I'm going to give this an 8 over all. I found the story as a whole to be good. I like the cast of characters. How the thing felt down to earth in some regards. Also I liked how the ending didn't make it as simple as "I love you and uh who cares about that other girl". It handled the whole thing better than some other series I know. Err I'll leave it at that.
However I felt some of the pacing could have been better and it almost felt like they wasted too much time on the sibling plot element which they resolved in mere seconds. I still don't get why they even bothered with it. In short some better time management could have made this a 9. Also it would be nice if they reanimated some of the poor CG from earlier episodes.
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"Don't forget. You aren't alone. It isn't just you. You have a billion bacteria with you."- Kokage Kuga (Sketchbook)
"Last night's dream was in sepia with subtitles"- Oomichi ~Professor~ Miyabi (GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class)
+ Solid Animation + Voice acting was strong throughout the show. + Lots of plot twist... -... maybe a couple too many. - Characters didn't grow on me - Story was predictable for the most part.
Uggh I really enjoyed the first half of the series.
Ever since the half way point I thought the show sputtered and really got silly. I found it hard to root for anyone in the triangle. Noe was insane (ok the girl just jumped off of a tree... WTF that should send up some red flags). Hiromi was over possessive and a moody b*tch most of the time, and Shin was a indecisive flip flopping jerk.
Idk what happened. In the first half I thought Noe was kinda weird but a cool character. Hiromi was trapped in a horrible situation but shows a sweet side. Then at some point they just seemed to change and I began to despise them.
There were a ton of plot twist and every episode seemed to end on a cliffhanger, but it seemed that they attempted TOO many plot twist. And despite all the silly plot twist they tried to invoke, the series was still relatively predictable till the end.
At the mid way point I woulda gave the series an 8.0/10. It's kinda hard to really like a series like this if you end up not liking any of the characters. It's a shame they ruled out Ai-chan so early(the only normal nice girl of the bunch).
Overall Score: 6.4/10 (Rounded down to a 6 for the poll)
Wow harsh.
To me True Tears gave something different to the romance genre, they created a unque storyline and i feel they pulled it off quite well, the characters were all good in there own right especially Noe, she gave something new to a main heroine, the storyline developed throught a few twists (Hiromi saying she is Shin's brother) etc...
For me they compacked too much of the story for a 13 ep series, if this was a 24 ep season we would of seen alot of Ai chan and other things, the way it finished is making me want to see more as its quite unfinished with feelings of love still from Noe. in quite a few animes like Love Hina, Kimikiss... the episodes showed progression of there feelings and what choice they would make to me TT came to the conclusion too fast and since ep 8 the story deteraited because of having to fit everything in for 13 episodes, Style of this anime was top notch and also the voice acting was great too, but as many of the 12/13 episode seasons fall down in ratings is due to it being too little content and not alot of story this had potental to be a great anime but feels just short.
Hope there will be another season but i don't think this will happen which is a shame.
Animation Quality: 9 (quite stunning with nice effects of snow etc... just still didnt Wow me like Kyotos quality does.)
Voice Actors: 8 (shin's mother's voice annoyed me but apart from that every character voice was great especially Noe her voice was great fitted perfectly.)
Script: 6 (To rushed in my opinion but still the emotional parts and the unique wierd plot of Noe and others was great)
Editing: 9 (Not alot of flashback which is good)
Emotional Involvement: 9 (the content from the anime was a 10 perfect sence of emotions but for me in 13 episodes and without a great look back at there life its hard to feels apart of this anime as it was over too quick.)
Okay, I'll give it a nine, like a lot of other shows I really liked. The subtlety of the presentation of feelings and the great detailed animation. And Hiromi, Shinmother, Jun, and especially Noe were great characters. Maybe lost its way a bit toward the end, but not badly. Clannad is good, but this is a cut above, for me. And a cut above KimiKiss, too. I might still give both of those nines, too. But I'm bad at rating shows. I'm better at just enjoying them.
If Koshimizu Ami (Horo in Spice and Wolf) is early favorite for the 2008 top female seiyuu award, then I think Takahashi Rieko (Shinmother) could be favorite for supporting female seiyuu. And maybe Takagaki Ayahi (Noe) for newcomer. She did a great job again in the final ep. And so did Nazuka kaori (Hiromi).
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YUUKI Aoi 悠木碧. b92.03.27 (age 29). 2008 Kurenai (Murasaki). 2009 Yumeiro Pâtissière (Ichigo), Kiruminzuu (Riko), Yutori-chan (Yutori-chan). 2010 Vampire Bund (Mina Tepeş), Shiki (Sunako), Samurai Girls (Juubee), Pokémon: Black and White (Iris). 2011 Madoka Magica (Madoka), Gosick (Victorique), A-Channel (Tooru). 2012 Symphogear (Hibiki). 2014 Pilot's Love Song (Claire/Nina), Nanatsu no Taizai (Diane). 2015 Owari no Seraph (Krul Tepes), Rokka no Yuusha (Fremy). 2016 Boku no Hero Academia (Tsuyu, Froppy). 2017 Kino no Tabi (Kino). 2021 Kumo desu ga (watashi), Kaizoku Oujo (Karin), Heike Monogatari (Biwa), etc., etc. Total of 513 roles in anime and games.
