Now that the cat’s out of the bag, I went around reading the “Gotcha” posts and the subsequent reactions. Most people took it well, some responded with a bitter “Fuck you guys!”, but all in good fun.

A few people were rather unimpressed by the timing and delivery though, saying that April Fool’s jokes should be done the day of and revealed the day after. While I understand where the latter group are coming from and agree to a certain extent, it wasn’t really an option for the plan we had. The moment we decided to orchestrate fake dorama, we knew it had to be spread out a bit, drama that spans the entire aniblogosphere doesn’t develop in hours, it takes a while for things to settle in. Would anyone have seriously thought any of it were real had we kicked up the shitstorm today, with tens of bloggers suddenly bashing Owen? Doubtful. Also, you have to remember that little that is done on April 1st is taken seriously, I don’t even dl anything from TT in fear of jokesubs. So in order to make things a little more believable, we had to start early.

Gotta love how DS pulled one on us and took the joke a level deeper by not only revealing that the whole Owen bashing was a hoax, but that Owen is actually a girl and that he’s been dating her for a while.

OwenXImpz doujins, get on it Japan! Or, alternatively, Hinano. …please ;_;? I’ll pay.

And now, arguably the more interesting portion of this post, a True Tears fanfic, written by yours truly. This is the first time I try something like this, so please bear with me.

* * *

It was late afternoon, Mugiha town bathed in a beautiful orange glow from the setting of the sun. Spring was on its way, the accumulation from the harsh winter was beginning to melt creating an amazing effect as the sunlight reflected off the streams of melted snow, sparkling much like you would expect the stars in the sky.

Aiko and Hiromi stand in front of the Nakagami household, shuffling around awkwardly, the two hadn’t talked much in the past. From a distance, Noe runs up to them, apologizing for being late, saying she was held up when her brother demanded she give him a sponge bath.

With all three girls assembled, they review their plans for the night. Shin’ichiro’s indecisiveness has marred their paths to happiness for far too long, it ends tonight. Putting aside their differences and latent animosity for each other, Aiko, Hiromi and Noe have decided that rather than ending this with broken hearts, it would be a far better option to share Shin’ichiro between the three of them. The plan is perfect, for no man could possibly refuse such an opportunity, one which presents unimaginable possibilities with few risks in return. However, such a plan requires precise planning and careful timing…

Aiko: Okay, well what we’ll do, I’ll run in first, gather the parents, we can kinda just, ya know, blast them down with AOE. Um, I’ll use Intimidating Shout, to kinda scatter’em, so we don’t have to fight both of them at once. When my Shouts are done, I’ll need Hiromi to come in and drop her Shout too. When hers is done, Noe of course will need to run in and do the same thing. We’re gonna need Divine Intervention going too so we can AE, so we can get them down fast, we’ll be in trouble if we don’t take Kanae down quickly. I think this is a pretty good plan, we should be able to pull it off this time. What do you think Hiromi? Can you give me a number crunch real quick?
Hiromi: Yea gimme a sec…I’m coming up with thirty-two point three three, repeating of course, percentage of survival.
Aiko: That’s a lot better than we usually do, alright you think we’re ready guys?
Noe: Alright chums, let’s do this! ISURUGIIIIIIIIIII NOEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Hiromi …Omg she just ran in
Aiko: Save her! Oh jeez, stick to the plan! Oh jeez, go! Go!
Aiko: Oh jeez, oh fuck.
Aiko: Gimme a Divine Intervention, hurry up.
Hiromi: The parents keep interfering! Too much interference!
Hiromi: I can’t cast! I can’t move, am I lagging? I can’t move!
Aiko: I don’t think you can cast with that shit on.
Noe: We got em, we got em! I got it, I got it!
Aiko: God damnit Noe! God damnit…
Aiko: This is ridiculous.
Hiromi: I’m down, Hiromi down. Aiko, rez me! Rez me! Why do you do this shit, Noe?
Noe: It’s not my fault!
Hiromi: Oh God…
Aiko: Oh for…*sigh* Great job! For Christ’s sake! Noe, you are just stupid as hell.

Noe: …at least I have chicken ;_;

For those who are a little confused right now.

~ Shirukii ~

…DAMNIT!

And so True Tears comes to an end, a bit of a weak end at that, but all things considered, not a bad one. Obviously, spoilers after the jump.

Episode Rating: 8/10 || Series Rating: 9.5/10

Noe ends up in the hospital after her leap from the tree at school, but luckily she has only suffered a fractured leg. Shin and Jun talk on the roof of the hospital, Shin apologizing profusely for not being able to stop Noe in time and Jun reflecting on the beauty of snow, both aesthetically and in its ability to break falls from high places. He asks Shin if he knows why Noe can’t cry, Shin guesses self-suggestion, Jun asks him to leave as he can’t forgive him for letting harm come to Noe.

