For as long as Akari can remember, she and Hiroyuki have always been friends. But with time, everything changes, and her feelings have turned into something more. As a new semester of high school begins, will the two childhood friends come closer together or drift further apart? Join Hiroyuki, Akari and all their friends—the bubbly Shiho, the quiet Serika, the lovely Kotone, and more—in this heartwarming tale of love, relationships and friendship!
(Source: RightStuf)
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Comentários
Archaeon
Nice. That's what this show is. Not thrilling or dramatic or bad, just.... nice. I first found out about To Heart when I watched Comic Party, and I thought I'd give it a whirl. Unfortunately I watched To Heart 2 first so I wasn't expecting much when I eventually got around to watching this. That said, I was pleasantly surprised at how different the atmosphere between the two shows actually is. Where the sequel feels quite forced, To Heart is far more natural in the way it progresses. The stories aren't that different between the two, and indeed the theme (harem highschool romance), is generally quite commonamongst many shows (Clannad, Kanon, Lamune, etc). However when you look a little closer you find that To Heart is actually quite unique in it's approach to the romance side of things.
The story doesn't follow any straighforward plot, but adopts a more episodic approach. This detracts from the various possible romantic developments (of which there are few), but it gives the show a very different feel from the norm. To Heart isn't a harem highschool romance by a long way. It get's misnomered as such because people assume that, because it's based on a dating sim, and has a male lead who meets multiple females, it has to be a harem highschool romance.
To Heart (unlike it's sequel), is slice of life. Nothing more, nothing less.
The episodic nature of the show actually works when you look at it from a slice of life perspective, and the fact that there is no "real" romantic development becomes irrelevant at that point. The true qualities of the show can only be admired when you watch it as a slice of life show, and in this way it reminded me of Aria far more than Clannad et al.
At times the artwork in the show is exceedingly good. The show makes use of watercolour stillframes to good effect, and although the animation is a little dated compared to most you see these days, it still retains a certain "realistic" quality about it.
The music in the show is generally quite mellow, again, reflective of the show's slice of life perspective. The OP and ED aren't really anything special though, and the sound effects, although quite well used, are sparse at best.
To Heart doesn't really have any truly memorable characters (except maybe Multi). Fujita Hiroyuki is generally a nice, caring guy, and Kamigishi Akari is a well rounded, kind-hearted girl. The two have been best friends and neighbours since kindergarten, and the show highlights the strong ties between the two of them. The many female "love interests" in the show are mainly just friends. One or two may have a crush on him at one time or another, but for the most part the "romance" is mainly between Hiroyuki and Akari.
The supporting characters are generally okay, but nothing special really. I found some of them amusing in some ways, but I didn't find any of them annoying (I'll explain why in a bit).
I think if you approach this show with the assumption that it is a stereotypical harem romance then you probably won't enjoy it as much as something like Clannad or Kanon. However, if you approach the show from a Slice of Life perspective then it becomes a nice, relaxing way to spend half an hour.
The main appeal of the show is the "nice", relaxed feel it has. It won't appeal to anyone who wants a good romantic story with continuous plot development (watch Love-Com or Bokura Ga Ita for that). It may appeal to fans of Aria though, as To Heart has a similar feel (and both female leads are called Akari). The reason why I didn't find any of the characters annoying was because of the relaxed feel of the show - the characters didn't bother me in the slightest - which is very much the same feeling I had when I watched Aria.
To Heart is a show that is worth watching if you're in the mood for something nice. It doesn't bludgeon you over the head with drama or romance or thrills of any sort.
It's just.... nice.
