Shuffle!

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Shuffle!
Developer(s)	Navel
Series	Shuffle!
Release date(s)	JPN January 30, 2004 (Shuffle! Limited Edition) JPN October 20, 2005 (Shuffle! On the Stage)
Genre(s)	Visual novel, Eroge
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	CERO: 18+ (Shuffle!) 15+ (Shuffle! On the Stage)
Platform(s)	PC (Shuffle!) Playstation 2 (Shuffle! On the Stage)
Media	x3 CD (Limited Edition) or x1 DVD (others)

Shuffle! (シャッフル！, Shāfuru^?) is the first computer game made by the visual novel making company Navel. While the PC version was created as an eroge, or erotic game, it was also released for the Playstation 2 as the all-ages, enhanced remake Shuffle! On the Stage. The game has started a small media franchise for Navel and has been adapted into series of anime, manga, and light novels. Along with this, Shuffle! is followed by its sequels Tick! Tack! and Really? Really! All of these are available only in Japan, and it is unlikely that they will receive English releases.

Shuffle! consists of a typical harem romance set-up, where the main character is liked by a number of attractive girls, and in which he must choose which girl he wishes to be with. The game is fully voiced (except for the main character) and offers approximately six hours worth of gameplay for each path.^[1]

[edit] Story

Example of what average conversation looks like in Shuffle! Here, Rin is talking with Asa.

The basic storyline to Shuffle! follows the romantic life of Rin Tsuchimi, a normal human, Japanese high schooler, who finds himself being sought after by a variety of girls. The world of Shuffle! consists of humans living in harmony with gods (with slightly pointed ears) and devils^[2] (with very pointed ears). Despite their respective positive and negative connotations, both races are equally kind and good-natured. Rin soon finds himself as the potential marriage candidate for both Lisianthus and Nerine, the two daughters of the kings of the god and devil worlds who recently transferred to Rin's school. In addition to them, he is also liked by his childhood friend Kaede, his senior Asa, and the mysterious, reserved Primula. Through the course of the game, Rin will end up with one of those five girls and fall into mutual love.

Depending on how the player plays the game, the story beyond this basic set-up can differ greatly. The storyline of the adaptations of Shuffle! generally try to incorporate the stories from all of the paths in the visual novel, but still vary greatly in which events occur and the order of those that do, not to mention which girl Rin falls in love with.

[edit] Gameplay

Example of what a special scene's conversation looks like. This image shows the beginning of Nerine's first H-scene. Important plot points and H-scenes are complimented with high quality CG artwork.

The gameplay mostly consists of just reading and listening to the conversations provided. Every now and then however, a "Please Select Your Destiny" event will occur, giving the player a multiple choice on how to respond or act. The choices selected determine who will be Rin's destined lover. However, there aren't very many of these. Depending on which route the player takes, there will only be between 8 and 12 multiple-choice questions. Once a certain point in the game is reached, a translucent image of the destined character appears when the day changes: indicating who Rin has fallen in love with. Afterwards, the multiple choices become almost nonexistent. Eventually, very late in the game, an H scene will occur. The first scene always involves foreplay for the female character followed by intercourse. After the first H scene, more conversation follows until the second H scene occurs. The second H scene tends to be slightly more varied in its content, although they all include fellatio. There are only two H scenes for each character, and after some more conversation the game ends.

[edit] Omake

After the game has been completed at least once, players can view CG artwork they have observed, skip to the H scenes or endings for characters they have completed, and listen to music they have heard in the game. Finally, after completing most of the girls, one can also view all the characters in their different outfits and poses with different facial expressions on some versions of the game.

[edit] Shuffle! On the Stage

The Playstation 2 version greatly varies from the PC version by having all of the H scenes removed. To make up for these deleted scenes, the storylines of the five original characters have been expanded. Additionally, the player may follow Kareha's or Mayumi=Thyme's paths, two characters whose coupled ending routes were unavailable in the PC version of the game. Tsubomi, Kareha's younger sister, also has her first appearance in the On the Stage version during Kareha's path.^[1]

[edit] Characters

[edit] Main characters

The girls of Shuffle!: Asa (top-left), Kaede (top-right), Lisianthus (bottom-left), Primula (bottom-center), and Nerine (bottom-right).

Rin Tsuchimi (土見 稟, Tsuchimi Rin^?) 

Rin Tsuchimi is a seventeen year-old high school student and the male protagonist to the series. In the game, Rin is the role that the player assumes. Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita (anime only)

Lisianthus/Kikyou (リシアンサス / キキョウ, Rishiansasu / Kikyou^?) 

