Shinichirou Nakagami was living the life other boys from his grade could only dream of—staying under the same roof as prodigal student Hiromi Yuasa. However, the bright and cheerful Hiromi has been depressed and cold at home ever since her mother passed away. While he is the subject of the ignorant jealousy of his peers, rumors begin to spread when Shinichirou meets Noe Isurugi—a girl known for cursing classmates, curses which always end up becoming reality.
Noe curses Shinichirou as well, but two pits are created when you curse someone, and her curse on Shinichirou comes back to bite her in the form of a raccoon to her beloved chicken, Raigomaru. Despite this, she does not shed a single tear; Noe had had her tears stolen. For Noe to be able to cry again, she would need the tears of another, and Shinichirou knows a person whose tears he wants to take away.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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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.
ethann
True tears is a story that focuses on the life of a high school student and his interactions with the three heroines of the story. The story focuses on the romance and drama in the lives of the characters. I think that the storyline was one of the best i have seen for a 13 episode anime. It was just the right length for such a story. The anime incorporates a lot of realism and really brings out the drama of a love triangle. The story looks at love from a path less ventured on and is different from your typical love story. Some may callthis a harem because all the main girls fall in love with the main character but it is very different from your usual harem because it looks at it from a more realistic and serious angle. Expect a lot of drama and meaning in this show. Though a word of caution that this show is a bit enigmatic due to its metaphorical usage of "chickens flying" and a strange and unique theme of tears. But you'll catch on eventually so do not fret even if you do not understand at first.
The art was simply amazing. The backgrounds and sceneries were drawn with such vibrance and the colours were vivid and easy on the eyes. The use of watercolour in the show by the main character also brings out a very nice animation feel to the show. One of the best artworks in anime.
The sound was so-so. What really stood out were the voice actors. Especially the four main characters. They played the characters so well and i think it really contributed to the feel of the anime. Inserts were made towards the end which helped to create the atmosphere and i think the OP song was very suited for this anime. It's good but not the best.
The characters were also very well done. Each having a good deal of depth for such a short anime series. Espcially since there were quite a few main characters, to cover such a wide range of characters in such a short span is quite good. Perhaps a bit more focus on the side characters like the two best friends of the lead girl and guy would have been good, but considering the time span i guess it's still ok. The characters were also not your usual cliche characters in a romance anime, especially Noe, to have such a character in the show makes it more unique and unpredictable.
I enjoyed the anime for its romance and drama. But it was lacking in the comedy area. But i guess it's ok since the drama was brought out pretty well as a result. Thus the story may appear a bit gloomy. It was also a bit slow at the start but the pace picks up as the story goes, so for those who are impatient you might have trouble with this anime at the start. However, i think the anime was very meaningful because you can sympathize with the characters and is thus very attention grabbing at times.
Overall, This anime is not to be missed. Especially if you are a romance-drama fan. The anime managed to portray many key elements in the show within the short time span and i think that the anime will leave a lasting impression on all who watch it. However, patience may be needed in the course of undertsanding the story and the characters. If you are looking for something more light-hearted then perhaps you may not find this to you liking.
Master10K
True Tears is a fairly typical Slice of Life, Romance, Comedy, Drama based on an unusual theme of tears (amongst other things). From the beginning the story is pretty ordinary, for this type of anime, as it has a male protagonist (Shinichirou) and it introduces him, his surroundings and the heroines involved in the story (Noe, Hiromi & Aiko). However it is really difficult to tell what the story is entirely about or where it is headed, until things reach a certain point. That is when some major developments arise but it’s a shame that the series is almost half over by that point. Here wehave the usual stock of high school boys and girls for characters and there’s nothing really particularly special about them. However a few of them have something unique about them that allows them stand out (Noe). But the character relations are what make the characters interesting because other than the simple-minded guys; the girls add a bit of perplexity to the mix as you cannot be entirely sure of what their true and honest feelings are.
After watching the series I can definitely say that the animation is the most outstanding aspect of this anime series, as it utilizes superb environments, well-drawn characters and well placed but somewhat overused CG effects/models. The most noticeable feature is the backgrounds, which looks like it was painted using soft water colours and it seamlessly blends well with the fluid foreground animations.
The music is composed of a variety of piano and violin symphonies that works well with the laid-back nature of the show. It also does a good job in setting the mood for some drama but the weak dialogue doesn’t help whatsoever.
Overall True Tears proved to be a great romance anime, for all the romance anime lovers who need their seasonal fix. There are some surprisingly good aspects to the show, which allow it to easily overshadow the major downfalls like the male cast. The humour in the beginning does help set this up to be an enjoyable series but like always expect to see some major drama. So if you’re into this type of romance anime then make sure you check it out.
slpless
True Tears was an anime adaptation of visual novel of the same name. Although, I’m hesitant in calling it an adaptation as True Tears the anime has nothing in common with the game. The story, characters, setting, and even the themes employed are different from the game version, with the exception of the name. I was initially excited a few years ago when I heard about it, but when I heard how poorly the game was received I had extremely low expectations. Thankfully, the anime was also extremely different in terms of quality. The story itself is extremelytypical of the romance genre. However, it is told in an extremely realistic and down-to-earth manner. Just reading the summary of True Tears gives one this impression. In addition, so are the characters, you won’t find any goddess, aliens, espers, or time travelers (and no, I’m not making a Haruhi reference) here, instead our cast is filled with normal people. I sometimes forget that I’m watching an anime as they rarely use animation conventions, such as speed lines, exaggerated expressions, etc. So one may wonder, “why should I watch this, the summary and even you are saying that it isn’t a very unique story?” Well, it is true, I won’t deny that, but what makes True Tears are the incredibly deep and complex character as well as the extremely subtlety in which the story is told.
