Nice Girls: They Just Can't Win

"No one's going to side with you, you're stark-raving mad!" - Ash Ketchum

"Oh yeah? Just ask your mother..." - Giovanni

"That's all in the past!" - Ash Ketchum

"Listen to me, little boy, nice guys finish last, last...!" - Giovanni

Given the endings of many of the animes with romantic conflicts, that I've recently watched, Giovanni could very well be talking about nice girls instead. Indeed, that could explain why Ash Ketchum keeps moving on from one girl to another to another. Ash is internalizing what he was told by one of his greatest enemies, and hence he's not letting any of the nice girls that he's met end up with him...

A harem-esque Pokemon anime might be a lot of fun... ;)

True Tears Review: Part 2

True Tears indeed...

This may very well be the ultimately saddest anime that I've ever watched. At least for me.

Just watching the anime scene that the above picture is taken from almost moved me to tears. And I very rarely cry when watching anime, and virtually never for purely melancholic and sad moments. When an anime moves me to tears, it's virtually always because of something very touching in a pleasantly profoundly poignant way that elicits tears of joy from me. It's because of a moment of happy familial reunion, or the penultimate moment of romantic realization, or something along those lines.

But the final episode of True Tears was very nearly an exception to that.

I'll get into why, shortly.


First, though, I should provide the readers of Part 1 of my review with an important heads up. My take on True Tears has changed tremendously over the course of watching the past seven episodes. I'm not going to say that I now hate the anime, but I do hate some of the directions that it took. So be forewarned: This review is going to be a fair bit more critical than my Part 1 review was. However, there will also be some further praise for the anime as well.


Watching through the last few episodes of True Tears might have been the most horrifically hellacious heart-wrenching viewing experience of my life. And this is because I became very emotionally invested in the character of Noe Isurugi and the Noe/Shinichiro romance.

There's never been an anime romance that so instantly clicked with me like Noe/Shinichiro did.

I was sold on it almost immediately. It was so splendidly serenely sweet, and unusually uplifting. For a time, Noe and Shinichiro truly did fly, just as Noe had always dreamed of both her and Shinichiro doing.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are other anime romances that I very much like. Tomoya and Nagisa in Clannad was a romance that I eventually came to love. But it took a lot of time and development for me to like that romance. For awhile, I felt that Tomoya perhaps had made the wrong choice in opting for Nagisa over the other options available to him. However, by the end of Clannad: After Story, I was completely sold on the romance and eventual marriage of Tomoya and Nagisa. Tomoya made the right choice.

Shana and Sakai Yuji from Shakugan no Shana is another anime romance that I like. It comes across as cute, funny, heartfelt, and powerful. Nonetheless, I would not have been terribly upset if Sakai Yuji had opted for Kazumi Yoshida instead.

But I couldn't help but to feel upset here, with how the romances were resolved in True Tears...


Noe/Shinichiro is truly the first anime romance that I became completely and strongly supportive of. Until now, I could not relate to just how ferociously fiery fans' flaming passions could rise when it came to shipping wars. Now, I kind of can relate.

I don't actively dislike Hiromi, but nor did she appeal to me as persuasively as Noe did. As I said in Part 1 of my review for this anime, Noe is the charm factor of this anime. And her brother is the cool factor of this anime.

And man, did the anime ever do a number on both... :-(

Jun and Noe Isurugi go from the showstealers of this anime to being simply brutalized by the plot. I've never seen an anime do such an incredibly impressive inspired job in building up two great characters, only to tear them down through one setback after another after another.

Jun could easily and honestly write the stereotypical country music song, for cryin' out loud.

"I lost my bike,
I was suspended from school,
I missed the festival,
and my sister broke her ~llleeeeeegg~!" - Jun Isurugi, singing in Nashville, Tennessee.

If Shinichiro thinks he has a future in writing picture books, just wait until he sees the success of new music sensation Crooner Jun! ;)

As for Noe...


