herself happy.

Naturally, Kikyou is arguing the other way the whole time. It's an internal conflict expressed externally through Sia's dual personalities, and it's one that's extremely emotional as well.

It's a viewpoint very rarely seen in anime; so many characters focus just on the the ends, getting the girl (or guy), that the means begin to become irrelevant. Very few people consider the circumstances, the cause and effects.

They think just about themselves, even less than the other person. It's less "I want X to like me" and more "I want to like X", "I want to be with X". Often the other person is just reduced to an object of adoration, with no real emotions and thoughts.
Life After Confession isn't very much considered so much as idealized.

So Sia's maturation in viewpoint, thinking more realistically about love, is something that's really touching. Ever so much more because she is fighting against herself, fighting against her own emotions - she is trying to morph her desire for Rin into something more controllable, something more honest to herself, something that both she and Rin can be happy with.

It's something that's hard to do, and it makes her character all the more admirable. It shows that she has worries, she has fears. It shows that she's not just a fangirl.

It shows a side rarely seen in romance, and that, for me, is more powerful than any boxcutter fight.

-CCY