True Tears 05, and then there were three
February 3rd, 2008 by Shirukii
Ai-chan officially enters the running with a bold display of affection! Now let’s hope it actually carries through and she doesn’t dismiss is with a typical “nevermind, it’s nothing”. It’s going to be a long road if she really wants to make a serious attempt at Shin’s heart, out of all the girls she probably has the most obstacles to overcome. But at least with this move she’ll get her feelings out there, even Shin can’t be so dense as to misinterpret it.
Also, a big thanks to m.3.3.w err…w.0.0.f for subbing True Tears despite its licensing, you guys are awesome.
Shin is aimlessly loitering around the school’s chicken coop waiting for Noe, but when she does show up he tries to play it all cool, rejecting her offer to have lunch together with the lame excuse that it would be weird because they aren’t even dating. He even turns down her offer to walk home together, saying that he has dance practice after school.
So when lunch time rolls around, Noe goes to eat lunch with Hiromi of all people, not saying a word, just sitting down and starting to exchange food with her as normal friends would do. This confuses the hell out of Tomoyo (random basketball friend finally gets a name!) who gets to their usual lunch spot a little late to see the sight.
After school, Shin runs into Hiromi at the gates and the two walk home together, which of course, Noe gets there just in time to see.
As usual, Nobuse goes over to Ai-chan’s place to spend some time with his so called girlfriend, and notices the new sweater she bought, the one she got when shopping with Shin. She suggests that Nobuse should get a new one too, since he’s been wearing the same one for a while now, he jokingly says that he’d prefer a hand knit one from Ai-chan, which she surprisingly agrees to.
Meanwhile, Shin and Hiromi take a detour on the way home, heading to the beach. There, for the second time, the typical male-female dynamics are reversed when Hiromi offers Shin her scarf because he seems a little cold. She then tells him about what happened at lunch, Noe joining her to eat, echoing her words, that “friends always exchange dishes”.
When the two finally make it home, Shin’s mom sees them walking together and gives Hiromi a lecturing about how unsightly it is, trying to veil it under the pretense that since the two of them are living together it’s inappropriate. Thanks to the paper thin walls of the Nakagami household, Shin overhears the whole conversation.
The next day, Noe is preparing her lunch and then some, complaining to her brother about random things like artificial food colouring and how all guys are liars. Her efforts are largely wasted though, finding no one to share her food with when she arrives at the lunch spot where she and Hiromi ate together the day before, Hiromi and Tomoyo instead hanging out at the gym for some lunch time basketball practice.
Remembering Shin say that he had dance practice the other day, she tracks him down and is amazed to see him as the lead dancer for the Mugiha Festival, saying that he was just like Raigomaru, gallant and radiant. She asks Shin if he wants to eat together, but ends up forbidding him from eating the wieners she made because eating artificial foods will make him lie more. The conversation drifts off to their usual talk about Shin’s tears, when he starts to wonder exactly how he’s supposed to give them to her anyways, Noe isn’t exactly sure yet, but mimics what her grandmother did at the time, and licks Shin’s face.
Later that night, Shin’s brother Jun makes another visit to see what Shin thinks of his offer to date Noe. Shin says that it’s not for him to manipulate the feelings of others and to catch him off guard he throws out the hypothetical situation that if he dates Noe, he’d have to date Hiromi. But it backfires when he gives the ok and rides off before Shin can process his response.
The next scene was rather weird, Shin goes to talk to Hiromi about his conversation with Jun, and the scene is done twice over, once from Shin’s view and once from Hiromi’s. The two first have some random chat about it being the first time Shin has been in her room since she moved in, and when Shin finally gets around to telling her about Jun and how he said she was cute, Hiromi gets irritated, annoyed that Shin would come into her room just to tell her that.
The next day after school Shin heads to Ai-chan’s store first since Nobuse has to go take care of some things at home. Ai-chan is pretty happy to see Shin show up alone and invites him in for the usual cola and snack. Shin notices the sweater she’s is making and says he’s pretty envious of Nobuse, Ai-chan then remarks that Shin’s shoulder width is pretty similar to Nobuse’s and asks to use him as a measure. But when Nobuse shows up knocking on the door and Shin goes to answer it, Ai-chan suddenly holds him down and tells him to ignore it…
Thoughts
Whoo, lots of stuff going on in this episode. Most notably of course is Ai-chan looking like she’s about to enter this love triangle and make it a square, which I wholeheartedly approve of, Ai-chan is awesome. With this episode I’d put her on par with Noe in my rankings, or perhaps just slightly below her. This is actually pretty weird for me, since I’m not a huge fan of short haired characters (I have a ponytail moe :3) but I just can’t bring myself to like Hiromi and her constant denial of her feelings which she ends up taking out on Shin.