Nicknamed Sia, Lisianthus is the daughter of the Lord of Gods and came to the human world as a possible marriage candidate for Rin. She is energetic, enthusiastic, and outgoing. Due to her absorbing her twin sister Kikyou's spirit at birth, she has also has a dissociative identity disorder. Voiced by: Sayaka Aoki

Nerine/Lycoris (ネリネ / リコリス, Nerine / Rikorisu^?) 

Nerine is the daughter of the Lord of Devils and, like Sia, is also a marriage candidate for Rin. Nerine is a more capable magic user than Sia, and occasionally uses it to devastating effect. Similar to Sia, Nerine has absorbed the spirit of Lycoris, her clone. Unlike Sia however, this has not led her to developing multiple personalities and only caused her to share Lycoris' emotions and singing voice. Voiced by: Haruka Nagami

Kaede Fuyou (芙蓉 楓, Fuyō Kaede^?) 

Kaede Fuyou is Rin's childhood friend who grew up with him in the same house after her mother and Rin's parents died in a car accident. Some time after they started junior high school, Kaede started taking care of Rin. Kaede is easily embarrassed and is happy in her role as homemaker. Voiced by: Yuko Goto

Asa Shigure (時雨亜沙, Shigure Asa^?) 

Asa Shigure is Rin's friend and senpai. While she actually has a weak constitution, she makes up for it with her energetic personality. Despite being a touch of a tomboy,^[3] she is an excellent cook. She uses English loan words often and is notable for her "Hello!" greeting which is her catchphrase. Voiced by: Miki Ito

Primula (プリムラ, Purimura^?) 

Primula is a strange, soft-spoken girl that's often seen carrying a stuffed cat around. She is the third artificial life form created from a result of gods' and devils' experimentations from which she escaped from to go to the human world to search for Rin. Additionally, with her young appearance, Primula serves to fill the lolicon niche of the series. Voiced by: Hitomi

[edit] Secondary characters

Kareha (カレハ, Kareha^?) 

Kareha is a god who is Asa's friend and classmate; consequentially, the two are often seen together. She has a catchphrase of saying "Maa! Maa! Maa!" whenever she sees something romantic or cute. She also has a younger sister named Tsubomi who is introduced in the On the Stage version of the game. Voiced by: Yura Hinata

Mayumi=Thyme (Mayumi Taimu, ^?) 

Mayumi=Thyme is a heterochromia-eyed girl in Rin's class who is always looking for news. She has the smallest bust size in the series; a fact often made fun of by Rin and Itsuki. Nonetheless, she takes pride in her small breasts, rationalizing that by being below average they are a rarity sought after by a select group of men. Voiced by: Miki Inoue

Itsuki Midoriba (緑葉樹, Midoriba Itsuki^?) 

Itsuki Midoriba is Rin's "bad" friend and classmate.^[4] Being the Don Juan of the class, he is envious of the girls' attraction to Rin and often mentions that he will take care of the girls that he doesn't choose. Itsuki and Mayumi often fight over comments made about Mayumi's bust size, but this is just a cover for his secret love for her.^[1] Voiced by: Hideki Ogihara

Nadeshiko Benibara (紅薔薇撫子, Benibara Nadeshiko^?) 

Nadeshiko Benibara is Rin's homeroom teacher. She is single, attractive, and is frequently the victim of pickup lines, including from the Lord of Devils and Itsuki. She has a habit of dealing out very strong punishments such as writing 100-page reports and dragging a tire around the track for minor offensives. Voiced by: Chinomi Takema

King of Gods (神王, Shin-Ō^?) 

His name is Eustoma. Lisianthus's father and the lord of the realm of the gods. He is big, musclebound, and enjoys drinking sake. Despite his best intentions, he often embarrasses his daughter. Voiced by: Juurouta Kosugi

King of Devils (魔王, Maō^?) 

His name is Forbesii. Nerine's father and the lord of the realm of the devils. He is a lustful character and thus quickly gets along with Itsuki in the beginning of the game. Like the King of Gods, he too has a habit of embarrassing his daughter. Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa

Ama Shigure (時雨亜麻, Shigure Ama^?) 

Ama Shigure is Asa's mother and the first artificial life form created by the gods and devils. She has the habit of drastically reducing names to cute nicknames (Asa for instance is referred to as "A-chan") and for wearing a cat-ear hat. See looks abnormally young to be a mother, and it surprises the other characters to learn she is. Voiced by: YURIA

[edit] Themes

Shuffle! contains a leitmotif of allusions to flowers. All of the characters names are references to flowers in some way, mostly genera of flowering plants. (See individual character articles for their meanings.) Additionally, in Japan, every day has a special flower associated with it, which in turn are associated with certain characteristics. This is called hanakotoba (花言葉), or "language of flowers". All of the characters' birthdays and personalities correspond with the flowers of their respective days.^[5]

For example: the high school that the series takes place in, Verbena Academy (バーベナ学園, Bābena Gakuen^?), refers to the genus Verbena, which has connotations of family union and magical power. Also in a non-direct flora allusion, the city the series takes place in is Kōyō-chō (光陽町, Kōyō-chō^?), which literally means "Sunshine Town", alluding to sunlight's beneficial effects on plants.

