Asa Shigure

Nihongo|Asa Shigure|時雨亜沙|"Shigure Asa" is a character in Navel's "Shuffle!" media franchise. She appears as one of the main female characters in the first "Shuffle!" visual novel and in "Really? Really!", the third in the series.

Asa is a senior attending Verbana Academy and is in her last year of high school. This makes her at least 1 year older than Rin and Kaede and is good friends with both of them, having met when they met her while she was in Junior High. Taking Kaede under her wing, she trained Kaede to be an excellent cook like herself and as time passed by she would teach her some new recipes to try out for Rin. At the moment she currently lives with her mother. From time to time she'll flirt with Rin, tease him, and give him a nice big slap on the back. However, it was later revealed that there were numerous guys who had a secret crush on her. Nevertheless, nothing much came out of it as she rejected them and the show didn't delve any deeper into the issue. She was nicknamed "Shocking Shigure" because while her cooking skills are amazing, she doesn't really look like one, much to her dismay. Oddly enough for a girl as feminine as she is, Asa uses the polite-masculine pronoun of "boku" when referring to herself rather than the traditionally feminine "atashi."

Asa is named, using different kanji, after "asa" (麻), the Japanese word for "Cannabis". [While 麻 can also be translated as 'flax', 'linen', 'hemp', it is specifically stated in "Shuffle! Visual Fan Book" (p.37) as "Cannabis".]
However, the word "Asa" in japanese acctually means "Morning".
"Shigure" (時雨), her surname, is a Japanese word that refers to the frequent rain that occurs during late Autumn or early Winter in Japan. [The meaning of her surname is confirmed in the caption "this dry world will benefit from the scattered shower..." taken from an official background image produced by Navel.
cite web
url = http://www.project-navel.com/navel/_image/wp_shuffle_1-04_1024x768.jpg
title = Asa Shigure 1024x768 background
format = .jpg
publisher = Navel
language = English
accessdate = 2006-06-07]

Asa is voiced by Miki Ito (Japanese) and Monica Rial (English) and was designed by Hiro Suzuhira.

In the anime

Introductory episodes

Asa quickly introduces herself in the first episode by landing a huge slap on Rin's back followed by playful flirting before running off in which Rin replies that she plays with a guy's heart too much.

Both Nerine and Sia quickly get acquainted with Asa when she helps them out. For Sia, she advised Rin to go and tutor her. For Nerine, she taught her to cook for an upcoming picnic to impress Rin.

One day Kaede became sick and, because she always took care of everything in the house, things became hectic for Rin to handle. Again, Asa comes to the rescue with the others and eventually pulls things together for him. Before she leaves, she informs Rin that only he can heal Kaede's broken heart.

Later on, an admirer of Asa confesses to her but she eventually rejects him because she barely even knew him and because she wanted to keep things the way they were for a bit longer. This is also where Rin starts noticing Asa as a woman and not just another friend, which almost led to their first kiss before being interrupted. As well, this is where Asa suffers an attack in which her heart skips a beat.

Midpoint

When Primula was taken back to the Demon World, Asa gave him the same advice to do something about it rather than just placing the blame on himself. While most of the girls weren't really agreeing with Rin's decision, Asa came forth and asked them if this is how Rin's love rivals should act. Afterwards Asa suffers another attack and faints.

Later on, Rin again seeks Asa for help and by Kareha's suggestion, stopped by her house as she was bed-ridden. Asa, knowing exactly why Rin came to see her, gave him encouragement and her hair ribbon to remind him to stay strong. Rin takes it and goes off to see Primula.

After the event, Rin and Nerine stop by to update her on what had happened. When Asa asks Rin why he tells her to get better soon, he explains to her that he needs her because every time he fell down, she was there to pick him up. Nerine picks up on this and senses that Rin may have started to develop feelings for Asa.

tory arc

Once Asa is back to school, everything returns to normal and Rin starts to hang out with Asa more often. After some chaos caused by Sia's other self, Kikyou, the two realize that Rin has an affection for Asa. Together with Nerine, the two force Rin to spill the beans and with Itsuki and Mayumi, they force Rin on a date with Asa to confess to her.