Retro8bit
It’s funny, when I first started "To Heart" I thought I was going to be in for another harem title, but to my surprise it was nothing like that. This school life anime is probably one of the more layed back and relaxing ones out there! The main chunk of the story will be Hiro (main male lead) interacting with the female students. Now I know this may sound like a "harem" plot, it isn’t at all though. Whenever he meets one of them that needs help, instead of having a romantic view of them (you know, the whole damsel in distress thing?) he simply helpsthem out with their problems like a good friend would. Which in turn really does describe "To Heart" the best...friendship! Many people (like me) would probably go into this anime thinking about romance, after all the title does have the word heart in it, which would be a logical assumption. Not at all though, this titles name is based on simply helping out a friend in need. Which I have to say was a nice change of pace from all the romance and love triangles you would otherwise see in an anime like this. Now that’s not to say there is no love interest at all here. Because in episode 1, Akari (main female) does imply that she likes Hiro to the audience, but it never goes past that. Even many of the situation that would implement jealousy is handled in a peaceful manner. In fact some may be surprised to see that not one character ever really raises their voice against another. This probably could be seen as a negative as well though, because most school life isn’t that way at all. Since there is no real romance that takes place (though there will be a small amount in the last two episodes), the story may tend to be a bit bland depending on your tastes. I also didn’t really like the ending, but I won’t spoil it for you.
The character design is what stuck out for me in the art department, they have a certain noticeably to them...this is especially true when you take a close look at their facial features. The clothing and detail that went into each is really great, and all characters are drawn well balanced as people and not exaggerated. The backgrounds can best be described as "stiff" though, most of them are displayed rather nicely, while others tend to look more like still water color paintings. Because of this you will most likely keep your attention to the actual characters than the backgrounds.
Well since over 70% of the time there is no real music playing in the foregrounds, means that To Heart gives off a much more calmer feel to it like I mentioned earlier. Most of the time I felt that this series could be a nice stress re-leaser when you’re not having the best of days. Now it’s nice to have that kind of feel when watching it, but it still would have been nice to have some kind of memorable background track, since the main one that does play is simply a non-vocal version of the opening theme. Now with that in mind the opening and closing theme’s are nice, they fit the mood of the title pretty good. Even if the ending feels more along the lines of a re-mixed version of the opening.
The characters I felt were the weakest link in the anime, now don’t get me wrong they are indeed a friendly bunch. Its just that they are not well varied in their approaches. It seems like you can pretty much describe them all in these three simple words: "quiet, outgoing, middle ground." The only real noticeable one for me was a girl named "Shiho, " as she tended to have the most spunk of the group, and was probably the only real comical character in the bunch. At the beginning song you see quite a large cast of females, however most only appear for one episode and are never really seen again. Still, they all compliment one another great in the friendship department, and are truly there for one another to pick each other up when they are down.
To Heart is not funny, deep, or very romantic in any of its aspects. And I have to admit that not having an actual romance plot going on in the overall scheme of things was a bit of a bummer, and romance fans may want to steer clear of this because of that. However, what this title lacks in those aspects, it makes up for quite nicely with its "friendship" approach! If you’re a fan of nice and peaceful school life titles that really emphasis on helping others, then To Heart’s heart...is truly big!
Thank you for reading my review! :)
PhantomLancelot
....no amount of numbers in the world could amount to how much Inloved this show. "To Heart" was amazing in both its story and its atmposphere. The story revolves around 2 high seniors, Akari and Hiroyuki, as they get ready for their final year of high school. Akari and Hiroyuki have been friends for years; ever since kindergarten, and Akari may have grown some certain feelings about her best friend after all these years. ...both the sound quality and the art are above par; the animation may look very old, but the anime's from the 1990's (...just the way I like 'em). The show has thisvery polished look that shows that it has aged very well. The sound quality, I thought, was rather well done, too. The number of charact
ExileOnAkiba
Ah, the harem genre. One lovable loser who through some bizarre circumstances ends up surrounded by a group of gorgeous women who all proceed to fall in love with him somehow; and then our protagonist must make the difficult choice of picking the one female cast member to call his own. While it was always a stupid and sexist premise, it proved to be a very popular format (for an almost entirely male audience). And so, many titles made use of the formula with little to no variation. While these titles lacked creativity, they were still profitable and that allowed the same basic story to bereproduced many, many times. A ‘tried and tested’ formula simply became a tired one. Eventually, it got to the point that even making a few minor changes would create a stir.
Like all other harems, ‘To Heart’ is the story of one man and the many women that surround him. Hiroyuki Fujita is like every other male harem protagonist in this respect. BUT...
(You may want to sit yourselves for this one, guys)
(Deep breaths)
(Ready?)
He’s not a total loser!
In fact, Hiroyuki is actually quite a nice guy. He helps people out, gives them advice when they need it, is pretty popular and athletic; even if he is a little lazy and forgetful at times. Really, it’s not a big surprise he is so popular with women!
