Summary:
After she fainted in his apartment, Rin delivers Asa to the hospital, where she is not faring too well. After Rin gets angry at the doctors, Ama takes Rin out and asks him if he likes Asa. He affirms that he does, so she decides to tell him everything. She takes off her hat to reveal the ears, and tells about her involvement in the Yggdrasil Project and how she was found after the failed experiment, and subsequent explosion, by Asa’s father. Asa is therefore human, but inherited the magical powers of her mother. Those magical powers are building up in her human body and are threatening her health because she’s not using them. After learning this, Rin tries several times over several days to convince Asa to use her powers, but Asa refuses each time. She promises that it’ll be ok and that she won’t die. She tells him that she has a dream of them growing old together, and then going to the place overlooking the city where he confessed to her so that they can confess again. Asa then tries to untie some string on a present that Sia and Nerine delivered, but can’t, so Rin borrows a box cutter from a nurse.
Asa has another attack as Rin is talking to the nurse. Ama leads Rin out of the room, and Rin asks if Ama isn’t worried about her daughter. Ama turns around and tells him that she’s a mother, so of course she’s worried. But then she confides in Rin that she’s thinks he’s strong enough to save Asa. Later that day, when she finally wakes up, Asa finally tells Rin why she won’t use magic: because she considers herself to be human. She recounts her mother’s tears back then when Ama revealed her ears to her daughter and couldn’t stop apologizing. She wants to lead a normal life and doesn’t want her mother to be sad like that again. Rin is thus at a loss for what to do. When he’s getting a drink from the vending machine later, he still has the box cutter and briefly stares at it. Asa wakes up in the middle of the night and sees Rin muttering in his sleep. She apologizes to Rin, kisses him on the forehead, and leaves the hospital. Rin wakes up to find her gone, and he runs outside yelling her name.

There was this little gem too during the sponsors screen (with the boat).

We get to see Asa grow frailer and paler by the day, and she looks downright scary with no color in her skin and large bags under her eyes. Ama, who cares greatly about her daughter, finally reveals to Rin about her own past and the way for Asa to save herself, which Asa refuses to do. Ama tells Rin that she’s basically counting on him to save Asa, and Kareha tells him the same thing when she comes to visit. So Rin’s got a lot of pressure on him to save her, and that’s not even including his own love and how time is running out. But since he can’t convince her to use her magic, he’s at a loss about what to do. I’m glad they worked in the box cutter, because as a lot of people know, that’s gonna become pretty important next episode.
I loved Asa’s monologue about being human and lead a normal life, but I honestly just don’t understand why Asa refuses to use her magic. The ability to save herself, so that she can be with the one she loves and live her dream, is at her fingertips, yet she refuses to use it. And as a result, she’s putting herself through so much suffering and putting Rin and her mother through so much anguish. And her running away from the hospital will only result in Rin worrying and looking for her.
We’re now up to the final episode of SHUFFLE! Sadly, this is the only show that’s ending this season, yet taking next week off (the other shows ending being Suzuka, Lamune, and Paradise Kiss, all of which will air final episodes next week). The finale of SHUFFLE! will air on January 5th, 2006.

46 Comments

  1. Ama with the pointy ears just doesn’t seem as cuddly and cute as herself with the hat on… Aw.

    Episode 24 (Final Episode), according to WOWOW:
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Atashi
  2. Wow, follows the game to a tee. Everythings ending…Suzuka, DCSS, Shuffle!, Lamune, and Nanoha A’s.

    Looking forward to Utawaremono, I know thats one of the ones slated for the next anime season. Tsubasa Chonicle isnt starting again for a few more months =/.

    At least we got one awesome present for the new year…the Shuffle! game translation is slated to be finished in a few weeks =)

    starcaptor
  3. I already knew what will happen if Asa uses it (in the game). But spoilers aside, Asa is not looking so good that it is possible she will die unless she releases those powers. Since the final episode won’t be on until next year, I’m hoping (and this has nothing to do with SHUFFLE! itself)…
    Show Spoiler ▼

    BTW, SD Primula in the sponsor screen is very cute!

  4. “BTW, SD Primula in the sponsor screen is very cute!”

    Not as cute as Primula in Neko Maid uniform! ^_^
    I still demand a full size poster of Primula + Neko Maid uniform. I’d pay $20 for it X(

    Rasmiel
  5. She established a parallel between Ama/herself and Rin/Kaede. She *understood* what went on between them. It’s not just “nothing” – watch the episode yourself before throwing out random judgments just because the series is now focusing on Asa. You don’t see any name-callings about Nerine keeping quiet about the whole Lycoris/Primula issue, Sia and the way she handles her other self, Kaede for throwing her life away for Rin. In other words, it sounds like you’re pretty ignorant.

    becky
  6. No, it has 24 episodes.
    I totally agree with you backy, that last comment was really ignorant. I think she has her reasons, and thats all about it. Everybody is doing strange or not understandable things sometimes, this is normal, this is life, even if it’s in a anime.