But she’s not fully to blame I guess, Shin is a pretty dense male lead, unable to notice the feelings of the girls around him and even more incapable of picking one to focus on. Then again, it wouldn’t be a harem anime without all that indecision. I’m having a hard time pinning down where his feelings lie though, he obviously has a thing for Hiromi but she sure wouldn’t know it, especially with him trying to set her up with Jun.
He probably never even thought of Ai-chan as a possibility, seeing how she’s supposed to be dating Nobuse, that might change next episode though, we’ll see. It’ll be a thorny path for Ai-chan if she decides to make this move, she has a lot of things standing in her way. She’s been friends with Shin for a long time so there’s the whole osananajimi hurdle to clear first of all, and then there’s the whole deal with Nobuse. Let alone dating him, making a move on Shin would shatter the friendship between Shin and Nobuse in an instant. Whether or not it’s Shin’s fault, jealousy is a bitch and Nobuse will probably lash out at his best friend rather than his “girlfriend”.
And of course there’s Noe, who I still don’t understand in the slightest. Shin is beginning to think of her as more than some weird girl, that’s for sure, but beyond that, I dunno. The scene where he turned down her offer to have lunch and walk home made me scratch my head, -HE- was waiting for -HER-…wtf? Due to lack of understanding of his thought process, I’ll just leave it at: Shin is tsundere for Noe.
Speaking of Noe, her “friends always exchange dishes” line was interesting, perhaps foreshadowing. If you apply it to the situation at hand, might it suggest the exchange of her brother for Shin? Or am I taking the food metaphor too far, lol.
Other interesting things of note this episode include the furthering of the Nakagami vs Yuasa plot line. I’m with the majority in saying that Shin’s father probably had a love triangle of his own back in the day, eventually settling on Shin’s mom, but not before having some fun with Hiromi’s mom. Whether it happened when they were married and whether Hiromi is the illegitimate love child of Shin’s dad and Hiromi’s mom is up in the air right now, but it certainly would explain the hateful relationship Hiromi and Shin’s mom share, a direct contrast with Shin’s dad. (Damnit they need to give these parents names)
And finally there’s also Shin’s storybook thing, which is drifting further and further away from focusing on Hiromi and is becoming increasingly influenced by Noe. I’d like to take it as a reflection of his true feelings, but his actions are far too convoluted to come to any sort of conclusion.
I think I’m beginning to understand why I like True Tears so much, it’s similar (but more powerful) to the reason I like Kimikiss, they don’t waste time in developing the story. There’s very few filler scenes that are just for comedic purposes, unlike say, Clannad. Each scene is meaningful whether interpreted directly or through more subtle hints, every meeting, every exchange of words carries a clue to where the story is heading. And to top it all off, both True Tears and Kimikiss are annoyingly good at cliffhanger endings, ending at points that make me cry out in anger, wanting to see what happens literally seconds later, but having to wait an entire week to do so.
And the eyes, the expressiveness of the eyes in True Tears is unprecedented
~ Shirukii ~
21 Responses to “True Tears 05, and then there were three”
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Cheh! I refuse to recognize Bandai licencing what with their hardon for punishing dedicated anime fans with their ridiculous prices. What, they think we live in Japan or something?
As for this episode, a tsundere Shin. Now there’s a very funny thought. But that would be giving him too much credit. Here he is, basically given a green light to date Noe by her brother, of whom she is (very) close to, and he totally kneecaps that opportunity? No, I’d go with the generic clueless male harem lead here.
Chickens seem to play a big part in True Tears. You can find one nearly everywhere…including the ED. Poultry fan service!
RIP Raigomaru
Man…even after the episode, im still staring at those screencaps.
Hooray for La’w.0.0.fmar! Cant tell whether or not the entire series is good enough to purchase unless you watch the entire series (especially with that looming pricetag). No televised broadcast no online streaming channel = require fansub to make an accurate purchase judgement.
hmm cant really remember an anime that had eyes of the characters show so much emotion…
the double scene thing was pretty weird i dont understand why they would do that and Ai-chan is definitely moving up my chart. Hiromi still sucks imo.
Damn cliffhanger endings! :S
I keep on hearing about this horrific pricetag….what exactly is Bandai charging????
@ Proxyman:
This show is big on inner dialouge……..which is a plus from my perspective :D…….they played the scene twice…..focusing the 1st time on Shin, second time on Hiromi
Hiromi ftw! I’m a sucker for the angsty types…..although in terms of ending, I’m leaning towards Noe :)
@ Shirukii:
Glad to hear I’m not the only one who’s frustrated by the fact that the parents have no name lol :P……It’s just one of those things that’s really irksome :P
re: dense male leads-A hazard of the genre….it’s unfortunate but not all leads can be as pimpin’ as Yuiichi or Tomoya
Btw….somewhat off topic……I was able to see the twin route of the Clannad VN this week……..*sigh* It’s so not gonna happen in the anime adaption but it’s really good stuff!
