As usual, I should have seen it coming. Or rather, I should have heard it coming. The running footfalls approaching from behind. The intake of breadth. Perhaps even the swinging of her arm through the air. There was, of course, no missing either the loud greeting of "HELLO!" and the slap on the back.

‘You sure are late going home today!’ she chirped.

‘You too, Asa-senpai.’

‘Cooking club activities! And now I’ve got to rush back to make dinner. See ya!’

And as she turned to speed off in her characteristically energetic way…

Nature sent a blessing wind. Blue crossed stripes on white…

She spun round, an interrogating gleam in her eye. ‘You saw, didn’t you?’ she crooned.

Crap! Did I say that out loud!? ‘Huh? Of course not! Definitely not! Not even a little!!’

A sly grin crept over her face, eyebrows raised sceptically. ‘That’s a little disappointing.’

By the light of the setting sun, her smile was reflected in mine.

—

This figure can look quite different when seen from just a slightly different angle. My favourite is the one above right where the eye can travel in a straight line from top to bottom, taking in all the design points of interest from her ahoge, hair ribbon, front bow, cleavage, upraised left hand, pleated skirt and underskirt, briefcase (with adorable Ama keychain) and bent knee. Certainly seems to have been sculpted with a very specific placing in mind.

Her back is certainly a lot less interesting. I do appreciate and enjoy all the painstaking details such as the dots borderng the grey underskirt, the belt buckle at the small of her back, the buckles and clasps on her school briefcase, the painting of the brown stripe just above the hem of her white skirt, shirt sleeves and sailor collar but, as with all the points of interest mentioned above, the front view is definitely where the focus is.

Being a green-haired chara, I thought that a green background wouldn’t work at all but it doesn’t seem too bad. Also the light was a bit low. But the hair still manages to stand out from the grass behind. And I think it has a nice contrast against the uniform. Also, for some reason, the pic on the left had a brownish tinge which cleared up after using Auto Levels (right). Not a very successful shoot but a fun one nonetheless.

Still have much to learn especially from other great shoots like Dancing Queen‘s – who used a background with yellow stripes that’s just a tad more elaborate than the packaging box’s. Blue, as seen on 1999.co.jp‘s catalog pics, works great too.

My favourite is Saku‘s photo shoot. He made such marvelous use of a variety of outdoor backgrounds (sky, water, buildings and trees), careful posing as well as low f/stop to create a lovely date mood and the feel of 1/1 perspective. Great to see others enjoying this figure of my favourite SHUFFLE! chara too.

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.

Thanks to Shingo, I rushed to purchase a copy of Comptiq Heroines Vol.3 (2007 Spring). Amazon.co.jp then just had to flag Megami DELUXE Vol. 8 (other people who bought X also bought Y…) with Asa-senpai in all her waitressing glory on the cover. As moyism sayeth unto us: Evil I tells you.

And this, ladies, traps and gentlemen, is the reason I spent more on postage than the magazines themselves. orz Back home, at Kinokuniya, the evil things tend to sell out faster than a taikayi stall under attack by an army of hungry Ayus so I wasn’t prepared to take any chances.

Other than the fact that it’s Asa, it’s Asa x Kaede yuri! Much better than the half-nekkid Sia x Nerine symmetrical docking on page 22 of the Megami DELUXE IMHO. Besides the ero-ero, there’s a sense of mystery about the picture that really intrigues me. Kaede’s gone psycho on Asa before (once in Ep 19 and also in Memories 12) but she looks almost coyly affectionate, reaching out while leaning in for a cuddle. If this were tagged under the late lamented danbooru rules, ‘aftersex’ would probably one of those applied. And Asa-senpai looks like she’s in the equivalent of the ‘male’ position with Kaede’s head resting on her arm. I thought her expression seemed vacant when I saw Shingo’s photo as well as a scan. But having seen the real thing on glossy paper up close, it looks more like quiet compassion. The way I’m currently reading is its the aftermath of threesome with Rin Tsuchimi the lucky bastard (who is mercifully absent from the picture) in the context of a harem ending and the two erstwhile rivals are indulging in some skinship and pillowtalk. Not yuri then. Bah.