So, if your eyes grow tired of reading, skip my post, if not be prepared for a disgustingly long post.
I'll break True Tears down into several different aspects that we can look at.
My Experience While Watching
Sometimes we get shows where there are particular parts that we don't enjoy as much as the rest of the series (Death Note arc where Light has no memory of him being Kira), sometimes shows start off badly and come together later on (Air), and sometimes shows have a train crash towards the end (Myself;Yourself). It is because of these facts about many anime shows out there that I have grown to appreciate animes that have consistency. I want to be able to enjoy a show from start to finish and feel like there are no real episodes wasted. This is where True Tears shines.Every episode felt like there was something significant to watch in it, every episode was enjoyable, every episode was used to the best of its ability.
When I decided to go and watch the first episode, I was extremely skeptical due to my great distaste in hyped animes lately (CLANNAD ). Much to my surprise though, I was totally drawn in. I never cared for the colorful backgrounds of animes made from Key games, the drawing style suited me perfectly. What really got me into it quickly were two things that I noticed. The first would have to be the character Shinchiro, an interesting male lead who I found very easy to relate to compared to these super male archtypes like Tomoya from Clannad or Youichi from Kanon 2006. The second has definitely got to be the pacing, it doesn't rush through anything and quietly goes through out its world like real life. No super fast-forwarding and sudden slow downs. I must say I was quite elated to find this show this season. My question though was if this would continue like so?
Well as I went through the series, two other things captivated me, the subtly of the actions, and the eccentric Noe. While not being the most real character in the series, this is where I believe fiction can do its work with imagination in presenting such a human being. But really, it was the subtly of the actions that really caught my attention. It wasn't so straight forward for the characters in this series, it was like real life (Or at least like my life which I thought was a normal environment). The body language of some of the characters was just absolutely wonderful.
Now towards the end I started to become scared. This was probably around episode 9 or 10. I was really wondering what this series was steering itself to at this point. I admit, I didn't fully pay attention to the scenes of the picture book at the beginning that should have clearly outlined Shinchiro's main intentions. I was led to believe that Noe would be the sole victor of this series of events. Yet I wasn't totally wrong in my interpretations of certain scenes, as was self evident in episode 13 where he stated that is heart wavered. If you have any doubts about the beauty of execution in this show, I would just point to Shinchiro's crying scene. I could feel the emotion, it really felt real! I was thoroughly impressed by this series' run. They actually managed to keep up a good and consistent show for 13 episodes, with a great start and end. Everything was rapped up almost perfectly.
Characters
I'll review the main cast Shinchiro, Noe, and Hiromi. I'll also review Nobuse and Aiko as well as Shin's mother. I thought overall there was a good cast of characters to carry this show through.
Shinchiro is an excellent character. Like I said earlier, I've never been so able to relate to the male lead of a show more than this, nor have I ever seen such a real character. From the get-go he was an interesting person, he truly captured what I will quote here from Walden, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation." Shinchiro seemed like just one of those other people out there doing nothing he wanted to do, but due to Noe, he was able to start breaking free from this concept. His resignation from Hiromi is his confirmed desperation in life. He kept going on like this till the end, where he finally evolved and did what he had to do. He realized everything that was wrong with his life, and I found it quite touching.
Noe, the eccentric one. I like seeing pretty original characters in stories these days. She gave a huge sense of freshness to the show in general with her quirky behavior. She was also part of the central theme tying up everything together. If it were not for her, this series could seriously have just been another one of those romance animes that you don't really care much about if it passes by. The whole influence on the picture book that Shinchiro wrote, and the symbolism going on, was there because of her. She added an irreplaceable amount of importance to the story that no other character I think could have done in her place.
Hiromi is not very likable to me. She was a good character, just not a likable person. I like how they portrayed her as turning into the mother throughout the show. She got back a lot my respect in the last episode, but still she did many things that I found very bitchy to say the least. I cannot see any great qualities in her personality, but that is just me. She better be happy that she was the chosen one.
Aiko and Nobuse were not used very well. It seems like Aiko got really shafted in this show. She didn't do much and after she did the kiss, her fate was sealed. I'm happy Nobuse and her got together, but after that there wasn't anything left. I understand they did it that way because it was the best way they could handle it, but I honestly would've preferred she played a bigger role in this series if they honestly tried to include her in the whole fiasco going on during the show. She was "just there" for like 6 episodes. Nobuse was a cool friend who I would've liked to have seen being closer with Shinchiro. They seemed less like friends as the show progressed due to their distance from each other. There wasn't much interaction between them.
