Shameful Otaku Secret!

Say It Clearly, Write It Down Here

[True Tears info page ftw!]

So, anyway. I fucking heart this show. If they disappoint me I will rage. It’s beautiful, it’s well-written, it’s half-length, and by the way I uh, like it a lot. And things are moving quickly now.

Noe is sad. You hear that in the background? That’s the sound of the internet, coming after Shinichiro with pitchforks.

Story Recap

The name of the game in the episode’s first half is denial. The big, fat unhealthy kind. Shinichiro denies Hiromi’s news because he can’t see the logic, Noe’s in denial of Shinichiro telling her to leave him alone as well as her own feelings for him, and Aiko and Nobuse are neck deep in the shit.

What’s the saying? Not just a river in Egypt?

Shinichiro can barely look his parents (who are the biggest deniers of all) in the eyes, and his father seems to have an inkling that he knows something. He’s going through life in a bleak haze with a storm cloud overhead. And he refuses Noe’s lunch offer, which makes her sad but gives her a reason to try and kill Hiromi by force-feeding the bento to her instead. This is the girl-fight from last week’s preview. Turns out Noe’s pissed about everything: Hiromi dating her brother without telling her, Hiromi making Shinichiro sad, and no one will tell her why any of this is going on, so she lashes out with her helpless feelings. Great fucking stuff. In so many other shows, Noe would be a nearly ethereal being or wild woman of Borneo, but here she acts like a troubled girl who likes a boy.

Mop and Basketball tag team wrestling is taking Japan by storm.

After breaking them up, Shin confronts her: Do you like me? She bolts in a hurry after sprouting those little red anime lines on her face, making the answer pretty obvious.

And eventually, he gets it too. With the prospect of Hiromi growing more and more distant, Shin gets an idea: holy crap, I think I like her too.

This is great stuff for me, I’m sick to fucking death of anime protagonists taking so long to figure out what real people “get” instantly. Now we can move on with a real story instead of artificially drawing shit out. And move on, we do.

Shin convinces himself he’s not just doing it for Jun’s dirty little deal (are we convinced?), and he asks her out. The title of the episode comes from here, when Noe first makes Shin “say it clearly” that he likes her. After cutely growing redder, she then makes him write “I Like Noe” out in stones in the schoolyard by the chickens. She says she’s so happy she feels like crying, which is the Rubber Mallet of Remembrance about her back story.

Incidentally, Rubber Mallet of Remembrance sounds like a good Shakugan No Shana character. I’ll have to remember to pitch that to them.

The crazed look in Aiko’s eyes has been growing, and culminates at the end of the episode. While Nobuse knows what’s bothering his girlfriend (and goes as far as to say “It’s OK as long as it’s you” to Shin), Shin has no clue. Until now. A big sloppy wet surprise clue.

This couldn’t possibly go wrong.

Predictions

Shinichiro seems to realize he’s genuinely interested in Noe, but by now the whole thing’s already resembling a house of cards. After his written confession, Shin will look like a giant douche if Noe finds out about the Deal. But she may be able to handle that. Aiko, well that might be an even worse situation. Nobuse is determined to get through it with both his best friend and girlfriend right where they are, but Aiko’s obviously not letting it drop and she could ruin everything.

At this point, it doesn’t seem to be a foregone conclusion that Shin will end up with either Noe or Hiromi, though each hinges on their own factors. Jun is the wild card here, and though it doesn’t seem like he’d purposely screw things up for his sister, he is a weird fucking dude.

Thoughts

I sometimes feel like I don’t have a lot to say about this show other than OOOO FUCK I LIKE THIS SHOW YES HA GREAT SHOW.

Anyway. Even the believability mark is still really high. Realizing you like a girl after only occasional exposure over seven episodes certainly beats ol’ Okazaki’s marathon of eighteen leading up to the tennis-smack, so I’m still on the Shinichiro wagon. That is, provided he means it, and he’s not just trying to convince himself. Obviously, love by proxy is a theme in this show.

I loved the scene right before Shin asks Noe out — when he has her by the wrist and she says she won’t run away, but tries to immediately when he lets go. Well timed, funny, and Jesus fuck, so cute.

I’m really losing my edge apparently.

Or is it that everyone has a threshold of cute that they just can’t overcome? This is apparently mine. I’m going to go make a compilation of Fuko’s Greatest Hits and watch it as a break between repeated viewings of End of Evangelion and (for good measure) Requiem For A Dream. That should bring the shiny gloss of cynical hatred back to my life. Anyway, Hiromi’s complex expression as she sees that moment really reinforces my feelings on the animation.

Oh God that’s cute too what’s HAPPENING TO MEEEEEE

A decent drama with half-decent characters and “tears” in the title could easily be played out by actors (and has), but a weekly gift to your eyes such as this — that’s what animation is for. From facial expressions, to directorial moves (the chicken angle), to little details like Aiko knocking over all the chairs as she assaults Shin, it’s just great. From what I can tell, this is PA Works’ first full-fledged production work, so what’s going to happen to Kyoto’s reign? Doesn’t matter to me, really — what’s important is that True Tears has become the one anime I really wait for every week.

What kind of joke is that?

Well, here it is: I’m caught up, and not a moment too soon. If you were looking for True Tears to get moving a little faster (I personally wasn’t, but not complaining), it all kind of explodes here. Might be minimal spoilers.

Girl by Girl

Aiko calls herself an idiot, and true enough, she has been. She finally realizes that she’s been doing something pretty horrible to Nobuse all this time, and of course not doing herself any favors in the process. When she tells him, this show’s phenomenal skill level is put on display in his face: he goes from confusion to realization, from abject horror to desperate heartbreak in that scene.