[edit] Release and sales

Shuffle! had much pre-sale hype due to it being the first work produced by the then new Navel company, which was largely composed of former members of BasiL (maker of Sore wa Maichiru Sakura no Yōni), including Hiro Suzuhira and Aoi Nishimata, the illustrators for Shuffle! The Limited Edition was released on January 30, 2004, retailing for 9,240 yen (~$79.73) and came with a special artbook featuring original drawings of the cast by twelve guest artists and came in a special edition box.^[6] This was a risky date, as it was the same launch date of Fate/stay night, a highly anticipated visual novel by Type-Moon. Despite the competition however, Shuffle! was able to sell well, as many otaku pre-ordered the two games together.^[7] Shuffle! was able to be the second most sold computer game of January 2004 on Getchu.com, just behind Fate/stay night.^[8]

The Normal Edition was released on February 27, 2004 on one DVD instead of 3 CDs and came with an original Shirotama & Kurotama (白玉＆黒玉, Shirotama & Kurotama^? lit. White Ball & Black Ball, the names of the two stuffed cats Primula carries) keychain.^[6] It ranked 14th in computer games sales for February 2004 on Getchu.com^[9]

The Standard Edition was released on December 17, 2004, also on one DVD. All three PC versions of Shuffle! retailed for the same price.^[6] Combined, Shuffle! was the third most widely sold game of 2004 on Getchu.com, following Fate/stay night and Clannad.^[10]

Shuffle! On the Stage was released on October 20, 2005 and sold well (for a visual novel) during its first week, selling 29,732 copies by October 23, making it the sixth best selling video game of the week in Japan.^[11] However, it was quickly pushed off the top ten by the next week.^[12] It was released in two versions: the regular version, with just the game, which retailed for 7,140 yen (~$61.61), and the DX version, which retailed for 9,240 yen (~$79.73) and came with a 12 cm Lisianthus figure, a Shuffle! On the Stage Mix CD, and a cell phone cleaner.^[13]

[edit] Reception

Shuffle! on the Stage received a total review score of 22/40 (out of the four individual review scores of 4, 7, 5, and 6) from the notoriously tough Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu.^[14] A review on the website Visual Novels gave a positive review of Shuffle! On the Stage, commenting: "The original story was excellent, but with the addition of two new storylines and the fleshing out of the original stories now that the H-scenes have disappeared, you really become engrossed in the story, and you start to feel empathy with the characters."^[1]

[edit] Adaptations

Cover of the third volume of Shuffle! Days in the Bloom, featuring Kareha and Asa on the cover.

[edit] Manga

There have been two official series of Shuffle! manga produced by Kadokawa Shoten which originally appeared in Comptiq magazine. The first, titled Shuffle! Days in the Bloom, is illustrated by Shiroi Kusaka, has five tankōbon, and retails for 567 yen each (~$4.89).^[15] Days in the Bloom began running in Comptiq on December 2003, a month before the Shuffle! visual novel was released, to build publicity for the game.

The second series is a "comic anthology" titled Shuffle! Comic à la Carte (SHUFFLE! コミックアラカルト, Shuffle! Comic à la Carte^?) which is illustrated by various artists. It has five tankōbon which retail for 588 yen each (~$5.07).^[16]

[edit] Anime

Main article: Shuffle! (anime)

Naoto Hosoda directed an anime adaptation of Shuffle! that had a special prologue DVD released on May 2005 and aired in Japan on WOWOW between July 7, 2005 and January 5, 2006 in twenty-four episodes. The anime combines elements from all of the characters' paths from the game into one plot, although differs from the game by adding some elements, such as the idol clubs formed around Sia, Nerine, and Kaede, and removing other elements, such as the H-scenes.

There is currently a second anime series being produced titled Shuffle! Memories that has been announced to begin January 2007 with an alternate storyline.^[17]

[edit] Character novels

Mayumi=Thyme's character novel, the last in the series.

There have been seven character novels published by Kadokawa Shoten. There are separate novels for Lisanthus, Nerine, Kaede, Asa, Primula, Kareha, and Mayumi. They retail for 945 yen each (~$8.15).^[18]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• (Japanese) Navel's official Shuffle! website Caution — contains some suggestive content.
• (English) FAQ at GameFAQs — includes comparison of differences between the game and anime.