And with that one swipe, Hiroyuki manages to slay the ancient dragon of the harem genre -the completely unbelievable wish fulfilment fantasy of loser male anime fans everywhere- and rescue one of several girls desperate to be carried off into the sunset by their handsome knight (who won’t be too wimpy to actually carry them for once).
However, while Hiroyuki being a hit with the ladies may not be completely unbelievable, Whether or not Hiroyuki is a believable character or not, is another story altogether.
Is he a Gary Stu? No, of course he’s not: He sleeps in classes and he’s forgetful, too. He’s far less a writer’s (or audiences) pet than most other harem protagonists, even if he is a ‘better’ person than they are. The problem with Hiroyuki is not that he is too idealistic; the problem is that his actions do not entirely click with his personality, and sometimes come across as erratic or illogical.
One moment he’s dozing off while his classmates argue with each other; the next he gets up out of his chair and helps the class representative draw lots for the seating plan. He shrugs it off, claiming that he simply ‘wants to go home’; but when was the last time you saw someone who has half asleep be the first to jump up and help someone out?
Another issue is his prioritising of relationships; Hiroyuki usually hangs around with his close friends, but will readily abandon them to jump to the needs of complete strangers. While it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that someone would help out a stranger and perhaps neglect a friend, it is hard to believe someone who goes to great lengths to help others could ignore their friends with such consistency.
But perhaps I’m being too hard on old Hiroyuki-chan. While his behaviour feels contradictory at times, he isn’t an easy character to dislike. He’s someone that we can identify with, not as some sort of self-insertion fantasy, but as a nice, friendly guy who we want to be happy.
If nothing else, he manages not to be the typical harem fare which unfortunately, cannot be said for the rest of the cast, which consists of every Ken Akamatsu harem cliché there is: the childhood best friend, the arrogant tsundere, the underdog athlete, the weird rich girl, the psychic rich girl and even the robot girl; they’re all here. All archetypical, all uninteresting!
That being said, even if they are unoriginal, they do manage to make for plenty of enjoyable episodes, albeit quite silly at times. Some episodes, such as those featuring robotic girl Multi, and the occult obsessed ojou-samas will no doubt prove to be too ridiculous for some to enjoy.
The storyline is fairly episodic, with the rule of thumb for the series being ‘one girl; one episode’. While the characters do make some brief cameos in other episodes, these are always only a few lines of dialogue and are spread very thinly across the series, and they are never developed further with only one or two exceptions other than the main cast.
But even the main cast feel underdeveloped at times. Most of childhood friend Akira’s appearances in the first two thirds of the series seem to be for the sole purpose of reminding us that she still exists; tsundere Shiho seems to change very little through most of the series only to have a sudden growth spurt as things are winding down, one of the hallmarks of a bad tsundere. Best friend Masahi doesn’t change even slightly and the only thing Hiroyuki seems to develop over the course of the show is a better memory.
Despite the problems with character development, To Heart does manage to be an entertaining show. The pacing is somewhat slow, largely due to its episodic format, but this suits it well. It gives the show a calm, laid back feel which reflects the personality of the protagonist quite well, and leaves To Heart feeling more like a Slice of Life than a harem; whether or not that is a good thing, depends on personal preference.
On the artistic front, To Heart is somewhat mixed. Released in ’99, like most anime released at that time it uses cell animation. Thankfully, while clearly not a new release, the art style is pretty good and it doesn’t feel outdated. On the other hand, there seems to have been a fair number of sacrifices on the animation front, and it feels cheaply made at times. In some scenes we have background characters drawn with the same level of detail and quality as the main characters, but left unanimated. These scenes can be reasonably lengthy and the background characters often have expressions that suggest they are talking, laughing or smiling, which aside from looking very low budget, is quite distracting.
A cynical person might think that such practices would make static shots of the artwork, such as those featured in magazine advertisements look better. Perhaps with the intention of falsely portraying the art to be of a higher standard than it really is.
Additionally, lots of scrolling shots of still images are used, and placement shots are used a bit more than necessary. While these aren’t quite as big an issue as the aforementioned background characters, they can feel overused at times.
The soundtrack can be summarised in a single word: ‘barren’.
