Noe is the superior of the bunch, but True Tears could use some more Ai-chan

So my blogging schedule is more or less sorted out, I’ll be continuing Clannad of course, and picking up True Tears and ARIA (which I’ll be blogging as subs come out, ie. slower than a gondola).

True Tears, despite following typical romance drama elements, continues to draw me further into its story with each passing episode. The winter season is actually turning out to be pretty good so it’s no longer a question of superiority by comparison, there’s just something I can’t pinpoint that puts True Tears well above most other harem shows.

Episode Rating: 9/10

Shin arrives at school to find a small packet of chicken feed in his shoe locker, another in his desk, and yet another in his class locker, undoubtedly Noe’s doing. Nobuse thinks it’s her way of expressing her love for him, after school Shin spots Noe skipping through the crowd of students and chases her down, only to see her being picked up by motorcycle be a guy, clinging onto him lovingly.

After seeing such a depressing scene Shin stumbles over to Ai-chan’s store where he finds her in the process of letting Nobuse taste test some food she’s made for a nearby community centre. She plays off the raburabu looking scene by offering some to Shin as well. Shin then proceeds to tell Nobuse about Noe getting picked up by who he thinks is her boyfriend and how she probably just thinks of him as a replacement for the late chicken, Raigomaru. Ai-chan cuts their conversation short, reminding Shin that they have to drop the food off at the community centre, Nobuse also realizing it’s about time he heads home.

As Ai-chan and Shin walk together, Ai suddenly asks him how the conversation he planned on having with Hiromi went. Surprised that she cares so much about his life problems, Shin tells her that in the end Hiromi didn’t really want to be friends with Noe. Ai says she understands her thinking, that a girl would want to be close to the one she likes, but if that person were to become close with someone else, intruding into that relationship would work just as well. With that, Ai suddenly starts to blush, Shin not really understanding the connection blankly asks what’s wrong. Frustrated at how dense he is, Ai-chan gives him a good kick in the shin and runs off, saying that it must be tough for anyone who falls in love with such an idiot.

With Ai-chan’s words in the back of his mind, prodding along the possibility that Hiromi might like him, Shin returns home to find his mom forcing Hiromi to do a late night delivery of some sake. Shin gets pissed off by this and takes it upon himself to go with her, his father comes home to the scene and reminds her that Hiromi is a part of their family too now, but Hiromi’s mother refuses to accept her as such and storms off.

Walking together, Shin remembers that they had taken the road they’re on before, during a festival Hiromi had gotten separated from him and was crying along this road searching for him. Hiromi lies and says she doesn’t remember it, meanwhile the memories of the event playback in her mind, a young Shin playing a joke on her that went too far and made her cry, and afterwards the two holding hands walking through the forest holding hands.

the next morning, Hiromi leaves early to help set up for the boys basketball game that afternoon. After school, Noe’s toying around with Shin continues, this time she’s made a path of chicken feed leading him to the tree above the chicken coop. Shin releases his pent up frustration, telling her not to get involved with him anymore, telling her that he saw her being picked up by her boyfriend. As he walks away Noe asks for help to get down, but Shin tells her that she got up by herself, she should be able to get down without any help, and so, she jumps down. Under the guise of having hurt her leg, Noe gets Shin to carry her around on his back, eventually guiding him to the gym where the basketball game is going on.

Shin carrying Noe on his back isn’t exactly a subtle scene and it is quickly noticed by Nobuse as well as Hiromi and her friend. Shin then notices that one of the players on the visiting team is the guy who he saw Noe picked up by, suddenly Noe jumps down from Shin’s back and goes to cheer the guy on, “Ganbatte! Onii-chan!”. Heh.

After the game, Nobuse notices Shin looking a little relieved, knowing that the guy ended up being her brother, not her boyfriend, Shin denying any feelings he has for Noe. Nobuse isn’t at all convinced, but says that that’s fine as well, since he has Hiromi, who definitely saw him carrying Noe around on his back. Shin scrambles to find Hiromi and make up some excuse, but no matter what he can think of it only makes it sound as if he’s close with Noe. He then stumbles onto Hiromi talking with her friend, who is ranting about how stupid Shin is, Hiromi continuing to say that she doesn’t think of Shin that way. To reinforce her point, Hiromi tells her that she’s really not in love with Shin, but rather number 4 on the opposing basketball team today, Noe’s brother.

Hiromi gets up and walks off, turning the corner to find Shin standing there with a look of pure shock on his face…

Thoughts

Noe is a genious. If she’s really in love with Shin, she’s playing the game extremely well. First of all, the act of leaving Shin chicken feed everywhere accomplishes quite a few things. Primarily, it serves as a continuous reminder of her presence, never allowing herself to be out of Shin’s thoughts. Secondly, it spreads the knowledge of their relationship amongst the student body, which at the same time wards off any competition, ie. Hiromi.

She also handled the whole brother situation very well. After Shin accused her of having a boyfriend, she didn’t flat out reject his claim in your stereotypical “You’ve got it wrong, this is a misunderstanding” speech. Instead she dealt with it calmly by first shifting Shin’s feelings toward her from resentment to pity by jumping out of a freaking tree. She then got him to carry her around on his back, which served as a jealousy up when seen by Hiromi. And finally, she solved the misunderstanding of her being picked up by her brother indirectly by going to cheer for him at the game, which both relieves Shin and places the fault of misunderstanding on him instead of her.

Noe’s manipulation of Shin is nothing short of masterful. Though all this is under the assumption that she does in fact like him, which although likely, hasn’t been made at all explicit yet.

Meanwhile, Hiromi is doing a piss poor job at things. Continuously denying any feelings for Shin, first refusing to acknowledge that she remembered the childhood memories she shared with him and then completely blowing it by confessing that she likes someone else with Shin just around the corner.

And then there’s Ai-chan, who I wasn’t sure was in love with Shin before, but now there’s no question. The first thing she asks when she sees Nobuse alone is where Shin is and she quickly covered up the scene with her feeding Nobuse by offering the same service to Shin. She’s deeply interested in the workings of his love life, and her explanation of getting close to those who are near to the person you love drew a strong parallel to her current situation.

If I had to predict the winner of this race for Shin’s heart at this point, I’d probably say Hiromi. There’s a lot of support for the NoeXShin pairing, but the way Hiromi’s side of things is being portrayed is an ideal setup for her eventually realizing and admitting her feelings and Shin reciprocating, at the same time, it would be a suitable event for Shin to “give Noe back her tears”. Ai-chan is far too much of a side character to think that she would come out on top, which is a shame, because she’s definitely above Hiromi in my ranks.

But despite that prediction, I’m going to go ahead and hope that I’m wrong, because Noe is my personal favourite. Shin’s pretty dense, so I think that there will have to come a time where Noe cuts the mind games and make her feelings for him crystal clear. Her ability or inability to do so will govern how good a chance she has at beating out Hiromi.

The preview for next week has a voice I haven’t heard yet asking someone, I assume Shin, to go out with Noe. Perhaps her brother? Argh, another week of waiting to find out.

~ Shirukii ~