I've given it some thought, and I've come to realize that I've never actually explained my reason for hating the change that's been known so far. Just looking at it as a change in art style IS rather childish, but my anger (on a smaller scale than what's probably been given off) stems from the IMPACT of the art and studio change. Gonzo's style allowed the story to unfold the way it did without looking odd or out of place. Blood was spilled, political battles were fought, and the characters themselves along with the abilities being fairly original for the most part (yeah, a couple of common ones showed up, but for the most part, it wasn't just common super-powers; Eclair was like Indiana Jones and the Hulk being combined into a hot chick that made a whip come from lipstick streaks and if her lip color was altered in anyway she'd gain super-human strength (I said lip color change because once or twice she actually bit her lip and smeared the blood to activate her power)). A lot of the other characters were the same, they all seemed to be impossible to compare to a stock anime character type, or even just drawn as regular art.
With the studio change, that can be drastically different, and I don't recall too many times that a project was handed over to a different company turn out to be about on par with the expectations in the first place. Instead of having two characters who's weapons were magic stones and a comb, we now have a much more generic look that doesn't seem like it goes well with the story, which is more than likely going to be altered to a fairly great amount. Can you imagine the type of character that the studio has gone and created with blood on their hands, or they turn out to be some crazy [sonic slicer] who's managed to combine herself with an entire space station and plans to kill an entire planet? If the character that's been changed so far ends up becoming a cliche or stock character, who's depth is about as deep as a kiddy pool, just imagine as to what the rest of the cast will be like. They'll have to make them similar in apparel, but what about the new characters that they'll end up bringing in? What if they give the characters that were left behind an entirely different image? As far as reputation goes, the people don't have a lot to say. Heck, it's confusing enough as it is as to who the heck is actually MAKING the changes. Is it the director of Shuffle! just working together with the artists of it? Is it someone else who works for the same company?
Only one of two things have to happen before I change my mind and admit I was horribly wrong about this: 1) it's the actual planned sequel that Gonzo teased the fans with, only with different looking characters, or 2) this is someones idea of a REALLY horribly executed April Fool's joke that decided to do a month early (it took me about a week or two to actually bother putting this up from the original place that I got this from).