Summary:
Rin has another dream of eight years ago, and leaves in the morning to go out with Asa. Kaede picks up the breakfast that he didn’t eat, and then we find out what happened eight years ago. Kaede lost her mother and Rin lost both of his parents in an accident. The shock of her mother’s death caused Kaede’s health deteriorated quickly. Not wanting her to die, Rin originally told Kaede that her mother’s death was his fault. As a result of that, Kaede made Rin’s life a living hell (slashing his curtains, dropping a box cutter on his face). But then one day a few years later, Kaede, while destroying one of Rin’s boats, found a postcard from her mother. On it, it said that the parents were coming back because of Kaede’s sickness. Kaede realizes that their deaths were her fault, not Rin’s, and runs out into traffic. She almost gets hit by a truck, but Rin pulls her out of the way to safety. Kaede can only cry and apologize over and over to Rin. And so, now in the present, Kaede does everything for Rin’s sake.
Rin is spending more and more time with Asa and less and less time at home. Asa faints during one of their dates, and he worries about her for the rest of the day, paying little attention to anything else. It seems that he only perks up with Asa is around or calls on the telephone. Primula has been noticing changes in both him and Kaede, and tries to tell Rin about them, but isn’t able to. After Rin calls one day to tell them that he’ll be eating with Asa and Ama, Primula is shocked to find that Kaede was stirring an empty pot the entire time. An afternoon sometime later, Primula is looking for Kaede and goes into Rin’s room. She finds the stickers of Asa and Rin from their date, but Kaede has markered Asa out of the picture. Downstairs, Rin brings Asa home, but Kaede wants her to leave, and slams Asa against the door. While Rin holds back a screaming Kaede, Asa has an attack, and crumples onto the floor.

I didn’t think it was possible for this series to get any better than it already was. Boy was I wrong. This episode reaches new levels of animation quality (for this series) and plot depth. After we learn about what happened eight years ago and why Kaede is devoted to Rin now, the rest of the episode weaves together the Kaede and Asa stories. Kaede slowly reverts back to the ways of her psychotic childhood and she was scary back then. I’m surprised Rin was able to put up with it for that long. But her situation in the present does end up being mostly Rin’s fault as he completely neglects her and only seems like he’s having fun when with Asa. I guess my only (minor) complaint about this episode is that despite what happened last episode, Asa and Rin seem to get along fine.
So in my opinion, the more crazy Kaede gets, the less likely Rin will end up with her. And since they’re portraying Asa as the victim here, I’m still pretty inclined to believe that he’ll end up with her (or no one at all). Granted, this isn’t quite the way I thought things were going to happen, but I’m very happy with the outcome. Hopefully they’ll be able to carry this momentum into the end of the series and deliver us one helluva ending.

93 Comments

  1. Holy Geez!! How could Rin live with little Ms. Psycho there after SHE DROPPED A BOX CUTTER ON HIS FACE!!! Seems that there’s a possibility that Kaede’s not in love with him, but is devoted to him for being so nice to her. Looks like next few eps. will have her figuring out her own emotions and what they mean.

    EliteF22
  2. Go!!! Kaede 😀 I love Kaede going a little Crazy, Asa got what has been coming all along to her 😀

    Anyway, I did feel a little Sorry for Asa, But i’M excited!!! to Care, I want more Crazy!! Kaede 😀 😀

    Rin x Asa is really starting to annoy me, good thing its not going to happem.

    phil
  3. “Seems that there’s a possibility that Kaede’s not in love with him, but is devoted to him for being so nice to her.”

    Nah, Kaede definately loves Rin. It’s just that Kaede herself doesn’t want Rin to love her back because of a certain reason which I won’t spoil (Not that hard to figure it out tho).

    Rasmiel
  4. Anyone know if Shuffle! is going to be licensed anytime soon? I do much prefer the japanese voices in Anime to the american ones, but it’s always interesting to see which voice actors they cast in the american versions.

    This episode is FANTASTIC! It really introduces Kaede’s story with a bang, and it’s still open whether Rin is going to end up with Kaede, Asa, or none of the girls. Hopefully we haven’t seen the last of Kaede’s mental side!

    Jade Maehara
  5. I knew Keade went a little Psycho, but I didn’t know she was like that. All in all, I’d say this is a plus toward Asa 🙂

    As for the person who asked is Shuffle is going to be licensed soon. The answer is most likely no. Since it’s a regular length series, 24 or 26 episodes, it won’t be licensed until after its over with and then some.