Shinchiro's mother was used well, but like I said in the episode 13 thread, I do not think her sudden change in approach to Hiromi was entirely done smoothly. I would've liked to have seen more of her doing her thinking about the situation, or a talk of some sort going on to have provoked such a sudden reverse response.
Animation/Style/Visuals/etc.
I must say that I seriously enjoyed the art style of this show. KEY animated stories done by Kyoto Animations are seriously disgusting. The backgrounds and the animation are good eye candy, but I cannot take the such cute and moe drawn characters as something for dramatic or romantic making. So yeah, I digged the style, and it seemed to be quite consistent throughout the show. Never saw a significant change in quality.
Music Score
It was slightly above average. I thought it fit the series well and everything, but there wasn't anything so stand outtish that I'd consider getting to listen to in my free time or anything. But the fact is that there are not very many animes out there that have spectacular scores such as Cowboy Bebop, Darker than Black, etc. For an anime of this genre I can certainly see the limitations of a sound track for my own particular tastes so I didn't pay much attention to it.
Storyline
I loved it, point blank. Everything was executed in a precise manner that it was almost unbelievable. It wasn't completely obvious, and it tried to go beyond the average romance anime. I personally felt it killed anything that Key has ever produced, contrary to the opinions of others I acknowledge. Everything was very linear, and I'd have to disagree with the complainers about Shinchiro bouncing back too many times during the show. I really do hope the last episode changed some of those people's opinions by showing how he actually loved both of them. I also was interested in correlating the situation of the parents to the situation of the younglings. I felt this story was much more than just a first look type of show. It really was a show that you must analyze in order to get everything that was going on. The subtly, like I mentioned earlier, added a lot of zang to this show. It opened huge dimensions for the thought processes of character, and people's own personal interpretations. Only those who don't take it at face value can really see the beauty of what was portrayed here, if you are ready to do that, I'd suggest first focusing on the message of flying and tears and the picture book.
Voice Acting
The voice acting certainly was good. None of them were completely above the rest, but they all complemented each other. They were all solid. I especially liked Shinchiro's voice acting in the last episode. It's good that they got a great cast because the voice actors sometimes make or break a show for me. Some of the latest voice actors in certain anime like Myself;Yourself (The girl with the glasses) were just awful.
Overall Rating
I thought overall everything was spectacular. There was some faults, minor ones at that, but nothing really to make my viewing of the show any worst. Being flawless doesn't necessarily mean that much though if it doesn't have great rewatch value so it gets points knocked off for that. I'd rate this series around an 8.8-9.0, but that rounds up to a 9 on the poll no matter what. I'll be looking forward to this studio's next anime, I'm interested in what else they can produce. True Tears was quite a ride, not just the show but the deep discussions themselves that were brought up throughout many of the threads. It added a lot more entertainment value.
Nice overall series while not perfect. I was little disappoited that Jun decided to leave Noe on her own. While it was the best decision for both him and Noe, I want both of then ends up together.
i would've gave it a 10 out of 10 but the ending didn't really suit what i wanted, especially since noe was just left like that. But I guess the whole point of her shedding tears wouldn't have been as good as if it was just pure tears of joy. I loved the art and the brightness of color throughout the series.
It saddens me to say that the thread had derailed too much with discussions having little to nothing to do with True Tears.
This thread is meant to discuss True Tears and while comparisons to illustrate a point are allowed, complete digressions are not. The off-topic posts were removed, and so will future posts of such kind.
It is a good series, well written, good direction, good character development. It is a big cut above the generic harem titles but not quite at H&C level. I gave it an 8/10.
Marathoned the series today. The show initially caught my interest when I noticed that over at Komica every episode resulted in 200+ post long thread discussions.
In short, the show heralds the breakout of a new animation power house, P.A. Works, from whom I expect great, great, great things in the future. It has been a very long time since I saw such a high quality production; art, animation, coloring, presentation, and music (OP, ED, and OST) was absolutely superb. 10/10 for all of those. The story and the characters however could have been handled better though in my opinion. I'd give those two a combined 8/10, but with this caveat: had it been any other average studio animating it, the story would only get a 6/10. My point? The execution and presentation was so wonderful it even made the story better than it would have seemed.
The depth of the story in itself was, in my opinion, a bit shallow.
Well, this series definately seemed slow at the start. It was just episode after episode without any direction or pacing whatever. But they did a good job at developments. All the characters had much more to them at the end of the season than at the start, and it was easy to see the changes. But, they kind of let a couple of them suddenly collapse to nothing. Like, all the development of the mother was never really explained, and it just seemed like "Ah, she's quite evil" to "Oh, she's supportive". Also, the other worker with the father was shown to be someone Shin was afraid of at the start, but then it didn't make any other development. Ai-chan was probably the worst, considering that she was completely developed, ready to start a harem, and then she suddenly reverted back to her original boyfriend.
This anime has a special place in my heart because it will be the one that started me fansubbing, and also the first one I fansubbed that got liscenced so quickly. But, overall it wasn't a bad anime.
I'd give it an 8.4 for a decent story, interesting characters, and absolutely superb music.
