True Tears Review - 86/100
Love triangles and myself don’t have the best relationship. They’re often predictable, usually get nowhere and really like to distract from the main point of a series. True Tears shows that things can be done differently, though. This series has really been built around a love-triangle, and somehow, it’s managed to avoid the pitfalls that has caused the demise of so many series.
The key is good scriptwriting. The series is originally based upon a visual novel, though the creators made the smart decision to just ignore the storyline and come up with their own. True Tears is a slow series, but because it’s slow, it’s able to really dive into the minds of its characters. The result delivers, because the characters in this series are deep.
This is one of these series where the characters and their intentions can’t be easily described in one sentence. A major theme of this series is sorting out your own feelings, and feelings like that aren’t that simple to describe. Shinichiro, our main male lead also keeps hopping from one girl to the other, making the viewer wonder about who he’ll end up choosing until the final episode. The side-characters also for once aren’t stereotypes. The best friend has an actual personality and his own problems, the main character’s father and mother play a big role in the series as well. There’s just one character whose role remains ambiguous throughout the series: Aiko. I’m still not sure what her purpose actually was.
The visuals are another reason to check out this series, because they look absolutely gorgeous. A lot of attention has been put in the animation, and you can see that this series has received a big budget to work with. Even though there are definitely better series, True Tears remains a worthy series of your time.
I think Aiko’s role in the story was to show that the hero isn’t a random harem lead who’s happy with whoever and seizes the opportunity to kiss any girl who’s interested in him. It’s just some boy who happens to have problems sorting his feelings between TWO girls.
Comment by Windspirit — March 30, 2008 @ 0:20
While I liked it’s down to earth plot developments and loved the relationship between the guy’s parents which really feels authentic, it just felt like there wasn’t enough here for 13 episodes. That’s a shame because the director really created an interesting, and wholly believable, atmosphere.
Comment by marmot — March 30, 2008 @ 3:59
though i really like this anime, i still don’t get the reason behind shin’s mother crappy treatment towards hiromi. or am i the only one missing this?
Comment by nahrub — March 30, 2008 @ 5:42
Okay this is just speculation since it involves a lot of reading in between the lines but I believe I’m close enough to be right. I think Shin’s mother went through a similar experience to Hiromi when she was younger.
Shin = Shin’s Dad
Hiromi = Shin’s Mother
Noe = Hiromi’s Mother
Remember how Shin’s mother (I wish she had a name….) cut out the head of Hiromi’s mother in that picture. Remember how she mentioned that Hiromi looked just like her and also had eyes that could seduce men. The latter line Hiromi used on Noe before realizing she was becoming like Shin’s mother was another clue imo.
So Shin’s mother (who I have to say is hot) didn’t really hate Hiromi, she just hated Hiromi’s mother and you could say she transferred her hate onto Hiromi. Having a constant reminder of the woman you nearly lost your husband too must’ve been hard on her.
I don’t think she honestly realized how much she was affecting Hiromi. She was shocked when Hiromi brought up the “You’re related to Shin” barb which was probably just a random dart she through in frustration, sadly for Hiromi it hit her heart.
Episode 7 she tried to talk to her about it but got interrupted by Shin, from episode 9 onwards she treated Hiromi as an actual person and not “that persons” daughter. In the last episode at the scene from the 8 minute mark onwards I think she picked up that Hiromi was in a similar situation to her which caused the visit to her flat later on.
Shin’s dads reaction to Shin’s question about when you cry was another hint, notice how Shin said that Noe made his heart waver which was the response Shin’s dad said.
Anyway I haven’t read the rest of the Suki thread since yesterday (page 5) but I’m sure someone on their has posted something similar, but more well thought out and articulate.
Comment by Westlo — March 30, 2008 @ 12:39
Hitomi won and i fell a little frustrated with this. I loved Noe since the start. Spontaneous, open heart and a little out of place, Shinichiro cried at the end because he knows that Noe deserves to be truly loved. But he can’t do it. But, I don’t fell the same tension in the last episode. It is hard to explain, I was expecting more. Well, overall that was a good anime to watch. =)
Comment by Papilo — March 30, 2008 @ 17:06
@Westlo
lol, i thought of the same thing few minutes after posted here n posted the same thing u did elsewhere. good to know that someone else had the same opinion.
Comment by nahrub — March 31, 2008 @ 7:50
A GREAT series!
Comment by kirsten — April 2, 2008 @ 21:09
This series was definitely a miss for me. Maybe I’m just not cut for this kind of shows. I found Clannad unbearable. True Tears is much better, but still… the characters seemed fake, the events that shaped their lives artificial, and their personality quirks shallow (the whole chicken thing never flew for me).
I mean, I don’t mind the slew of clichés (sister-complex, harem, high-schoolers, cute girl living with clueless hero, even Hiromi wearing glasses during the last third of the series, etc…), it’s all fair game in the name of a good story. But please how about some deeper characters and less contrived situations?
I don’t even ask more realistic characters. I would just be happy with a bit more depth in their development and behavior. And the short length of the anime is not even an excuse, most of my favorite shows are exactly of the same length.
I’d really like to watch more good shounen romance series, but often it’s a disappointment. So far only Asatte no Houkou and Koi Kaze worked for me, which shows that I’m not really averse to stereotypes, if they are properly done.
I really hope someone someday will finish Natsu no Sora fansubs, it looked promising,…
Comment by AlexS — November 12, 2008 @ 4:42
It was a nice one.
Comment by Oya — March 8, 2009 @ 11:49