True Tears 06, love and hate
February 10th, 2008 by Shirukii
Onii-chan…
Despite the fact that we all saw it coming, I for one thought that it was an epic revelation. With this, I’m happy no matter who Shin ends up with, Noe was my early favourite, Ai-chan is at least on par with her now, and given the turn of events, I understand why Hiromi acts the way she does, so she has my support now. Hell, even if Shin were to end up alone at the end of the series it would be a justified outcome.
Episode Rating: 10/10
We return to Ai-chan holding down Shin with Nobuse knocking on the door to be let in, but she can’t bring herself to say anything before Shin goes to let him in. Nobuse strides in and spots the sweater Ai-chan is holding, figuring it’s the one she’s making for him, he tells her to go ahead and size it up. But given her wavering and confused feelings, Nobuse’s playfulness annoys her and she ends up yelling at the two.
Afterwards, Shin and Nobuse are walking home trying to figure out what made her so angry. On the topic, Shin asks what he was doing over the holidays when Ai-chan dragged him out to go shopping instead of him. This is the first Nobuse has heard of it, noticeably taken aback by the news.
We’re then given a little flashback to explain how the three of them got to their current relationship anyways. Shin was the one who introduced Nobuse and Ai, Ai thinking that any friend of Shin would soon be a friend of hers, but quite surprised when it took a step further and Nobuse asked her out. With Shin literally on the sidelines cheering them on, she couldn’t refuse and so ended up in this farce of a relationship.
Back in the present, Shin returns home and finds the album he was looking at the other night, the one with pictures of his parents and the Yuasas, gone. When he asks his mom about it, she says she threw it out, there being no reason for him to hold on to something like that.
The next day during basketball practice, number 4 Jun shows up to see Hiromi, simply saying that he’ll be waiting for her after school. Of course, with a bunch of high school girls and room for scandal, the news spreads like wildfire and quickly makes its way to Shin’s ears. He goes outside to be alone and cool off, but meets Noe instead, who offers him some lunch. Looking a little down, Shin explains to her that he feels like a chicken trapped in a farm with no choice but to accept whatever fate comes his way. Noe protests, arguing that he’s not trapped, he’s free to reach the skies, like Raigomaru. Shin uses his newfound freedom and tells Noe that he’s thrown into confusion when he sees her so he asks to be left alone for a while. Surprisingly, Noe doesn’t question his decision, simply asking for how long.
Back to Hiromi and Jun, the man wastes no time in getting to the point, having talked to Shin he knows of her crush on him and asks her out on the spot. Looking up at the sky, he notes it looks like it might snow, Hiromi asks him if he hates snow, to which he simply says it means he can’t ride his bike. Hiromi loves snow, but hates it at the same time, remembering when she first moved in with Shin and a conversation she had with his mom amidst snowfall.
When Shin gets back that night, he’s confronted by Hiromi who asks him what he talked about with Jun. Realizing what must have happened, he asks her whether they’re going out yet, Hiromi tells him about their upcoming date, calls him a fool and walks away.
Sunday rolls around and Hiromi picks a simple movie as the location for their date, nervous because it’s the first time she’s went with a guy. Jun tells her that he goes all the time with Noe, continuing, telling her that he understands Noe’s feelings, sometimes even better than she does herself. After the date Jun gives her a ride home, and noticing how vulnerable she looks, leans in and caresses her face, but Hiromi snaps out of it and backs off before anything further happens.
Meanwhile, Nobuse and Ai are on a date of their own, Nobuse offering to buy her a sweater. However, at the last minute Ai declines his offer and walks off, Nobuse apologizes and then brings up the sweater that Shin picked out for her. Ai is surprised to hear he knows about it, but corrects one thing, Shin didn’t pick out her sweater, she just bought the one that Shin liked, completely of her own free will. Nobuse looks like he wants to laugh it off, but knows that her reasoning comes with a far deeper implication.