As for the Megami DELUXE, it collects together most of the posters over the past year, either as one or two page formats (no fold-outs). My favourites include the Haruhi girls doing bunnygirl (p.8), catgirl (pp.10-11) and gothloli (pp.12-13) cosplay, hot n’ bothered Asa-senpai in those leaf-side-tie panties (p.23), black bikini Eri in her wicker throne (p.42), Shana as a miko (p.71) and StrikerS Nanoha x Fate back-to-back, butt rubba and blushing 4tw (p.76). The surprise was this 104 x 38 cm poster:

Haruhi is on the reverse side but, forgive me O-Haruhi-sama, Yuki wins pantshands-down. I’m particularly weak to this swimsuit design and Yuki just has to take it over the top with her two finger-adjustments and the surprising presence of the expression of surprise which charms-up her moé by 100 points. Am even thinking of framing it up but there’s no way I’m taking this to the framing shop. To repeat the wise words of our avatar of the goddess of spending: ‘Evil I tells you.’ OTL

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.

Swimsuit fanservice and the relentless waves of humourous scenes! Of course, lots of my favourite character: Asa-senpai, you look gorgeous as always!

Already we start with Nerine declining to jump into the pool from the diving board because her breasts adversely affect her balance. And Mayumi does the bubbling equivalent of orz. A real LOL moment for me. In any case, Mayumi has a magnificient arse as displayed when she launched her pre-emptive strike before Itsuki could diss her about her chest. Given she’s not loli, I doubt any of the usual suspects will append D to describe her FC. Poor Mayumi! Though she might get points from the heterochromia fans desu.

Did Primula have this big an appetite in the original series? She’s become a Nagato Speed Eating Machine! These Nagato Emulators seem to popping up all over the place! LOL

BTW nice Gendou impression, Itsuki. Needs MOAR white gloves though. Second time SHUFFLE! has made an Evangelion reference?

Nice follow-up with Rin nosebleeding after a possible Magikano homage.

Hmmm… Itsuki has replaced Kareha with Asa in his Classical Greek version as compared to his Arabian Nights iteration. Speaking of which, I’m slightly disappointed that Kareha and Tsubomi didn’t join in, always funny to imagine Kareha trying to put the moves on Asa. LOL

Quite a contrast. Rin actually wants to know what Asa’s wish is (if she catches the magical wish-granting fish) but regrets asking Kaede.

I just get the feeling that asread enjoys being Kruel to Kaede; in this case, she panics after Rin and Nerine have gone MIA for more than two hours or so. More power to the studio! LOL

What could Rin and Nerine possibly be doing completely naked!?
*dun dun dun*

Could be reading too much into the beautiful eye catch (those Verbana Academy school uniforms are quite something!) but I think it does show how, Earth-friends-wise, the princesses have a different ‘clique’ – Nerine is understandably closer to Asa as she taught her how to cook tamagoyaki and she was the first to ever-so-gently confront Asa over her feelings for Rin. Whereas Sia seems closer to Kaede; afterall, they’ve even kissed – though that was probably Kikyou rather than Sia in the driving seat.

The stress starts to strain Kaede’s self-control… *cue eerie music*

Kaede: ~Every breath you take / Every move you make / Every bond you break / Every step you take / I’ll be watching you ~

I tend to find Sia very irritating because her voice grates on me. Kikyou’s voice is just so much more appealing. But this scene was just so hilarous. Now that she thinks that Rin is doing the full monty with Nerine and Mayumi, she despairs as she’s offered her nekkid self to Rin before but he had refused her. (Though not as nekkid as the Kaede Bed Attack.)

OMFG! Asa-senpai *really* should be Head Wife of Rin’s harem given how well she is able to handle the others (except when Kaede is armed and dangerous).

*cue Empty Pot BGM*

Welcome back to paranoid jealous psycho Krazy Kaede! Yuko Goto does some brilliant work here.

Asa is understandably nervous – like Rin, she’s also been physically attacked by Kaede. Both also shared the distinction of being the only members of the SHUFFLE! cast who have been at the receiving end of Kaede’s Death Note.

Kaede’s slow knocking was really terrifying. I await the inevitable ‘Here’s Johnny!!’ parody. Or changing Kaede’s chopper to Rena’s cleaver and having her go ‘USO-DA!!!’

Jungle Jane Asa also so gorgeous!!

Saber is missing her Excaliber. And the artifact second from the left looks familiar but I can’t recall what it’s supposed to be a reference to…

This scene, with the changed voice and thundering giant steps, brought back many pleasant memories of the Cardcaptor Sakura episode about the Little card.

Despite everything being Rin’s fault this time, the girls show appreciation for his efforts in trying to set things right. And Asa praises them: ‘Minna ii ko wa ne…’ (You’re all such good girls…) Very oneesama and very Head Wife. As expected of Asa-senpai!

Nani playing? LOL

As Omni has pointed out, SHUFFLE! Memories was not really worth watching. Mainly repetition and the story didn’t flow as well either. But I did enjoy all the new material like the new ED/OPs and this episode – might have worked better if the former were packaged as DVD extras and the latter as a standalone OVA.

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.