Jun heads back inside to talk to Noe, who apologizes for once again making him worry, it’s just that after she saw Shin dance at the Mugiha festival, her desire and belief in herself to fly overrode common sense. She continues and apologizes for hurting Jun all this time, Jun assures her it’s not her fault, she didn’t know how he felt, but that doesn’t make it any better, ignorance isn’t an excuse, Noe says that she wouldn’t have hurt him if she had known.

The next day, Jun and Hiromi meet in town and have a small talk. Jun’s small talk is deflected quickly by Hiromi and he gets to the point, he confesses that he never loved her, not even the slightest bit.

At school, Shin is the center of attention due to his performance in the Mugiha festival, girls and guys alike complimenting him on how cool he was. Through the crowd, Hiromi pushes through and tells Shin to visit her apartment that afternoon. There, Hiromi serves cake and coffee, after taking a sip Shin notices there’s only one of cup of coffee for the two of them, Hiromi grabs the cup which is still in Shin’s hands and drinks from it. Shin notes that Hiromi is acting a little weird, which snaps her out of it, she apologizes for acting this way and asks Shin to leave for the time being.

At home, Shin gets a call from the publishing company that previously rejected a script of his, asking him to submit it again. Shin asks his father when people cry, to which he responds, when the heart wavers. As he thinks about his response, Hiromi shows up, she apologizes for acting weird earlier, despite Shin saying that’s not the case at all. She goes on to say that she sometimes hates the way she acts, all because she’s always loved Shin and didn’t want to give up but at the same time didn’t want to impose. She tells him to face up to everything and settle things properly, both with her and Noe, after that, no matter what decision he comes to, she’ll accept it.

Shin tells Hiromi that he’ll visit her in the afternoon and heads to the hospital, picture book in hand. But when he gets there he’s faced with a stubbornly acting Noe, who refuses to read the ending to the book, claiming that she had nothing to do with it, that Shin could have written it even without her. He tells her that he wrote it for her and if she doesn’t want to read it, he’ll throw it out, Noe tells him to go ahead. But before he leaves, she asks him where he plans on tossing it, Shin replies that he’ll throw it away where Jibeta decided not to fly, surprising Noe since she didn’t know he was watching at that time.

Shin sits on the bank making paper airplanes out of his picture book and tossing them onto the surrounding beach. Suddenly he sees Noe in the distance, struggling not only to walk, but attempting to pick up the scattered pieces of Shin’s book at the same time. The two gather up the pages and head to a nearby bus stop so Noe can read it all. The last page of the book is missing, but Noe says that it’s fine, she can use her own imagination to figure out what happens after Raigomaru becomes able to fly.

Shin tells Noe clearly, that he’s in love with Hiromi, Noe nods, saying that she knew all along. But it’s not that simple, although he loves Noe, Shin’s heart wavers whenever he looks at Noe, the one who made it possible for him to write, the one who made it possible for him to dance. The two part, Noe asking Shin to believe in her ability to fly, walks back to the hospital alone as the two both sing Noe’s cockroach song, Shin breaking down into tears as Noe walks away.

While all this is happening, Hiromi is waiting at home and is visited by Shin’s mom who brings over some food she made. The two talk, Kanae sympathizing with Hiromi over the pain of waiting…

After Shin finishes things with Noe, he heads to Hiromi’s house only to find her not there. He tracks her down to the bamboo forest, the same one where the two were reunited as kids during the festival. Shin asks Hiromi to go out with him, and despite Hiromi’s half hearted rejections, presses on, telling her that it’s fine for her to be selfish, it’s fine for her to ask him to look only at her, because he’ll be beside her forever. He’s always wanted to be able to wipe away Hiromi’s tears, and now he can, the two hug.

TIME SKIP LOLOL

It’s now spring and the drama of winter has come and gone. Noe has managed to shake off her unapproachable weirdo image and is getting along with everyone rather well. Hiromi continues to kick ass at basketball and Shin continues to doodle in class instead of learning all important precalc. Having come to terms with his feelings, Jun takes up the offer from the printing company that he had previously rejected and is Tokyo bound. Shin’s father, realizing that his son will amount to nothing more than a picture book artist, concentrates his efforts on passing down the sake brewery to that random helper boy we’ve seen all season. And finally, Aiko and Nobuse continue to grow together at their own pace, essentially repeating their entire relationship, this time on their own accord.

Noe heads to the chicken coop after a day of school. Now that the snow has melted, she can see the remnants of the rocks that Shin used to spell out his confession to her. Looking up to the sky, the wind blows by and releases a single glittering tear that sparkles in the sky.

Thoughts and Final Impressions

So, before the Hiromi fans bite my face off, the reason I thought this ending was weak was not because Hiromi won, but rather the construction and pacing of the episode itself.