    DaveJS
  6. length of a series doesn’t affect if a series is going to be license or not. neither is if it was still broadcasting or not. Mabhorah anyone?

    That said Shuffle will most likely NOT be license. It is a romatic drama, those type don’t usually get license for the NA market. It is the sic fi, sword and sorcery and comendy type gets license.

    I had Kaede peg as pyscho girl after ep4 But even i didn’t think she was go pycho that much.

    XellOS^_-
  7. It’s a shame they don’t license romantic drama’s and similar types of anime. People who can’t understand Japanese or can’t be bothered to download fan-subs won;t ever be able to watch some of the best animes out there (like KGNE and Da Capo). It seems any H-game that get’s turned into an anime just get’s left out.

    Jade Maehara
  8. Nah, Kaede definately loves Rin. It’s just that Kaede herself doesn’t want Rin to love her back because of a certain reason which I won’t spoil (Not that hard to figure it out tho).

    Omni implemented spoiler tags anyway. Like this:

    Show Spoiler ▼

    You use spoiler> and spoiler/>, adding in front the minor sign like in any forums (I don’t think it’ll come out here:

    Ale
  9. Crap now I have to watch everything from ep 11 when I stopped watching when it got boring ;_; Well Conflict YAY XD Kaede ebil… never saw that one coming, Sia or even Asa? Hell yes. Kaede? NO WAY!!

    Anza
  10. And I thought this was going to be another “tenchi-syndrome” type show, but oh man, I never expected something like this!

    This is sort of like the game “School Days” when I think all the endings are good where the main protaganist ends up with a girl, it is, in fact quite the opposite…and bloody…

    Good job by the creators of the show. Now I can see this is an original work based from a Bishoujo game. Great!

    Dan
  11. Oh! Rin is a nicest guy I have ever seen. He could live with girl who intended to kil him but he treated her nicely until now. For this EP., the another mind’s(psycho) Kaede was back because Rin too neglect Kaede.

    Lexus
  12. Kaede & Asa can fight all they like, Primula for the Win!!! 😀 ~ (really I do want that.)

    Well If anyone goes near Rin & Rim-chan, Primula can wipe either girls out of existence lol j/k

    Onto the Show, Rin is a good lead but the way they make him neglect Kaede, is kinda Sad 🙁 we see asa and Rin all happy but Kaede is a big problem for everyone now. WhO Will Kaede Next tagert be? You?

    phil
  13. I think some people are kinda confused here. Kaede would NEVER and I mean NEVER harm Rin, because that’s against her little prophecy of being Rin’s personal maid. It’s just her undeniable love for Rin that’s driving her nuts. In fact, I’d say Kaede would make a pretty good body guard for the helpless Rin 😛

    Rasmiel
  14. 1º joke:
    – ASA: RIN don´t watch that TAPE!!!!
    – RIN: NO!!!! AHHHH!!! IT`S just SADAKKO ..er…I mean it´s KAEDE!!!
    THE RING ( the japanese movie)!!

    2º joke
    RIN : I love living with you kaede!You know why??
    KAEDE: no Rin why???
    RIN: because it´s like whatching HANNIBAL everyday!!!

    Dark_Schneider
  15. Now I understand why rin never chooses a girl, because when he sees a cute and kawaii laughing face from a girl he sees the devil laughing throught it ( LOL )! It´s something POS- TRAUMATIC (LOL)

    Dark_Schneider
  16. well finally in the kaede side of the story and maybe this psychotic attack that kaede has will be a wake up call for Rin cause if it continues with what the game does then Shuffle will be the best anime of 2005 for me for sure

    Azbaby
  17. Someone said that the story ends with rinxasa……dun think so =/………..if you all guys remember(and I’m sure you do) during the first 10 episodes it seemed that rin would have been ended with sia, while now she has been totally rejected….even if he now was getting along well (“was” because of the ordeal that happened

    Paracelsius
  18. Rasmiel: I agree with you there

    When people post about kaede hurting Rin, right Now, It not true ~ it really wouldn’t ever happen.

    Justinstrife: That was the past, It not like kaede is going to hurt Rin right Now, Its Not her in her Character to do that. Though she might of really hurt Asa there if Rin wasn’t there.

    I think this time around Alot!! more people would like kaede Character Now. 🙂

    phil
  19. Nah. Actually, she could die if Rin doesn’t end up with her 😉

    If you ask me, whether he ends up with her or not, they’ll still go through that scene or something similar. Rin is ready to do that for Asa or any of the girls, he loves his friends.

