Shameful Otaku Secret!

…Your Tears [Final]

[last link to soon-to-be-lonely info page]

This is it, people. Savor these last 20 minutes.

Recap

In spite of the ominous opening music, Noe didn’t die. She was barely hurt, just a broken leg, cushioned by the thick snow.

Jun and Hiromi have a little chat, in which he maligns her and Shinichiro’s urges to blame themselves. Seems to be his viewpoint that it doesn’t really fix anything if you say that. He confesses he never really liked her.

Shinichiro is popular back at school, thanks to his flawless execution of the traditional manly-man warrior dance. But he’s dining on awkward cake at Hiromi’s apartment, since she’s loaded down with confusion. Where does she stand in this whole triangly-shaped thing? But she has an exceptionally hard time vocalizing.

Shin asks his dad why we cry, and after recovering from his obvious surprised confusion, he says “because our hearts waver.” And that eventually makes perfect sense to Shin — because his heart wavers. But he’s not given the luxury of waffling when Hiromi delivers an ultimatum. No matter what he does, he has to do it clean.

So he goes off to show Noe his book, but she’s all full of stubborn and won’t look. He scatters the pages at the ocean where she took Jibeta, but is more than surprised to find her follow him out and try to retrieve the airplane-folded pages.

She looks at the book, and they part as he sings her little roach song, feeling guilty and sorry for himself.

Hiromi isn’t at her apartment, so Shin searches the obvious place in the woods where they walked with one shoe off as kids. Their exchange when they meet is sublime, and pretty much ends things.

Otherwise, we get a montage for closing: Jun moving away, Shin drawing more pictures, Noe making friends and becoming somewhat normal, Aiko and Miyokichi generally being cute, and of course the final shot by Raigomaru’s grave where — blink and you’ll miss it — Noe cries.

Thoughts

True Tears ended as it began: gauzy and dreamlike, seemingly casual in feel, but utterly captivating.

Its dedication to realism in the story was maintained until the end. Noe’s ultra-melodramatic attempt at suicide ended with an embarrassingly non-dramatic fractured leg, Jun slapped away everyone’s attempts at martyrdom, and most of all Shinichiro learned that love ain’t easy. Human emotions are complicated things, and unless you want to star in School Days (and we know how well that ends…), sometimes difficult choices must be made.

The thing that may have impressed me the most is that, taken from start to finish, the story moves along what seems like a very predictable arc. Nothing major (excepting the details) happened that didn’t seem like it was going to, and yet True Tears made me feel like I was watching something completely amazing and unexpected — without pummeling me with comas,  drawn-out deaths, or any of that nonsense.

This show’s position as the best thing to happen this season has been cemented as easily as it was first taken.

My Eyes Which Have Seen Nothing

Well. With Clannad coming to a bit of an easy-breezy end, it’s time to rely once again on True Tears.

Recap

The day after Noe’s chicken-napping happens to be the day of the festival, including the Mugiha dance. After watching her at the seaside, Shinichiro returns home to update Jun (via Hiromi) and angst about things for a while. He’s distressed that he’s been coasting through things, letting his feelings be guided instead of taking charge.

Hiromi, however, is just peachy. She even corrects Aiko, who mistakenly refers to Noe as Shin’s girlfriend. No, Ai-chan, that increasingly dubious honor lies with Hiromi alone.

Then, she politely and apologetically, but nontheless definitely, tells Noe to leave them alone. Seems that she’s scared that their newfound ability to be in the same room, communicate, and possibly even enjoy it, is hanging by a thread and she’s not prepared to lose it again.

But that’s not the end of Noe’s problems. Hiromi’s siscon accusations must have caused Jun to do a little soul-searching; he’s now decided he can’t be around Noe anymore, so he’s accepting a job elsewhere.

Noe doesn’t get it — of course she doesn’t, she never suspected her brother was on the creepy side, and it freaks her out when he demonstrates by trying to kiss her.

Shin does his dance, while both Noe and Hiromi watch, and achieves a zen-like state of internal monologue. What’s his revelation? That perhaps his feelings for Noe were truer and deeper than he’d thought before.

After the dance, he runs off to find her in the tree, but all is — surprise! — not well.