For the first time both Rin and Asa have some fun together but after she finds out that it was a set-up from the others and not Rin, she is hurt. After reprimanding Rin, she tells him that he needs to take his own destiny into his hands rather than keeping things the same because everyone wants to move forward.

Asa again suffers another fainting spell which worries Rin and unfortunately results in his neglect of both Kaede and Primula. When Asa stops by their house, Kaede finally snaps and attacks her but is restrained by Rin, though Asa collapses again. In the hospital, the two bond closer and unfortunately again, results in Rin's neglect of Kaede despite the fact that she attacked Asa earlier, which causes Kaede to feel even worse and almost makes her break down again.

Once out of the hospital, Asa and Rin converse about the situation with Kaede in which he reveals that he has been stealing her youth from her, via his reliance on Kaede for all home-related issues. Asa goes out by herself, buys some flowers for Kaede but bumps into her on a bridge. Here, Asa and Kaede talk about Rin in which Kaede pours out her heart about the past and the realizations of her mistakes. Kaede explains that because she cannot forgive herself, she and Rin cannot be, hence, the reason why Rin chose Asa over her. However, Kaede says that she cannot stop loving Rin, and asks Asa for permission to continue doing so, even though Rin and Asa are an item. Asa grants Kaede permission, and comforts her. Shortly after Asa does so, Rin takes Asa to a point overlooking the city. Here Rin confesses to her and the two kiss as the sun sets.

Now as an official couple, both Rin and Asa are teased at (Rin especially) with Mayumi attempting to sneak in some camera shots whenever the two are getting intimate with each other. They start to form a much closer bond with each and are practically on cloud nine whenever they are together. Eventually Asa forces Rin to stop addressing her by sempai (the correct term for addressing a senior student). Rin tries very hard, and eventually is able to address her as Asa-san (standard typical polite form of address in Japan). Asa decides this will do, as she happily dances around Rin.

After helping Rin move into his new apartment, Rin attempts to kiss Asa, but before he can, she falls to the ground, having suffered another attack from her illness.

Currently, her condition is worsening in the hospital where she is starting to turn extremely pale and frail. Here, Rin learns that Asa, while human, has an extraordinarily large amount of magic building inside of her. Ama, Asa's mother, tells him this, explaining that she was the first test subject for the Yggdrasill project. Ama tells Rin the only way Asa will survive is if she uses up her magic. Despite his efforts, Rin is unable to convince Asa to use magic as she says there's still a chance that she'll survive as a human. She refuses to use magic mainly because when her mother revealed herself to be a demon, she saw her cry for the first time. Thus, she decided to live her life without ever using magic for her mother.

Her condition worsens and eventually she sneaks out of the hospital and heads to her most important place, the place where Rin confessed to her. Rin catches up to her and after she refuses again to use magic, he finally takes things into his hands and slits his wrist. He states that he cannot live in a world without her and as he starts losing consciousness from the blood loss, Asa finally pulls through and heals him.

Asa doesn't exactly transform into a demon but the most notable, and only, change in her appearance is that her hair immediately grows extremely long, all the way down to the knees. Weeks pass by and things pretty much turn back to normal with Asa working at the same cafe with Kareha and flirting with Rin as usual, although they are both very shy around each other. Asa claims throughout the final episode that she won't give Rin up to anybody. At the end of the credits her mother cuts off her long hair.

References

* cite book
title = Shuffle! Visual Fan Book
publisher = Navel
language = Japanese

External links

*languageicon|jp|Japanese [http://www.project-navel.com/navel/shuffle/characters/asa.html Asa Shigure's character profile for "Shuffle!"]
*languageicon|jp|Japanese [http://www.project-navel.com/navel/reallyreally/char04.html Asa Shigure's character profile for "Really? Really!]