Back at Shin’s house, Hiromi has a run in with Shin’s mom, who tells her to be more mindful of who she comes home with, she doesn’t want people to think they have a slut at their house. Finally, Hiromi snaps, asking her why she always picks on her, if it’s because of who’s daughter she is. Shin’s mom is shocked that she still remembers that conversation, one that Hiromi has never once forgotten about. Aaand, cue Shin, who walks in and begins questioning them on this conversation of theirs, at the same time sticking up for Hiromi and yelling at his mom. Hiromi runs off, Shin quickly following, she figures that as long as they’ve gone this far, she might as well tell him, Shin’s birthday is before hers, so that would make him onii-san. Confused, Hiromi explains to Shin that according to his mom, he and Hiromi may share the same father…
Thoughts
DUN. DUN. DUN.
Okay, so we saw it coming a mile away, but that was still pretty awesome. Kudos to Hiromi for finally standing up to that bitch of a mother Shin has, she’s been picking on her unpunished for far too long. I understand the bitterness that she must feel seeing Hiromi, possibly the illegitimate love child of her former friend and her now husband, but Hiromi doesn’t deserve her scorn. I wonder how this will affect Shin’s feelings for Hiromi, will he shake off his love for her and think of her only as a sister, or will he break through the preconceptions of society and go for a siscon end?
But at least Hiromi has my sympathies for now. I still think she’s far too cryptic in her behavior towards Shin, but at least it has a reason now. She probably loves the guy but knows that for anything to happen between the two, almost insurmountable obstacles lie ahead of them. Let alone the hate coming from his mom, the fact that they may be siblings is a challenge on a whole new level, it’s enough to confuse anyone. Still, shame on her for lying to herself and using Jun as an escape route.
Also, as much as I love Kyou, I must say, Hiromi is a far better basketball player.
Ai-chan is about tied with Noe as my favourite character now, and despite my earlier claims that her victory may be impossible, it’s actually looking like it might not be that much of a long shot. She passed up her opportunity to confess to Shin when they were alone in the store, but she’s slowly making her situation clear, at least to Nobuse. I feel bad for that guy, but honestly, this is a much better alternative than to continuing to be strung along. In matters of the heart, no hope is INFINITELY better than false hope, the uncertainty will eat away at your mind and when all is said and done, the pain will be much worse the later it drags on.
I wonder what she’ll do if she does dump Nobuse though, she knows of Shin’s feelings for Hiromi and the infamous Isurugi Noe, will she jump right in to the battle or just play it safe and maintain her friendship with Shin, risking nothing more. And how will Shin and Nobuse’s friendship suffer if Ai decides to go for it. From what we’ve seen, Nobuse does his best to play these sort of things off, but if he were to lose Ai-chan, what then?
And what of Noe? According to the deal between Jun and Shin, he’s to ask her out soon. But despite that, he told her to leave him alone for a while. Her manipulation of Shin seems to be slipping a little, seeing as she could do nothing but agree to his whim and ask how long he wants to be left alone for. And at the same time, she continues to dote on her brother, which no doubt is screwing pretty badly with his mind. Noe’s the wild card here, I have no idea what she’ll do from episode to episode. But I love how everyone is having their lives torn to hell and she’s all carefree singing in the kitchen, hah.
The phrases used in True Tears seem to be very carefully selected. In Jun’s conversation with Hiromi he stated “it’s agonizing to no longer be able to like the things you like”, and the more it sunk in, the more it seems like that’s the overlying theme for True Tears. You have Hiromi, who loves Shin but can’t make anything of it, likewise Shin to Hiromi. Ai-chan who loves Shin but is stuck with Nobuse, conversely nobuse who loves Ai but will never have his feelings truly returned. Jun loves Noe but knows it would never work out, and finally Noe, who loves teh coc…ok, nevermind, let’s not go there.
Preview wise, we have Shin saying that he’s going to give up on Hiromi, Noe and Hiromi locked in a physical grappling fight, Noe on the verge of tears jumping into her brother’s arms, and Ai-chan flirting some more with Shin. And with that awaits another long week worth of waiting to see what happens next ;_;
I find this extremely hot for some reason, Noe’s fashion sense is win
~ Shirukii ~
35 Responses to “True Tears 06, love and hate”
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Well……that was pretty awesome :)
Kudos to Ai-chan for making her feelings known and not leaving Nobuse hanging too long…….if he can’t figure out what she meant then he’s just WAY too dense..
