hontou ni sou omou?

Lisianthus and Nerine use emotional blackmail to force Rin to ask Asa out on a date. Ituski ups the ante by planning a date for them to Cupid Land. Rin’s absorption with trying to stick to the plan only results in Asa becoming acutely aware of his unease. She tries her best to have fun with him but finally gets angry with Rin when he says that he went on this date with her for Sia and Nerine’s sake. See Omni for his review and screencaps.

A bit surprised that the opening and half-way eye catches reverted to the Happy Fun pre-Ep 12 ones, given that this episode was emotionally quite heavy. The next episode will probably see a return to the black background with shimmering episode title and nekkid girls eye-catch.

Analysis, speculation on Asa vs. Kaede and 117 screencaps follow.

Lisianthus and Nerine look on from above at Rin and Asa’s interaction. Sia shares with Nerine that she thinks the person Rin likes is Asa. And that she likes Asa and finds that they look suitable for each other. Nerine adds the tidbit (gleaned from Ep 4 and 15) that Asa also probably loves Rin but has not yet told Rin clearly of her feelings. The two resolve to do something about it. *Toll the bells of doom* I had a terrible feeling when they decided to try and accelerate things - given that Kikyou’s attempt just the previous episode resulted in a disaster. Itsuki’s super-romantic plan, that even Mayumi approved of, was just too over-the-top for a budding relationship. Classic case of paving the road to hell with good intentions.

Kareha always gets a laugh out of me when she goes in love junkie "Ma-ma-maa!" mode. Think this is part of her is quite scary and probably goes some way to explaining why, despite being on the great beauties of the school, she hasn’t got a boyfriend. The H-game also hints that this is because there is someone that she likes…

Awww! How to resist this kind of expression?

I thought this scene paralleled Sia’s Ep 8 date prelude except without the multitude of panties. Well, we did have a Lunamaria moment though I must admit I was a little disappointed that Asa’s panties weren’t striped. ^_- It goes downhill from here though. T_T

Sad Look No.1

Sad Look No.2

Sad Look No.3

Sad Look No.4

Sad Look No.6

The cookie-feeding scene was also taken from the H-game (19/8) but as they were already a couple then, Rin went through with it and it resulted in a kiss.

"Confess everything on the Ferris Wheel!"

It’s quite amazing how Asa can just pwn Lisianthus and Nerine with just one sharp line. (Plus Kaede in Ep 13.)

Well, plenty of ways to interpret which ending this episode points to. Kaede supporters will argue that this episode has set Asa’s chances back (after Nerine and Sia have suffered setbacks) and now the series is setting up Kaede’s story which hasn’t had any development since Ep 5. In conventional no-clear-predestination romance / harem anime, the girl whose story comes out last will be the winner so Kaede is the anchor and will be the winner.

Against the Last Girl Standing argument, I’d say that SHUFFLE! has not been very conventional and although there have been one-girl-per-episode feels to earlier episodes (Ep 3 - Sia; Ep 4 - Nerine; Ep 5 - Kaede; Ep 6 - Primula; Ep 7 - Asa; Ep 8-10: Sia), the narratives start to become intertwined after that with Ep 12 being about Primula’s illness and the Artificial Life experiments, Ep 13 showing how Rin listens to Asa, Ep 14-15 deals with the Nerine-Licorice-Primula connection, Ep 16-17 appears to focus on Sia-Kikyou but also shows Rin and Asa becoming closer.

Also right now, a Kaede ending would feel quite forced and a bit of a reversion to default choice (due mainly to active failure on the part of the other girls), given that Rin loves her most - as Mentar has pointed out, she’s failed the test of the Keepalive Checks or Pings.

By the look of the preview and schedule summary, the next episode will revive Kaede and Rin’s shared backstory (the accident that killed her mom and his parents as well as its consequences). Again KKK members may argue that Kaede’s Lurker In The Dark act at the end of Ep 17 sets up a Kaede Crisis for the following two episodes (Ep 19: Forgotten Thoughts; Ep 20: The Unforgotten Sin - latter’s title hints at Kaede’s “Unforgivable!” in Rin’s Ep 5 nightmare?) in which Rin will realise that it is Kaede that he truly loves, blowing away Asa’s advances over the past few episodes. However the preview for Ep 19 also shows (as Omni has also noted) the beginnings of the Asa Crisis which will finally bring forward the links between her illness, her aversion to magic and the non-human part of her heritage.

Rin’s clenched fist and rejection of Kikyou and then Sia in Ep 16 has been read as him being unable to commit to her because the one he loves, at that time, is Asa - hinted at by the Asa-like figure he sees before Kikyou drags him down the slope. However Ep 17 also shows that Rin has trouble confessing to Asa, despite the assumption that she is the one he loves. So the fact he didn’t confess to her plus the acrimonous parting with Asa indicates he does not truly love her?

Instead I’d argue that Rin has trouble opening himself to love and be loved. Period. Based on the H-game, he took the blame for the accident (when it was actually related to Kaede) so as for Kaede not to feel guilty but this also made her, his childhood friend, hate him and also he lost the will to live. Later he reconciled with Kaede and they promised to always be together but it seemed that Rin had sealed his heart off as a coping mechanism for all the guilt (lying to Kaede?) and pain.

I speculate that the Kaede-Rin backstory will be used to do two things. Firstly, to rebuild and strengthen bridges between Rin and Asa. He needs to come to terms with that old pain before he can really love. Through that Asa will also understand his difficulty in loving and that sharing should open the way for her to share the rest of her backstory with Rin - the reasons for her weak body and why she blamed her mother which were hinted at but not explained in Ep 14.

My guess as to how Kaede fits into the above framework is that she comes to accept Rin’s feelings for Asa (which Sia and Nerine have in this episode) through his reaction to the Asa Crisis and to release him from his promise to always be together with her which I think is a crucial step if Rin is to choose any girl other than her. Thus while Kaede holds an important piece, I’d still aruging for and hoping that the completed puzzle is one of Rin-Asa.

Oh, and I wonder how the female animebloggers would rate Asa’s outfit in this episode? Not quite up to Honoka Sakurai’s standards if you ask me… Gomen ne, Asa-chan!