I adored Kaede. A bit over the top, obviously, but it also made her more dynamic than any of the other heroines. She had a past, she had hate, she had loathing and in the end all she was trying to do was rectify it all.
I don't mind the way that choosing Asa was handled in the visual novel, but I didn't appreciate the lack of reasoning behind choosing her in the anime. I mean, it was nice to get a better understand of Asa and her pain, but what did that really have to do with Rin? Not a whole lot.
But, then again, that's a lot of bias just because I like Kaede. That and the fact that I much preferred the dubbed version of Shuffle, and as a result Kaede was voiced by one of my favorite VA's - Carrie Savage.