It was going really well until the bus stop scene where Shin tells Noe that he’s in love with Hiromi. Noe’s reaction and the subsequent events were a far cry from what I expected after all that build up. It was like being hit by a dud bomb, it whizzes towards you and you brace for impact, only for it to crash land by your feet and not explode.

It was at that point that Noe should have cried, not in the dying seconds of the episode, succumbing to nostalgia. Shin’s decision was a painful one for him to make, he had always loved Hiromi, yet Noe barged into his life and he fell for her as well, but he had to let one of them go, it wasn’t an easy decision and his tears and cries of pain when he and Noe parted were indicative of that. Yet Noe did not reach the same emotional catharsis. Why? What was the point of deferring it?

The time skip epilogue was also pretty lame. It served it’s purpose in tying up the loose ends, but detracted from the finale’s overall impact. I’ve never liked series ending like this, Gurren Lagann fell to the same fate, unless the central to theme to the series is a sort of “Life goes on” message, the whole “__ months/years later…” things has never worked well in my opinion. Adding to that, the transition was too calm. Contrast to the insert song exploding onto the musical foreground back in episode 10, Shin’s confession scene was a comparatively silent affair, and with a good five minutes left at that point, it lacked the sense of finality that would have allowed for the fade into spring.

Anyways, on to characters, who have been the highlight of True Tears all along.

Noe remains my favourite and yes, I am very angry that she lost. However, hindsight is 20/20 and it makes a lot of sense that she did. From the beginning, Noe has been very naive and clueless in terms of relationships, whether she was trying to sort out her feelings for Shin, Shin’s feelings for Hiromi, or her relationship with Jun, she was continually met with failure. She said it many times throughout the series, she did not understand them, and towards the end she realized how painful it was not to be able to do so.

The entire ordeal with Shin was a learning experience for Noe. Very few people get love right on their first tries, it takes the experience of heartbreak and coming to understand and trust in the feelings of those you love. This was all cumulated into Noe’s eventual realization and accepting of Hiromi being the one in Shin’s heart. The fact that it wasn’t last episode when she admitted it or when Shin finally came out and said it when she cried, pisses me off even more. Noe finally “understanding” everything was the result of her character growth over the entire series and it was clearly a painful realization. Why it wasn’t until spring when she was looking back at it all until she finally shed a tear is beyond me.

My opinion of Hiromi is still largely two fold. Yes, I still -HATE- her cryptic nature and hypocrisy. Despite ignoring Shin for the better part of the series, pushing him away without explanation and confusing the hell out of him, when the two sorted things out she became ultra possessive of him, telling Noe to back off and such. Furthermore, despite saying otherwise, it’s pretty clear she harbored some animosity for Jun, which is cool and all, he toyed with her mind and pretended to like her…oh wait, that sounds familiar. Kinda like when Hiromi mind fucked Shin by showing interest in him, only to turn around and confess that she liked Jun.

On the other hand, I found it admirable of her to admit her own faults. She told Shin that she was a selfish person and that she hated herself for it. It was at that moment, that conversation in the hallway, that I accepted the Hiromi end. There’s nothing wrong with being selfish when it comes to love, in the end it’s to fulfill your own happiness, so long as you don’t delude yourself in the process. This is why I found the Mao-Kouichi ending to Kimikiss fitting, and the same applies here.

Also, as trivial as it might seem, the random scenes of Hiromi messing around at home went a long way, I found her to be incredibly cute in those instances. Though, doesn’t change the fact her character design is the least inspired of the three female leads.

And finally Aiko. I’m still not impressed with her decision to go back on everything she did to break things off with Nobuse. However, these past few episodes have shown that she isn’t simply settling for second best, the two of them really did start over and take things at their own pace, and if that’s where she finds happiness, then who am I to say it’s wrong of her.

All in all, True Tears was a great ride. Definitely my favourite series of the winter season, no other show had me writhing in anticipation for the next episode to come. It ended with a whimper rather than the anticipated bang, but despite the delivery being weak, it was a fitting conclusion.

I’m saddened that Noe didn’t win out over Hiromi in the end, but such was the “obvious” outcome all along. I repeatedly resigned myself to a Hiromi ending over the course of blogging True Tears over the past 13 weeks, it was only when PAWorks began to dangle the possibility of a Noe End that I began to waver. Only for them to hit us with a “lol, no” at the very end. Bastards.

I make no hesitation in recommending True Tears to anyone, if for some reason they hadn’t been following it all along.

The story is great, simplistic in nature, boiling down to little more than a love triangle at its core, however with several twists and turns and a bunch of chicken related metaphors along the way, it made for an awesome plot.

