KaminaKai

“Because I gave my tears away.” That was the line that first introduced me to True Tears. Now I would like to use this same line to introduce you all to this realistic romance series. The True Tears legacy began with very disappointing visual novel sales that ranked it as 41 among the 50 newly released visual novels at the time. Shortly after the visual novel came a live action film of True Tears that resembles closely to the game. So now you must thinking the anime is naturally just another adaptation to the visual novel as well right? Wrong! The anime version of True Tears sharesnothing in common with the visual novel or the film (beside the name). It has its own independent plot, its own independent setting, and its own independent set of characters. Thus why use the name True Tears and give credit to the original visual novel creator when there is virtually nothing in common is beyond my understanding. However, what I do understand is that True Tears is an attempt by Lantis to produce a similar anime type to Air/Kanon/Clannad by Kyoto Animation. The purpose of this review is not to compare and criticize True Tears with the above anime, but I personally feel True Tears is worthy of such comparison if there is one. Many viewers may find the story of True Tears resembling Kanon or Clannad in lots of ways, such as the usual touching scenes that make us cry a river. However due to the nature of the story, instead of dealing with half a dozen heroines we only have three. Thus allowing more time to better develop their characters. One may be tempted to call True Tears a harem anime due to all the females “ganging” up on our protagonist, but I see this as an essential part to developing a love-triangle (and NO, there’s nothing ecchi in the anime). The anime takes a rather different approach to the regular love story and one can say it truly brings out the realism to this matter through the careful use of wordings. However it should be noted that, like most other story with a certain degree of depth, True Tears incorporates a great deal of metaphoric comparison. While it is not difficult to understand what those metaphors imply, some viewers may be discouraged by them. The relationships between all the characters are expertly developed. In addition to the multi layer relations that are common in most romance genre, we also see a great deal of interactions between the younger and older generation of characters and how they affect one another. The protagonist’s parents certainly played a more central role compare with most animation from this genre. However, what I like best is the perfect illustration of a young boy’s heart when confronted with two (or three) possible lovers. I, for one, instantly saw a reflection of myself from Shinichirou (not that I am two-timing or anything, but I find his actions highly logical for a boy his age). I think I would most likely be as confused (if not more confused) than he is if I were in his situation especially after all those shocking events. Animation-wise it certainly lives up to fans expectations. This is especially true for the key scenes of the show. As evident from the title of the anime, tears do truly seem different in here. Tears in True Tears are very beautiful, the glittering salty water look exceptionally real when running down the cheeks of various characters. In addition to tears, the fluidity of the character movements, the detailed shadows on the face of the characters as they speak, the camera angles used to illustrate certain key aspects such as the 3D walking scene etc.; everything adds up little by little and before you know it you will find yourself having a hard time reverting back to watching lower quality animations. I still have a difficult time trying to find a show with superior animation quality compare to True Tears. Like the awesome animation production, True Tears’ music is also not to belittled with. The music was effectively used both in terms of BGM and OP/ED as they all served their purposes well. BGM creates the mood just needed to make some scenes touching enough to make people go teary-eyed. The OP is by eufonius whom Clannad fans should be familiar with. I personally find True Tears’ OP much better than Clannad’s though. Unlike most anime, True Tears’ seiyu did not interest me much (nor did they play any role in my decision to watching it). The biggest name out of the main casts is probably Kaori Nazuka (Nunnally in Code Geass, Eureka in Eureka Seven, Lynette in Strike Witches). With that note, I would like to truly thank the Lantis production crew for bringing us (the anime fans) a wonderful romance series that will forever have a place in my anime romance list.