There wasn’t very much background music used in To Heart at all; aside from occasional touches of violins and pianos; usually limited to the emotional scenes. Unfortunately when the lack of background music is combined with the blatant attempts to cut corners in the animation, it casts serious doubt on the possibility that it was intentionally minimalistic. This leaves ’To Heart’ feeling altogether very cheap indeed.
At least the voice acting work is competent. While there are no particularly shiny stars among the cast, each one suits their respective role. It has to be said though that there are not any particularly taxing scenes to test the seiyuu’s skills either; ultimately, it shouldn’t get on anyone’s nerves, which in a show like To Heart, is all you really need.
Because in the end, ‘To Heart’ is an anime that is only slightly above average. The protagonist aside, it’s a cast full of under developed, stereotypical characters put together in an anime that looks alright but feels cheaply produced. It was enjoyable, but it did nothing really special. Hiroyuki may have been interesting as a harem protagonist, but as an anime character, he’s average at best.
And it’s the same with To Heart. When you compare it with other harem, it’s a good, perhaps even great title. But when you start looking at it beyond the boundaries of the harem genre line, it just can’t cut it. Not because of any flaws inherit in the harem genre; but because overall, it is a mediocre anime.
It’s not so much that ‘To Heart’ is in a school of its own; it’s just a top student in a class full of under-achievers.
JuneNephthys
To Heart is the forgotten predecessor to Clannad and the early formula to archetypal dating simulations. There’s a guy surrounded by a bunch of cute girls, with a boring personality, but every few episodes leads to an arc that makes the girls exceedingly interesting or just plain Janes that ONLY have their moe points going for them and nothing further. • The pacing is probably the most terrible part of the first season of To Heart. Everything moves at a colossally languid speed, to the point that I preferred watching the English dub to the sub to avoid falling asleep at some points. • It was similarto a boring school visual novel, where the girls make you go help with the student counsel committee and go on errands with them and then you’re just snapping your fingers behind the screen being like, “Just get to the romance already! I don’t want to see these characters doing menial tasks!” In my opinion, the best visual novels are not the ones that take place in high school, but I’ll save that for a later time.
• This comfort-watch molasses became a trend for stories in the mid-2000’s and was a very influential series for the school drama. It made the genre explore otherworldly happenings. The android girl, HMX-12 Multi, was an influential character in the school genre because she made other writers realize that they can put surreal things in a school setting and they don’t have to explain it, just branch it out into it’s own arc, much to the modern anime fan’s dismay who want an ACTUAL explanation and world-building behind an android’s conception.
• You can see the echoes of this effect in Key’s work: Kanon with its demon hunter, Clannad with its random ghost girl, each used to create an angle of intrigue in the school setting. To Heart even inspired an anime called Comic Party, which is an anime about making To Heart doujins.
• To Heart is influential to the romance genre in anime like Urusei Yatsura was a big science fiction influence. But, looking past the noticeable iconicism behind To Heart, I need to criticize the series on what it is rather than what it has produced. The main female character, Akari Kamigishi (for those of you who have seen or played Shuffle, she’s exactly like Kaede, but not yandere) is really cute, but so boring and predictable that at times, it’s hard to root for her.
• WARNING, spoilers ahead: The only point of intrigue that the story had that was truly different from any other, especially at the time, is when there’s a really dark scene between Akari and her best friend, Shiho because Shiho is in love with the protagonist/Akari’s platonic love/boyfriend (it’s practically a harem series, so why wouldn’t she be?) and she lies to Akari about her feelings for Hiroyuki and invites Hiroyuki to her party when Akari’s sick.
• But this moment is undone when the last episode decides to not take a risk, even though the art and directing in the unnerving confrontation scene is very similar to a scene from one of the last episodes of Serial Experiments Lain with it’s surreality (when Arisu learns the truth about Lain), because when Akari says that she’s coming to the party with a cold, Shiho admits defeat and tells Hiroyuki… completely undermining the build-up from earlier in the arc. The milk-toast conclusions to each of the girls’ stories, the slow pacing, and humdrum school setting lands the first season of To Heart, not matter the influence it carries in the genre, on a 4/10.