She had her heart broken. She was firmly grounded after initially taking flight. Now the poor girl is even on crutches, after being driven to new heights of insane behavior by how emotionally distraught she was. After all, the boyfriend that she dearly loved turned his back on her. And all it took for him to do it was finding out that Hiromi was not his half-sister.


Speaking of specific plot points, a few in this anime struck me as more than a bit strange.

If there's any possibility whatsoever of Hiromi being Shinichiro's half-sister, why not just get a DNA test done? Indeed, one wonders why Shinichiro's mother doesn't insist on it. She clearly suspected her husband of cheating on her with Hiromi's mom, and I don't see how such a suspicion can be completely resolved short of hard evidence. Even otherwise good men are not entirely honest about such affairs.

Secondly, just what were Jun and Hiromi trying to do? Where was Jun trying to take Hiromi? Hiromi asked him to take her somewhere where it doesn't snow. To the best of my knowledge, no such place exists in Japan during the middle of Winter. Was Jun planning to drive his motorcycle across the Pacific and down to Australia?

Even so, why the suspension? School's suspend students in Japan for vehicular accidents that take place outside of school, and involve no property damage or lost of life beyond what the students themselves endured? That's news to me, if true. Seems rather draconian and harsh, if true.

There's some plot developments in this anime that are a bit hard to swallow. That being said, I will give the anime credit for progressing at a fairly steady pace from Episode 7 on. Episode 7 is where the plot of the anime really shifts into high gear. And, for awhile, I mostly loved the plot. But when Jun went off the road and crashed into the snow, it seemed like he took the mood of this anime with him.


The second half of True Tears felt a lot heavier, emotionally speaking, than the first half. This pretty much killed the friendship dynamic between Miyokichi and Shinichiro. Miyokichi and Shinichiro both became so caught up in emotionally distressing romantic issues that the two of them lacked their earlier breezy rapport. Their friendship carried on, in fairness to both, but it no longer felt easy going or entirely natural. It felt more like a matter of obligation given the sheer length of time that they had been friends.

That being said, there was one romantic conclusion in True Tears that I was happy with...


I was happy to see Miyokichi reunited with Aiko.

The way their relationship played out felt very natural and believable to me. It made sense, and I'm glad that once Aiko accepted the lost of her first love, she was able to accept being the girlfriend of her second one.

I also like both characters in this pairing, and I very much liked Miyokichi's approach to romance. He's a true gentleman that is very honest, upfront, committed, and lovingly caring towards the girl that he adores. Unlike a certain best friend of his...

But this romantic resolution was small consolation for me, given my great disappointment in how the principle love triangle sorted itself out.

Shinichiro/Hiromi isn't necessarily a bad romance. And it's very well developed. The anime is like a master seamstress in how it manages to weave so many different plots and subplots together in a way that easily makes sense at a surface level. I may find some of the character actions questionable, but I know what's going on, and why it's going on, and the plot never even comes close to losing me. Continuity is well-maintained, and the anime handles the progression of time within its narrative very shrewdly.

Also, the ending of True Tears Episode 10 made it abundantly clear that Shinichiro/Hiromi had become the new favorite to be the ultimate central romance of this anime. After all, it had the classically dramatic and romantically suspenseful scene of Shinichiro chasing after Hiromi on his bike, only for him to crash Jun-style, hence getting Hiromi to pull her ride over and race after him. The anime then goes almost into cheesy territory by having Hiromi trip up and fall on Shinichiro. The anime couldn't have made it any more obvious that it was switching from Shinichiro/Noe to Shinichiro/Hiromi.

But then, Episode 12 teases the audience with the possibility of Shinichiro switching once more, this time from Hiromi to Noe. I will admit that the drama of the romantic conflict is played out with all the expert precision of an experienced conductor for a Grand Symphony Orchestra. This anime does an exceptional job of playing on the emotions of its viewers. I have little doubt that if I preferred Shinichiro/Hiromi to Shinichiro/Noe that I would have loved this anime to pieces, and perhaps even considered it a masterpiece.