First, True Tears is told in an extremely consistent manner with near perfect pacing. After a few episodes, once the introductions are done, the story builds upon itself and has a satisfying conclusion. However, True Tears has an interesting story structure. For True Tears the climax and the falling action, or the ride down, didn’t happen all in the last 2 episodes. Instead the climax of the various story threads happened around episodes 6-8 thus, giving them plenty of time to resolve everything. However, not all of the story threads exhibited a very smooth falling action in particular, the main one and thus True Tears suffered a bit near the end. Nevertheless during episodes 9-13, all of those threads were resolved, with the major ones being resolved during the last episode. Although this can be seen as a negative as it doesn’t keep the excitement up till the end. For many single kour anime series the climax happens in the 2nd to last episode (2-3 before the end for 2 kour series). Once again this makes thing exciting up to the end but it puts too much stress on the last episode to resolve everything. Because of the way the story was told, True Tears didn’t end with a bang, instead it ends with on a whimper. It is possible for True Tears to end on an extremely dramatic note, but it wouldn’t be true to itself. That is a very down to earth, subtle anime.
As for the characters, True Tears is more of an ensemble than a harem, as there are 6 major characters (3 male, 3 female) with a focus on Shinichiro, Hiromi, and Noe. Also, despite there being 6 major character and 13 episodes they all had sufficient character development and depth. In addition, all the characters are flawed and very much human. These are characters I can identify with and understand. However, because of this it makes some characters not as likeable. In a way, the characters are painfully too human. In addition, the character that really surprised me was Miyokichi, the seemingly token male friend. Characters like this are primarily used as comedic side characters, for example Sunohara in Clannad. Miyokichi is nothing like this, he received quite a bit of depth and complexity reserved only for main characters in most other series.
Another big surprise was the quality of the animation. PA works was a completely unknown studio and produced something on the level of KyoAni. In some ways surpass them on certain aspects. For example, in the basketball scene in Clannad (by KyoAni) uses many speed lines, a perfectly normal anime convention to convey high speed/movement, not just KyoAni, most studios do this. In True Tears the players actually move and the use of the camera is something akin to what I like to call, Itano circus for basketball. Not only that the world in True tears is very much alive, as there are people, animals, etc that are constantly moving in the background. Sure they use CG for the people walking in the background but it is done in a way where its hardly noticeable. Also, the attention to detail that PA works put into True Tears is beyond ridiculous. For example, the snow, the way it is spread is extremely realistic as well as being realistically dirty. However, the most definitive scene for me was the dance near the end of the series. Not only are all the dancers different they are just slightly and realistic out of sync. As for the art, it was actually pretty unique, most of the time there is a slight softness in the backgrounds. Not on the same level as Honey and Clover but enough to give it a slight picture book feel. Another distinct point in the art was the use of dramatized shots that look exactly like Shinichiro’s art book. This is something that kind of bothers me, as it stood out too much. It is possible that it is relates to the picture book Shinichiro is writing, either way I wasn’t too fond of it. Is PA Works another KyoAni? Maybe, we’ll have to see if they can keep up the quality.
Sound and Voice work was quite exceptional and kept with the overall subtlety of the series. Music is held back and is rarely in-your-face. The OP Reflictia by Eufonius has officially made me a fan of her work. As for the ending, nothing special, the chibi characters walking across the screen was…interesting. It feels a bit out of place considering the overall tone of the series. The voice actors did an amazing job and in particular I was quite impressed with Hiromi’s VA. Her VA did an amazing job conveying the sadness and restrain of Hiromi.
I only have one real complaint for True Tears. As I mentioned above the falling action for the main story thread wasn’t very smooth. This is because I believe the writers got trapped into a classic romance convention. That is holding off who the main character picks until the very end and this is perfectly understandable as they want to keep the viewer excited till the end. This is not necessary be a bad thing but it damages Shinichiro’s character by making him indecisive and thus hurting the ones around him. That’s why I wasn’t as happy with the one or two episodes before the final episode. However, its not like we didn’t know what he was thinking and there were clues point in one direction, its just that they kept it a bit too ambiguous. This resulted in mixed interpretation and frustration when one’s predictions failed.
If I had to describe True Tears, I would say “subtle.” Just about everything about this anime is subtle, from the way the characters talk to their actions. This anime will have you constantly thinking between the lines to really understand what is going on. Once again this is both a strength and weakness as some viewers may simply miss important clues. In addition, they employ several interesting themes and metaphors, for example, Shinichiro’s picture book, flying, and ‘true tears.’ I could easily write pages analyzing these themes but, since this is a review on the anime I won’t. So if you are the type to watch anime for relaxation purposes or with your brain turned off, then cross True Tears off your “to watch or interested list”, this anime is not for you. Ok, let me rephrase that, the beauty of True Tears comes from it’s subtly and depth, something that cannot be appreciated by watching on a superficial level.
Finally, let me say that this review is at least twice as long as I planned. I guess it only shows how much I enjoyed this series as I couldn’t stop typing.
xbobx
"-What are tears? -Let's see, when you're sad... -Not when... what are tears? -Well, to keep your eyeballs clean and moist the tear glands secrete..." True Tears was P.A. Works' debut anime as a solo independent company. It wasn't based on a manga, light novel, visual novel, anything, it was a original production. Because of this, the studio was considered careless by a considerate percentage of the critics, however, this helped increasing the series' audience at its premier, it was an audacious move after all. With the show progressing and popularity constantly increasing, it prof itself a well played market strategy. Then, someone might say "What is it worthbeing a original production if it's crap?"
Interesting point. There's no merit at all in creating a story that won't live up to viewers expectations.
Luckily, True Tears doesn't fall into that trap. It might not work for everyone but it is, undeniably, a well elaborated and carefully conducted story.
Yes. I'm well aware I just poked a sore spot. Unlike what the previously lines stated, lots of people consider its story to be a huge failure, blaming character development to be the villain of it. Unrealistic characters, patterned story, flat personalities, are just some of the major criticisms this anime receives. They aren't completely wrong, and of course, each of us has our own opinion, however these statements are focusing into small flaws and turning them into huge plot holes without taking in consideration the environment surround it. Meaning: Other elements of the storyline and small pieces of character dialogues which explains and corrects those "mistakes" so that when you see the final product, all the pieces must be visualized together and these flaws becomes invisible.
It is a misunderstanding to label True Tears as a Harem to start of. Harem series, for the ones who aren't familiar with it, are those stories where the main male lead is surrounded by girls -all in love with him- and the protagonist can't make up his mind, because he enjoys his situation or for pure hesitation. Somebody who watches the first 2 episodes of True Tears will notice that this anime isn't about it.