Dionkeykong
Hi guys and gals..Do you wanna know how it is to sit inside someone's ear and spend the rest of your bloody life doing nothing but just that?Well luckily for ya there is an anime called To Heart. Word of warning,this review contains excitement and swearing and some really really graphic sadistic descriptions.With that onto the review of this...I dare not call it s@it cause that would be an insult to good s@it or even bad s@it..This has taken the idea of endless boredom and went all the way to 11 or 789 by the looks of things. Stupid name,stupid anime,stupid stupid me for watching this shitwithout having a spoon around so i can slowly and painfully take my eyes out of their damn sockets.Honestly i'm not being captain dramatic,i wish i had the strength to cut my wrists and watch my blood dripping on the floor instead.It would be better to take a chainsaw,cut my leg and beat my self to death with it.THIS IS HOW BAD THIS FREAKING ABOMINATION IS.
And looking at the tags i have to wonder...Who in the name of all that's holyl thought this was a comedy?Who?A carcass perhaps?Someone with the aesthetics of one?Drama?I wish there was cause at least there would be something to indicate a sign of life.Romance?Seriously?That was Japan's idea of romance?Based on a game?????AHA now we're talking...Now it all begins to make sense..BASED ON A GAME...I should point out that i haven't played the game and i'm not going to either but i cannot begin to imagine what the game was like for this anime to be so freaking boring.
Story?No story whatsoever.Absolutely none at all.It's just the girl of the week thing where some girl has some trouble and our cast solves it.And it may sound somewhat interesting but trust me it's not.Cause the way the "drama" is delivered lacks in everything.And it has to do with the characters mostly.The way they're acting is like they force fed them sleeping pills and told them to go out there and do it.Every single movement every single word they utter is in slow motion.Get this for conversations..Someone says something,the other part hears it,then processes it in his brain,then he breathes,then he makes his head move,then his eyes,then one lip starts moving then the other then some breathing takes place and after one decade has passed he finally utters:"Huh......."....Kinda like watching an old man with arthritis getting up from his chair.It's slow and painful....And come to think of it they can't even be described as characters but to hell with it i'm feeling generous today.
Mins into the first ep,that is the very first,the intro,the one to sing the blues...And what do we get?A male MC who is sleepy..And stays that way for the rest of the series.A sleepy character who wonders what the hell he's doing there in the first place.The female MC has no characteristics so to speak.It's just the girl with her red hair following around the male MC for some reason science hasn't STILL found an explanation for.And if you think this cannot possibly get any worse.....Oh wait for it..They have a scene where for,i think,10 mins they show a scene of 2 characters ripping a piece of paper..Yup just that and only that.And that was just for seating arrangements..10 mins of the same thing over and over and ov......Zzzzzzzz.
Yes you might say,but this is Slice of Life...Yeah but if the slice of that life is as boring as watching footage of flowers growing in slow motion then what's the freaking point?I can watch my nails grow for that matter.But that was the 1st ep right?What about the next..Oh they stepped things up by showing Akari the female MC brushing her teeth for what felt like an eternity.Oh and get this...We come to learn that her dream was to sit next to the male MC whose name i can't be bothered to remember..Her dream....To sit next to.....Him........Her dream...Not going to space or save 3rd world countries...How much do you want to see that?You're probably on the floor squealing like a pig in heat..
Animation and music where...Well rubish.What did you expect from late 90's anime?It's dreadful.
All in all there were 1 or 2 things good with it.Well there had to be really.Nobody can make an anime where absolutely everything is shit from top to bottom.That said even these 1 or 2 things couldn't keep me awake.I started watching this 11 years ago and midway through i was fast asleep for 2 years.11 years later i finally managed to finish it.And was it worth?Yeah i finally slept like a baby bear but also lost my youth.Is that a price worth paying for?Abso-fuckin-lutely not.Just watch something else.Watch Boku no Pico.Be disgusted not brain dead.
katlee8225
story-8 i really did like to heart. i had just watched a long and dramatic show and then i watched to heart and it was like just a nice light and pretty cheerful show. super cute! art-8 i think the art is realy nice on this anime. but sometimes the guys eyes were a bit weird. sound-7 pretty good! character-8 i found that there was something about most of the characters i didnt like all that much. but in general it was good. enjoyment-7 like i said i liked it but to behonest it wasnt one of my favs.overall-8
a really cute show, totally recomend watching it!