    *Chi*
  7. Yes. Those two said it in a rather rude way, but since most people put Asa as a dependable “older sister” type character, you would think she would make a better decision than this.
    I admire her devotion, but really, its a bit much.
    *Just stating a point no flames please* 🙂

    Altima of the Gates
  8. the real female heroine of this series of shuffle is Kaede….why did they change the heroine to asa just for the sake of being different from other anime….GOd id do anything to see a rin x kaede ending. why does the obvious hmain heroine always have to suffer? it hapened that way in Kimi ga nozomu Eien too…..

    Tsuchimi Rin
  9. BAH! real female heroines suxor, i don’t remember liking any of the “real” female heroines… then again that’s just me not liking the “main” characters, i like the less important characters who clearly deserve more screen time. Also, IMO for KgNE the “real” heroine from my PoV was Hayase, not Haruka. So yeah, I like that change in Shuffle, though I still wished Kareha would be a potential ending

    scythsei___51
  10. Well in shuffle at least..for all what Kaede has done for rin…she stays awake for him…she lives for him basically…and in return just dumps her suddenly..IS that son of a b**** human or not. Has he no heart ?
    After all kaede has done for him…..and seeing how she cant live without him…he simply dumps her…. Rin has yet to give kaede a single memorable memory.
    In kgne haruka made the decision herself..and it was not like she cant live without narumi…

    But seriously shuffle makes me hope that asa dies in the final episode….she was my 2nd fav char..and for me to wish that is a big thing…but its just the way things have turned out. Of course she wont die and itll be dumb happy ending…but i wish,,,

    Tsuchimi Rin
  11. omg..why does everyone soo like kaede?? she is such a crazy person…ok..she is nice and everything..and she made meals for him and cleaned his stuff but…if she can be so crazy…..and furthermore every other chara looks better then her…..

    mangagirl
  12. Hey Hey and one more Hey, if Rin did not, as you say, “dump” kaede, there life would be so routine that it’d get boring. I’m just saying she has to do something better instead of having him be such a dependant person. It was Kaede’s fault that she let Rin slip away to fall in love with Asa. I mean, she was with him everyday, she should’ve done something or said something. I think the important part of Rin and Kaede’s story is for Rin to become more independant and not having to rely on others so much, while Kaede needs to learn that things will eventually change, in other words, learn to live without Rin. All Kaede’s done for Rin, the cooking, the cleaning, etc. and then the exact-o-knife to the eye, the strangling, years of torture. Asa, technically has beenn indirectly cooking for Rin too don’t you think? Being the one that taught Kaede how to cook =P

    By the way, what would Asa dying do for Kaede? if Asa died, that does not mean that Rin’s love will go directly to Kaede, she’s not the only one there. As I implied before, there really is not real heroine character, that’s what I like to believe, there’s only the obvious, and that obvious get’s borings unless the series does something special about getting to that point. So right now if Asa died and Rin went to Kaede, then man… that just ruins the originality of this series, and it ends in a way where not everyone is happy, and then they’d have to extend the number of episodes again to make everyone happy. So if Asa and Rin were to break up because of some arguement or fight, then that would screw up the anime world’s preception of true love, or destiny. Remember, Shuffle the game, I didn’t play it, but was not the theme of the game to “choose your own path” or something like that? It just so happens that this is the path that the anime is taking so live with it.

    Man, I typed too much… Rin is not a loser if he can now live without depending on others, his quite the opposite, don’t hate him because of the choice of girl he made.

    scythsei___51
  13. Well, I don’t have a problem with the Rin x Asa ending. I just feel that Kaede is being treated seriously badly in this series by fans and the production studio. Calling her crazy is not fair since she did not necessarily go mad, but broke down. Her devotion to rin should actually be used as a tool to make her character develop, but is rather used to criticise her again. Kaede obviously is not the only character who does mistakes. Asa’s stupidity causes her to do mistakes as well. In additon, the drama in Kaede’s arc was far more complex than Asa’s. Kaede did not have the privilige of using magic to solve her problem and we learn from her what it means to be devoted and depend on someone. Trough Asa we only learn how dumb and unreasonable she can be. I think Kaede and Rin have a trough deep connection, but they are just not made for each other. Asa and Rin sure make a better couple, but the producton studio should also show that Kaede has moved on and grabbed herself a true hunk! ^^

    Nietono no Shana
  14. Sorry… given all the development of Asa’s character … I feel like the writers are doing her a huge disservice with this lamest of all reasons not to use magic … she doesn’t want to see her mother cry again so she won’t use magic so her mother will cry at her funeral????? So she’d rather die than see her mother cry? This isn’t Asa … this is some dumbass tripe writing.
    They could have *easily* set up the same situation with much more believable reasoning that was in-character. They started tripping and falling down the hill with their “2 minutes wrap up” of the Kaede-Asa-Rin 10 year story arc and this is just infuriating.

    apologies…. overall I did enjoy the series but to have them stumble on such a key arc is kind of saddening.

    Vexx
  15. I find the anime cuts off potential candidates of being rin’s gf WAY too early, and asa is a bit naive in not saving herself, but then again, her choice to suffer a long death IS backed up by the happiness of everyone else…Right, then i’ll conclude Asa as a person who has a good will but is naive. Shuffle! is a great anime, but it could have been better.

    Orochi

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