    Ale
  20. Well, i am curious to see this episode. Question is: who will end up with Rin?
    I remember Air where the boy was loving only one girl. At the end, both of them died.
    So maybe there will be a particular ending in Shuffle..
    Who knows, will see^^

    *Chi*
  21. Asa is NOT going to die! Someone made the suggestion that they’d do OVA’s for each of the girls to truly finish the story – this really does now seem to be the way they’re going to do it. If Rin really does love Asa, he’s not going to give that up just because Kaede goes a bit mental.

    Or how about this for an ending: Rin and Kaede realise they lvoe each other, and have Primula move in with them as a little sister. Sia and Nerine reveal the love they’ve kept hidden from everyone, and Kareha finally admits her repressed feelings for Asa. There, everyone’s happy. Except Kareha’s little sister… I wonder if they’ll introduce her in the final episode of the anime. Second season of Shuffle!, anyone?

    Jade Maehara
  22. Shuffle! is a popular series, so the chances of it being licensed are really good. Just because it’s a romantic anime, doesn’t really affect whether it would be licensed or not. Love Hina was a romantic/comedy and it got licensed, hell, even the Negima anime got licensed. Not to mention a few other romantic anime’s as well. So the chances of it being licensed are pretty good. Just gotta wait and see.

    Anyway, Kaede scared the hell out of me in this episode. But I do have to admit the episode was pretty good. Can’t wait to see what happens next week.

    DC
  23. Assuming that there are indeed 24 total episodes, I think the possible scenarios boils down to these:

    a) Kaede is resolved next episode (20), Asa gets resolved in the next two (21-22), everything gets resolved in the last two Asa is the final girl.

    b) Kaede is NOT resolved next episode (20). Asa gets resolved in the next two (21 and 22), Kaede resolved next (23), final episode concludes everything. Kaede is the final girl.

    c) Kaede and Asa are both resolved in the next 3 episodes (20-22), PRIMULA gets the last two. “HAREM” ENDING.

    Scenario a is the least likely, because it leaves too mcuh empty space afterwards. In other words, it’s not likely that the story will be this linear and Asa ends up the last girl. Scenario b is slightly more likely, because I can see Kaede just giving up next episode, but Rin returning to her anyway.

    However, I’m actually inclined to believe in the THIRD scenario, because note that Primula’s game story hasn’t really been fully resolved, and she’s about the become the only one. Really, the previous Primula’s arc is more to set up the Nerine/Licorice dilemma. It doesn’t mean Primula will be the main girl, because her game ending actually leaves a lot of room for the writers to tweak around. It may be that Rin ends up with a “harem” of all the girls.

    Kai
  24. – Kaede gets resolve in 21 with help form Asa (can these girls do anything without Asa?)

    – Asa gets resolve in 22-23.

    – 24 is Epilogue

    just look at the Ep titles they fit right in with what happen in the game.

    Xellos-_^
  25. How can people see Rin picking Kaede at this point? You think he’s gonna pick someone who nearly killed him several times growing up, THEN attacks Asa when she didn’t do anything wrong?

    You want Rin to stay with her out of sympathy? Ya that’s real good love there…

    Justinstrife
  26. Yes I can see Rin picking Kaede at this point, what ever happen in the past is effecting the present but Rin is not the type of guy to ignore Kaede, it will not be just out of sympathy if they end up together. From ep.1 we saw that Rin Does Care for Kaede.

    Its not like he will just! end up with Kaede because he feels sorry for her, more so it will be because Rin will have to realise that Kaede truly does love him, and weather he does… he will have to think, what does he think of Kaede……

    I do like Asa, but…
    About Asa doing nothing Wrong, from Rins point No, But from the Viewers point Asa knew Kaede liked him but still went out with Rin. ~ I dont think Asa did this on purpose, but still… this point doesn’t help me like Asa..

    Cant wait to see what happens Next, hopefully both Asa and Kaede have a good ending

    phil
  27. ~ Sorry about double post but something to add.

    I feel watching Asa & Rin together for me it feels ~Fake~ well this is just my view on things ok 🙂 just the way they are playing there time together, Mabye next time will be different but for now I’m not for a Asa ending, it does make sense in a way because of certain hints. But will not make me happy.

    phil
  28. I still don’t see anyone winning for real. But wow, Kaede-san… Indeedly I’d be like that if the one who I love drifted away from me… So definitely points to Kaede-sasn for being a normal girl. ^_^

    Atashi
  29. Wow… Poor Rin. Everyone wants him to end up with Kaede, when he’s still scarred by what she’s done to him. Then she goes and attacks Asa… I’m going with Omni on this one. Asa FTW as the most normal girl in the whole show.