Thoughts

Well. The cast of True Tears is becoming a mess.

I used to praise Shinichiro for not waffling; it made him an atypical and utterly likable character. Now he’s wavering in spite of getting the girl he’s always wanted without having to do much of anything. But he’s stressing about being honest with himself, so I’m guessing the climactic event will be him making some sort of real decision.

All the characters besides Hiromi (who got it out of the way a few episodes ago) are getting angsty about how selfish they’ve been, but by and large they’re still doing it. Jun is lamenting his selfish decisions regarding Noe, but now he plans on bolting on his fragile sister because he can’t handle the fact that he’s got bro-love issues? If you ask me, that must have been the straw that broke Noe, because regardless of the transient nature of boys and whatnot, she must have felt she could at least rely on family.

And Noe… well, her time spent repressing her emotions has not come to a good end. I suppose I can’t blame her too much for gothing out so badly, but it’s still a little melodramatic for my tastes (I know… Jesus why am I watching dramatic anime then?)

I’m Not The One You Like

The march toward the end continues, and with only a couple episodes left, it’s time for something really horrible to happen, right? Who knows, I can’t pretend to imagine that I know what True Tears ever has up its sleeve. That’s my favorite part.

Recap

Seems I missed episode 10, but oh well. It was not bad. Hiromi moved out, that was the big development. And she just keeps getting more cheerful. The big festival is coming, Shinichiro has to get into dancing mode, his parents have to sell 20% more booze than last year, and Hiromi has to… eat popsicles and attempt to dress herself with her feet (most bizarre pseudo-fanservice ever).

First things first, Hiromi drags Shinichiro out to the beach in the snow.

She plants one on him. In the mouth, mind you. No half-assing. He seems more confused than walking on sunshine, though. And he’s still worried about how much he’s hurt Noe.

Miyokichi and Aiko have an absolutely sweet reconciliatory phone call. If you didn’t like that scene, you’re made of hard, hard stuff.

Hiromi plays a basketball game with the girls from Jun’s school, who keep tripping, pushing, and generally doing the flagrant foul thing. With the ref conspicuously absent, Jun walks straight onto the court and lectures his own schoolmates, causing a ripple of gossip and a frustrated Shin.

So, the only sensible thing for Hiromi to do is attempt to break it off with His Coldness once again. She accuses him of only caring about Noe, but he still refuses to call it done. What a dick. He’s actually starting to look as if there’s something more to it than just the deal, but I could be imagining that. He’s become hard to read, but I still think he can affect the outcome of the show.

On the Noe front, she slips into a goth or emo thing or whatever other ’80s revival it is you kids are doing these days when you get angsty. She’s wandered off. Jun calls Hiromi to try to find his wayward sister, and she aaaaalmost doesn’t pass the message on to Shin. But she proves she’s made of better stuff, and does call him. So Shin takes off in the middle of the night to find Noe carrying Jibeta out to the seaside.

Which worries him, because he’s finished his story, and while Raigomaru ended up waffling on his flight plans, it’s Jibeta who ultimately attempted to fly. But he dropped like a stone. The end. The end? This is for kids? Wow, I guess Shin is doomed to a career making sake after all.

Incidentally, it’s been pointed out in plenty of places now, but chickens can fly. Really, yes, but domestic chickens’ wings are almost always clipped. That makes the “first flight for a chicken” line the only part that really defies accuracy.

What We’ve Learned

Shinichiro has spent a lot of time worrying about how much he’s hurting Noe, and now it’s coming home to roost HAR HAR. I’m not sure what she plans on doing, whether it’s throwing Jibeta off a cliff or herself, but the show is really pulling out all the stops in making us love Hiromi as much as Shin does, so I guess it’s big of him to care about Noe at all.

What will her reaction be to the end of the book, and which of the chickens represents who after all?

Thoughts

True Tears can still keep us guessing pretty effectively, and apparently plans to do it until the end. A couple shows are ending this week, but if I’m not mistaken we get two more of this one and I’m getting impatient (in a pleasant way). The blogs and forums are still doing some speculation on CharacterxCharacter endings, but I don’t think it’s going to be as simple as that. Regardless, I’m excited to see what’s coming.