hontou ni sou omou?

Only one brief scene with Asa-chan spilling her tea in shock when she overhears Eustoma bragging to Primula about Rin and Shia’s impending marriage. Then another with her in Sound Only mode calling, probably to ask Rin about the rumours of his impending marriage to Shia but then chickening out and asking for Kaede instead. Sigh.

But my respect for Shia grew by leaps and bounds. Her emotional maturity shone through as she realised the pain that the marriage rumours, which so delighted her at first, had caused to her good friends, Rin-chan (Nerine) and Kae-chan (Kaede). She also realised that things were going too fast for Rin as well and he was under a lot of pressure. So she’s decided to take the pace down a peg and for the two of them to get to know each other better. Tacit assumption also is to give the other girls more time to accept their pairing because it also seems important to her for Nerine and Kaede to bless their union.

亜沙ちゃんのために!　愛愛亜沙ちゃん!　
Asa-chan no tameni! Ai-ai-Asa-chan! (For the sake of Asa-chan! Love-love-Asa-chan!)
AAA

Warning and a request. The rest of this entry will contain significant spoilers based on my playing of the SHUFFLE! game. Commenters are requested to refrain from posting spoilers in the anime posts. Please save them for my forthcoming no-holds-barred reports and reflections on the SHUFFLE! game.

One of those things which I appreciated more about the anime after playing the Asa-chan and Shia threads of the game is the detail in character design and its impact on plot. You might have noticed that Ama-san’s twin ribbons on her right hand is also followed by her daughter’s trademark hair ribbons, saying something about the mother-daughter relationship. Her pointy cat-like ribboned head covering as well as her youngish looks and demeanour will also serve as indications of a major plot point about her origins. At first I found her quite irritating but now that I know more, I’ve actually grown quite fond of her.

Foebeshii’s given name is obviously Gilbert. He’s got the chess set, the cloning tank and a Destiny Plan to fix up Rin and Nerine for the greater good of the Three Worlds.

The animation detail, with Nerine’s reflection, in her tear was a real delight. Also this episode’s title reflected Nerine’s moonlight confession rather than Shia.

Shia is a much more interesting character when she’s being evil. It’s almost like she’s a completely different person. I particularly enjoyed how she interrogated Rin in ep 9 after Asa-chan’s topless incident. “Mmmmm…. mune, neee?” “Riiiiiin-kuuuuun!” Rin is so house broken already. LOL. In this episode, it was a good laugh to see her being silly while dreaming of everyone (with the exceptions of Asa-chan, Kareha and Itsuki) being happy for her marriage with Rin and her mulitiple chair attack when she realised that it was her father who was spreading the marriage rumours around town. Speaking of evil twins, this episode also foreshadows one of the elements in the game. Will be looking out for further signs of that backstory in future episodes.