Primula

Primula (プリムラ) is a main character in the Shuffle! series. She is a homunculus developed by a joint venture between the worlds of the Gods and the Devils. After all the stories she heard about Rin, she grew curious and came to the human world to meet him.

A hundred years after the events of the original Shuffle!, she is the director of the guardian of the gates that connects between worlds while occasionally traveling to the human realm.

Personality
Primula is a strange, stoic and calm girl that's often seen carrying a stuffed cat around, which is a present from Rin to Lycoris. Before she died, she gave it to Primula. She doesn't talk much and is extremely bad at socializing. Mostly, she doesn't display any desires, expressions, or interests (except in cats). She has emotions but lacks expressiveness. The King of Gods and King of Devils also mentioned that she does have feelings, but due to being raised in isolation in the laboratory, she doesn't know how to express them. She was not close to anyone but Lycoris, whom she looked up to as a sister.

However, during her route in Shuffle! and Shuffle! Essence+, once she meets Rin, her personality begins to change slowly. She starts to warm up to Rin and the others enough to gradually showing her real character, a happy and bubbly girl.

Later, in Shuffle! Episode 2, Primula appears to have become a mature woman while keeping her youthful appearance. Now, she's a jolly and enigmatic individual. In her free time, she likes to travel to the human world while visiting her daughter.

Background
She is the third artificial life form created from a result of gods' and devils' experimentation, Project Yggdrasil. She escaped to the human world to search for Rin because Lycoris told her about him. Primula has good relationships with the other clones because she was a good friend of Lycoris. Additionally, with her youthful appearance, Primula serves to fill the lolicon niche of the series. Primula doesn't start high school until the end of the anime.

In the anime, there are hints that she has some prophetic ability; she warns Rin and Kaede of an earthquake a few moments before it happens. She starts making herbal medicine for Kaede's cold before the latter even exhibits the symptoms. This is seen again in Really? Really!, when her powers overload and ruins Kaede's memories as a result.

Shuffle! Episode 2
Forty years after the events of Shuffle, the worlds were on the brink of destruction during the Great Collapse. With the help of her friends, Primula stabilized the time-space rift and thus saved the worlds.

However, during and after the catastrophe, her powers start growing endlessly. It eventually became nearly uncontrollable, potentially causing another disaster. To avoid this, she reduced her power by separating herself and some of her magical power. The divided magic gave birth to a new individual named Limes, whom Primula considers as her daughter.

Afterward, Primula became the director of the time-space gatekeeper, overseeing the time-space rift to avoid future catastrophe. She currently resides in the Demon World while occasionally visits God and Human World. The current King of Gods and Demons all bow to her.

Later in the story, Primula appointed Limes as her future successor as the guardian of the time-space rift due to her doubts about continuously living at her advanced age of more than 100 years. Limes also has enormous potential that rivals her progenitor. In addition, Project Yggdrasil was already disbanded after years of failures as Primula is the sole successful creation, an unrepeatable miracle. However, Limes's presence gives the world another chance.

Princess x Princess
Primula looks like a cabin attendant for some reason this time, and she appears in front of Raito Aioi and his friends. This version of her claims she is a different entity from the Primula Raito and his friends know, but the details are yet to be revealed.

Character Relationships

 * Rin: Her love interest and friend. She came to the Human world in hopes of meeting him after Lycoris' kind words about him. When Rin wins her a stuffed cat, it is the first time everyone sees her express emotion as she smiles wide and thanks Rin sincerely.
 * Kaede: Her friend and housemate. The two tend to share a familial relationship. Kaede immediately takes her under her wing when she comes to the Human world and caring for her. She even gives Primula her old middle school clothes. They are often together in the visual novel and anime alike. Primula is shown to care for Kaede, and this is present in Really? Really! when her powers messed up Kaede's memory bank, and she is visibly distraught and worried about Kaede.
 * Lycoris: Her best friend who was like a sister to her. Before she died, Lycoris gave Primula the stuffed cat she now carries around, a gift from Rin.
 * Limes: Primula's powers split and created Limes. She regards her as her own daughter and treats her as such.

Trivia

 * The name Primula comes from a genus of flowering plants with the same name, like most other main characters.
 * Like the other experiments of Project Yggdrasil, Primula has purple eyes.
 * Primula is an immortal according to Aoi Nishimata and she is the only original Shuffle! character to survive after 100 years has passed in Episode 2.
 * Primula is the most powerful magician in SHUFFLE! universe. She is a master of various magic types, such as restoration, precognition, teleportation, mind alteration, time-space manipulation, elemental magic, etc. Her power is also said to be able to erase a town in an instant.
 * In Episode 2, it is implied that Kaede and Asa had taught Primula how to make cheesecakes. The latter claims to master two types of cheesecake recipes: Fuyou style and Shigure style. She also mentioned that while both are delicious, Fuyou's method is easier to teach.
 * Following the success of her personal experience in the past, Primula deliberately placed Limes in the human world to develop her psyche so that she could fully control the magical powers.