true tears 13
At long last… the final episode of true tears! This post would’ve been up earlier if not for Kane’s Wrath + me looping a certain scene in the episode nearly 20 times.
Archive for true tears
A slightly more in-depth view on true tears 12
Kimi no hitomi ni….
It’s roughly halfway in to the week-long wait for true tears 13, arguably the finale I’m anticipating the most of all for Winter 07/08. true tears has been truly a masterpiece, with the production team managing to make the majority of their viewers (okay, me at the least) hang on to the edge of their seats throughout it’s run, not bad for a series that I expected to be “just another harem romance show”.
I admit, that my true tears 12 post earlier has definitely sparked quite a huge response, way more than I expected. But yet, I assure you, that was my true feelings at that moment, which is my blogging principle all along. Calling it a Noe victory was definitely my thoughts at the moment. After listening to the many opinions and the comments and rewatching the episode quite a few times myself, I have to concede it was a call made too early.
Let’s go back to a few things I missed out to say in my earlier post. First off, the interesting parallels between Hiromi and Mrs. Nakagami. I wonder how many have noticed, but Hiromi’s character is slowly turning to resemble Mrs. Nakagami at certain points, most interestingly on how she views Noe as an opponent, which is probably just as how Mrs. Nakagami viewed Hiromi’s mother as a rival of sorts, in the past. The scenes where she confronts Noe in the morning and the surprised look on her face as she saw Noe as the shrine as well were really key scenes.
You can actually see a role reversal of sorts happening to Hiromi with Noe. This isn’t to imply that Hiromi’s going to turn in to a “bitch”, though. It’s all a form of expression for their love. And seeing how much his parents situation parallel with his, in a different yet weirdly similar sort of way, can I take it as a positive sign that the writers are going for a Hiromi end? XD
Another thing I missed mentioning out was Hiromi’s strong declaration of her as Shin’s girlfriend to the unsuspecting Ai-chan. I think a few have already mentioned how this part was one of this episode’s highlights, as with that simple words and gesture, it totally hit in the final nail in to Ai-chan’s budding love for Shinichiro. On the other hand, it also shows the extent of Hiromi’s love for Shinichiro as well, in a simple,elegant and surprising way too.
On to Noe. As I’ve mentioned, Noe was really badly hit in this episode, emotionally. The lingering blow of her realization of Shinchiro’s feelings for Hiromi, her feelings of a love broken, her mental impression of her tears not being able to shed, all added up together with Hiromi’s strong declaration of her feelings and her own brother’s incestuous declaration has really given her a real good emotional sucker punch.
To use the term “emo” on her, is really a big disrespect, considering on how much we’ve all went through her eyes. Her weird blend of ignorance of certain feelings and her sensitivity to the body language of others, really made her in to a character with impact to many people. However, her naivety has resulted in her being unable to deal with this huge emotional slap-in-the-face of sorts thus pushing her to drastic actions, i.e. jumping of the tree. While I was shocked for her in my initial watch, but after rewatching, I realise it’s actually a positive thing, as her choice of “jumping” is the first choice that she truly makes and consciously recognizes it. Only by doing so, will she be able to finally move forward and mature in a more healthy direction, assuming the crew doesn’t pull the “coma” card on us.
So far, I’ve been talking about the girls, and finally, time to talk about Shinichiro. While Hiromi may have the poured in the most amount of love for Shin, sadly to say, Noe is the one that has a net positive influence towards Shinichiro in terms of maturing him as a character. To say Shinchiro as “undecisive” and “immature” is really another big disrespect. Youth is… a time of making mistakes and recognizing them, and in this manner, Shinichiro has definitely been lucky to have met Noe to lead him down the path of maturity.
In terms of episode 12, recognizing this fact sheds new light on Shinchiro’s reason to look for Noe at the end of the dance. Has he really chosen her? Or does he only truly wants to share his new-found maturity and decision with her. If Noe hadn’t jumped, I would’ve gone with the latter…. but, with Noe’s leap of faith (of sorts) it definitely throws any solid projections for episode 13 out.
All in all, I still say there’s a 50:50 chance of either girl’s ending… and possibly also an ending totally out of expectations. Whatever it is, the ending of true tears next Sunday is definitely going to be surprising.
In defense of Hiromi
Initially, I intended to comment on Stripey’s post, but I decided to post it here instead.
I can’t see why people keep blaming Hiromi for being “boring” or “normal”. I think those people need to stop watching true tears now because, clearly, they do not read in to the subtleties of the body language, much less understand the drama and the feel of the series as a whole.
Unlike your average run-of-the-mill high school romance stories, true tears is an “adult” series, and even the people involved in it have said so. For those thinking that true tears is targeted to 14 to 18 year-olds, you are sorely mistaken.
My bone of contention is really on how many are blaming on how Hiromi is sending off mixed signals, and yes, she is doing so, if you look on the surface. However, it’s been majorly hinted that Hiromi’s past and possibly her origins has something to do with her actions towards Shinichiro, and to ignore that factor is to really deny Hiromi’s real feelings towards him.
It is clear as day that she has liked him since they were young, but there has to be a very big overriding reason for her to rationally take the painful decision to seal it all away and act indifferent towards him. To both Hiromi and Shinichiro, that one year before the series timeline that they have lived together has to have been a very awkward time together. Just imagine that if your best friend, someone you’ve known for years, suddenly turning indifferent… or even worse, as in Hiromi’s case, overtly polite to you.
Of course there are many theories already surrounding the circumstances behind Hiromi’s decision of sealing her feelings, including the idea of Hiromi being actually Shinichiro’s sibling, but what is certain is that it is a product of their parent’s generation, and we’ll definitely need to know what has happened in the past, between the two families. I have my own theories, but I’ll keep them for later.
Now, back to my original topic, about Hiromi’s “mixed signals”. It’s a very simple explanation actually, she’s jealous. She sees a threat in Noe for Shinichiro’s feelings and against her own earlier decisions, she decides to get back closer to him in order to not lose him. In fact, from that, we can see how “human” Hiromi truly is. While she had decided to shut off her feelings in the surface, there is no stopping love from doing its work. I do not agree 100% with her actions either, but then, I can never blame her from doing it. Falling in love once myself, I understand why she acts that way too.
Hell, her conflicting feelings and actions, is what really makes me stay up until 6am the day true tears airs, watching and spending an hour or so typing out a blog post for it. Her struggles are just what gives true tears it’s “adult” taste, that really sets it out apart from the rest of the crop this season. Even Kaori Nazuka, who plays Hiromi, acknowledges that the emotions in true tears are painful, and over the course of the 5 episodes already aired, this has been proven very right. Despite such, I still love it a lot, as to feel this emotions are, in a way, an acknowledgment of our existence.
Finally, before I ramble more, to end this post, I’d like to say to Hiromi’s detractors that I won’t stop you guys from not liking Hiromi, but at the least, show her some respect, at least on my blog comments. Is that a lot to ask for?