I don't really like how the Isurugi (Jun&Noe) ends like that... (I love those two XD)
and I like Shinichiro X Noe and Jun X Hiromi, but too bad the end wasn't as i expected, so... a little depressed...but after all the series are quite well.
I really hope they will do True Tears II.
was a fun little show. interesting injection of jealousy and the ugly side of love, a point too often mushed over. (but yea, nothing substantial came of that. obviously. the introduction of jealousy is kinda like cocaine anyway, bloody capitalists yeh?) so basically half of the show consists of 'oh shi-' moments, and that was the point of it. but im a sucker for cocaine.
contrasting this with something ungodly like school days. the treatment of jealousy is totally opportunistic in school days. cheap and insubstantial, at the sacrifice of the characters. this here is at least defendable.
As for the whole "It was obvious from the start Hiromi was going to get chosen", you can never be sure. Some series have really surprised me, such as Ichigo 100%
Anyway I gave it a 7. While the show is very good, it had it's bad parts.
I love the realistic emotion in the serie. While Noe was a bit...oddd at times, she was a touching character who managed to confused Shin enough to doubt his own feelings. There was also a lot on conflict with every character wich spiced things up.
On the downside, I really didn't like how quickly Ai-chan got dismissed. She gets a kiss with Shin and...becomes a side characters with 2-3 more quick scenes.
fair enough, but the case is more complicated here. unlike ichigo 100% there is a tangible backstory with this show that figures heavily into how the characters are to be developed. the tear thing, coupled with hiromi's background, makes this a lock from the viewpoint of decent development. like, they can't do a decent show, or at least have as easy a go at it, if they don't do this and this.
there are numerous moments in the show where it may seem that various endings are comfortable, but that's just momentary excitement with limited vision. considering the full arc of the show, it is difficult to weasle out of early and heavy commitment, even though at various moments the early commitment is 'forgotten.' the only way to get rid of it is not to ignore but to resolve it, like that potential sibling development (huge bomb, leading to weird and fantastic places, but refrain is in order), or the re-direction of energy to other endeavors, like in ai's case. the hinted at out courses for hiromi, however, are all jokes. for instance, how will the behavior of shin's mother be resolved. if hiromi fails, there is no chance for the mother to get some redemption, and you'll have a nasty family situation. since shin came to noe because of his troubles with saving hiromi!, if hiromi is not saved by shin then there will not be a great mystical metaphor to work with. the encounter of shin and noe is basically the mutual productive collision of quite independent developments. the shin-noe route does not really lead anywhere, except as a momentary resting place for the development of other problems. the romantic side of noe's attachment is quite quite detached from anything substantial, and really is a bother.
ai-chan would be ruined if her clinging to the male lead is given dignity. for her, winning is not as important as getting back on track, so to speak.
I was incredibly impressed by how this show started, but it really lost me in the latter part. My big problem were the characters. I won't disagree that the characters were complex and internally conflicted, but I think they crossed a certain line somewhere, after which it became very difficult to genuinely sympathize with them. That's fine... I wouldn't fault a show if it failed to to create sympathetic characters if the aim of the show was analysis of some nature, but it isn't here. True Tears wanted the audience to care about its character (as evidenced by its emotional approach to drama), but when I asked True Tears "why should I care about your characters?" it went silent, and then happily skipped along its way, ignoring my question.
Everything else about this series was incredibly polished, but its one flaw was such a huge one, that it really crippled my enjoyment of it. I loved how it was directed, how crisp and fluent the animation was, the moody music. On the technical side of things, it's top-tier, and there's no question about that. The attention to detail in how the story was constructed is evident as well. There'd be so many of these subtle plot-relevant symbolisms all throughout that do a wonderful job of gently pointing out meaning and importance of the themes just under the surface. The writers have clearly put a lot of thought into what they've written, which is something I always greatly appreciate. If only the characters were more sympathetic...
I was really impressed by how this show approached things, but it ultimately felt like a soup that had been served after the head chef had been very careful with how he cooked it, but then forgot to put in the most important ingredient. I'm giving this "Above Average". Unfortunately, there's no "Above Average" or analogous in this poll. So, I'm giving this "6", but it's much better than "Average", but no where near good enough to call "Good".
For the final review I will ever give on True Tears, I will focus on a number of points, some of which may be divided into subpoints. These points are as follows;
Atmosphere
Background Music (eufonius)
Art Direction (Shinohara Satoko, Takeda Yusuke)
Animation (P.A. Works)
The Cast
Main Characters
Nakagami Shinichiro (Ishii Makoto)
Isurugi Noe (Takagaki Ayahi)
Yuasa Hiromi (Nazuka Kaori)
Isurugi Jun (Masuda Yuuki)
Andou Aiko (Iguchi Yuka)
Miyokichi Nobuse (Hiroyuki Yoshino)
Side Characters
Shinichiro no Otousan (Fujiwara Keiji)
Shinichiro no Okaasan (Takahashi Reiko)
Script
Storyline Quality
Pacing
Internal Consistency
So there we have it, the basis by which I shall give my review on ef ~a tale of memories~. Ikuzo!