I don’t envy him. This is a dose normally reserved for moe sweethearts.

If you peruse the underpants of the internet, you’ll find what seems to be an enormous hate-on for Ai-chan that I think is totally unwarranted. True Tears has impressed me with the believability of its characters’ actions, and if you think this doesn’t happen in real life you’re fooling yourself. And if you think only horrible people do horrible things, even in anime, go back and watch School Days again. I feel bad for her, because she’s made a terrible mistake. She’s not going to win this match by any stretch, and I hope Nobuse can swallow his pride because Aiko’s self-belittling, and her eating the candy, shows a lot of maturity and compassion. On a side note, I love that the best friend is not just integral to the storyline, but a victim of the tragedy as well. That may not be totally new, but this angle feels fairly fresh.

Okazaki would be proud of your ability to resist

Noe was somewhat minimized here in favor of her cold, cold brother Jun. The aforementioned internets are ablaze with more love for Noe than for Clannad’s Kyou, but I’ll agree with them for once. She’s a lovable character with only one person seemingly incapable of loving her: Shinichiro of course. I mean, she’s not just cute in anime-world, the other characters constantly seem to be mentioning it (and not loli cute either, so enjoy without ickiness). She’s inspiring more paintings than Hiromi, and she’s — gasp — fun. He’s outright rude to her, probably thanks to his regret at setting up his crushy-crush with Jun.

As for the crushy-crush, the main thrust of this episode is that Hiromi knows what we previously assumed to be viewer-only information. Her mother’s face cut out of the pictures, the mistreatment. It’s all there. In fact, everyone seems to know — once again, Shinichiro seems to be the only exception. I instantly forgave her actions of the past couple episodes when I found out she knew; turns out there weren’t really mixed messages, or at least not ones with malicious intent. I still don’t like her that much, but remember: A long past together is an anime shorthand for very deep feelings, so don’t bash Shin too badly.

Perfect for one another, really. Chin-buddies at the very least.

Anyways.

I still don’t hate Shinichiro either. He is starting to become a little one-track with his Hiromi bent. But I think his ignoring Noe is still marginally forgivable; her gestures of affection are genuinely backwards, odd, and tend toward embarrassing — and what’s more, I don’t think she quite knows the extent of her feelings for him. For us, it’s the curse of viewers’ omniscience.

Shin didn’t do a horrible thing by setting up the date with Jun; I think he seriously thought that getting Hiromi together with someone else would drive it all home for him and let him get on with life. And there’s a very good chance he really thought it would make her happy. I don’t catch terribly selfish vibes off of him. Dumb ones, sure, but no more so than your average hero of a show like this.

I hope my sub was accurate and she did say Oops. Her delivery was great.

Speculation

Looks like next week brings us a girl-fight, but is it about Shinichiro, Jun, or what? Hiromi seems pretty angry about the corrupt little deal that Shin and Jun made, so it could involve that. But shouldn’t someone be beating Shin, rather than fighting over him? Pretty sure a couple people could lay claim to that about now. I really want to know what Jun’s hiding, and I want to know how far Noe is going to go. She’s pretty resourceful.

But all in all, it’s interesting to see how wide they’ve blown everything open at the halfway point. As others have speculated, this is either the part where it gets really great or goes totally downhill. I’m voting the former because this show is really impressing me so far. Then again, what does it matter what I think: the rest of the world seemed to like Clannad 17 best of all so far, and I loathed it.

Final Thoughts

In spite of the fact that a rollercoaster is probably about to drop from the big hill, I am still loving the easy-breezy-japanese-y, dreamlike and gauzy feeling of this show. It echoes Air still very much for me (the seaside probably helps), but without the big-eye overload. I don’t need two of those at once with Clannad going on. I think if True Tears is really serious about making people cry, their gorgeous look and creative directing will give them no problems. It’s just plain mesmerizing to me, I don’t know what else to say.

If they continue to end episodes with such tooth-rotting cuteness, eventually we WILL hate Shin.

I’m trying to catch up to the rest of the world on True Tears. My episode 1 thoughts…

After watching School Days, it’s nice to have a main character you can call a “protagonist” with a straight face. Shinichiro is rich, but he paints, he’s sensitive, etc. Neither an obvious doormat or dick. Can he stand with Clannad’s wily “delinquent with the golden heart,” Tomoya? We’ll see. I’m on the Tomoya fence anyway.

Ahh, painting sunsets. Thank god for all that surplus red the School Days animators never used.

Not a lot happened at all storywise, but the characters were established well, and they seem interesting so far. Archetypes abound, with the nature-loving “crazy girl” and “adopted sister/lodger” (who doubles as “mysterious shy girl”) starting things up. Shades of “older sister” archetype — who also happens to be the best friend’s girlfriend (wonder what’s with that). But they all seem to be fairly interesting takes so far. I like the parents so far as well; the dour mother is anything but typical.

Design and animation is fantastic. The CG is fairly obvious, as it usually is in non-action shows, but it probably saves budget, and it’s a nice tool to make the paintings come alive in Shinchiro’s imagination. The beautiful backgrounds also evoke the watercolors that he uses, and character designs are great. A little puggy on the noses in profile, but nothing like School Days‘ horrible gelfling look. Facial expressions are realistic and full of personality. Overall look of people is taller, thinner, wispier than the cute Kyoto Animation look we’re being inundated with right now, and it’s great to see something that looks nice but doesn’t look just like Kyoto.

Music is pleasant. I actually find the opener enjoyable in a feathery, transitory kind of way. It evokes Air, which is appropriate because so far that’s the closest comparison I’ll make to the mood. Dreamlike, free-and-easy, but unready to show its true colors just yet. I actually feel kind of refreshed after watching, which is good because School Days did anything but…