It goes without saying that characters were awesome in True Tears. Whether it be the cute and energetic Noe, the conflicted fanservice character Hiromi or the longshot Aiko, viewers split off into their respective fanbases backing their preferred heroines while watching them grow along the way.

And finally, animation and music, which didn’t really get much coverage from me seeing as I tend to focus less on the technicalities of a show, rather its content. But that by no means make them an insignificant point, being PAWorks’ first solo project, I’m amazed that they pulled it off so well. The panned out 3D walking scenes were a little off now and then, but generally, animation and character designs maintained a high standard all throughout. Music was also very effectively used, both bgm and OP/ED served their purposes well, my only complaint lies in the finale, where musical support was notably lacking.

It was fun blogging True Tears, thanks to everyone who read and commented, the discussions that arose from some of the twists were…interesting, to say the least, haha. Not since School Days have I has so much fun getting into the resulting discussions of my posts, even if they did sometimes degrade to little more than Noe vs Hiromi fancamp wars.

Hope you all stick around for the Spring season, though I have absolutely no clue what I’ll be covering yet D=

Oh Kanae, your bitchiness shall forever remain a mystery

~ Shirukii ~

…metaphorically, of course

That thud at the end made me cringe.

A lot happened in this episode, but it was all build up, the stage is set and the curtains are drawn, everything comes down to finale. This episode reminded me of why I love True Tears so much, despite going through the first have of it having no clue why I was enjoying it. I’m going to start things off by saying that I will accept either a Hiromi or Noe end at this point, both have proven that they have genuine feelings for Shin and Shin has developed a true liking for both of them. That being said, I will bitch and whine if Noe loses or rub it in Hiromi fans’ faces if she wins, for that, I apologize in advance.

Picking up from last episode, Noe is on the shoreline holding Jibeta and Shin watches on from a distance. Noe puts Jibeta down and tells him to fly, when he doesn’t, she holds him up as the poor chicken struggles. Noe realizes that whether it be flying or getting back her tears, if it’s not something she decides to do for herself, it won’t make her happy. Jibeta has decided not to fly, opting to live as he is, looking towards to future, which Noe thinks is the same as taking flight.

Shin returns home and calls Hiromi, telling her that he found Noe, that she’s fine and will probably be home soon, asking her to pass the message along to Jun. As Shin sits in his room he begins to think about Noe’s speech and realizes that he’s no different. Despite saying that he’s do everything properly, he continues to be indecisive, the situation with Hiromi and Noe, his responsibilities for the Mugiha festival dance, his picture book, he’s never faced them head on.

Elsewhere, Noe returns home to find Jun finishing up dinner. He welcomes her back as usual, no scolding, no relieved break down, just a simple “welcome back”. Noe hugs her brother, thanking him repeatedly.

The following day is the long anticipated start of the Mugiha festival, the Nakagami household left without a moment to spare. Thankfully, they have Hiromi to lend a helping hand, when the other dancers notice Shin is missing, Hiromi goes to help him get ready. As she helps him put the rest of his outfit on, the two talk about what happened yesterday, Hiromi asking if he slept alright afterwards. The conversation then shifts to Shin’s upcoming dance, Hiromi wondering where the best spot to watch him from is. Remembering Noe and her promise to watch him from the best spot, Shin tells Hiromi that she shouldn’t strain herself trying to get the best spot since it’ll be crowded.

Meanwhile, Noe sits at home, alone, curled up with the chicken shaped tissue box Shin made her, trying to decide whether or not to go see Shin at the festival.

Back at the festival, the opening dance begins, signaling the beginning of the festivities. Ai-chan is running late to the Nakagami household and meets Hiromi on the way. After talking a bit, the two notice Noe around the corner, eying the tents, she makes a run for it when she’s spotted. Ai nonchalantly remarks that she must be here to watch Shin, being his girlfriend and all. Hiromi replies bluntly, claiming that she is Shin’s girlfriend, before running after Noe, Ai left behind lamenting at how little she knows about these things.

Hiromi catches up to Noe and tells her flat out to not get between her and Shin anymore. In tears, she tells Noe that she’s in love with him and is sure that he feels the same way, so she begs her not to interfere when they’ve finally come to terms with their feelings. Noe remarks that Hiromi’s tears are beautiful, and runs off without another word.

With some spare time, Shin goes to visit Nobuse who is tending to Ai-chan’s stand in her place, Shin has a bite to eat before Nobuse snaps him back into it, wondering what he’s doing loitering around the festival all alone.