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This is the Animesuki Forums chapter of the Triple Critique for True Tears. The Triple Critique is a system of three reviews on the same series, composed in differing formats for varying needs.
For a short summary, the NHRV chapter offers a 5-minute quick read through the merits of the series.
For a full-picture, unrated review, the RIUVA chapter offers a blog-based discourse.
A good anime series draws its viewing audience into its own world; to achieve that, it has to set a general mood. To create a certain mood, two things must be achieved; firstly, animation of at least decent quality animation must be present in order not to make the whole thing look too jarring to the viewer's eyes, and secondly, the appropriate set of background music must be selected, in order to convey the general emotions of any particular scene. This is P.A. Works’ debut solo effort, and with the backing of eufonius, the group responsible for the great music behind such great works as CLANNAD, how did the newcomer to the scene cope?
Background Music (eufonius)
Spoiler for length:
One cannot help but notice the highly distinctive, soothing background music that pipes in at regular intervals through the entire series. This distinctive music is arguably a significant portion of what makes up the distinctive character of the True Tears world, and this is due to the efforts of Hajime Kikuchi, who is otherwise known as cuckool of the musical group eufonius. This is the same group who is responsible for such musical works of art like CLANNAD’s Mag Mell and Polyphonica’s Apocrypha. This time around, not only is eufonius also responsible for True Tear’s Reflectia, cuckool is also the musical director for much of the BGM, and his compositions are truly works of art, serving the purpose of easy listening, underscoring the character of the True Tears world, and directing the emotions of the audience all at the same time. There is great potential in such a display of musical acumen; I highly look forward to cuckool taking up more OST work for anime series in the future.
Rating for Background Music: 9.7/10
Art Direction (Shinohara Satoko, Takeda Yusuke)
Spoiler for length:
If the music of eufonius makes up a significant portion of what makes the True Tears world, the artistry of Satoko and Yusuke is what makes up the other significant portion. Indeed, the visual aspect of the environment is just as distinctive as that of the auditory aspect, if not more so; there has to be great skill involved in making the entire setting look as close to real life as possible in an anime medium, particularly the fact that snow on the ground is as messy a proposition as it usually is in real life, without losing any of its beauty. The occasional stylized stills only further adds to the artistic nature of the world in a unique way, giving it a distinctive character that straddles the line between art and reality.
All in all, the art direction by Shinohara and Takeda is responsible for one of the most distinctive worlds I have ever seen in anime, so props to them for that.
Rating for Art Direction: 9.2 /10
Animation (P.A. Works)
Spoiler for length:
True Tears, as we all might have known by now, is actually P.A. Works’ first solo effort; while they have been responsible for production assistance work in such great lookers as Blood+ and Darker than Black, this is the first time they’re handling main production by themselves. Coming out of nowhere, how did the studio do?
To put it simply, the astounding level of detail they’ve managed to come up with in their debut solo effort brings to mind the ascendant period of Kyoto Animation, and that is not an honour to be taken lightly. Like the latter, which only recently burst onto the scene with their insane attention to animation detail, P.A. Works has inherited the “dark horse/upstart” mantle from KyoAni with the work they’ve done on True Tears. With living and breathing backgrounds, no discernable mistakes in animation whatsoever, and almost completely smooth movements in every aspect of the environment, P.A. Works has proven once again that small studios have a place in the animation industry of Japan. Considering that the studio apparently makes much use of overseas animation work, it is possibly also a sign that animators in such places like Korea and Japan are starting to catch up with the skill level of the Japanese animators.
In short, this is probably the most promising new studio to appear post-KyoAni, and all it needs at this point is a blockbuster hit in the vein of KyoAni’s SHnY for it to really make its mark. I’ll be waiting to see if P.A. Works builds on its promising prospects.
Rating for Animation: 9.6/10
Great music, great art, great animation. What more can one ask from an anime? The combination of P.A. Works and eufonius have created an immersive world with one of the most distinctive characters ever seen in recent memory, and the True Tears world stand as an example of excellence in the building of the atmosphere around the story.
A good setting lays the foundation of the world that the story takes place in, but it is the characters themselves who sets the foundation of the story itself; indeed, the storyline of the entire series rises and falls based on how well each and every character is handled; it's a fine line between making an individual character, or indeed the entire cast, look either dull and uninteresting, or over-the-top and lacking the ability to suspend the disbelief of the audience. So how did True Tears fare on this account?
As per usual, I will be rating the performance of the seiyuus as part of the competency in the execution of each individual character.
Main Characters Nakagami Shinichiro (Ishii Makoto) ”I’ve always wanted to wipe away your tears. Now, I can finally do that.”
Spoiler for length:
It is a known fact that in this particular genre, the male lead has the greatest chance of being potentially the weakest link in the entire setup. This has been subverted in recent times with the increasing frequency of strong male leads who are able to stand on their own, but the fact remains that male leads of this genre are peppered with examples that cast the male species in a less than flattering light.