MalchikRepaid
I recommend this anime for several reasons. 1. to experience how this is a pinnacle example of 90s school drama anime that can be very experimental by dabbing with elements of slice-of-life and iyashikei 2. to understand what emotions are, how complicated can they be 3. to show that harem anime doesn't always need to have fanservices 4. to feel that one isn't alone even in dire (or feeling-wise uncertain) situations as the whole storyline feels like an Aesop lesson5. the composer of the OSTs in the anime, Wada Kaoru, created some of the best music that melts the tender hearts
I must say that a person with a very slow-paced set of emotions could appreciate this anime.
From the bottom of my heart when I first watched this as a teen who just turned 14, I simply wish there were filler OVAs at least 2 possible episodes would finish the whole storyline with a nice conclusion. It seems that it is incomplete.
brynolf
Overall Ok, let's look at the genre tags on this one... "Comedy"? No, not a single funny event in the whole series. "Drama"? No, no, no. Not even a story. "Game"? Probably. It would explain a lot. "Harem"? Not really. More like an episodic "girl of the week" show, with very little coherence. "Romance"? Not according to my experiences regarding the term. "School life"? Check!All in all, this was a waste of time. I was expecting a romantic comedy but all I got was a slow paced and futile "we are gonna throw as many wierd and shallow girls at you as possible" show.
Ok, some episodes actually got me somewhat interested but they really didn't mean anything in the end. This would have been much better if they skipped most of the pointless girls and focussed on a smaller cast of main characters.
Animation
It's ten years old, so you really can't expect too much. Nothing fancy, just very standard graphics.
Sound
Voice acting felt somewhat above average, mostly due to the absense of extremely annoying voices.
The intro/outro songs were both pretty dull but the background music was nice. Well arranged orchestral music (some themes were repeated a bit too much though).
Story
Not really a story in this one. Just episodic high school stuff. Most episodes are just filler, while some gave the impression that they moved the story forwards. But in the end none of the episodes really mattered. You can basically watch this anime in random order.
HOWEVER: The 2nd season "Remember my memories" makes up for most of the suckyness of this season. See this more as an introduction to that season instead.
Character
Every episode basically introduces a new character, but in the end, they're all rather pointless. Most characters have no more than one (1) personality trait each, and with the large amount of characters and the slow pace very little development is going on.
Value
No re-watch value at all (as there was hardly any "watch" value in the first place).
The Bishoujo fansubs were good as far as I could tell.
Umbra91
Honestly, I enjoyed this anime more than I expected to. It's just a nice relaxing anime to casually watch, each conflict is episodic and usually gets revolved within an episode or 2, charming characters, and visually looks lovely. Reminds me of a simpler time in life where my problems weren't that big and life was a lot more peaceful. There's something fluid about the way they animated shows in the late 90s and early 2000s, makes the characters feel more real. If you're looking for something a little more plot heavy, then I don't think you would like this anime, however if you're looking forsomething easy going to watch, then you will like To Heart.
The_Blue_Lotus
I have been watching anime since around 2020 or so, when the pandemic hit hard and forced everyone inside their homes. At first, I didn't really knew what type of anime I was into, however, little by little, an apreciation for easy to digest, easy to follow slice-of-life shows with a tad-bit of comedy and other strorytelling elements sprinkled here and there, with a charming and unique ambience and a lovable set of characters began to form. I searched far and wide for these (admitedly very specific) set of qualities in the many animes I watched. There were some who came close to what Iwas looking for, others who deviated completely from what I was searching, others that fell just in middle or along the way, but none that left me completely satisfied at what I was looking in screen.
That was, until I stumbled with To Heart, who I can confidently assure, has not only left me completely mesmerized at the prospects of what this show has to offer, but it has quickly spiraled into becoming one of my favorite and most dearly held pieces of media precisely for that.