So we all saw the Hiromi=Shin’s sister angle…..but I have to say…they way they had Shin just randomly appear in the conversation and getting pissed at his mom was good……
I was expecting this secret to stay under wraps till like the last two episodes…..so it’s good that they’re switching it up, and letting us see the emotional fallout
I have to say…..this episode definitely swayed me in the direction of a Noe ending…..
I was all for the angst of Hiromi, but Noe’s cuteness is way too high to be ignored :)
Her cooking/dancing with the belt on=A++++ :D
>>”or will he break through the preconceptions of society and go for a siscon end?”
I never disagreed for this to happened at all :D
>>”I find this extremely hot for some reason, Noe’s fashion sense is win”
Agreed X 3
Wow, only 6 episodes they have come this far I think the last 7 episodes are going to be crazy.
After 6 weeks/episodes long finally we got to see the first tear from Hiromi and next episode maybe Noe(?) and Ai after(?). And who will be the one at the end to hold the title “True Tears” ?
The scene Ai dumps Nobuse was a great job in term of drama. And yes, Nobuse has done an amazing job in term of reaction and it make me happy and sad at the same time :(
As for Hiromi, will she stand up for it or give it up? I guess she will.
For Jun to be able to say this line out “it’s agonizing to no longer be able to like the things you like” It is a hint that he understand this line so clearly. But who was it? Noe? siscon?
Noe was pretty cute in this episode. It’s a shame she has to die since that’s apparently the only way to collect “true tears” (not a spoiler, just a pessimistic speculation by a cynical bastard). But on to the real issue at hand: double siscon? Tama neze!
Well, they’re about right on schedule, though I am surprised at how early Ai let the cat out of the bag, I was expecting that to happen in two or three episodes. We are still right on track for a Hiromi ending I believe, good lord all the angst that’s gonna hit the fan during the next episode…
As for the direction and writing of the show, I stand truly amazed.
P.S. I put the ‘Noe death’ comment in a blog a while ago, would I happen to be that cynical bastard :) I still don’t consider it to be the likeliest one since that would be a Noe ending of sorts and I still believe Hiromi to be the front runner.
rah… I have just rewatched the opening to get more insight on who’s going to end up with who but it’s very hard to tell judging just from that…
Noe seems the kind of ‘main’ female character but it is not too clear cut and even if she is, judging from the way the plot has been progressing, that doesn’t mean a damn thing… Someone should start calculating the odds ^^
Well….you take the integral of Noe’s hawtness, multiply it by the quotient of Ai-chan over “e” to the Hiromi squared and….
I forgot my calculator. Maybe next time!
No. Hiromi is much worse at basketball considering she doesn’t follow the rules half as much as Kyou does. I mean, you aren’t allowed to grab the ball with both hands, dribble again, grab it with both hands again, dribble and shoot. That’s just fail.
Anywho, Noe FTW.
Defiantly the best episode so far, unlike some other harem type animes its hard to tell who is going to come out on top. Nabuse expression was hilarious, he was thinking in his head “aww man I cant believe she actually admit that shit.” rofl
For some reason I feel that because there are 6 charactors and 3 couples, it should end that way and everyone can be happy. Even though that’s hardly the way things work out realistically. But for once, real life sucks and an fantasy anime double psudo-siscon ending is fine by me!
@Boulayman:
Yeah, most likely, since I knew I couldn’t have come up with that prediction myself at this late stage ^^
Hiromi and Shin’s relationship keeps getting more and more complicated as the show progresses. There is just to much going on with that family and its going to make a mess. Will Hiromi somehow help Shin’s mother get over the tear in her heart?