Unfortunately, Shinichiro is such a character, and it is a direct result from his archetype; as that of a “good boy” who almost compulsively seeks to do “the right thing”, even if doing so would only end up hurting those around him. The thing about his behaviour, is that it was actually fairly understandable for a good first half of the whole series, with him having to deal with a tricky domestic situation; the problem starts going into the last stretch, when he no longer has any apparent reason to be as wishy-washy as he was at the beginning. Not that there isn’t any, but there was hardly any indication of what Shinichiro was thinking at the time, and revealing that he was in fact wavering between the two females in his life only at the very last episode hardly counts as proper character development. Therefore, although it wasn’t actually that hard to make Shinichiro a character that anyone could empathise with, the writers blew it at the very end with him, causing him to look like the stereotypical indecisive harem male lead instead of a character in his own right.
Ishii puts up a solid performance as Shinichiro here, and manages to make Shinichiro not sound like a total spineless brat, but in the end, there is only so much he can do.
Rating for Nakagami Shinichiro: 7.2/10
Rating for Ishii Makoto: 8.2/10
Isurugi Noe (Takagaki Ayahi) ”You believed that I could fly.”
Spoiler for length:
A quirky, eccentric character right from the get-go, Noe stole half the viewer base’s heart with her strange, yet adorable behaviour almost right from the start. With her fixation on chickens, roaches, and taking flight, it has to be said that Noe is definitely one of the more unique female characters seen in this genre in recent times, and it certainly doesn’t hurt that her name is such that it makes a nice rhyming couplet in “Moe Noe”. Quick to pick up on certain things from the behaviour of others at times, and completely overlooking others (though reasonably) at other times, Noe comes across as one of the better characterized female characters I’ve seen in this genre, and that’s saying a lot.
That said, perhaps she was just a little too eccentric for my tastes, for on many occasions, I was left scratching my head at some of the things she can get up to. This is especially apparent during the latter part of the show, when emo-mode Noe pulled off some stunts that didn’t even make any sense to me, and which merely fixed the idea in my mind that there’s something not quite right with the girl’s head. It doesn’t help that Noe’s motivations behind her actions, like Shinichiro’s, wasn’t too obvious, as the sheer eccentricity of some of the things she gets up to overpowers her motivations behind her committing these actions in the first place, in a sense. The result is that, although her motivations can be inferred by some, they flew over the heads of most viewers entirely, and leaves Noe entirely incomprehensible for many.
Nevertheless, Noe was responsible for driving the storyline and bringing it to a fruitful conclusion, and thus she serves her role well enough. It must be said that Takagaki did an excellent job here. It is due to her efforts that Airy-headed Noe and Serious Noe sounds subtly different while still being the same person, and I have to say that’s a pretty respectable feat.
Rating for Isurugi Noe: 8.2/10
Rating for Takagaki Ayahi: 9.2/10
Yuasa Hiromi (Nazuka Kaori) ”It’s because I had always loved you. I didn’t want to give up.”
Spoiler for length:
Long haired, of gentle disposition, and yet very much a sportswoman, Hiromi is clearly designed to appeal to a certain kind, and it shows. Nevertheless, that does not take away from the fact that, for the most part, Hiromi had the potential to become one of the most sympathetic female characters in the genre. Not many characters have to face the kind of lose-lose situation Hiromi was put in, and it makes for great potential for character development.
For the most part, Hiromi doesn’t waste that potential; her actions are clearly driven by the difficult situation she unexpectedly found herself in, and one can literally see the pressure building on her until the point when it grew to be too much. If Noe was the spark that drove the story to its conclusion, Hiromi is the backbone from which the story begins in the first place. Yet, being the main driving force behind the storyline of the series as she was, the problem with Hiromi starts the very moment she no longer has to deal with that situation. Once that happened, Hiromi’s actions cease to be understandable to a certain extent, and start becoming the actions of an insecure girl who doesn’t have that great a reason to be so.
Nevertheless for the most part, Hiromi was one of the most sympathetic characters around. Nazuka also does a respectable job at portraying the voice of Hiromi, and it takes some skill to portray the emotions of the character, who was more prone to subtle inflections of the voice which are relatively harder to portray, rather than emotional outbursts.
Rating for Yuasa Hiromi: 8.4/10
Rating for Nazuka Kaori: 8.5/10
Isurugi Jun (Masuda Yuuki) ”That was probably…the kind of kiss I wanted from you.”
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Smarmy, manipulative, and smug, Jun was one of the more well-developed characters, not the least because of the utter folly which serves as the motivations of his actions. Completely lacking any regard for the welfare of other apart from Noe, Jun is one of those characters whose actions are that of an utter bastard, and yet one cannot help but acknowledge how well-rounded he is as a character, due to the questionable, but undeniably clear-cut motivations behind his actions.