But... I don't. I have a strong preference for Shinichiro/Noe. And it's not because Hiromi is a bad character, or because I think Shinichiro/Hiromi is a fundamentally awful romantic pairing. It's that Shinichiro/Noe is Just. That. Good.

I was instantly hooked by it.

This anime holds the honor of creating the best romance I've ever seen in anime, and one of the best in all of fiction.

It also holds the very dubious distinction, though, of destroying that same romance.


So, how do I rate this anime? That is hard to answer. It will be very difficult, if not impossible, for me to rate this anime fairly, given how the key romantic resolution left an extremely bitter taste in my mouth, and a churning in my heart and mind.

The anime used symbolism very well. It managed to get more out of the chicken friends of Noe, and their influence on Shinichiro's artistic work and internal reasoning, than what I had ever expected. It's great how the anime all made it work. But it feels so horribly undermined by how the character who made it all work, Noe, is the one left out in the cold.

Shinichiro is right about Noe. Noe taught him how to dance. Noe taught him how to fly. Noe encouraged him in all of his endeavors, and was such a stupendously supportive girlfriend. Noe really had an incredibly positive influence on his life. That was a big part of why I loved the Shinichiro/Noe romance so much.

But in the end, Shinichiro chose Hiromi anyway.


How, Shinichiro? How?!

How could you turn down such a girlfriend? How could you turn down this?



No wonder Jun was not able to bring himself to forgive Shinichiro...


I'm still glad that I watched True Tears. When it came to gaining emotional investment, it's in a very elite class for me. Its plot is largely solid, and its core cast is developed very well. It is a sharp contrast to Angel Beats! in that True Tears never tries to do too much in too little time, and keeps its core cast down to a manageable number of about 10. Watching both animes within the same week or two really served to emphasize these strengths of True Tears for me. It has the kind of plot, and the sort of cast, and the type of narrative, that really works in a 13 episode format.

However, its ending still leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. What this anime does to the Isurugis is almost intolerably cruel. In fairness, an argument can be made that Jun endured cruel and unusual karmic justice, but that it was karmic justice nonetheless. Jun forcing Hiromi into a fraudulent romance with him was wrong of him. So was his attempts to keep her there indefinitely. He paid for his mistakes here, and he paid severely.

Nonetheless, Noe is a completely innocent victim of the machinations of other characters, including her own well-intentioned but ultimately mistake-prone brother. It's truly heartbreaking to see what Noe is put through in the 2nd half of this anime...

In time, I will probably look back on True Tears fondly. But for now, I am left very dissatisfied with its ending.

7/10 overall. Maybe I'll adjust it up to 8 at some point in the future...


To end this review on a pleasant note, here's a couple nice True Tears pictures that I hope my readers will enjoy looking at. :)

True Tears Reveiw: Part 1

I recently started watching True Tears. The reason why I started watching it is because the character designs and promotional artwork looked catchy, as well as mildly magical to me, after I looked into the anime a bit further. That, and a couple people over at Anime Suki brought it up to me in a positive light, and then there's the fact that I was invited to Anime Suki's True Tears fan group ages ago. ^_^;;

Anyway, let me begin by saying that I am very happy that I chose to watch this anime. While keeping in mind the often argued for distinction between slice of life anime and school life anime, this anime nonetheless feels like what good slice of life anime should be to me. In other words, it feels eminently realistic, and it has a very good pace thus far, but it has a sparkling swirling stream of indelible inspirational ingenuity to it. While the anime feels plausibly real, in the sense that you could imagine all of these characters (and the way that they interact with each other) existing in the real world, it still manages to add some tasty sugar and spice to the overall presentation in order to make the anime seem a bit more interesting than just any old real world story.

Perhaps the key reason for this is the following character:


Noe Isurugi is every bit as charming, disarming, and whimsical as the above picture would rightly lead you to believe. Her artistically bubbly, brightly cascading, personality, provides True Tears with copious amounts of playful cheerfulness which in turn adds a great deal to how relaxing and pleasing this anime is to watch.

Noe is the sort of character type that the western world used to do exceptionally well.