    Funny how phil thought the time Asa and Rin had together was fake… Most people I talked to, thought they were the most natural together of all the pairing choices in this show. Different strokes for different folks.

    Justinstrife
  30. About the Most people…. That could also be due to the Fact that Asa is the most popular Character, and thus more suport her her. ~I wouldn’t expect a huge Asa fan to think that they dont fit well together.

    Well anyway everyone views the show as little different 😉

    phil
  31. True 🙂

    And btw Primula!! for the Win 😀

    Just Say when Shuffle ends, Anyone think there is much Chance of a Second Season?? at the end of it Asa and Kaede and mabye some other things else will be taken care off, I just cant think what more they would do, they have the Novel, Manga, but I thought they also had the same Story as the Game.

    They couldn’t animated Tick Tack I;m sure that would make alot of Fans unhappy. So mabye they will make up another Story if they have another Season or OVA…

    phil
  32. Well you know in Tick Tack at the Start, Rin is not in love with Nerine, Tick tack starts off with Rin without any girl. just like shuffle. I think even though you can chose Nerine in both game, it doesn’t really have connext into the Shuffle anime. ~if that makes sense ^^;; ~

    And the reason why they made Tick tack it confussing….. ~ Lucy Nerine Fans >.>

    ~ they Guy the made the game must of been a huge nerine Fan I think

    No Primula, and also @ Justin No Asa. in the game 🙁

    phil
  33. Bleh, I won’t be able to take another season of Shuffle. I don’t like the way Naval decided to drop characters one by one and leave the survivors to play the melodrama.

    For me, the order of interest for harem anime goes: D.C.S.S > Shuffle! > Lamune > Canvas 2

    Rasmiel
  34. Asa FTW

    asa & rin are the most natural couple, its not really a bias opinion, its pretty evident. sia & nerine’s conversations with rin doesnt go outside of “i love you rin-kun” & kaede in this episode just reminds me of nemu from dc

    gp
  35. I honestly didn’t think I’d like this show very much. It started out a bit too much like a standard harem show, with episodes focusing on each girl with not a whole lot happening except Rin acting like a quote-unquote “nice guy” (a fickle-mush-head, really) and everyone swooning over him. Nothing very special. Asa wasn’t even in the competition. But it certainly picked up.

    That Primula arc started. Although I hate the Primula character (another freakin’ white haired, albino, quiet, underage Rei/Ruri/etc. clone – how freakin’ original – although it made for some nice jokes – Lolipedo was it?), it started to settle things in unexpected ways. Asa seemed to be the only one to connect with Rin, yelling at Sia and Nerine for their behaviour, etc. But Kaede has always been in the background… getting the short end of the stick on character development until now. And with Kaede seemingly intertwined potentially with the Asa plot (the reason for her collapses?), I’m curious how it will all turn out. It’s got to be one of those two, Kaede and Asa. Anyway, the suspense, that certainly makes for a good show, better than I thought. As long as they don’t cop out with the “no choice” ending.

    MonkeyBrains
  36. Well, i don’t like the way people think abou Kaede. The “bad girl” , psycho, crazy and so on..
    Well, somehow, i can understand Kaede. She lost her mother, she is not able to confess to Rin, although it is obvious that she loves him.
    So finally, what do you expect of her?
    Yeah, my mother died, lets be happy..
    Nice, i love this guy, but he does not notice it..

    Lets see what the story will develop like, and not just focus on Asa+Kaede^^

    *Chi*
  37. Bleh, I won’t be able to take another season of Shuffle. I don’t like the way Naval decided to drop characters one by one and leave the survivors to play the melodrama.

    For me, the order of interest for harem anime goes: D.C.S.S > Shuffle! > Lamune > Canvas 2

    Aha, finally something we disagree in.

    For me it is Shuffle! > Canvas 2 > DCSS.

    Haven’t watched Lamune. Yet.

    Ale
  38. For me Shuffle >>> Canvas/DCSS (the same) > Lamune

    I havn’t played the game, and Avoided spoilers But I think there is More to Primula, I am A Big Primula Fan, But still I think they might Show more of her Not just helping like she did this time.