He is clearly no hero, and yet he cannot be unequivocally tagged as a villain, either. What one could say about Jun is that he cares about Noe most of all, is conflicted with his feelings towards her, and actually takes the initiative to come up with a solution for his untenable position, however questionable or amoral these might be. Jun is one of the most interesting characters in the series, more so than Shinichiro by far, and while I cannot cheer him on, in the end I can’t really slag him either. That’s the mark of a great character, and Jun definitely, if anything, is one of those.
Masuda is a great part of that effect, as the voice he provides for Jun totally fits with his image.
Rating for Isurugi Jun: 8.8/10
Rating for Masuda Yuuki: 9.0/10
Andou Aiko (Iguchi Yuka) ”I’ve graduated from you.”
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Ostensibly the third main girl of the series, the unfortunate thing about Aiko is that she is anything but. The problem with her is that while there would not be a story without either Noe or Hiromi in this series, take Aiko out of the picture and she probably would not affect the overall storyline very much at all.
This is largely due to the fact that Aiko was never portrayed as having much influence over Shinichiro’s decisions in the first place; the main theme of the series is Shinichiro’s wavering over Noe and Hiromi, and yet Aiko is simply not a part of it. And it shows; despite clear signs of angst in the early episodes, and a bold move midway through the series, she all but disappears from the reckoning by the last part, becoming little more than a supporting character. What she does do is serve as the basis of Miyokichi’s story, but as that is nothing more than a side story in itself, it hardly matters.
To summarize it all, Aiko as a character simply does not get all that much development, and becomes a peripheral presence at the end. That is not a good use of a character, and in fact is closer to being a waste more than anything. Iguchi does a solid job as Aiko, but with little opportunity in the last parts of the series, even she can only do so much.
Rating for Andou Aiko: 7.2/10
Rating for Iguchi Yuka: 7.8/10
Side Characters
As per normal, I shall rate only those of the supporting characters who were important to the story.
Miyokichi Nobuse (Hiroyuki Yoshino) ”One day, I’ll get you to knit a sweater for me.”
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It’s the same thing all over again; the sidekick of the male lead often comes across as a better character than the male lead himself, and yet he never seems to get a break. And Miyokichi is a better male sidekick than most; despite not having all that much to do with the main storyline, he has some influence on the overall plot in his own right, with his interactions with Aiko. And whatever might be said about Aiko, it cannot be denied that she and Miyokichi make a fairly compelling side story to the main plot.
It helps a great deal that Miyokichi is simply just so likable as a character; he remains as good a friend as any guy can hope for with his “bros before ‘hos” attitude, and his reluctance to break things off with Aiko after it becomes obvious that their relationship was false in the first place and hence untenable, was a reasonable reaction, and he made up for it anyway when he took the initiative to bring a conclusion.
All in all, Miyokichi is as good a side character as it can get, and Hiroyuki helps a great deal with his efforts.
Rating for Miyokichi Nobuse: 8.8/10
Rating for Hiroyuki Yoshino: 8.0/10
Shinichiro no Okaasan (Takahashi Reiko) ”Waiting... takes a lot of energy, doesn’t it?”
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The obvious antagonist of Hiromi’s situation from the start, Shinichiro’s mother is one of the most important factors in the storyline of the series. It is her actions that are the cause of Hiromi’s difficult situation, which in turn was the driving force behind the main storyline of the series. And for her own part, Shinichiro’s mother is a character whose own reasons for acting the way she did was apparent as well. As it is, she served a role as a sympathetic antagonist well; her actions were inexcusable, but the motivations behind those actions were not wholly understandable. For a side character, she was very much a human character, with the flaws necessary to be so.
That said, she was also the cause of the hiccup in momentum that True Tears suffered midway through the series, with her sudden change of heart which had little, if any, forewarning. Honestly, I still didn’t like how she basically gave up her grudge against Hiromi within a singular moment; it was probably necessary for her to give up the grudge in order to progress the storyline, but more thought and time could have been put into the development of the reasons why she did so.
Nevertheless, despite that big hiccup, Shinichiro’s mother for the most part retained consistency in her behaviour, even for the latter part of the series when she no longer held the same grudge towards Hiromi. Overall, her character development was very decent, and veteran seiyuu Takahashi puts in a fine performance as the Nakagami matriarch.
Rating for Shinichiro no Okaasan: 8.0/10
Rating for Takahashi Reiko: 8.5/10
The cast of True Tears started off as being a fairly solid setup, and while there weren’t any standout characters, there weren’t all that many weak links, either. However, almost all the cast suffered from something which I actually have to create a new term for; a plotquake. Or to put it simply, a moment in the plotline which completely scuppered all of the momentum, and for the cast all of the character development, which had been built up before. Because of this, almost all of the cast members who were the most integral to the plot were affected by the sudden change in direction that the story took, and while some of them adjusted accordingly, others didn’t do so well. Overall Rating for The Cast: 7.7/10
A good story; that is what an audience expects, regardless of whether the medium is a book, TV, a movie, or even in this case, an anime. And to get a good story, you need a promising premise, a logical yet appetizing plot, and most importantly of all, inspired direction to make the story really shine amongst its peers. Considering that the storyline of the anime TV series has almost nothing to do with that of the visual novel from which it takes its name, how does True Tears fare as a story in its own right?
