Kurogane's Anime Blog

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?

Long hair + wind = Love

<insert comment on show being beautiful>

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true tears just gets more and more beautiful by the episode….

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Shinichiro was quite the rascal.

I’m falling in love with Hiromi more and more.

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Hiromi-centric episode, as she gets jealous when Shinichiro involvement with Isurugi Noe gets spread around the school. She approaches Shinichiro to ask him to introduce Noe to her, to become friends, but Noe takes the initiative and points out that Hiromi doesn’t like her.

Well, that was unexpected for a second episode, with the drama already starting. It seems that Hiromi isn’t as cold as she seems initially, and in fact, this episode hints of a past time where she was friends with Shinichiro and it seems she does harbour feelings for him, although what exactly it is, only time with tell now. Somehow, I’m really attracted to Hiromi the most now, in part mostly for her character design.

Noe herself is also pretty sharp and I’m really intrigued with her character now, with all the extraordinary things that she does, yet she seems to have a firm grip on herself and the world around her. I’m wondering who is it that she’s living with though. A brother? A relative? Seems like it’ll be revealed next week.

P.A. Works’ godly level of animation continues on, and their quality of animation already makes true tears a worthwhile watch just to get a feel of the quality. They really do pay a lot of attention to their work. I think the thing that catches my eye the most this episode is how dynamic Hiromi’s hair is animated, either free-flowing or tied in a single pigtail. While it might seem to be weird of me to notice that, but it’s the small details like this that are usually ignored the most, so I’m happy to say that this is surely a sign of P.A. Works’ dedication to quality.

Another harem/romance, this one with a more serious feel.

Protagonist is Shinichirō Nakagami, successor to the Nakagami household. He’s currently living together with Hiromi Yuasa, the daughter of his father’s best friend, who has died in an accident. Shinichiro has a crush on Hiromi, but finds it hard for him to approach her, made even more difficult by the fact that Hiromi still acts very reserved towards then, even after living together for a year already. Shinichiro also has artistic ambitions, but it seems to be opposed by his mother.

He meets at school later, Noe Isurugi, a rather cute but mysterious girl, who likes to climb trees and befriend chickens. Also, she supposedly can cast curses on someone, Shinichiro on the receiving end after teasing her. Well, somehow he gets involved with her, and even makes her a tissue box sculpture of a chicken, pleasing her enough to remove the “curse” from him.

So far, the show with the highest production value yet, with some really smooth animation going around, even having 3D for crowd scenes. I sure hope they’re managing the budget well enough on another hand. Nothing much to say about the story, it’s mostly introductions yet so far, but it seems promising enough, and if the second episode is good, I will pick this up for sure.

Other than that, awesome eufonius OP again, and what’s with the SD obsession this season, with the group SD marching thing for the ED that kinda makes me lol.