Just like that, I would humbly ask you to NOT take in consideration the series summary here in MAL. Clearly who wrote it didn't watch the complete series (besides from spoiling the entire first episode).
True Tears strong attribute is the Drama, with Romance as a important side-kick of it. After all, a emotional loaded series without heartwarming moments would be just too painful to watch.
The story progresses exploring inner conflicts of the characters, set with situations from their past strongly represented through metaphors and subtext that will require some Pause-Play action in order to fully understand it. "The Tale of Raigomaru and Jibeta" was sure the ace in the pocket of producers.
It's nice to emphasize the symbolism of it. The anime was structure in a way both stories (The actual main one and the fictional Raigomaru's) are developed independently. However, they are joint in the meaning, and Raigomaru's is constantly influenced by the outcome of events on characters life's.
Just like that, I was impressed how this show managed to represent characters reactions to events on the story in a perfect "human" way. It's well known, that drama series are often criticized because of strong emotionally packet scenes suddenly followed by easygoing everyday events as if nothing happened, leaving that sour taste on the mouth. True Tears escape from this pattern, as Raigomaru's Tale shows and the same applies for other characters as well. Hiromi performance on her basketball practices, Noe's berries, etc...
It's easy to misunderstand True Tears characters. Specially if one listen to a friend who watched it or reads about it somewhere. Even reading these reviews might change the way someone interprets them. Hopefully to a better one.
These characters personalities are way more complex than what we're used to, and the reason why they can't be simply explained is because production succeeded at making some really realistic characters. However, the challenge of an advance like this is too keep every character on the same level of complexity, otherwise, some would become flat and others way too dense. And... this is what happened. Not to mention supportive characters were completely neglected, although this is still acceptable due to the focus of the anime.
Using the three main characters as an example, Hiromi and Shinichiro background story was well structured and understanding the reason of some of their actions would require a deeper commitment from the side of the viewers. On the other hand, Noe's character, besides of her background story, was way too simplistic when compared to others, without a further development, only receiving producers "attention" at the end of the series. This creates a contrast that completely ruined the enjoyment for some people, turning what would be a great drama/romance into a hateful/psychological (Huh, dejavú Makoto-san).
Still, on the overall, the job done specially with Hiromi character was marvelous. That said, in my personal opinion, character is worth a 9 out of 10 since, like said previously, the final piece hides these mistakes. You know they're there, but they don't affect the enjoyment of the show.
Animation and Artwork were really smoothy. Being it a drama it was expected that characters expressions would be carefully animated and so it happened. Also worth mention the quality of small details like snow flakes, leaves and sea water sparks but above all, this anime really represented its name. True Tears had one of the best Tears animation I've ever seen. It is not rare to find series with horrible "eye sweat" animations. It was a surprise to see how well drawn they were.
Sound, music, OST, openings, casting... deserves nothing but praise. The seyuus chosen for this series fit perfectly to their characters. The OST written for it was also outstanding. Emotional packed violins and pianos but also acoustic guitars for happy funky scenes. Reflectia (the opening theme) even did recently a cameo appearance on P.A. Works most recent anime TariTari. Only thing I missed tough was the small number of insert songs. Just a couple of them.
However, analyzing the songs shouldn't be limited to just saying if they are good or bad, one important aspect of it is timing and placement. A insert song placed at an awkward moment can easily ruins the entire mood of a scene. True Tears didn't have problems with it. OST was perfect placed, something that greatly increases the emotional value of certain scenes.
-A notorious example of it would be the last scenes of episode 6.-
Still, the most impressive about this anime is related to its story.
Its plot and script is way stronger and denser than lots of drama/romance series similar to it, however, it doesn't tries to impose feelings on you. It might make you shed some tears but it isn't a constant machine gun of feelings. You may end up thinking "Oh man, this is sad" but it stops at it, through the entire series there isn't a scene that you can notice it was prolonged to induce the viewers to cry or something similar.
In the place of it, P.A Works built a compelling storyline, that keeps you entertained and curious to known what will happen next, what will a certain character do and how it gonna end. Specially how it gonna end, since the final conclusion was marvelous hidden till the very end.
This is a series I'd strongly recommend watching for a second time in order to fully understand it.
Something that is lovely about these romance anime it that you always get attached to the story and in most of the times, when there's a love polygon, you start cheering for a character/couple. The satisfaction of seeing your favorite character achieving his/her goal or the sadness of a misfortune is part of it.
It's silly to bias the final enjoyment rating on this character success/failure, what matters is that the series managed to keep you entertained the whole time!
Story 9 / Character 9 / Art 8 / Sound 9 / Enjoyment 10 = Arithmetic Overall: 9
True Tears, for me, was a masterpiece.
But, c'mon. They could've picked a better name.
Bushou
Complete and utter disappointment is what made me write this review, therefore making the show probably sound worse than it actually is, or is it? If you're thinking about watching True Tears, then let me give you a warning not to expect too much of it, for that was my mistake right from the start. The series began, for my taste, extremely promising and I couldn't wait for the second episode, but alas it was late and myself tired, so the only way to proceed was to sleep and watch the rest of the show the next day in one go. Little I new in myenthusiasm that I'd have to force myself to sit through the rest of the 12 episodes by drinking till I almost passed out.
One thing I remember clearly about the first episode was the „Kyaa! Ecchi!“-thing. I thought „wow, using a cliché from the harem-genre and putting it in a more realistic scenario, that's nice!“. I expected then an intelligent change from your everyday harem-anime looked at by a more realistic angle...and somehow I got it, but with a cast where I don't even know which character I hated the most.
The creators of True Tears should have been so honest to tell me poor soul that this show takes place on planet „Sadist IV“ where everyone, first and foremost the females, are committed to lie and hurt others whenever possible. If that would have been made clear I could understand why nobody seems to care about being treated this way. But for me, accustomed to modern earthly standards of not being an asshole, I just don't get it.
One character especially deserving of my hatred is Shinichiro's mother. Why no one really deals with this vile-spitting harpy is beyond my understanding. When you have watched the series, just ask yourself, what would have happened if she wasn't such a complete and utter bitch or had died years ago in a preferably painful fashion.
Noe seems to be somewhat of an exception in this line but irritated me in her own unique ways. Though I give her credit for trying to help others instead of thinking of ways to hurt them, as everyone else seems to do.