Storyline Quality
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True Tears actually started off with one of the strongest premises in its genre that I have ever seen, and certainly it held a great deal of potential for development. What is particularly interesting is how the series took some rose-filtered tropes of the “harem” genre, and turned it on its head with a dose of harsh reality; having an osananajimi move in to live with one under the same roof is not as good as the genre makes it sound, and in fact will cause real troubles down the road, being romantically involved with more than one girl at a time isn’t a piece of cake either, and in fact will hurt everyone around oneself sooner or later, and siscon isn’t the light-hearted fluff that it’s often presented as, and in fact will lead to trouble if not dealt with as soon as possible.
It has to be said though that if anything, True Tears felt like a story of two halves, with vastly different emphasis. Much of that is due to the plotquake that happened in Episode 9, and the result of that is that while the first half was a gripping tale, the last half looked like any typical angst-romance. To put it simply, the writers failed at transition; without sufficient time given to transiting the first half of the story to the second half, the result is that the latter felt completely out of tune with the excellent first half, and was never as good as it could have been.
To summarize, it was a story that started out with a lot of potential, but didn’t quite fulfil all of that potential at the very end. Sadly, good does not do justice to what could have been great, and as good as the eventual full story of True Tears had been, one can only lament at the heights it could have reached had the transition been smoother than the utter plotquake which actually happened.
Rating for Storyline Quality: 7.2/10
Pacing
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From the very start, the series took a pace which suggested that it knows where it wants to go, and how fast it wants to get there. Which is perfectly fine; after all, most shows of this genre tend to take the pacing easy, as that is how these shows tend to maximize their strength of full character development. True Tears followed the same formula, and for the most part, all was good. Although there are plenty of things going on, it felt just right for the kind of story it was telling.
However, the momentum that it built up from the very beginning was all but scrapped in Episode 9, when Hiromi’s situation was solved in the blink of an eye. Just like that, the basis for much of the story’s drive went ‘poof’, and while the writers did their best to bring up the momentum, it never really reached the heights of the first 2/3 of the series. True Tears is a perfect example of how one big mistake can ruin everything, at least where the pacing of the storyline is concerned.
Rating for Pacing: 6.8/10
Internal Consistency
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Not much to complain about on the consistency front; no outright failures of logic, no loose ends to tie up, every character was more or less acting according to character, according to the situation as it unfolded around them. Even the plotquake of Episode 9 didn’t do much to disrupt the consistency that the show had, and at least that’s a good thing.
Rating for Internal Consistency: 9.7/10
Ultimately, the failure of the True Tears story can be pinpointed to a specific point in the series; that would be the plotquake that happened in Episode 9, when the sudden decision by Shinichiro’s mother to drop her grudge act and assorted lies against Hiromi from out of nowhere changed the dynamics of the story within one instant. The story never really recovered from that point onwards, although it did give a spirited comeback which more or less saved True Tears as a “good” show. Still, good does no justice to what could have been great, and if any story could have been, it was this. Overall Rating for Script: 7.2/10
Overall, True Tears was something that promised much, and looked to be delivering on that promise for the most part, up until an unexpected twist which pretty much broke everything that made it good. It was a real pity, for the series were working with some really interesting themes that could have panned out to become a real work of art. Nevertheless, despite how badly the story fell in the end, it does nothing to dispel the fact that P.A. Works has created a visual work of art with its effort in True Tears, and has potential to rise even higher. I hope to see them work on a good storyline that actually pays off for them in the near future.
Final Rating for True Tears: 7.4/10. Rounded down to: 7/10
Ascaloth, you just described exactly how I felt about this series with "True Tears felt like a story of two halves," because it doesn't get any more true that that. The anime failed completely with transition and integration of symbolism into romance. The last few episodes just felt like pure romance/drama.
I don't know what to say, I generally have a hard time picking up dramas (or so I think). But this show was good. Each episode got me hooked and I began to like the characters more and more. (especially Noe), I mean I tried watching Kanon and dropped it on ep 3. Strong 13 eps, and I recommend for anyone to watch it.
). Much to my surprise though, I was totally drawn in. I never cared for the colorful backgrounds of animes made from Key games, the drawing style suited me perfectly. What really got me into it quickly were two things that I noticed. The first would have to be the character Shinchiro, an interesting male lead who I found very easy to relate to compared to these super male archtypes like Tomoya from Clannad or Youichi from Kanon 2006. The second has definitely got to be the pacing, it doesn't rush through anything and quietly goes through out its world like real life. No super fast-forwarding and sudden slow downs. I must say I was quite elated to find this show this season. My question though was if this would continue like so?
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But, overall it wasn't a bad anime.
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