Noe is certainly the most interesting with a kind of spiritualistic bent. There is a lot of depth to her personality that makes her atractive. She really makes the show interesting - but, will Shin really want her? I doubt it
Ai-chan is the strongest, emotionally stable, and normal of all the girls. I find myself wanting her to win out in the end, even if she does not get the guy.
Oh snap, this episode made me tear D:
I love how realistic this show is, (well, not the harem part).
For some reason, I dislike Nobuse :/ She acts too air-headed, but her mind is completely different than from how she acts around Shin/ his brother. Bleh.
I still stand with Hiromi D:!
And maybe Ai-chan, Shin really shouldn’t have rooted for her to accept his friend’s confession.
@ Kanon_fan82: Seriously, I think this episode gave me a belt fetish, too few characters wear them. The only other I can think of is Amu from Shugo Chara.
@ Siva: I’m 100% sure he was indirectly referring to Noe with that line, from what we’ve seen, there’s little doubt left that he loves her, the intensity of which is summed up by that single line.
@ ItAintEazy: You can’t kill off Noe, that would send fans into rage! But a double incest end would be pretty awesome.
@ Boulayman: I really wouldn’t know who to pin as the main female lead of True Tears. I want to say Noe, but that’s only because of the attention she got early on, Hiromi seems to be center stage right now, and Ai is moving forward at her own pace. I’m even less sure of who to guess for the winner of the love square.
@ Pyrrhusonline: I don’t even want to imagine what kind of screwed up function it would take to model Noe.
@ Michael: Are you referring to this episode? Because I didn’t see Hiromi do what you described in your comment. She went left-right-left on her fake out, two handed pass, two handed catch, layup.
@ proxyman: I feel so bad for the guy, he’s trying his best with nothing but defeat awaiting him. Poor bastard.
@ Teeif: I know what you mean, but there’s no real way for everyone to end happy. Hiromi, Ai and presumably Noe all love Shin, there’s no configuration with the six people we have for everyone to get what they want, unfortunately. But hey, that’s where all this awesome drama is coming from.
@ Trunk Monkey: Shin’s mom is an unrelenting bitch of a woman, I doubt Hiromi will be able to change that.
Agree’d on the other two though, it’ll take a lot of work for Shin to develop genuine feelings of love for Noe. And Ai-chan is in a realy bad position right now, I don’t think she can salvage it.
@ Kaelyn: Wait, what? Do you mean Noe in that third sentence? Nobuse is Shin’s friend.
And yes, Shin is a moron for continuing to set people up like this, not realizing he’s doing more harm than good.
Okay, so maybe… just maybe… this series won’t have the BAD END. But at the very least, Shinichiro will be punched in the face. Multiple times.
Why, you might ask?
Noe: Shinichiro lied to her, and now he’s avoiding her.
Jun: Shinichiro didn’t keep his end of the deal.
Hiromi: Shinichiro made that stupid deal in the first place.
Nobuse: “…you stole my girl!”
Ai: She could argue that Shinichiro pressured her into dating Nobuse and didn’t receive her true feelings well… or at all.
Shin’s Mom: “How dare you talk back to me?!?”
Shin’s Dad: “How dare you talk back to your mother?!?”
Raigomaru: Feeling vengeful for Shinichiro’s negative comparisons to chickens, the spirit of Raigomaru could theoretically possess someone who will, in turn, punch Shinichiro in the face.
Granted, I don’t feel as strongly about Boot-to-Shin’s-Head as the rest of you feel about Kyou’s awesomeness, but I will be disappointed if the series ends without *someone* smacking him.
Oh, I also want some kind of blunt object to make contact with Shin’s head. For some reason he acted more like a tard this episode than usual.
> Also, as much as I love Kyou, I must say, Hiromi is a far better basketball player.
Kei >> All
(well, maybe except for Sakino Asuka, but that’s soccer)
@Skirukii: Well, consider Noe’s very existence a function expressing the core beliefs of chaos theory and a little bit of quantum mechanics.
By the way……
….I’d her belt.
