Volume 1 of Shuffle! is lot like cotton candy: it's pink and fluffy and just a wee bit too sweet.  Cotton candy holds a soft place in many people's hearts.  It's that special treat enjoyed once in great while.  I don't like cotton candy.  Never have.  While Shuffle! is an amusing enough diversion, I found it to be awfully sweet.  It's definitely something to experience no more than once in a while.  Even then, I'd want something salty to balance it out.

Rin Tsuchimi is the envy of most of the boys in his high school class.  He lives with the lovely, kind Kaede, who cheerfully caters to Rin's every need.  While his friends at school think he's nuts, he feels guilty accepting her kindness.  He's already been her family's guest for eight years, ever since a tragic accident took his parents and Kaede's mother.  Being a kind person himself, Rin feels he owes Kaede for her hospitality, even though she takes care of him of her own free will.  Things roll along smoothly enough until two new neighbors move in on either side of Kaede's house.

The doors to both the world of the demons and of the gods have been open for some time, allowing otherworldly beings to mingle and live with humans.  The family on one side of Kaede's house is that of the king of the gods, and the other family belongs to the king of the demons.  Both patriarchs have eligible daughters who have fallen in love with Rin.  The girls have longed to be near him, ever since he helped them on separate occasions years before.  Rin hardly remembers these encounters, and is more than a little surprised when both fathers offer him their daughters in marriage.  With either choice, he's in line be the next king of either the gods or the demons.  Of course, there's still Kaede, who's been his friend since childhood.  With three girls vying for his affections, Rin's life just became considerably more complicated.

This introductory volume finds Rin in quite the pickle.  Three girls to choose from, with two looking for a lifetime commitment, is a tall order for a high school boy.  These first four episodes often depict Rin hiding in closets or under stairs, and with good reason.  That's a lot of pressure, even when all three girls are pretty and genuinely nice people.  Most of the conflict so far comes from the natural jealousies that arise between the girls, the two immortal girls in particular.  Interestingly, even though the three girls are actively vying for Rin's attention, they manage to build a neighborly friendship between themselves.  The competition, at least at this point, fairly friendly.  As mentioned before, this volume is a bit sugary.  The conflicts presented never get too angsty, and are often played for humor.  It remains to be seen if this will continue.

The immortal girls' fathers play a rather large part in this first volume, and seem to be around mostly for comic relief.  The fathers, while providing some smile-worthy moments, are ridiculously spacey and seem to get in the way of the story.  They have their moments, particularly when the king of the gods learns that his daughter has to pass exams and will end up in summer school if she fails.  He finds this to be a terrible injustice, and seeks out Rin to fix it.  While that situation is amusing, on the whole they are a bit too much in an already busy series.

In keeping with the cute, sweet feel of the series, the artwork also reflects this theme.  The female characters are all dainty and attractive, with large doe eyes and a veritable rainbow of hair colors.  Our hero, Rin, is appropriately attractive himself.  The palette is soft and pretty, with plenty of color, but nothing too glaringly bright.  It's sweet and fluffy and soft, just like cotton candy.

Shuffle! is the type of series that would appeal to young adolescent girls who enjoy a tangled romance with a confused boy at the center.  It's as dependable as that sweet treat.  Even with the presence of gods and demons as the big twist, this series so far really isn't any different from the ten million other tangled romances with soft colors and confused boys.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but at the same time, there's nothing that particularly sets Shuffle! apart from the crowd.  Shuffle! is a sweet romance, and folks will just have to keep watching to see which girl Rin chooses.

Details: Runtime 100 minutes, contains episodes 1-4.  Extras include textless songs, trailers, a poster, and a reversible cover.