Elsewhere, Noe has shut herself inside her house trying to drown out the sounds of the festival, her cries are cut off by a phone call. Afterwards, she rushes over to where Jun is working, holding a crumpled up envelope, she tells him that she got a phone call from a company in Tokyo that he applied to, demanding to know why he changed his mind about it. Jun begins to reminisce about their past and how after their grandmother passed away, Jun decided that he would always protect Noe. However, his feelings for her developed into something completely different…

Jun then confesses to Noe, who still doesn’t realize that he’s not talking about the love between siblings. He asks Noe if he can kiss her, Noe agrees. He starts by kissing her forehead, then her cheek, then leans in to kiss her on the lips, Noe opens her eyes and stumbles back in shock. Jun is relieved that she finally understands and tells her that it’s been hard for him by her side all this time. Noe heads back to the shoreline where she laments her inability to understand the feelings of others, whether it’s Jun, Shin, Hiromi, she just can’t understand them.

Back at the Mugiha temple, the final dance for the day has come. During the dance, Shin thinks about a new ending for Raigomaru and Jibeta’s story, remembering that the whole reason he wrote it was because of Noe and her belief that he could fly. Hiromi watches on as Shin dances when she notices Noe there as well. However, as soon as the dance ends, Noe disappears.

Afterwards, Shin runs off to find Noe, only to bump into Hiromi instead. She tells him about the conversation she had with Noe earlier and how she told her to leave the two of them alone. With that in mind, Shin walks off leaving Hiromi alone, who begs not to be left behind, taking off one of her shoes.

At the chicken shed behind school, Noe climbs the tree where she first met Shin, going on about wanting to see the sky. Shin desperately runs to catch up to her, only to get there in time to see her jump off…

Thoughts

Figures, the penultimate (so rarely do I ever get to use that word) episode and they throw in the worst/best cliffhanger they have all season, damn PAWorks and their uncanny ability to make me writhe in agony, anticipating the next episode. As I said, this episode had a lot of development and confrontational scenes adding to the Noe-Hiromi-Shin love triangle, but not much in terms of an indication as to how it’ll end.

But hey, I’m not going to let that stop me. Unlike my passive stance on the events of Clannad, I’m going to go ahead and say: NOE END!

I really felt for Noe this episode, everything seemed to pile up on her this episode to wreak maximum havoc on her already questionable grip on sanity. Beginning with the crushing admission to herself that Hiromi is the one in Shin’s heart, she then comes to realize that a chicken has more determination in deciding the path of his life than she does, she then has a face to face confrontation with Hiromi where she’s basically told to fuck off and to top it all off, her brother, who she’s never thought of as anything more than a sibling, confesses his love to her. Talk about a rough couple of days. But, er…whether that merits leaping out of a tree is questionable.

As for Hiromi, she certainly did a 180 in all things concerning Shin. She openly admits her love for him to Noe and even snaps back at Aiko with an “I’m his girlfriend” when she casually remarked that Noe was. This coming from the girl who flat out denied any feelings for him for the better part of the series, made up a fake crush to divert the topic and rubbed said fake crush in Shin’s face. Yea yea, the whole “He might be my brother thing” probably caused that, but that doesn’t change the fact that Hiromi has no sense of balance. When suppressing her feelings, she went all out in ensuring that she make her indifference towards Shin well known, yet now she becomes ultra possessive, claiming to be his girlfriend while there’s no indication that they’ve reached that level of intimacy.

I know I’m twisting things against her and that under a different light, and one could say that Hiromi’s actions are well justified. But I can’t rid myself of the inherent hate I have for certain aspects of Hiromi’s personality. She’s damn cute when casually relaxing at home, but that cuteness is elusive when she not so subtly tells Noe to GTFO and falsely claiming to be Shin’s girlfriend, a la Katsura.

Obligatory Ai-chan screenshot and token mention. I still hate that she fell back on her determination to break up with Nobuse, but hey, as long as she’s somewhat happy, good for her. Also, eyes, delicious eyes.

And so, how will this all end?

In support of a Noe end, Shin continues to think about her constantly. Even when he’s with Hiromi, the minute she says something that he can link to Noe, thoughts of her run wildly through his head. During the dance he was looking at her, not Hiromi, and afterwards he abandons Hiromi to seek out Noe instead. Noe’s one step away from being admitted into a mental asylum and the only one who can bring her back is Shin. Also, when the two first started “dating”, Noe mentioned that she was so happy that she could almost cry, a loving reunion between the two would definitely give Noe back her tears.

In support of a Hiromi end, she’s being completely open with her feelings now. The elimination of the whole family issue let loose the floodgates and Hiromi’s repressed love is pouring out. The scene at the end where Shin leaves her is interesting. Hiromi whispers to herself, asking not to be left alone, she then removes one of her slippers, a throwback to what happened during their childhood when she lost one of her slippers while searching for Shin. A HiromiXShin end would also be a way to give Noe back her tears, though they would obviously be shed in sadness rather than joy.

