Shuffle - Complete Box Set S.A.V.E.

Simply one of the best anime series I have ever had the privilege to watch,a beautifully written storyline interwoven with beautiful artwork make this one of my all time favorite anime series!!! As with all the other reviews,it does have some fan service,but not too graphic,and it actually had to do with the story,not just for no purpose besides exciting people. The characters are very well developed,and progress into more complex characters,some you will love even more,others you will possibly hate. From beginning to end,this series will have you laughing,excited,mad,and maybe even crying,that being said,emotionally this series is very complex. I give it 5 out of 5 stars only because there is no 6 star!!! I'm glad I bought it,and I'm sure you will enjoy all 24 episodes if you decide to purchase it to. Shuffle has its place on my top 5 anime series.

This story is about a young man named Rin. Rin lives with his friend Kaede. Both of them lost their mothers in an accident, and Kaede takes care of Rin's every need. It looks like they will always be together, until a couple of princesses form other worlds show up and ask him to choose one of them to marry. There is also a classmate named Asa who is gunning for his affections. After things start to settle down a young girl comes from the demon world to live with Kaede and Rin, making everything even more crazy. With all these really great ladies after his attention Rin must choose one, and break the others hearts.This story is very good. It's a great harem style anime with lots of awesome characters and plot twists. It is also very emotional. The last 6 episodes or so are really heavy. The animation quality and voice acting are also very good in this anime. I enjoyed every minute of it. I hope you do too.

A seen in the other review, this is structurally like many Harem-type shows. One guy; several girls all trying to edge each other out in their quest to be the person said guy chooses.The main cast is your standard run, a pair of princesses form different worlds who are rivals for the mans hearts, but are friendly with each other otherwise, The girl to small to be counted as a legitimate love interest (but is portrayed with a serious character, rather then the normal, hyperactive, irritating standard), The pretty, almost inhumanly sweetness and light roommate whom the man takes for granted, yet also ends up possibly the scariest of them all, and the good friend who does not realize she has feelings for the guy, but nevertheless enjoys teasing himThe supporting cast also is very well done, with the girl who has no interest in the protagonist, outside an occasion barb about how she wouldn't mind entering the running, just to needle one of the others, and just generally gets off on the romantic tangle that surrounds her friends, to the seemingly necessary one with a flat chest who is insecure about it around such buxom company, and compensates by being aggressive, to the perverted male friend who takes pleasure in announcing his kinks and needling the protagonist about his luck in being the focal point for the lovelies, and even the mostly comic relief provided by the King of Gods with his larger then life persona, and King of Demons, who is slightly more calm, but just as arrogant.Even the Protagonist is not to bad. He is aware of the girls, knows they are pretty, is NOT bumbling, and does not consider himself deserving of the attention for the most part. He even is considerate of the girls feelings a bit here and there, though near the end, kind of gets tunnel vision and cant see any signs until they smack him in the face, and even then pretty much ignores most of them, but contextually, it is almost forgivable.While the character structure does not vary from SOP, each of the characters is interesting, has their own justifiable motivations, and gives a firm, believable reason for consideration. While there is, of course, a focus on boobage, it is not too overblown, and the same trope is hardly ever used more then once, (EX: he only accidently walks in on a girl in the bathroom once in the run, rather then once per episode) giving a nice variety, and resisting the formulaic feel of some others (EX: Love Hina).Story wise, I found this unexpectedly enjoyable. While there were minor elements of examining cultural differences from the Princesses of Gods and Demons, it was very minor. Structure wise, it was not the expected 24 episodes of guy getting hounded by pretty girls in various combinations (again a la Love Hina), but more akin to what I have seen in Sword Art Online, with one main start plot, and an ending broken into arcs radically different from the start.The first roughly half of the series is a string of unconnected snippets of the high school life of all the characters, and is simple a light hearted soft romance with all the players being introduced, and their surface motivations an personality revealed. The second act delves more into the inter darkness in each of the girls, with the overall feel of the show going from comedic and smile inducing Harem, to a much darker, inner demons type thing, that can bring tears almost as frequently as the first half could bring a chuckle. All of this, I felt, was focused down and presented in such a smooth curve, that you almost don't notice the winnowing until you are 3-4 episodes into the semifinal arc, and you realize that you haven't seen more then a cameo from half the characters in a while. While one of the final plot devices is pretty much a standard cliché at this point, I feel it was handled with a fair amount of subtlety, and was used to good effect. The biggest thing I enjoyed about the plot, was the fact that unlike so very many others, the ending is not left open, the protagonist has made a clear choice, and is not left dangling.Overall, I strongly recommend this if you like romantic type Anime, that can get heavy, but still end it on a high note. If you are just looking for a bubbly little love story, this is not that. If you want one that can make you laugh, cry, and smile, with good characterization, and no really irritating characters, this is a fair choice.

I have a love/hate thing with these SAVE editions. On the one hand, it is VERY reasonably priced. On the other hand, I kind of like the look of owning multiple volumes, having the great artwork filling my shelf. However, with today's prices in Anime, those kinds of collections end up costing you hundreds. Not matter how much you enjoy a series, it is hard to justify owning it in a multi-volume set. Furthermore, if space is limited, you might not have the space to devote to such things.The SAVE editions are great in those regards. You pay less than way the series would typically cost, and it takes up no more room than a single DVD case. This isn't low-quality either. I compared this with the first volume that I had in the regular set, and found the artwork on the disc to be IDENTICAL!So lose the extra dollars, don't shell out a fortune for extra plastic and paper. I fully support the SAVE movement, and I anticipate owning several other series in these editions.As for the show, I think the fact that I won both a set in the regular edition and the SAVE editions speaks for itself. One of the very best MOE/HAREM animes ever produced, and EXTREMELY watchable even with the english dubs. This is the show I use to convert unsuspecting people into the throws of Otaku-ism.