True Tears

Title: True Tears Genre: Drama, Romance Rating: 2/10

Summary: True Tears revolves around a high school student named Shinichirō Nakagami with a high artistic ability. He lives with his mother, father, and fellow high school student Hiromi Yuasa who moved into his house after her father died. Her father had been a close friend of the family, so it was natural for Hiromi to come stay with the Nakagami family; one year has passed since she came to live in their home. Shinichirō has known Hiromi for years, but before he had always treasured her smile, though now she acts coldly when at home and he cannot bring up the nerve to talk with her either. When she is at school, Hiromi is popular, always smiles, and is talented in sports, but Shinichirō knows she must be hiding things inside her. At school, he meets a strange girl named Noe Isurugi who wishes him misfortune after Shinichirō teases her. After a bit of bad luck, he reconciles with Noe by crafting a chicken out of a tissue box and finds out from her that she "gave her tears away". Shinichirō also likes to spend time with his childhood friends Miyokichi Nobuse and Aiko Endō at the Imagawayaki shop Aiko's family owns.

Review: True Tears is the worst anime I have ever seen. There were so many things wrong with this anime that I needed someone to watch with me to hold me back from breaking the TV. Let’s start with the character modeling. Of the five or so main characters I hated roughly two of them, and one (Shinichiro Nakagami) I was indifferent to. The personalities of most of the characters seemed so bland that I could only hope they got hit by a car in the anime. There were even a couple plot holes left completely unanswered, and forgotten within an episode. When first coming into this anime (and after reading up on a couple sites the genre) I saw it as a romance comedy. However, after the first two episodes it takes a turn for the worst and dives so deep into drama I had trouble seeing any happy moments. The worst part is the drama makes you more angry than sad, so that wasn’t even done well. I could go on-and-on about the characters but I need to move on. The soundtrack for the anime is mediocre at best, the music scenes within the anime were background, and just like the opening/ending theme. There were a couple plus sides to this anime. Character change actually occurs within the anime, but is done very drastically. I was happy that their personalities took a 180 but it wasn’t a slow build up. Within one episode the characters seemed to have  a change of heart. I was grateful that the anime was only 13 episodes long, but at the same time I thought that extending the anime might have given me a different opinion. For example, learning a little more about the Shinichiro’s mother’s past.  The art style was done fantastically, the artist really took account of the small details (i.e. the soda actually depleting when someone takes a drink). Most of the points given to the anime were due to this fact, and I really hope that I see more of this artist’s work in future series.

Final statements: This anime is heavy drama and any happy moment is crushed within a few minutes. The high school kids don’t know what they want, and they act in such a stupid manner that viewers probably get more infuriated than sad. I cannot tell you how much I disliked this anime. It will probably be the lowest ranked anime on my website. So please heed my warning: AVOID WATCHING.

P.S. Do not try and bank on the ending of this anime, trust me. Storms off grumbling