To Heart is, to put it bluntly, a very unique anime. It is the animated adaptation of a very early visual novel game hailing from an era were these kind of charming slice-of-life shows that went light on the heart were only getting started and as such, sort of were in an "experimental stage" of what they were capable to do and what they wanted to deliver with it. This is sort of palpable as you make your way through this show as it takes a very unique and somewhat ecletic approach to storytelling that can go from perfectly normal situations in one episode to jumping straight into the realm of black magic and pscychic powers in anothers and then introduce very sci-fi elements such as lifelike androids whose resemblance to human beigns rivals even the most complex machineries of series such as Star Wars and Star Trek (I am of course talking about Multi here, best girl by the way, you should watch the series just for her). Rather than making this show convoluted or "all over the place" like some members of the audience would assume, I would say that those strange elements in the plot are what make To Heart, To Heart. Essentially what makes this anime gain its unique identity, if you will. To Heart, the relaxed and laid-back show about the daily lives of high-school boys and girls in late '90s Japan that makes an amazing watch when you want to put yourself at ease and its easy to diggest for the general audience but where somethimes strange and esoteric things happen. It has a certain ring to it, don't you think?
"Charm" might be the most repeated word on this review this far, and by this point, you might aswell be wondering, what is this whole "charm" thing this weird guy keeps talking about? And to that I respond to you: the team behind this anime did an AMAZING job at setting an incredibly inmersive and unique atmosphere that sorta makes you wish you were inside the show moments at a time. Legit some of the best production quality I have seen in any anime this far and that is saying much, which is an impressive feat considering this anime came out 26 years ago, actually. Everything, from the character and backround design to the music and sound effects is pretty, no exceptions in between. And oh God, is the music good, the best soundtrack I have ever heard from an anime and I am not even making this up. I completely fell in love with the old synthesizer electronic elements of its songs and the perfect balance it strikes between that and the more traditional orchestral pieces that make up its repertoire. All of those pieces are going in my "Anime Sountrack" folder and playlist, all of them, without expection.
Also, this anime includes a pan flute in many of its sountracks, which I found especially charming and unique. Many old animes included this instruments among its many songs, yet today, one can hardly find a show that barely does so, if at all. What happened? In which moment did the pan flute go out of favor with the anime industry? Goddammit, can't the producers see that including the Andean instrument in their properties makes their songs inmediatly better and more memorable? I really hope that in some future production companies see their mistake and start reincorporating the pan flute into their IPs. Altough I doubt so, since we are moving into an era where animes are more preocupied making their intros and sountracks trendy and "with the times" rather than memorable and charming for the audience to hear, sadly.
When it comes to the visual aspect this series doesn't dissapoint either. Another reviewer already pointed at so, but the way late '90s/early 2000s animes did their animation really makes their characters feel alive, and I can atest to that having finishing this show. To Heart presents a level of quality on its animations that is vastly supperior to that of shows that are coming out today, 26 years later, shame on them for that. Another aspect I would like to state adds to the experience is the old VHS/Digitilization effect this series has overlaying them. Altough that is something that evades the producers's control and likely something they didn't even wanted present in their property to begin with, it adds a mystical aura to the show and establishes it as an IP from another era that is all but gone now. To you, older millenials that might be reading this review this might not mean much to you, since you grew up with similar defects in your shows and are more than likely familiar and used to seeign those, but to me, a dirty Zoomer who never experienced such a thing its truly unique and almost magical to witness such a thing. So I ask you to bear with me on this one.
I would like to point out that, this show is not for everybody. It's slow, relatively uninteresting and lacks an overarching plot more history-driven audience could get hooked on, not to mention some of the situations the characters might find themselves in are kinda boring and uninspired (episode 2 beign especially guilty of that). I ask you to remember that this anime was made primordially to promote the visual novel it is adapted from. It is structured in a way that introduces a new girl you can romance on the game in (almost) every episode and gets you interested in them so you later go and buy a copy of the game to learn more. Kind of a marketing strategy, you see, and one that does it job pretty well, lol. It actually got me interested in playing its source material even tough it probably it was never translated to any lenguage other than Japanese and is incapable to be played in most major gaming outlets due to its age and archaicness, haha.
In conclusion: this anime is a gem, it has its flaws, obviously, but no anime is free of them. It serves as sort of a time capsule to late '90s student life in Japan and is a perfect go-to whenever you are feeling down and just want an experience who will get your humors high again while not taking you in an emotional rollercoster along the way.
Either that, or you just have very similar tastes to those I have, which would be kinda weird, but who am I to judge? Haha.