Another major flaw of the show is the plot consisting mostly of soap-like twists. While other shows might sometimes need or even profit from scriptwriting like that, True Tears would have done much better with concentrating on character development I think. Shinichiro doesn't really get to know any of the girls better, as there always seems to be a farfetched plot device lurking in the shadows, waiting to distract...most of all the viewer.
Well, all that being said, I actually rewatched the series, this time being prepared for what was to come and therefore without the need to drink myself senseless. Knowing the end and all I actually understood most of the reasoning behind the things the characters did and said, but I still wondered why they had to do it in such a cruel and self-serving manner and if such people really could harbor deeply romantic feelings in such a way. But I see at least a ray of hope for all people liking this show, generous as I am.
As for the animation and sound I almost resented them for being too good, because I got the feeling the story itself didn't deserve such embellishment, but it's certainly one reason I couldn't give up on True Tears and simply hate it without wanting to know why.
Why it was this series which attracted that much hatred from me, I'm unsure. It seems to be the above mentioned disappointment. At the end of the first episode I was ready to believe this was going in my top 10-list. While other series in the past turned out to surprise one way or the other, too, True Tears was a major letdown for me. So I really can't advice to stay clear of this one, just not to expect too much.
This review was my first one and I'm quite refreshed after writing my grudge away. If you facepalmed yourself several times while reading please consider my native language not being English as well as my perspective being shrouded in hatred and cynicism, thank you.
Bondius
There goes another short but awesome romance anime. True Tears. It's a simple, yet outstanding combination of romance, drama, comedy and slice of life. Story The story is simple at first. One guy, three girls, seems like your average gotta-catch-'em-all harem, but this one is different from the majority. It starts lighthearted, explaining the relationship between our male lead, Shin, and the three girls in his life, Hiromi, Noe and Ai. What starts as a random encounter turns to be the ignition key for a beautiful story. No Deus-Ex-Machina, no things that seem out of this world, just a simple story about love, sadness and thetears that one sheds, the true tears that one cries only when the heart is wavering.
Art
The animation is very good. As series pass by, it seems like the animation process becomes greater and greater, resulting awesome artwork like in True Tears. The characters are very well drawn, eye-candy almost everywhere, the background scenery is awesome and the scenes that matter most are those that are drawn the best. One thing that attracted my attention was the activity of the show. The backgrounds are filled with life: students passing by and discussing, birds flying around, the waves of the sea, it all seems so real. Hats-off to the True Tears artists that worked on the project, it's really something.
Sound
The opening song is one of the best songs I've ever heard, in my opinion. Eufonius is a great band and the song's rhythm and lyrics can make me speed up my pace and even sing along.
The background music is very good, as with all the recent anime. I love the piano and violin music they use most of the time as it fits the mood perfectly. It's without flaws yet it can always be better.
Character
The characters are one of the strong points of this anime. They're human. Their emotions really get to you because they're human. The girls really stand out for a harem show, especially Noe, who's like a torch in the middle of the cave, you'll forever recognize her unique character after watching it. Then there's Hiromi, the sweet and kind girl with a bit of a troubled past, nothing our male leader can't handle, and Ai, the onee-san type that's fun and out-going.
Shin, our male leader, is quite normal. Seems cool male leaders are popular these days. Well, he's anything but cool until the moment he finally decides to set things right. He might not be the smartest bean in the jar but he's a good guy. The one small thing that I didn't like was the lack of background story for the secondary characters (like Miyokichi or Tomoyo), the rest is awesome. I really loved the characters overall.
Enjoyment
I usually don't write a review if I don't enjoy it and this my proof. I liked this anime from the first episode and it really moved me towards the end, it was an awesome series and it was worth every minute. I'm sad it ended, since I wanted to see more but you can't help it, all good things come to an end.
Bottom of the line is that if you're into romance shows (like I am), you'll love this one. It has it all and much more and 13 episodes was too short to satisfy my hunger. Nevertheless, I'll keep this series in my "top romance anime" list.
Final Overall Grade: 8.6, rounded up to 9
Obamanizer
i feel like i just ate a piece of fresh hot dog shit after watching this. no fucking joke... the hell with all you people who will say this is what a love story is. This show once again takes a absolutely sweet girl, who suffered a painful loss, and has no friends. Makes her fall in love with a guy and then shits all over her just for the sake of F-U..... She does nothing wrong, Loves the guy and gets betrayed for reasons worthy of justifiable murder. Man = Main character G1 = Sweet innocent girl G2 = useless pure evil bitch you aresupposed to have feelings for says 2yr old author of show.
Man has crush on G2, but G2 makes up a lie and says she loves another man.
Man has a chance encounter with G1 who is very sweet and earns a friendship with Man and makes him fall in love with her for her true inner self, a sweet and kind girl who has been through allot of pain and is in need of a person to be there for her.
Man ends up dating G1 of his own will and feelings which makes G2 angry
Man finds out G2 may be his half-blood sister and that makes them even further apart and they start to get the first signs of accepting that reality.
G1 just being herself is extremely loving of Man and starts to feel truly happy inside and Man shows her love and makes her feel how real it all is.
Then man finds out G2 isnt related to him and all of a sudden he is now madly in love with G2 and completely destroys G1's heart without a care in the world, right in front of her....
Man starts ignoring and avoiding G1 as well as G1 avoids man, but Man is now in a relationship with G2 secretly cheating on G1 who never did anything wrong....
G1 is still in love with Man and tries to show it at times but Man just shits on her.
G2 realizes that G1 is still trying to get Man back and does Hateful Evil things to push her away and crush her inside knowing that she has no-1 else.....
G2 later knowingly pushes G1 to hard which leads to G1 having a delusional suicide attempt on her life because she was so destroyed inside Meanwhile Man watches her do it and feels nothing... NOTHING!.......
G2 then says she doesnt like how she has acted and is sick with herself and she doesnt deserve to win Man over the way she has been, but doesnt leave him, and just claims him as the trophy she won using absolutely scumbag lowlife bitch tactics to win him all the while saying she doesnt deserve it, After the fact she did it...
Man ends up with G2, Fuck G1, she can go home and die, they live happily ever after, why? because FU thats why.