So the majority thinks Shin’s father was playing around, before settling with his wife.
I guess you guys can’t see the forest for the trees. It’s obvious to me, that Shin’s mother was together with Hiromi’s father, until Hiromi’s mother stole him away.
Then she had to settle for Shin’s father. Outwardly, the acted like they were friends, but she never forgave her for stealing her man. That’s why she hates Hiromi, because she reminds her so much of her love-rival.
possible timeline:
- Shin’s mother and Hiromi’s father are going out together
- Horomis mother steals him away
- Shin’s mother gets the only guy left, Shin’s father
- Shin’s mother hates Hiromi’s mother and consequently Hiromi
Anyway, this show has the best drama since KimiNozo. I especially liked how they switched viewpoints and showed us Hiromi ’s reaction. I just hope Hiromi doesn’t have a breakdown like Mitsuki and has sex with Nr. 6. I don’t think I could handle it.
Kanon_fan82 >> what exactly is Bandai charging????
vol1 is $29.99 which contains 1 eps.
vol2-7 is $39.99 each and contains 2 eps.
comes to a total of $269.93 for the whole series.
That’s kinda steep especially when the format is DVD and not in High Def.
That’s kinda steep especially when the format is DVD and not in High Def.
And absolutely no extras or other goodies that even the bargain bin DVDs down the aisle would contain.
@_@……..For that price, the DVD better give me an orgasm (no comments from the peanut gallery lol :P)……..
Seriously, would anyone pay that much for a non-HD, no extras DVD??? What were the execs. thinking????
Even otaku have their limits :P
Speaking of which…..what is the most ppl have spent on an anime here???……..mine was like 65 US$ for NGE……..Ebay deal……which is good considering most ppl get screwed using ebay for anime stuff……but it was actually good merchandise
@ ItAintEazy: I’d be inclined to agree with you, if it were Hiromi or Ai-chan we were talking about, but it’s Noe! The fact that he has a green light to date her yet continues to shy away from it makes him far from clueless. Tsundere might be a bit of a leap, but I couldn’t think of anything else to describe it XD
@ Servbot: I’m amazed no one has made any “cock” jokes these past 5 entries. Truly and utterly amazed.
@ proxyman: I can’t think any off the top of my head, certainly none that beat True Tears.
@ Kanon_fan82: I don’t mind the angsty types, but Hiromi’s angst is contrived, if she were true to her feelings, sure it would be hard, what with Shin’s mom and all, but at least she could progress instead of sitting there in depression.
The parents seriously need names ;_; it’s not that annoying when just watching, but trying to write about them while simultaneously referencing their children becomes hard.
As for anime spending, admittedly, I don’t buy DVDs. I do buy loads of manga though, a huge chunk of which I posted way back in my Anime North 2007 post.
@ tako: That’s an interesting and completely viable time line that I hadn’t thought of, nice.
And while it’s good, True Tears hasn’t reached KimiNozo level drama just yet. I don’t think they will either, the fact that it takes place in a high school setting sort of limits that.
@ Reishin: Actually I think it’s vol 7 that contains only 1 episode. All the same in the end, and a huge ripoff.
Leave it to Anime Blog ga Arimasu for play by play coverage of Hiromi and Shin’s parents.
It certainly is amazing Shirukii that the thin defensive line preventing the fouling of the word “cock” has not been um…penetrated by the barrage of comments. What, within these past 5 entries there were homages to Raigomaru, in-your-face no-holds-barred poultry fan service and dare I say it – cockroaches under Shinichiro’s shoes. With the word glaring in front of peoples’ faces, I think the fans just want to draft the proper definition at hand.
Catching the Superbowl XLII and post game show.
Show ▼
And now back to you Shirukii.
Chase the dream! Join the league of the future… DSRL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCpNVQEn6rY
and if you like the theme song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kBUiRAFeSA
Sorry Shirukii and Anime Blog ga Arimasu, im borrowing this comment space for something non-anime. I feel somewhat ashamed yet a little more enlightened.
So…..I hear Noe likes Shin’ichiro almost as much as she likes that black cock of hers.
@Shirukii: You brought this lame joke upon yourself for challenging me!!!