So why do I think it’ll swing towards Noe? Simple. Hiromi’s actions are contrived, her actions throughout the entire series have been. What screamed out to me in particular was the whole slipper thing, Hiromi doesn’t lose the slipper in desperation like she did in their childhood, she purposefully removes it. Trying to force things like that never turn out well.

Early in the series I continually mentioned that Noe was masterful at manipulating Shin, and that may seem to conflict my present thoughts. While I admit it’s slightly hypocritical, I defend myself by saying that Noe’s actions were never malicious, rather, they were playful. At the same time I said all of this, I was trying to sort out whether Noe liked Shin at that point, I don’t think she did. Given her reaction to when Shin first asked her if she liked him, Noe’s response was similarly naive to her response to Jun this episode, I think that rather than being a matter of liking Shin at that time, she just thought he was interesting, since he seemed like he could “fly”.

So there you have it, I pick Noe for the plain and simple reason that her actions and feelings are honest. Often naive? Yes. But honest all the same. Whereas Hiromi actively tries to skew things to suit her selfishness. Not that Noe isn’t selfish sometimes, she blatantly accused Hiromi of being the one responsible for Shin’s midseason bout of depression. But she never went so far as to tell her to not get in between them, even when the two began dating.

We’re never going to find out what was behind Kanae’s bitchiness, are we D=?

~ Shirukii ~

I…can’t say I liked this episode. Not because of the scene pictured above, but rather because there was a lot of drama going on, but none of it pointed towards a resolution. There was no direction to the chaotic shuffling of relationships and feelings, like the wheels of the plot were just spinning in place. I thought that steps would be taken to solidify the Shin-Hiromi relationship, yet at the end of it all, no such resolution is in sight.

The Mugiha Festival is fast approaching and everyone is getting ready for it, the Nakagami household is taking on an increase of orders for sake and the final touches on the festival dance are coming together. In the chaos of it all, Shin hasn’t talked to Noe in over a week and despite his show of dedication towards Hiromi, they haven’t made much progress either.

Shin visits Hiromi at her apartment for breakfast when all of a sudden it begins to snow, Hiromi randomly notes she loves the sight of snow at the beach and suggests they go there now, running out before Shin has a chance to reply. As the two talk on the way there, reminiscence of his time with Noe run through Shin’s head, but his attention to the matter at hand is returned when Hiromi kisses him.

Meanwhile, Nobuse gets a call from Ai-chan as he wanders the streets, all ronery and sad. She tells him that they started way too fast, and asks him if he wants to start over again, as friends. Nobuse obviously agrees, vowing to one day be deserving of a sweater knit by her, Ai saying that she’ll improve her knitting skills for when that time comes.

The next day at school there’s an exhibition game between the girl’s basketball teams of Mugiha and Hotarugawa, Jun’s team. During the game, every single one of Hiromi’s drives is met with an intentional tripping foul from Hotarugawa’s team. The rumor that Jun has fallen for Hiromi must have spread through their school, Jun interrupts the game, walks onto the court and scolds the girls for playing such dirty tricks. Seeing this, Shin, who had been watching the game, leaves the gym. Outside, he runs into Nobuse, who tells Shin to pass on a message to Noe: she didn’t curse him properly, and with that leaves to go to Ai-chan’s.

When he gets home that night, Shin goes into Hiromi’s old room, thinking about his promise to Hiromi about taking care of things properly and realizes what a load of bs it was, he hasn’t done anything properly for anyone.

Elsewhere, Hiromi has just finished taking a bath when she gets a call from Tomoyo, telling her that the captain got a formal apology from Hotarugawa and voicing her envy over Jun’s display on the court, all for Hiromi’s sake. Immediately afterwards, Hiromi gets a call from none other than Jun himself, personally apologizing for what happened and asking to meet.

Before that, Hiromi makes a stop over at Shin’s house to deliver a message to his mom, who then asks her to take Shin’s laundry up to his room. With Shin not in his room at the time, Hiromi drops off his laundry and then notices his picture book, titled Raigomaru and Jibeta’s Story and has a quick peek at it, quickly putting it back when she hears Shin coming. Shin tells Hiromi that he saw her match yesterday, but before he can ask about Jun, Hiromi brushes him off and walks out.

Jun and Hiromi meet up in the park where Jun once again apologizes, saying he wanted to do so in person. Hiromi thanks him for what he did for her, and tries to cut their conversation there. Jun tells her not to be so hasty and invites her out to get something to drink, Hiromi bluntly tells him that they should stop seeing and contacting each other, as they might get others involved again. Jun continues to persist, so Hiromi puts it out in the open, the one he likes isn’t her, he’s only cared about one person and he’s a fool for not admitting that. As she walks off, Shin spots her crossing the road but stops himself from calling her out after he sees Jun.