Seriously... This show was feeling great up to 65% through.. then it just tasted like dog shit. there was absolutely no logical reason for the way things happened in this... the main bitch knowingly pushed the sweetest girl to attempt suicide and then acts all girly when her man comes home to her. and the fucking main guy just watches her try to kill herself with her delusion and knows its because he completely fucked her over when she did nothing wrong, but doesnt give a shit at all..... like... What the fuck... seriously...
This has left me with the serious desire to track down the author in real life and end him with my bare hands..... and that, is no joke...
bakajin
Trash. Utter trash. I had high hopes for the show when I began watching it. Decent story and well told. Nothing original, just done right. The characters were great, especially Noe and Miyokichi, and with Shinichirou being pretty solid for a harem lead with Hiromi not being too bad of a lead chick with terminal Yamato Nadesico syndrome, everything seemed to be set for an enjoyable ride. And then episode nine hit. Neither episode nine nor episode ten were bad, per se, but they were extremely bland. Episode nine concluded all conflict in the show up till that point. Suddenlyand without any passion. It was all over. This was an incredibly bad sign. Episode ten was just nothing. Here, it seemed, was a great show that was going to be ended prematurely and then dragged on pointlessly until the required thirteen episodes were met.
Episode eleven changed all that. It was the beginning of a quick, brutal slide into pure suckation. The story in those last few episodes was nonsense. The characters dropped all semblance of character and became animatrons fulfilling their plot duties. If the random nonsense could even be termed a plot.
My rage for such promise to be utterly destroyed is immense. I would highly recommend that this anime be avoided.
CVArk
Well wasn't this a doozy! True Tears is the story of a young man with a talent for drawing who wants to publish a book, but the main plotline is his burning desire for his de facto "sister," Yuasa Hiromi. I'm exhausted and disappointed so this won't be much more than a brief overview. I came to this from Whisper of the Heart, as I'd heard this series also involved an artistically-inclined character who's inspired to create something that truly comes from the heart. And yes, I can say Shinichiro does exactly that, but it didn't quite strike a chord with me as WotH did. Anyway, TrueTears had a really promising start, with what appeared to be a rather clichéd slice-of-life school romance story a la Toradora! or Clannad, but it seemed subversive in a way (at first). That is, the series seemed to be aware of this stereotypical treatment and took occasional jabs at itself, sort of a way to turn the clichés on their head.
From there (I would say from the second half of the eighth episode), it devolved into an ACTUALLY clichéd and heavy-handed school life story. Drama isn't a bad thing, but damn if it didn't drag the entire series down with it.
I think there are a few principle factors that led to this sharp decline: first was that the female lead/romantic interest was completely uninteresting. I can debate the personal qualities of Yuasa Hiromi's character from sundown to sunset, and it may in the end just be a matter of opinion anyway, but ultimately I never felt like I was "with" her, I never felt like I could realistically root for Shinichiro to win her over. I just didn't care.
Shin himself did quite a heel face turn as well. At least in that first half, although he was oddly fixated on Hiromi, he did seem to have some sense of self-awareness and conscience. Deep down, he seemed to at least mean well to his friends and acquaintances, even the more unusual among them. Over the second half of the series, he devolves into a generic school life jerk - that is, the one all the girls want, and God knows why.
I don't think True Tears is really a terrible series overall, and the last half may not even actually be bad. It just seems like episodes eight through thirteen could have been so much more than they were, and they ended up being a spectacular letdown. It had such a strong start and what makes it so disappointing as a series is how quickly it appeared to lose steam.
I don't know; maybe True Tears really is a completely subversive game-changer, toying with our automatic assumption that the main character of a slice-of-life romance may make mistakes and do stupid things but at least means well. Perhaps most of the cast save two was made deliberately unlikeable for that very reason. The weird thing is that looking back, I almost feel like after around episode eight or nine, the characters are turned into people they don't seem to have been just a couple episodes prior. It's like they're jostled permanently out of their own character. Maybe I'm the only one who felt that, but feel free to come to your own conclusions. And it's a shame too, because the OP is wonderful and the art at time is breathtaking.
Anyway, I think that's enough non-sequitur and passionate nonsense for one review. In a nutshell, my take on True Tears is as follows: watch it if you want, but it's neither must-see nor must-avoid. If you do decide to watch it, perhaps you'll come to a different conclusion than I did, but I frankly would've been much happier (and may even have rated the series a lot higher) if it had ended a few episodes earlier.
setvenx
Every once and a while, you run into an anime that you find at random and completely knocks you off your feet and leaves you with nothing but good impressions. True Tears was one of these animes that left such an impact on me making it worth mentioning at the beginning of my review. I'd like to begin by saying that the genre of True Tears is mostly drama and romance. True Tears should barely be considered a harem and if what your looking for is a bunch of girls on one guy, forget it. Another thing I would like to add is to also disregardthe synopsis because I believe they are usually a bit misleading and can easily sway you into either watching it expecting different things, or dropping it knowing you won't find what you want even though it may very well be there.
What you should take from the synopsis if you have read it however, is that Nakagami Shinichiro lives in the same household as his classmate/childhood friend
Yuasa Hiromi. Shinichiro also happens to have quite and artistic mind and draws a picture of her crying because deep down inside, he feels that she puts up a front that makes it seem that she is never sad. Also the encounter of a strange girl named Isurugi Noe would spark the beginning of all the development in the story.
As far as the story goes, it is a serious drama with perfectly paced character and story development. Without developing too slowly or rather too quickly since True Tears is only 13 episodes, the story is EXTREMELY easy to grasp and understand as well as quickly pulling us in and keeping us in our seats. The story itself holds quite a bit of realism because each and all the characters in the story do not seem completely far-fetched and no particular character seems to be the "theres no way someone can be like that".
With that being said, True Tears is not going to be your generic drama romances where theres going to be some super ultra climax and clash between rivals, and the outcome becomes some ridiculously tragic tale with either 1 couple immensely in love with each other, or no one being happy at all. There is gonna be a reasonable conclusion, one that won't set the epilogue(if there was one) in stone and could very much easily be changed over a short period of time. But as any great anime would, it will leave you thinking of what could happen if the story were to continue(and from there you can fulfill your deepest fantasies for how you wanted it to end). No matter how you put it, if you enjoyed it as much as I have, True tears
As for how True Tears was broken down, rather then True Tears being episodic, be prepared to keep on watching because most times it will leave you with cliffhangers as high as skyscrapers and if you, like me, had to stop because of something u had to do (in my case sleep), it would leave u twitching with excitement and anticipation much like waiting for the next chapter of a manga you love but only having it come once a month.
