Wow! I loved all of the conflicts that arose in this episode. The pink-haired girl gets to be more than someone who just obeys others, friends from the future are now treating Haruka and Karasu as enemies and it seems that there’s another party coming into play, but this time from the current timespace’s government. This is promising to be very interesting. The next episode is going to be awesome.

I’m also looking forward to the moment in which Isami and the others realize what happened with their future-selves. It’s promising to be awesome. I’m also wondering whether we get to see the past versions of the pink-haired girl and Atori. It’d be interesting to see what developments they’ve gone through.

Haruka’s getting a bit of a support role this time. It’s also nice to see that Karasu gets discovered fairly quickly by Haruka’s friends. Most anime wait till the end of the series to reveal this kind of information.

This episode was again full of ingenious plot twists. The borders of good and bad get thrown aside, even more than what happened in the previous episodes. Furthermore, we get some nice moral issues put in front of us.

Overall, I liked this episode. It is by no means the best Mushishi has ever delivered, but I still enjoyed this while watching. The view of immortality was also nicely executed, without making it seem too powerful. I was also really surprised at the desicion the guy made at the end. Any other character from any other anime would have made the other choice.

I may have said it before, but the idea that the calm, quiet and unsocial Sakon becomes a total different person when he weilds a puppet, is pure brilliance.

Anyway, this episode started another arc, and itstarts of awesomely. There’s a huge load of new, unique characters, each with his or her reasons. Under normal circumstances, I would have hated these kinds of characters. Ayatsuri Sakon however, somehow manages to make me feel along with each and everyone of these characters, and succeeds in not making them annoying or anything for even a second. Some of the characters get explored a bit, and a person gets killed. All of this is executed brilliantly and accompanied by some awesome music pieces.

I’d love to see the outcome of this.

Shuffle! is another one of those popular harem shows. According to a lot of people it’s one of the better ones. The setting is a modern-like world, but in which the gods and the devils have made contact with the humans. This doesn’t really have an huge influence on the storyline though, except for creating the excuse to include some magic in the show.

The show is basically one guy who gets to have five different girls around him, who are all in love with him. The first half of the series shows us a peaceful pacing, with Rin and the others just having fun with each other. In the second half of the anime, each of the important characters gets their own airtime to reveal, explore and solve their own storylines, with Rin, of course, in the middle. I was very amused when I noticed one episode entirely devoted to two unimportant side-characters.

The problem with this anime is that all goes a bit too easy, and there are lot of events who need some kind of reason, but are based on coincidence. While other events with a reason were better off based on coincidences. Also, the fact that the characters keep telling Rin that they love him gets annoying after a while. Sure once is okay. But ten times, per episode, per character really is a bit too much.

About the individual stories of each of the characters. Some were very interesting, while others a bit disappointing. I also felt that the climax already came in episode 20. The climax itself was extremely awesome, but it did make the last four episodes seem like some sort of epilogue. The story presented in the last three episodes didn’t have the power of episode twenty, and it’s also very predictable. I also felt that, at the epiloge of episode 24, the only one who changed in comparison to episode 21 was Primula, while her role was extremely small during that period.

This show, of course, also has lots of good points. Each of the characters act very natural among most circumstances, and it’s enjoyable to watch the whole bunch just having fun with each other. The side characters all have something unique in them, so that’s something to watch out for. The drama moments are also mostly greatly executed. Overall, it was a decent watch.

Why you should watch this: If you’re into fanservice and cute girls, you will like this.