For the picture of her above raises images of Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and even Robin Hood into my mind. The charismatic
nature-dweller, with a spirit of adventure, caught up in wondrous exploits. A tale full of eccentricity and lots of sweet sincere laughs, and simple straightforward swashbuckling style.

True Tears is yet another excellent exhibit in my case against political correctness in modern entertainment. Noe Isurugi is yet another pleasantly entertaining anime character that very likely would not pass muster with the modern PC police of western industrialized nations. After all, it's difficult to imagine a character like Noe being on the cast of a modern North American made and produced TV show, isn't it? She's too quirky and, as Shinichiro says, weird for that. But Noe is very much weird in a good way, as much as Shinichiro would like to deny it.

And just how adorable is the following?


I loved this particular scene, of Noe waving enthusiastically, with all the glee of a child on Christmas Day morning, at her dear new friend Shinichiro, located two or three stories above in his classroom. I particularly like how Noe is an absent-minded individualist. She's not actively trying to be inappropriate, and yet often she is. She just goes where her 'true heart' tells her to, and is utterly unconcerned with what could be called appropriate social behavior for where she lives. By 'utterly unconcerned', I'm not saying that she's actively bucking the norms of her society, but rather that she pays them no heed in any sense. She doesn't go out of her way to be a noticeable rebel, but nor does she avoid making a scene. I very much like characters like that. They are true and honest individuals, as they conform neither in a traditional sense, but nor do they conform to trying to be a "cool rebel". There is no pretentiousness to Noe at all.

And in a work where pretension abounds, that stands out a great deal.


One thing that I'm gaining a greater appreciation for as I watch more and more slice of life, and/or school life, anime, is the existence of a myriad of social taboos within modern Japan. Noe plays with these taboos nicely. Her giving chicken feed to Shinichiro, first in carefully placed pink paper wrapping and then later as a dotted line of droppings, results in a hilariously flustered Shinichiro, and the absurdity of Noe's activity here is played up well to give it a great punchline delivery. Noe's eccentric nature contrasts nicely with Shinichiro's strict adherence to social norms and values to result in a lot of quick laughs and quirky comedy.

Shinichiro's whole approach to life appears to reflect a prevailing sense of appropriate protocol for virtually every facet of life. Politeness, and minding one's manners, is valued a great deal. There are some things that you just don't say, or that you just don't do. These multifaceted social taboos appear to be alive and well in Japan.

This has its positives, in that coarseness and rudeness is lessened as a result, but it also erects many walls to building strong relationships. One gets the sense, at least from many animes, that the ways of romance is an intricate and intuitive game in Japan. It is almost like playing chess.

Given what I have read about Japan, these animes are accurately reflecting Japan in this regard at least.

This intricate and intuitive, heavily rule-based, game of romance, can result in extremely extraordinary exasperation on the part of shippers perpetually facepalming at their desired couple so often coming so close to hitting it off, only to have it dashed by some nuance of the social norms and mores of Japan. I certainly understand this frustration. However, this anime makes this game of romance a bit more enjoyable than usual, in my opinion.

In a very real sense, much of the first six episodes of True Tears is about watching Shinichiro try to realize his romantic desires while acting in strict accordance with the social norms and values of his Japanese heritage. It can be intriguing to watch how Shinichiro tries to achieve his goals within the confines of those social norms and values. Its akin to watching a pro sport where certain intricate rules require players to play a certain way in order to win. Ironically, limitations often results in increased creativity, as I often see much creativity in how some hockey players try to enter the offensive zone while abiding by the offsides rules, and I also see much creativity in how Shinichiro tries to move the plot to set himself up with Hiromi.

After six episodes, at least, it's plain to see that Hiromi is the girl that Shinichiro is most interested in. And watching him metaphorically bob and weave in order to move himself away from Noe, and towards Hiromi, is intriguing.