Having to find such a masterpiece wasnt enough, the fact that it had such a great OP and soundtrack sent it to a whole new level. Kudos to Eufonius for yet another great OP furthermore deepening my love for their music.
All in all, it wasn't hard to realize that I myself would be so absorbed into True Tears and find myself reviewing it with nothing but good things to say and with nothing to possibly complain about, True Tears EARNS my 10.
avadanekedavra
True Tears is an anime that centers on Shin’ichiro Nakagami, the male lead of the story. He is friends with Hiromi Yuasa since they were children. When Hiromi’s parents died, she was taken in by the Nakagami Family. With that, Shin-chan (what Shin’ichiro’s mother call him) struggles and at the same time develops even stronger feelings for Hiromi. He meets Isurugi Noe in an unfateful encounter. Shin’ichiro begins to get closer to Noe, and develops affection for her. Story: (6/10) “The you inside me is always crying. I wanted to wipe away your tears. But I never got to know the feeling of wiping the tears away fromyour soft cheeks.” – Shin’ichiro Nakagami
Those first lines. Those sweet lines will reel you in instantly.
It was emotional. Most of it. The story was wonderful. It had a good beginning. And with each passing episode, you’ll be wanting some more. But, unfortunately, when it got to the falling action, it made it less interesting. Truths are revealed, friendships got crushed. It was unexpectedly expected. When the Mugiha Festival came in, it will draw you in again. Then, after that, it will drive you back down. It had that intermittent up-and-down feel that will make you love and hate the storyline.
Oh, and two words: Bad Ending. Its ending was depressing. I hated it! Hate, hate, hate. I simply hated it.
Also, watch out for Raigomaru and Jibeta’s story. It is heartwarming. It was impressive. Thumbs up on Shin-chan for that.
Art: (10/10)
P.A. Works. That’s what encouraged me to watch True Tears. P.A. Works did an outstanding job animating Angel Beats!, so I thought that I should watch more animes produced by them. And it didn’t fail me. The one thing that you will certainly love about True Tears is that its animation is perfectly done. Splashes of water, a chicken eating a sausage, a chicken flapping its wings, flowing of sweat, walking people with shadows following them, a motorcycle, basketballs, dancing with props, the sea: all of it was impressively done. Even the ending animation, where everybody was in chibi form, was very admirable. I expected nothing less from P.A. Works. Two thumbs up.
Sound: (10/10)
The music will carry you away. It fits the moment, and will really capture you. It really compensated the not-so-good plot of the series. Hajime Kikuchi is definitely the one to praise.
Aira Yuuki has a beautiful voice that sounds right for the ending theme. I like eufonius’ opening theme, too. It was very melodious. But when I heard its instrumental, plus Hajime Kikuchi’s numerous instrumentals of Reflectia (with a different title, but sounds about the same), it sounded much better.
My favourites would be (in order): Mujaki sa wo Senaka ni, Orange ga Ochite Iku Toki, Madobe ni mo Tareru Shoujo (Violin Ver.), Kagami, Kimi wo Utsushite, and Kokoro Kasanete. They were all very sweet and easy on the ears. Ichijin no Kaze sounds cool, too. And Aburamushi no Uta, Noe’s song, is so adorable.
Character: (3/10)
Most of them were awful. Really. The only character you’d love is Noe.
I found a photo in this link: http://i50.tinypic.com/2mfdg09.jpg. That actually sums up your description to the 5 main characters.
Shin’ichiro was not very likeable. Yes, he’s good-looking; Yes, he’s nice. We already know male characters who are like that. And these male characters are oblivious to the feelings of the female characters around him. Sounds familiar? Yes. It does. That’s why you’re going to expect something different from him, something that will separate him from others. What you’ll like about him though is that he is a writer in need of an inspiration. He wants to produce a story book. And as he meets Noe, he becomes motivated to continue on pursuing his dream.
There are other characters that didn’t play big parts, but will make you hate them on purpose. Kanae, Aiko, Jun. They are just a few of the characters that you will dislike, no doubt about it. Noe was amazing and remarkable. She will touch your heart. She was really moving.
On the other hand, Shin’ichiro’s bestfriend, Nobuse Miyokichi, besides the fact that he was terrible at the beginning, will get you attached to him for the reason that he is going through an unrequited love. (Oh, you can relate? Lol.)
I also wanted to see the other supporting characters a chance to get more exposure. I know they’re just supporting characters, but they still deserve to be seen.
Enjoyment: (8/10)
Aside from the negative parts of True Tears, you will enjoy watching it some ways you could not explain. There are funny scenes, there are heartbreaking scenes. It will surprise you that it managed to make you watch it up until the end.
Overall: (7/10)
Overall, it’s not as bad as it seems. All you need to give is the right appreciation. It may be that True Tears is not different from any other harems that you have watched from the past, but it still manages to separate itself from others.
ADAWG
___________________________________________ Review the 3rd Chihuahua Review(short&sweet): A dramatic, HIGH quality romance with an unexpected ending(maybe just me) that keeps on making me think of "what if's". ------------------------------>In Depth Review:<------------------------ STORY: This romance is based around the main guy, Shinichiro witih the usual three girls fighting for his love. Wrong, one of them obviously has no chance. The the other two duke it out till the very end, which some say was not the prefered finish. However the rest of the story was pretty well done with an ordinary basis flourishing with great execution and "flying" and tears as the main theme here. In my opinion this isAir TV made the right way. Just watch both and compare.^_^
ART: Artsyle and Animation in this was amazing. The female cast was beautiful and one especially was incredibly moe.&gt;_&lt; There was a tad bit of fanservice(1-2scenes) but nothing so much that it becomes a nuisance. The CG(computer graphics) was used well and really blended in with the amazing background. The only complaint i have that prevented the art from being a ten was the blandness of the males in comparison to the girls. Also that other than Jun the cast looked a little young for high school. The art here could rival that of KyoAni's (there i said it)
;)
SOUND: I really liked the entire opening it really set up each episode. I don't think i've skipped it during the time i watched the series. The Cockroach Song was also pretty important even though it wasnt really a song. It worked really well in some of the dramatic scenes. Voice acting was great so i cant say much about it. The ED in this show was passable but i didn't really listen to it until after the show since i kept on wandering on to the next episode.