Benatron

The first line of the show is your very typical drama-like statement, "The you inside me is always crying". Little did you know is that the Shinichiro was talking about the viewer and how much you wanted to cry after watching this show. You're not crying because your sad, and definitely not because you're happy, but because your body is so full with rage that tears have to be removed to make room for more rage. Spoilers galore in here. Let's go over the plot, oh goody, I wonder what kind of plot they have in store. Nakagami Shinichiro lives with his mother, his father, and hisadopted sister. Of course, Shinichiro and his adopted sister, Yuasa Hiromi, are very distant under the same roof. Then he meets another girl, Isurugi Noe, and then you meet his childhood friend, Ai-chan which are thrown in for an unnecessary love-triangle. By the first two episodes, it's very obvious that Shinichiro and Hiromi like each other, but of course, they're forbidden to love each other due to complications in their family situation. Shinichiro doesn't want to admit it. Hiromi thinks that Shinichiro is her brother. Don't worry, I'll get to that in a moment. Just let me take my time. So, Shin-dope meets newcomer Noe-chan who thinks that male lead is the one that can get her tears back. The first broken plot device. Then Hiromi likes to complicate things even farther by saying to Shin-dope that she doesn't like him, it's conveniently Noe's brother. Shin-dope and Noe become such good friends that Noe's brother somehow tracks Shin-man down to his address and asks him to go out with Noe. Shin-man, being the brilliant idealist that he is, thinks it would be best to make a contract with her shady brother. "You go out with Hiromi, I'll go out with Noe!". Second broken plot device. I mean, what was the purpose of this deal? What would this deal accomplish? Noe's brother gets what he wanted for a price. Hiromi gets burdened for making things complicated and conveniently made room for broken plot devices. So then Nii-chan and Hiromi go out. Then it takes Shin-man forever to make his move on his side of the contract. A contract that was never written and never specified. So Hiromi and other guy awkwardly make fake romance so Shin-man will make his move. For some reason, the awkward-fake couple can't break up because that'll break the contract. Supposedly. The viewer is somehow supposed to know that. The idea of the contract is somewhat baffling to me as I cannot figure out the terms of the contract or why the contract was made in the first place. These two guys go out of their way to make a contract on other's personal lives and then make it so that they're connected like a mirror. "If I do this, you do it too!". This doesn't work in anyway and only further prevents Shin-man and Hiromi to be more awkward with each other. Great, I missed the best part of this anime... because the first four episodes with them two had so much magic that I just couldn't handle it. Because Hiromi has no depth as a character, the writers thought that the only way people would like Hiromi would be to create sympathy from the viewer. Which is the third broken plot device. Shinichiro's mother hates Hiromi because she's not her daughter. When she first moves in, years before the show starts, she claims that [Hiromi's mother] cheated on [Hiromi's father] with [Shinichiro's father] to create her. That would make Shinichiro and Hiromi siblings. The fourth broken plot device. Now they feel even more awkward around each other. There is so much magic between the two, I feel like this is a Disney movie! The role of Shinichiro's mother is baffling too. She goes so much out her way to make Hiromi feel unwanted. By episode-whatever, we learn that the might be sibling's thing is a lie. The mother even went so out of her way to back-up that lie that she cut out [Hiromi's mother's] face out of pictures. But then she turns around and begins to treat Hiromi like one of her own after she gets into a bike accident and tarnishes her new family's name. So when Hiromi didn't do anything wrong, she was hated, but when she runs away and gets into an accident and suspended from school she's then rewarded with love. Huh? I mean, what was the mother's motive in the first place? What did Hiromi's mother do to her that she had to make up such an absurd story? This is when the show becomes damaged beyond repair. Another character that baffles me is Ai-chan, the childhood friend that is dating Shin-dope's best friend. Her character doesn't baffle me, it's the reason why she's in this show that baffles me. She's basically there to add extra drama to the fake drama. She likes Shin-dope (and who doesn't at this point?) and kisses him while she's dating his best friend, who is a much better guy than Shin-guy. But thankfully she dumps the other guy and decides to move on from Shin-dude anyway. Crisis averted. Now that we know that Shin-dude and Hiromi aren't siblings. You can finally sleep at night and call the right name of the girl you're sleeping with. Oh. Wait. There's two broken plot devices in the way. The contract and a sweet girl named Noe. Noe and Shin-moron are now going out and Shin-idiot actually draws a picture book about it. A picture book about the chicken that could fly. But then the chicken couldn't fly because his adopted sister is now just his adopted sister. So now he thinks he has a shot with Hiromi. Which now Shin-shin and Hiromi are never awkward because of this. In fact, I was never sure why these two liked each other anyway besides the fact that they're both attractive. They never talked under the same roof, and they don't even know each other. Hell, Hiromi even says it in some episode, "I never got to know you after all this time". So that implies they never got to know each other. Meanwhile, Shinichiro and Noe have a pretty good thing going. But Shinichiro now thinks that "Now is the time to take flight" and let's his hormones run wild and chases after Hiromi as she is moving away to an apartment to live on her own. When they meet up, the dumbest line in the show is said. "I'll do everything proper from now on". As if anything Shin-moron had done before was proper (if you need a hint, nothing so far has been proper and will continue not to be proper). What Shin-chan means by that, I don't even know. And while these two are hugging in the middle of the street. That contract is still in effect because neither of them have broken-up with Noe's brother or Noe. Hell, Noe and her brother seem more in love with each other than any other relationship in the series. Maybe that should be the plot. The forbidden love between those two. Then the less interesting Hiromi and Shin-idiot could get in the way. It could be called "True Incest". Instead of this fast one they pulled on me. Anyway, Hiromi now lives alone and we get to see her do splits. The most enticing part of the show. Now that the two lovebirds are separated, their love becomes deeper and more intense. Even though their in the same class and they don't know each other. So now it's time for the festival dance and time to tell Noe that he and Hiromi are now in love. Oh goody, let's see how our brilliant idealist goes about doing this. He dances and then Hiromi tells Noe, and I quote, to "leave them alone". As far as I'm concerned, Noe was placed into the situation because of Hiromi being a bitch all the time. She never liked Noe in the first place because she was friends with Shin-moron. Then she's the cause of Shin-moron making the contract that automatically pulls her into the situation. So now, Noe is intentionally placed in the middle of these two idiots, and their insecurities, as an obstacle and they treat her like she's done something wrong. This causes her to test flying, in result, breaking her leg from jumping off a tree. Shin-moron then gets angry at Noe and tosses the picture book in the ocean, a page at a time to make it look artsy. I skipped over the last episodes, so I don't even know if Noe got her tears back. Probably not. Why did Hiromi think it was okay to just take Shin-moron's responsibility and just do it all herself? Who wrote this ****? The art was okay. The 3D was clunky looking while students were walking out. The 3D Shinichiro didn't even look like the animated one. Animation was okay. I don't remember listening to any music, because the voices in my head were fighting due to this show. The ED and OP were okay though. To add, the most interesting characters we ain't seen enough of. Miyokichi, Shin-moron's best friend, and Noe. This show goes downhill fast after episode seven, and I would never recommend this trash to anyone. This show lied to me like my ex-girlfriends did. Leaving me doubtful and upset. At the end, I found myself lost and confused and I lost faith in love, friendship, everything. I had to make sure I didn't lose my soul due to this show. Then I looked at the reviews of this show and I also found myself baffled about how people give this show anything more than a five. Things just don't add up. This show has a plot that is more convenient then the laptop in my bathroom.