I nearly got in trouble the other day while looking at the recent Clannad/Kyou screen caps from Anime Blog ga Arimasu on my mobile device. The words “so you are into that kinda stuff” magically appeared in my ear, travelling from the lips of a cute female acquaintance whom my cousin invited for our New Years celebration. I cant say “luckily” even though she only caught a glimpse of the comments and because of what was written, she assumed it had something to do with male interests…of the lustrous type.
I told her that it was far from the truth and she agreed to not tell my cousin if she could play with said mobile device. To cut things short, we are going on a date later this week.
Mobile devices are a double-edged sword…
Pro-Tip: make sure to exercise your thumb for scroll strength if you have one or create a panic button.
@Pyrrhusonline: I believe that is a chastity belt.
@Servbot: All happy feelings gone -_- ;;;;
@Servbot: You mean there’s no way to alt/tab those things?
sigh
@ItAintEazy: Well, when someone sneaks up and stares over your shoulders…
Ohhh hehehe found it: Shirukii, “and finally Noe, who loves teh coc…ok, nevermind, let’s not go there.”
The influence of poultry fan service!
Since my thought process is out there now, ive always wondered how exactly do siblings feel that kind of love towards one another? I see it in several anime shows and artwork. I can understand sibling love in the family sense but not romantically because I myself have a sister and we do get along very well.
Well, I guess in Hiromi and Shin’s case, they didnt really know that they might share the same dad when they were young so they always felt like strangers with feelings for each other.
I guess i’ve always felt that siblings transcend gender classification. A sister is just a sister is just a family member. Even if I stared at her naked body for a long time, I wouldnt feel anything towards her nor get excited no matter how beautiful and even if she is from a different mother.
Anywho, I love the attention to detail in the art from True Tears.
Sibling love, in the sense of siscon, is more of a cultural thing. In some societies, it’s taught early on that love between siblings is wrong, and thus the mentality for such is adopted early on to think of siblings as nothing but siblings.
However, in Japanese culture, it is most likely either ambiguous or so strictly enforced that curiosity allows the mind to consider possibilities, which allows people to look at their siblings with a new view.
It’s like putting on different pairs of glasses. Some glasses, or perspectives and cultural themes, allow the individual to see nothing but the sibling love side of the relationship. However, other glasses, such as those of curiosity and love, allow the wearer to see their siblings in the light of another female or male companion possibility.
It’s a conspiracy. And I’d still her belt.
Well, this episode is kinda predictable, but I still love it a lot. There is still some chance (probably very small) that it’s a mistake that Hiromi is Shin’s sister. Otherwise, I don’t mind having Siscon either. I just don’t want Shin to end up with either Noe or Aiko. Hiromi all the way !!!!
“Also, as much as I love Kyou, I must say, Hiromi is a far better basketball player.” What are you talking about, Shirukii?? For 5 episodes, I haven’t see Hiromi make any 3 points shot at all. Look at Kyou, she made very single one of them. BTW, Kyou is mine, Shirukii. All mine. So don’t say that people think that she’s your possesion. LOL. Just kidding, dude.
@Shirukii
You may be right. Shin’s mother could be just evil by nature or, scarred by mulling over a past emotional inquiry and to far gone for redemption. I really look forward to seeing how this plays out. I always hope for the hard cases :)
Thinking about Noe, She is much like a girl I once dated. I am just far more conventional than I would ever want to admit so, I never got her. Because of that, I can strongly relate to Shin’s inability to comprehend her. * I would like to give him a little knock on the head too.
The team that made this Anime is doing a great job with the imagery and art work.
Yes, the swaying belt is just right. Very sexy- a great suggestive image.
@ W4: Wow, that’s some pretty extreme longing to see the man get hit in the head. I don’t feel that much hate for him, well, no more than any usual male harem lead.
@ ItAintEazy: lol, more Shin hate. Am I missing something really bad here? I don’t think he’s being any worse than normal.