CHARACTER: There was actually a fair amount of developement among the characters considering it was such a short series. However despite a plethora of wavering hearts and incestual obstacles the show was able to finish smoothly. With this said the characters may or may not be so likeable except maybe for ONE. :) Really interesting how they used both a childhood friend and philosophical moe girl in one series. Tough Matchup XD.
ENJOIMENT: I enjoyed this thoroughly even with my slight dissatisfaction at the end. Right now it seems to be an underrated show but it is definately worth a watch. One of the few shows that made me shed actually shed a tear. If you enjoi romance then dont consider this just watch it.
OVERALL: Debatable ending(debate with me if u want XD) but great everything else. No reason to hate and even with its short span it feels longer than 13episodes.
Recommendation: If you like romance harems or romances in general watch this. If you liked this then watch any of KyoAni's anime or ef-a tale of memories.
If you dissagreed OR agreed fully with me on anything feel free to message me and discuss it. Always fun. @_@
WoofWoof
PoeticJustice
We all come into a new anime with our pre-conceived notions. In the case of romance anime, we all assume we can predict what will happen. Several girls vying for the affection of a clueless protagonist and a lot of unecessary drama occurs. "Oh, a girl who can't shed tears needs to fall in love with a guy, so she can finally cry." I thought the premise was interesting, but I thought that True Tears would devolve into something we've seen time and time again. With each passing episode, my assumptions were proven false. True Tears delivered a much more mature albeit melodramatic lookat high school romance. Still, even with its faults, True Tears deserves your attention.
Story(7/10)- The story basically starts off like every other romance anime out there. Guy likes girl, guy is too scared to let girl know how he feels. Teenage angst ensues. But where True Tears deviates from the norm is in its execution. There is almost no comedy/fanservice, it strictly focuses on the feelings of the main 3 characters, Shinchiro, Noe and Hiromi. You are really able to empathize with the girls; you will be torn about who ends up with the MC. Where the story fails is in two places. First, the metaphorical usage of "the chicken who could not fly." That part was poorly handled as it was a little hard to understand at certain points. I understand that it was supposed to represent the maturation of the MC. It was unecessarily artsy, and took away from the show. If I had a word to describe it, I would say 'misplaced.'
My second problem is the twist near the end of the show. We have a show that already was semi-realistic but all of that was thrown out the window when the twist comes. I am not saying what happened is impossible, I just believe it is not plausible.
Art(9/10)-The art is very crisp and beautiful. The drawings are meticulously detailed, and full of vibrant colors.
Soundtrack(8/10)-The soundtrack is the standard romance anime affair. Full of moody soundscapes, tracks seeping with despair. It is good but nothing on it will make you say, "Wow."
Character(8/10)-The cast of this show seems much more human than that of most romance anime. Every character here strays away from the typical archetypes: Tsundere, Kuudere and genki. I would like to say Noe, is one of the best love interests I have seen in a while. She displays a sway of different emotions, jealous, sadness, happiness. She was the most human of all. The MC was still displayed some ignorance, but not on the level of most romance anime. The only problem is that not all of the side characters are evenly developed. Unlike most romance anime, the parents actually have a significant role in the story. I found that to be surprising, but also refreshing.
Ultimately, True Tears is a show that deserves your attention, especially if you are a romance-drama fan. I give True Tears an 8/10.
-FlameHaze-
Intro First anime I have seen in a while and I was waiting to watch this for a long time. I was definately not disapointed. If you like Clannad or the whole harem slice of life scene - YOU MUST WATCH THIS. Story Ok starting off it's everything perfect and it's not long before you realise what's actually going on. The story was well written and the structure was pretty good also. I was impressed by the way this anime turned out, it was a little more detailed than I first thought it would be. The story has a bunch of suprises and kept me wanting to watchthe next episode constantly to find out what would happen next. Very enjoyable, 9!
Art
The art work that went into this was nothing special I don't think you should watch this just because of the animation. Although I thought it was well drawn and very nice to look it, it was still nothing special, but because i enjoyed it I give it a nice fair 7 =]
Sound
Well it was partially the OP that got me hooked on wanting to watch this so I think it would be hypocritical for me to say the sound was bad. Although getting into the anime my opinion remained the same and I will try and get the OST after i finish writing this. Engouh said.
Character
OMG The characters in True Tears has a whole lot of depth and more. There was 4 Characters in particular that I feel as if I know well, 3 of which had decriptive pasts which were potrayed through out True Tears.
Enjoyment
Wahahaha All I can think of say here at the minute is that Im watching it again several times as i force my friends to watch it haha
Overall
If you like either school girl anime, harem, slice of life or romance. WATCH THIS NOW, OR YOUR MISSING OUT BIIIIIIG!!!
Lashoun
"Whenever I see you, my heart trembles." I currently feel a strange, permeating satisfaction. True Tears is an anime by P.A. Works, the studio which will afterwards produce the great Angel Beats! and Nagi no Asu kara among others. Its story revolves around high school student Nakagami Shinichirou and his relationships with three girls: Hiromi, who happens to live in his house; Aiko, his childhood friend; and Noe, a strange girl who takes an interest in him after they meet near the chicken’s cage. Noe tells Shinichirou that she is now unable to shed tears and asks for his help: as you mighthave guessed, the show’s title refers to Noe’s problem.
The art is somewhat old-fashioned but beautiful nonetheless and some scenes are breathtaking, like the festival. I must say that I’m not a fan of the 3D-animated walking characters, I found them awkward at best and ugly at worst, but everything else is solid and deserving of praise.
The soundtrack… did its job, I guess. I probably will not remember anything in a few months, but I did enjoy the one or two pieces which played during the more dramatic scenes: I have a thing for string instruments.