Go give it a try, chances are, you will enjoy it, I can surely guarantee you that.
BAVBR
Apesar da história ser fraca, a animação datada e o final ficar em aberto (bem descarado, por sinal), para quem quer algo leve e não é exigente (MESMO, já que, francamente, deste anime não dá para se esperar praticamente nada - pode ser até que a Visual Novel do qual foi baseado seja um pouco mais interessante), dá para acompanhar sem sustos. Mesmo assim, o bom Character Design, as músicas de abertura e encerramento, a trilha sonora, os personagens e algumas das tramas, me fazem lembrar deste anime com certo carinho, já que foi um dos primeiros animes curtos, de temporada, que eu assisti - massei que poucos se sentirão desta forma.
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Although the story is weak, the animation is dated and the ending is open (well cheeky, by the way), for those who want something light and not demanding (EVEN, since, frankly, this anime can not be expected practically anything - it can be until the Visual Novel of which it was based is a little more interesting), it gives to accompany without scares.
Even so, the good Character Design, the opening and closing songs, the soundtrack, the characters and part of the plot, remind me of this anime with a certain affection, since it was one of the first short, seasonal anime that I watched - but I know that few will feel this way.
Romie-chan
Although To Heart is labeled as a romance series, it really didn't focus on that at all. This show mainly focuses on introducing new characters and giving them a little depth. The romance was put on the back-burner and left for the last two episodes. ~Character 6/10~ Since we were introduced to new characters so often it was hard to get to really know any of them. Akari, Shiho and Heroyuki were the main characters but I really didn't get the sense of really knowing them or knowing what they're thinking. Most of the characters seem very dense and unable to read body language. ~Art 8/10~ The art styleis still great even though it appears to be old. The amounts of detail is wonderful and thankfully the art style was more consistent than most shows. By that I mean there wasn't any sudden body changes or suddenly a persons head gets huge to show humility.
~Sound 8/10~
The English dub for this was fairly good. The background music was also great. It got me really into certain moments of the show because the music was just flowing through me.
~Story 6/10~
There really isn't a story for this show. It is mainly a random set of events that happen to Akari and Heroyuki throughout a years time. The show starts out with Akari remembering something precious from her past, but that story was only continued within the last couple episodes of the show. Out of all the episodes more than half were about introducing new characters, so things were fairly random more than half of the time.
~Enjoyment 7/10~
Although I may have been put to tears once, I didn't really get the sense of being fully engaged into the show. There were good moments and there were a lot of boring ones too. I often got annoyed with characters repeating eachothers lines, it really frustrates me when that happens.
Overall I would score this at a 7. It was a good show, but nothing I'll probably want to watch again. My To Heart 2 review should still be around, but be warned it was nasty compared to this one.
Guts-Valley
I am going to honest here. First story is lame and very slow, its based on a harem game but in some stories the MC doesn't seem to make any romantic advancement to any of the girls. In one story he helps a girl that was bully him and his main squeeze helps her. She thanks them for the help the whole episode is them getting their classroom ready for a cafe boring. Talking about boring watch this in 1.2 or high speed because it's slow and they talk slow. One episode is them studying for a test and talkingabout when they were young no flashbacks(i guess not in their budget) just talking and staring not each other but blank staring. Are the characters any good, one is very good. She is too good i didn't want her to start liking the MC but in the end she does. The male best friend is a basically a back ground character it look like he would good but no after 4 episode you dont realize he exist. Score decent(4) lol
gabi_shinsato
Sorry for the mistakes, I'm terrible at english :c Here is the URL to my point of view in Portuguese (my native language): https://jpst.it/3IWtB For me, watching this anime was like wrapping myself under the blankets on cold days. It's a simple and pleasant novel, but it lets me want to see much more of the characters. Maybe for that, I need to play the visual novel. I can't imagine how much the adaptation is different from the original, but I believe that the word "presentation" is more viable, because it makes us interested in the original work. I would like to play, but my lack of knowledgeof japanese language and the lack of translation prevents me.
Visual art was something that caught my attention. The animation is beautiful and fluid, part of the last glorious days of cell art from the last century.
Those songs are great!I never get tired of listening to the openings and ending songs.