@ Telliamed: Did we even get to see Kei play much? I don’t remember, she was too busy getting owned by Miyako for me to notice. =D
@ Pyrrhusonline: There are a number of conflicting theories on siscon and incest in general, everything from the Westermarck effect to Freud’s natural attraction. I’ll never know, only child ftw! Apparently those who actually have sisters tend to be more disgusted by siscon, while I’m free to enjoy it, hooray.
@ Servbot: Ahahaha, that is an awesome story. And I’d love to hear how you managed to turn that situation into getting a date.
@ lolikit: Why the sighing? What did I do this time?!
@ kenshin514: But the only thing Kyou can do is three point shots, she didn’t display anything like the agility Hiromi did when she faked. All around, Hiromi would be the better player, probably has much higher stamina too.
Though Kyou > Hiromi overall.
@ Trunk Monkey: I wish I knew an eccentric and idiosyncratic girl like Noe, I’d go after her in a second. All my past experiences with dating have either been with overly controlling girls or with clingy ones, it hell trying to find one in the middle. And so I enjoy the single life, so ronery ;_;
Everything, Shirukii.
EDIT: actually, sorry. I was in a rush, and tired, and wanted to leave some note that I’d read the post, because I love you and all, but I couldn’t conjure the lulz or the justice and I left things to my spine. My spinal reflex, unfortunately, was to do nothing but sigh. So yeah. Sorry. Loev.
@Shirukii: I have a sister, and find siscon to be amazingly wonderful (If presented correctly, fluidly, and romantically). Of course, I’d never think of my sister that way. I find her to be….lacking…on the intellect a bit, but she’s always cared for me.
@ Trunk Monkey: I wish I knew an eccentric and idiosyncratic girl like Noe, I’d go after her in a second. All my past experiences with dating have either been with overly controlling girls or with clingy ones, it hell trying to find one in the middle. And so I enjoy the single life, so ronery ;_;
I honestly doubt that you would like to date that kind of girl. When they appear in real life? No doubt, you’ll (and the majority of guys) will have no interest.
OH, I’m pulling the ” I’m a girl, I would know” trick :D
@ lolikit: You’re a much better person than I am for at least leaving something, most of the time I read blog entries but can’t be arsed to type up a reply, laziness impedes me.
@ Pyrrhusonline: Oh, interesting. Well, apparently you’re the exception, be proud.
@ Kaelyn: I dunno, my standards aren’t astronomical, as long as a girl is able to carry on -INTELLIGENT- conversation for more than 5 minutes and doesn’t giving off “I’m going to stab you in your sleep” vibes, I’d be happy.
Though, my idea of intelligent conversation falls into the realm of technology, science and occasionally philosophy, which very few people in general, let alone girls, find interesting.
@Shirukii: I have to go against the norm. Otherwise I’d just be like…everyone….el…s…..
Shoot.
@Shirukii: It just happened Shirukii, maybe with a little help from my cousin and my mom whom narrated my life to guests they introduced me to during the dinner. Anyways, there werent too many at the gathering around our age so she pretty much hung around me during the dinner, we got along pretty well and I didnt know she was interested until everyone started to head back to wherever they are from.
Btw, our date this week involves me being dragged into seeing “Atonement”… sorry guys no horror movie (although I seriously tried with “The Orphanage” in theatres and because I want to experience a frightened girl arm grab once in my lifetime). Hmm, however, my past two girlfriends enjoyed horror films so I guess reality is quite different.
Another thing is, she is actually a pretty taiwanese girl and I would better describe her as the intelligent and sophisticated type. I did eventually show her an anime blog entry and she basically said that the only anime she has ever seen was Doraemon and a strange sushii restaurant in the San Francisco area that had tentacle pr0n playing on overhead TV sets. Luckily, my life prior to the invasion of anime was very fullfilling so I have a lot to offer.
If only Jun and Noe weren’t siblings … what a great couple they would be, lawls.
>>You’re a much better person than I am
When my birthday comes around, feel free to write an essay with that as the thesis.
@Servbot: My gf is the type that gets super-scared by horror movies, and frankly, it’s not fun, as she often scares me more than the movie itself by her sudden arm grabs :P
oh, and PICS NAW!