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SHUFFLE! 23

There's trouble in paradise as Asa's condition deteriorates. Ama-san tells all to Rin. He is unable to persuade Asa to save herself by using up the magic that is accumulating within her and which her human body is increasingly unable to tolerate. Their quarrelling seems to worsen Asa's illness, adding pressure on Rin to figure out a way to get Asa to save herself. After regaining consciousness in the wake of her third attack, Asa leaves Rin behind in the hospital. Waking up to find her gone, he rushes out in the night calling out her name.

Warning. PC game-based game spoilers as well as a hefty 126 screencaps of mainly the Shigure mother and daughter as well as Kareha follow.

I was pretty pleased with the way that Ama-san revealed her origins. She's actually Lucy's cousin from Elfen Lied. [/jk] It had much more dramatic impact than in the PC game when Rin found out by accidentally seeing a family photo in Asa's room where Ama-san's tell-tale ears are exposed. She also has the opportunity to briefly explain why she volunteered to be a test subject for the Yggdrasil Project - her life in the Demon world was very harsh and that she did not fear dying from the experiment. Some of the extra magic forced into her body for the experiment then passed into Asa which explains why Asa is a half-demon (though she and Asa insist Asa is human) but has magical powers. Recalling Mayumi's plea with Nerine in Ep 4 (grumbling that she's only a half and does not have the magical power to blow up the whole school), it seems that when, in general, children of demon-human couples (like Mayumi) are unable to use magic - the magic-using ability like O type blood which only reproduces as O type in the next generation if the partner is also of the same blood type. Also demons have very different capacities for magic with demon royal family having the highest - thus the need to clone Licorice from Nerine to be the second experimental subject as the magic being put into the test subject is of a similar level to that of the Demon King (as we're told by Forbeshi in Ep 13). As pointed out in the game, Asa is truly one of a kind in all three worlds. The one thing that bugs me is - if Mayumi is the same age as Asa and that the gate to the Demon and God worlds were only opened about eight years ago, how did Mayumi's parents meet in time to produce her (though one of Beni-joshi's lessons early in the series did mention how some individuals have travelled to other worlds mysteriously)?

Our favourite nekomimi mom asks Rin to keep it a secret. And I think there's good reason to play safe. Eustoma and Forbeshi have been quite relaxed about letting Primula leave the research centre but given that the Yggrdasil Project is like the Manhattan Project meets Human Genome Project and that Asa is a love rival to their daughters, there might be an implicit threat to Asa and Ama-san if this got out. Probably the only real justification for a polygamy ending (aside for the laughs) is for Rin to inherit the thrones of the Demon and God worlds to protect Asa and Ama from the demands of the Yggdrasil Project. But I guess I'm being rather too Machiavellian here.

There is also a significant difference from the game with respect to Ama-san's physiology. In the PC game, due to being experimented on, Ama ages very very slowly. Primula displays similar properties while Licorice aged too rapidly (a bit like Rau Le Crueset). In this episode, it is quite clear that she has matured physically from the time when she first arrived when compared to the present - implying she ages normally. Bit of a pity - we probably won't see the Itsuki Hitting On Ama scene then. More on her seiyuu YURIA's excellent voice acting later.

It seems that Kareha has known about the nature of Asa's condition since Ep 7. In this episode, she is extremely serene and not at all in her usual Ma-ma-maa love junkie space cadet character. I still can't shake the feeling that she really loves Asa rather more than Rin - given that in the previous episode her reasons for liking Rin are that he is kind and above all ("????") it's because Asa loves Rin. In the anime she has played a smaller role in getting Asa and Rin together as well as inspiring Rin's plan to save Asa (when she heals Rin after he challenges and is then injured by a thug who was harressing her).

Despite the serious nature of their argument, Asa is animated in a childish, SD manner. Even though I'm a card carrying AAA member and my SHUFFLE! entries are a bit of a Shigure Asa character shrine, I have to say that this style was appropriate because Asa is being quite childish and willful. Omni found her rationale for refusing to use magic hard to understand and I agree - it simply doesn't make sense and she's being stubborn about it. In effect, she is punishing herself to atone for a past wrong to a person dear to her. The similarity of Asa's relationship with Ama-san was astutely noted by Kaede during one of her Intermediate Psycho stage conversations with Rin in Ep 20. Speaking of Kaede being astute, she easily realizes that Asa's condition is not good when Rin tries to reassure her about it.

I was just thinking "entry plug" during the opening part of this MRI scene.

Wooh. I like Nerine's outfit.

After the first attack in this episode, Asa looks pale and pasty. It gets worse later. Rin's growing unease with the worsening of her condition is made even more poignant by her declaration that she won't die yet as she has a dream of growing old together with Rin and as a pair of grandparents, they will reaffirm their love for each other at the place of her happiest memory.

I'm not entirely sure what the basis of Ama-san's faith in Rin as The One to save her daughter, except perhaps some kind of analogous extrapolation of how her most respected (and now eternally absent) husband saved her. But I suppose Ama-san must have tried and failed to get Asa to use magic to save herself so she is now pinning her hopes that Rin, being Asa's boyfriend, might be able to overcome Asa's atonement complex that by giving Asa a reason to live for herself and to want a future together with Rin.

After her third major attack, Asa's skin has turned into a greyish hue, becoming zombie-like. It must be mortifying for Rin to feel so helpless, seeing her become like that, especially when she could quite easily reverse the situation if she chose to. And while I did enjoy YURIA's voice-acting and her singing of the OP, I did not think either were very special until now. Her tearful revelation to Asa about her demonic origins brought out some tears of my own.

About Asa leaving the hospital, I'm guessing that upon waking up, she realizes that there is not much time left - that she is at her limit ("????????????") and is going to die soon. Her apology to Rin is probably about leaving him in the hospital as well as leaving him behind to mourn her. It's almost certain that she is heading for the place where Rin confessed to her at the end of Ep 21, being the place of her happiest memory and in effect choosing it as the place to die. As it is rather remote, it also perfectly sets the scene for the PC game solution to take place in the final episode of the anime (preview shows Rin having found Asa and had put his jacket around her). In the game, Rin actively planned and prepared for this. He bought the box cutter before hand (rather than just fortituously borrowing it) and met Asa in a remote part of the park where she would not easily be able to get help for him. Similar environment factors will come into play as a result of this setting, with the addition of it being late at night.

One knows that the dawn will break upon Asa's salvation but oh, to see it animated. Now for the long two week wait until the final episode airs. Augh.

Related posts:

1. SHUFFLE! 04
2. SHUFFLE! game – Asa thread 13/8-19/9 (End)
3. SHUFFLE! Memories & Really? Really!