    Asa and Kaede are the Major Focus But I think with them there might be more Primula, (the ending scene still gets to me ^^) well I hope they show more of Her, I’ve seen her in a School uniform in Scans so mabye they might show her go to School and have a few Big or Small other things.

    Well as Nerine and Sia seem to be there mainly for Comedy Now, Since they helped Asa alot on the Date I dont think they will end with Rin or be the focus that much.

    I dont like to predict things from the title , but as relentlessflame translated it as “And… the most important thing”. I think it could be a Rin with No girl ending,

    But the most important thing could be, something like being true to your own feelings or mabye somthing different so who Knows ^^;;

    phil
  39. I’ve watched this episode like 50x already. I think it’s easily the most watched episode of Shuffle so far. 😀

    The title for the last episode is kind of confusing, and makes me a little less confident in an Asa win. 🙁

    Justinstrife
  40. One thing I have to comment to you about phil, in an earlier post you didn’t like how Asa went out with Rin, even though she knew Kaede liked him as more than a childhood friend… Don’t you think the fact that Sia and Nerine have all had shots at him, and Kaede has had 8 years of chances, means Asa gets a shot too? I mean she is one of the girls he hangs out with regularly. Rin doesn’t BELONG to Kaede by any stretch of the imagination. And if Asa is the person who truely makes Rin happy(which seems to be the case now), if Kaede really loves him, she’ll be understanding of it and support the two of them. Or she’ll at least fight the good fight and try and win his heart like Asa is doing.

    However, Kaede’s approach I’d say backfired… I don’t see any real logical way for Kaede to end up with Rin, after seeing this episode.

    JustinStrife
  41. Yea I think I remember also saying that Kaede had her Chance, So she should be out. ^^

    Well I think I just thought, It wasn’t in Asa character to go out with Rin, when Kaede likes him, But I think this could be brought up in next ep, or the next with Asa and Kaede ta to eact other, I think Kaede might end up telling asa she really Does lovewell Nerine and Sia I think are different from the rest of the girls, as they see it as a little compition in a way.

    I think it will be nice to see Kaede understanding or Say she loves him,

    phil
  42. Here’s another reason I don’t see a problem with Asa making moves on Rin. If you know her back story, you know, that she knows what’s wrong with her. And knowing that, don’t you think it’s reasonable, for her to seek out some happiness before that time comes? I mean, as supportive of everyone, and as friendly to everyone as she is, shouldn’t she know love before the moment she’s known since she was very young? That way she could have no regrets…

    JustinStrife
  43. anyway i feel we are progressing well down Asa’s storyline… the game touched on kaede’s feelings too accept she wasn’t that bad in the game… i would bet that Asa will win in the end…

    cyw1988
  44. Wow! Well I’m glad they finally delved into the past and explained Kaede. Ever since I saw that scene in one of the early episodes, it really bugged me. Although I never played the game, the theory I had before this was that Kaede blamed him for something, Rin almost dies and Kaede ends up blaming herself, thus the reason that she’s so devoted to him. Seems that I was way off except for the first part.

    One thing I didn’t expect was for Kaede to flip out like that. A lot of pent up aggression and angst that she takes out on Asa

    We still have 8 episodes to go. It’ll be interesting to see where all paths lead to the end.

    aqua
  45. WOW. It’s amazing to see Kaede mentally collapse while Asa physically collapse.

    On a different note, I just noticed that with Asa, Kareha has a matching ribbon on her hair. I also noticed at the same time how Kareha never offers to use curative magic on Asa.

    verves2
  46. Although in this episode sees one kaede that it loses all the sanity, I continue being faithfully his fans ^^ I want, desire and I hope q rin is with her talves think that I am crazy to want “after this” that the RinxKaede pair is together, but definitively encounter that Asa (¬¬ )betrayed friendship of kaede, because she knew perfectly that kaede Rin loved and not was able to say him to his friend (kaede) that she also felt something by him, but that took advantage of that Sia and Nerine arrived, to leave with him and in addition to begin to harass it, saying to him indirect, etc… in short, it roasts does not please to me absolutely, his way to be towards Rin, and the facility to become victima bothers to me demaciado – or !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Arrives Kaede

    Miko
  47. Usually harem series set a main character you can feel superior to… not this one. I seriously think there’s no possibility of me enduring and being kind, even if my non-blood related sister dropped a cutter on my EYE…

    Eleutheria
  48. well for me rin will be close to asa but when the time comes rin will see that kaede is sad without him and then reallizes that kaede is the one for him…

    dont_like_the_ending

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