That night, Jun calls Hiromi again, but this time pleading for help, Noe hasn’t come home yet. Hiromi contacts Shin, who was just thinking about Noe and wanting to show her his picture book, he doesn’t hesitate in running out to find her. Heading to the school’s chicken coop first, he finds Noe’s coat inside and Jibeta missing. Noe laments her inability to understand Shin’s feelings and the painful things in the world, wondering if it would be better to just fly away from them all. Making her way to the shore with Jibeta in tow, Noe admits to herself that the one in Shin’s heart is Yuasa Hiromi. Shin catches up to her as she reaches the beach, and…cliffhanger D=

Thoughts

A ton of things happened in this episode, yet offered no indication of direction. In the opening minutes of the show Hiromi makes a bold statement by kissing Shin, yet it doesn’t really lead them anywhere. Later, she cuts off her ties with Jun, only to be disappointed by Shin running off without a second thought to find Noe once she mentions she’s missing. What’s going on?!

When I saw Hiromi casually kiss Shin on the beach and neither of them showing a strong reaction to it, I figured that there had been some significant development between the two over the week long time skip. Yet, despite acting casually about it, almost like they were officially dating, that seems far from the case. At that point Hiromi had yet to cut things off with Jun and Shin hasn’t sorted things out with Noe. And then the scene where Hiromi brings up Shin’s laundry happens, and I’m reminded all over again why Hiromi makes me RAGE every now and then. Sure Shin was about to bring up a potentially awkward topic, but the way she avoided stupid, I understand she wants to end things once and for all between Jun and herself before facing Shin, and she could have simply told him that, that she was in the process of sorting things out. But noooo, she essentially tells him to STFU and walks out without making eye contact.

But I have to hand it to her, the determination she’s showing in her attempt to get rid of Jun is impressive. Minimizing the conversation time and putting her feelings on their relationship out in the open, even bringing out the siscon card to stop his charms dead, I almost felt sorry for Jun, he got his ass handed to him in that exchange of words. Though, admittedly, I’m disappointed Hiromi’s line was used on Jun.

Alright, I know this isn’t really pertinent to any discussion, but I still lol every time we get random Hiromi fanservice scenes. They’re pretty much the only ‘useless’ scenes in all of True Tears, which otherwise makes effective use of its time. I guess PAWorks figured that a harem/romance show completely devoid of fanservice is blasphemous or something.

As for Noe…I can’t really put up much of a defense here. She’s lost it. I don’t mean the race for Shin’s heart, she’s just plain lost it, she’s crazy. Last week I think I said that she wasn’t heavily emotionally vested in her relationship with Shin, it looks like I was way off on that one. It seems her first bout with romance has left her mind in disarray, her admission that she’s lost Shin to Hiromi amidst her usually cheerful song was painful to watch. The preview shows her holding Jibeta up over the sea, who frantically flaps his wings, I’m guessing Shin will stop her before she kills the poor chicken, what happens between them after that is anyone’s guess and will probably dictate how True Tears ends.

Speaking of Jibeta, it’s interesting how Shin’s novel shifted focus to him from Raigomaru. We’ve established that Raigomaru is applicable as an analogy for any of the six main characters, each with their own desire to fly and different approach in dealing with it. But who’s Jibeta? Who will try to fly only to crash and burn? Noe’s first attempt at love failed, as did Jun’s attempt to forget about her. Shin’s love life is in disarray and Hiromi is in the process of flapping her wings as hard as she can.

As for Aiko and Nobuse…*facepalm*

I can’t believe they’re getting back together. Forget them veiling it as friendship, that was a romantic reunion, no matter how you look at it. Damnit Ai-chan, I thought you were over and done with it, I respected you for that! Irregardless of the fact that Aiko may have developed genuine feelings for Nobuse, or is in the process of doing so, I can’t think of it as anything but a cop out.

And so with that, my ranking shifts to Noe > Hiromi > Aiko.

Ai-chan going back on her resolution to end things with Nobuse annoys me that much.

Again, despite a mere two episodes remaining, I’m not calling a definite end yet. A Hiromi end was the most likely from the outset and looked like the conclusion following last episode’s ending with her and Shin’s insert song. But I won’t make the mistake of writing it in stone, there’s still plenty of time for Noe to rise above, or even for things to completely fall apart and leave Shin alone, possible but not likely. I’m also intrigued by the fact that Shin and Hiromi kissed, and so anti-climatically. Generally, kissing the male lead before the last episode in these types of shows isn’t a good sign, we all know how that went for Ai-chan.

So we’re left with another cliffhanger end and another week long wait. Fun.

Glasses ftw, second time this week

~ Shirukii ~

So…I have absolutely no clue what’s going on anymore. I thought that a Hiromi end had been cemented with the past couple episodes of development, but then they throw this twist in our face, not only that but we have Noe and Shin reconciling their relationship. However, even that is put into question by Shin’s confrontation of Hiromi in the dying minutes of the episode. MAKE UP YOUR MIND!