Where True Tears truly shines, in my opinion, is in the way characters interacted with each other. Each of them acted in a believable fashion: there were no pink glasses nor exaggerated drama. It felt real to me. The supporting characters did not feel like blank faces with a name attached to them: their actions had meaning, and even they evolved throughout the show, especially Miyokichi and Shinichirou’s mother. Noe was certainly an oddball, and I cannot fathom how a high school girl could ever behave like she does, but apart from her few quirks, her relationships with the rest of the cast felt natural.
I identified particularly well with Shinichirou: I understood all too well how confused he would get as the plot went on and secrets were revealed. I haven’t been through a similar experience, but I think I would have reacted like him, or at least in a similar way.
I truly appreciated the overarching metaphor of Shinichirou’s picture book progressing along the story’s unfolding. I’ll be frank: I do think I am able to read between the lines in some occasions, but I’ll unashamedly acknowledge that I am not sure I understood all of it. However, I enjoyed how unconvoluted the metaphor actually was: simply, it talked about a chicken who wanted to fly, and another one who didn’t. I liked the humility of that story, how it made perfect sense with little and did not try to appear deeper than it really was. It made it all the more genuine to me.
True Tears gently invites you in Japan’s countryside for a bittersweet ride. There’s nothing flashy in it, nor is there anything exceptional. That, I reckon, is a good thing. The characters’ motives are sometimes innocent, sometimes goodhearted, and sometimes petty and disingenuous. That’s what made them human. True Tears does not pretend to offer some sort of extraordinary adventure. Instead, it gives us a window to our own contradictory actions and beliefs and to the regrettable human tendency to make things complex rather than simple. It is a lesson of humility, tinged with shades of hope. We deceive others because we fear being hurt, so much so that we are entangled in a web of convenient lies. And yet, as we gaze at the sky and the flying birds, we yearn for freedom. Perhaps, truth is our first step to salvation.
Eventually, Noe realizes herself:
"It’s tough… and it’s painful… but because I can’t fly yet, I walk."
MurphyTV
Pros +Solid Story +Really nice art style +Some twists you might not see coming +Good character development +Some really gripping moments +Does a good job of hiding how it was going to turn out, until the end Cons -A bit slow moving at times-Ending wasn't the greatest
-Nothing new in terms of content
-Didn't keep my full attention the whole way though
My opinion
Ahhh true tears, was certainly a strange one to watch at first. The character Isurugi, Noe was really interesting and to be honest the only reason i kept watching the show, she was really one of the only things that made this show unique. Her involvement with the male lead Nakagami, Shinichiro was almost heart breaking at times, which is a credit to the writing. My issues with the show is that well there really wasn't enough of those super interesting moments that made me really care about the characters and i found myself sorta bored at times, So much so that i found myself more interested in how some of the supporting characters were doing. As for the ending without any spoilers, it just didn't cut it for me anyway, it was all to neat for lack of a better term. So would i suggest watching it, if your into Drama/Romance you not going to go horribly wrong with anime just don't expect it to eat your heart out, if your not into Drama/Romance avoid it, you will find yourself bored and uninterested pretty fast and with the slow moving plot i wouldn't expect to enjoy it
Hope my review was helpful
Murphy
manami-chan669
“The you within me is always crying. I have always wanted to wipe away your tears, but I cannot imagine the tenderness of wiping the tears from your face.” – Shinichiro Nakagami I’ve actually just watched True Tears for the third time, (I have the DVDs) and my opinion on the series has varied with each viewing. The first time I saw it, I thought it was breathtaking and heartwarming. The second time, cheesy and forced. After watching it a third time, I realize that although this series is definitely not for everyone, it displays a very interesting mixture of dream and reality that you don’tfind in a lot of anime.
The story centers around high school student Shinichiro Nakagami, an aspiring artist who lives with his mother, his father, and the love of his life, Hiromi Yuasa, (left) who hasn’t shown much happiness since she came to live with Shinichiro and his family. Loving Hiromi, chasing his dream, and being pressured by his family is tearing Shinichiro apart inside. Everything changes when he meets Isurugi Noe, (center) a very odd girl who claims that she has “given her tears away.” She tells Shinichiro that she must collect someone else’s tears in order to be able to cry again, and he is, unfortunately, the prime candidate.
I feel like the entire storyline is a ton of metaphors thrown together. This is not necessarily a bad thing, nor is it a good thing. If anything, this series adds originality to every cliché you would expect from a romantic harem drama. There are certain things that go unexplained, and certain things that seem to be tossed into the story in hopes of intensifying the mood. But overall, the way it was presented worked very nicely.
The art, especially the scenery, was probably the best part of this entire series. It was wonderfully animated, and most of the facial expressions of the characters were quite realistic for an animated series. I can vividly remember almost all of the background art in this anime. The scenery was so detailed and well-drawn that it’s kind of hard to forget. The only problem I had as far as the art and animation was the excessive use of certain elements. There was a lot of fan service, (mostly from Hiromi) as well as an overuse of colored pencil freeze-frames and extreme close ups on people’s lips. Sometimes it worked, but most of the time it was just kind of distracting.
The characters in the series were very unrealistic, but in a way that makes you love every one of them. These are the kinds of people you only wish existed in real life, in that their emotions are more powerful than most people’s, and these emotions are outwardly expressed through their actions. Sometimes, however, the characters personalities did seem a bit forced. It often seemed like the writers were trying too hard to make us feel sympathy for the characters.
The most well-done character by far was Isurugi Noe. Noe has a very childlike, free-spirited personality that’s pretty much irresistible. Not only is she a very likeable character, but she is probably one of the only characters, other than the protagonist, that we actually get to watch grow from the beginning of the series to the end.
I think you have to be a certain type of person to really enjoy this series. The main flaw in this series overall is that it was very, very cheesy. Therefore, in order to enjoy this series, you must be able to overcome the cheese. You have to be the kind of person who can relate to the characters, understand the metaphors, and apply the messages the anime portrays to your own life. If you’re not the kind of person who connects to the shows you watch, this series is not for you.
True Tears is definitely something special. It’s a very lovely drama about struggles that a lot of teenagers have to face. This series can either be viewed as a powerful love story, or a melodramatic high school series. If you look past the all its flaws, True Tears can be viewed as one of the most unique dramatic harems to date.