Adding an extra twist of complexity to this romantic conflict are the characters of Miyokichi Nobuse and Aiko Ando. As far as Miyokichi is concerned, they are boyfriend and girlfriend. And, in fairness to him, Miyokichi did ask her out in a very gentlemanly fashion, and Aiko did clearly accept, so one certainly can't fault Miyokichi for feeling that the two of them are basically "an item". However, Aiko drops many obvious hints of her preferring Shinichiro to Miyokichi. I am interested in seeing how this added wrinkle to the romantic conflict of True Tears will resolve itself in the last seven episodes of the anime.

However, I don't want to delve too deeply into the romantic conflict of True Tears in this Part 1 Review. Here I want to focus on initial impressions of the anime, based on my viewing of the first six episodes. In Part 2 of my review, I will deal more thoroughly with the plot of the anime, and with my thoughts on the romantic conflicts in it, and whether or not I liked how it was ultimately played out. I would ask any responders to this blog to please not spoil me there. ;)


My initial impressions of this anime are powerfully profoundly positive. I've already dealt with how I very much like Noe, but I also like all of the three main female characters


In an era when animes of even a slightly harem-esque nature tend to have female casts loaded with characters in the archetypes of tsundere, yamato nadeshiko, and shy bookwormish glasses-wearing girl, it is refreshing to see such a slightly harem-esque anime have no girls that fit neatly into either archetype. I'll grant you that Hiromi has some Yamato Nadeshiko qualities, but that is balanced somewhat by her being a great basketball player. Aiko can be a bit short-tempered, but she's nowhere near temperamental enough to be a tsundere, in my view. And Noe is in no way shy.

All three female characters are drawn to be visually appealing, albeit in slightly different ways. And while all three have personalities that fall within a believable range for a teenage girl, their personalities compliment and contrast one another nicely. On a character design basis, I like the added attention to detail that the anime shows with different clothes for each character, including well-drawn scarfs and detailed designs on boots and tops. The overall animation and artistic style of the anime is superb, in my opinion, and this really comes out with Noe, Hiromi, and Aiko.


However, what of the male cast?


I really like the easygoing friendship dynamic between Miyokichi and Shinichiro. It feels like Taniguchi and Kyon, but with 50% less snark and 50% more sincerity. You get a sense that these two guys genuinely like hanging out together, and they have a little bit of that comedian/straight man chemistry going on when they're together onscreen. That chemistry is not overplayed, though, and hence its kept amusing but realistic.

Watching two buddies go to a quaint little restaurant to relax into their seats and drink down colas with a straw is the very picture of relaxation too. When you factor in how the restaurant appears to be ran by one of the two guys' girlfriend, the whole scene starts to feel like something out of Cheers, but only refined to be appropriate for Japanese teenagers. It feels cool and warm, at the same time. That would be paradoxical if I was using those two terms in a literal sense, but I'm using them figuratively, of course.

And as far as figurative coolness is concerned, this guy has it in flying colors...


The Isurugis are certainly the showstealers of this anime. Jun Isurugi seems to have it all going on. He rides a slick motorcycle, he's an excellent basketball player, and he always comes across as cool, calm, and confident. His fashion sense is great without being flamboyant to a tacky degree. There never seems to be so much as a hair out of place on the guy. He's short and direct, but doesn't come across as shallow or superficial.

While Noe brings the charm factor to this anime, her loving older brother definitely brings the cool factor to this anime. I very much like the relationship between Noe and Jun as well. It's obvious that the two have a close sibling bond, with Noe looking up to her big bro and wanting the best for him, while Jun cares deeply for his little sister and gladly tolerates her eccentricities, albeit sometimes with some mild ribbing.


All in all, True Tears has been a joy to watch so far. I'm truly loving it. In Part 2 of this review, I'll have more to say about the plot and romantic conflict of the show. I'll write that part after I finish watching all of True Tears. I will say now that I think that the OP and the ED are both great. Really nice catchy beats in both cases, with alluring and/or amusing visuals.

So far, I'd give True Tears a rock solid 9/10. And I almost never give out 10/10s.


This concludes Part 1 of my review on True Tears. I'd love to know what my fellow fans of this anime think of that review. :)