Shin is such an ass to lie to Noe. >:O
That was kinda werid episode. Now I couldn’t understand both Hiromi and Ai-chan. I mean, what the hell Ai-chan thinking about the whole sweater thing. I was right that Hiromi gonna get pissed judging from the preview last week. However, just because Shin said that he met Noe’s brother, then she suddently got pissed. I mean, if Shin said something about Noe’s brother stipulation, then I kinda understand. And also, I never understand what Noe’s say or think for the past 5 episodes. LOL. Man, this series is confuesed me even more now, but it’s still very entertaining to watch. The preview look really interesting too. Since the title is “what kind of joke is that?” I’m assuming that Ai-chan may confess to Shin. Then again, I don’t if they gonna portray like what I think though.
BTW, where is the my rating for this episode, Shirukii??
Oh… how utterly warped it would be if Hiromi was Shin’s half-sister. Let’s just hope she doesn’t have Da Capo’s Nene on speed dial to overcome that hurdle. *squick*
I’m liking Shin less and less. What made me sit up and say “…wha?” was the scene with Jun:
Shin: It’s not our business to manage other’s feelings.
Jun: …
Shin: But if it were, I’d say something like “I’ll date Noe if you date Hiromi.”
Jun: Okay.
Shin: And then I’d say, “Let’s go mess with the CLANNAD storyline so Kyou gets Tomoya and Nagisa ends up with Tomoyo. That’ll win us the support of both the Kyou fanbase and the yuri fanboys.”
Jun: Okay.
Shin: And then I’d say, “Let’s forcibly age Nagi, Sakuya and Isumi and see how Hayate handles the sudden growth spurts.”
Jun: *nods* That’s doable.
Shin: “Then we’ll convince Rika that Akasaka is the mastermind behind the Hinamizawa massacre, make every girl in ‘Aria: The Origination’ hard straight and convince Monkey D. Luffy that the rest of his crew is edible *and* delicious.”
Jun: …you’ve really thought this out, haven’t you?
Shin: *clears throat* But I wouldn’t say that. Because that’s not our business.
Jun: …
Shin: *cue evil laughter*
Jun: *cue evil smile*
…okay, so maybe that’s not *exactly* what they said. But it’s all there in the subtext.
I still can’t shake the “bad ending” feeling.
Baww, the drama isn’t high enough.
After watching KGNE, this is so boring T^T
I hated Shin for lying to Noe as well — very very bad, lawls. Well, if there’s siscon, I think the level of drama will grow. I’m hoping there’s siscon … haha, JunxNoe. Although I’m personally voting for ShinxNoe, there’s still that high chance of it being a ShinxHiromi ending, with the whole “you’re not allowed to go near him” crap coming from the mother, which creates complications, of course. Man, I think Shin is really falling for Noe though. His dreams and story-writing are becoming more Noe style and he’s starting to think like her too, lawls.
I should point out that it’s Bandai -Visual- with the True Tears license, not Bandai -Entertainment-. Effectively two different companies with extremely similar names, and labeling either company as simply “Bandai” no longer suffices.
And yes, Bandai Visual has their own special version of reality. But I still can’t support fansubbing despite licensing regardless…
@ Starcreator:
I don’t get the ethical dilemna……Fansubbers do it because they want to make the show known, and trust me, if you are a fan, you do buy the DVDs……
It’s a way to justify the massive spending that Bandai wants us to proceed with OTZ
And there are the cock jokes, way to ruin it guys ;_;
@ Michael: Yea…I don’t really understand why he did it either.
@ kenshin514: Heh, I forgot to rate it again didn’t I, fix’d. I would love to see Ai-chan confess to Shin, think of the drama it would cause between him and Nobuse! Earlier I said that Ai-chan wouldn’t risk that, but now I’m hoping she does, it’ll make things very interesting.
@ W4: Noooooooo, don’t age Nagi, dear God don’t do it! You’ll ruin her!
I still don’t see a bad ending incoming, but hey, anything is possible.
@ Kaelyn: I don’t think any anime drama could get me as heated up as KimiNozo did.
@ ShadowFang: I’m thinking Shin is starting to have feelings for Noe as well, though he’s not at the point where he fully realizes or accepts it. Hopefully he figures it out soon enough, either that or goes with Ai-chan. Pretty much anyone but Hiromi.
@ StarCreator: Thanks for the distinction, I don’t know much about NA anime companies, I had no clue they were separate.
I wouldn’t mind paying for quality products, but it’s so rare that DVDs with their less than spectacular subs and even worse dubs stand above the fanmade alternatives. So I support the anime industry through buying boatloads of manga instead.
>>”Shin is tsundere for Noe.”
LOL what make you think of it like that? So what do you think of Hiromi’s friend?
>>”And the eyes, the expressiveness of the eyes in True Tears is unprecedented”
I believe there are a lot people who haven’t noticed it yet but for those who did, i think their body-language is pretty good.