Episode Rating: 10/10

Having been suspended, Hiromi helps out with the chores around the house to make up for missing club activities. As Shin leaves for school, the same thought rings through both their minds: they’re not siblings after all. With time to spare, Hiromi does some self study (of what seems to be statistics) when she gets a call from Jun, which she decides to ignore. Jun is suspended as well and is working at a bike repair shop to pay for his own repair costs, his boss jokes around with him for calling his girlfriend, but Jun knows it’s nothing but a farce.

At school the next day, Shin scrambles to copy down notes in math class after he sees Tomoyo, whom Hiromi is probably depending on for notes, passed out cold, Nobuse seeming irked that he’s going so far for her. Things have gone downhill for Nobuse, Ai made her feelings clear to him and asked to break up, but he can’t bring himself to accept it. With nowhere else to turn, Nobuse seeks help from Noe, asking her to put a curse on him to turn him into a man whose heart can stand firm, so he can let go of his love for Ai-chan.

After school, Shin heads home and gives his notes to Hiromi, telling her that it’s useless to rely on Tomoyo for notes, she was well past any state you could call fit for note taking. Accepting his notes with a smile, Hiromi thanks him and looks over them with a serene look, jokingly noting how terrible his handwriting is. Up in his room, Shin works a bit on his picture book before throwing himself on his bed, trying to sort out his feelings and figure out his situation with Noe.

Meanwhile, Hiromi heads over to the sake brewery where Shin’s dad is and the two talk about a decision Hiromi recently made, to leave the Nakagami household to live on her own. Shin’s dad apologizes for all the trouble Shin’s mom, Kanae (holy crap they gave her a name!) caused her, and reminds her that she will always be thought of as their child.

Continuing her crusade to tie up loose ends, Hiromi goes to visit Jun next. She rather bluntly tells him that they should stop pretending to be a couple, not that she particularly hates him or anything, just that a lot of things have happened lately and she wants to be able to think things over with a clear mind. Jun isn’t so keen on the idea though, thinking of the trouble it would cause the other side of his agreement with Shin.

Elsewhere, at school, Nobuse tells Shin about his break up with Ai-chan, and despite Nobuse’s reassurance, Shin still feels bad and begins to blame himself for it. Afterwards he heads to the chicken coop to see Noe, apologizing for the chaos that’s been going on lately, to make up for lost time, he invites her to come watch him at dance practice. There, Noe and Ai-chan meet face to face for the first time, Shin almost introduces Ai as Nobuse’s girlfriend before catching himself at the last minute and introducing her as his childhood friend, Noe needs no introduction, Ai-chan knows fully well who she is.

The two talk while Shin practices, Ai-chan thanking Noe for the curse she put on Nobuse that finally allowed him to let go. However, Noe says with a serious look on her face, that there are no such thing as curses…

After practice Noe hurries home, since she didn’t have a chance to let her brother know where she was. Shin walks Ai home and the conversation quickly shifts to her recent breakup with Nobuse. Surprisingly, Ai doesn’t beat around the bush, she places the blame squarely on Shin for what happened, but says that she won’t rely on him anymore, that she’s ‘graduated’ from Shin.

The surprises continue as the night goes on, Hiromi coming to talk to Shin that afternoon, dropping the news that she’s moving out on him. Shin tries to convince her to stay, but Hiromi’s decision has been made and she plans to stand by it firmly.

With less than a week’s notice, Hiromi’s moving day arrives quickly, and the two find themselves standing in Hiromi’s nearly empty room for the last time together. Nostalgia begins to hit, and Hiromi remembers that day when the two of them were kids, the festival where they got separated, the loneliness she felt when she was apart from Shin and the happiness she felt when they were reunited and spent the rest of the festival walking around together. Shin is shocked that she remembered, since she had denied it before, Hiromi says that she would never forget such a thing…before the conversation goes any further, Hiromi walks away.

Hiromi says her final goodbye to Shin’s parents, who tell her that she’s welcome to return anytime she wants for however long she wants. As Hiromi’s moving truck pulls away, Shin explodes out of the house, riding a bike, chasing it down. Racing down the ice covered roads, he finally comes within sight of the truck, Hiromi looking back at him through the window just in time to see him wipe out. She gets out to run to his side but ends up slipping on the snow and the two collapse to the ground together. Tired, bruised and out of breath, Shin tells Hiromi that “he’ll do everything properly”.

Thoughts

I’m so confused, I can’t think of how to piece the events of this episode together. Though. this certainly makes things interesting again, with only a couple episodes remaining, is this a sign that Noe simply lost a battle and will win the war? Or is this just Shin having to overcome his last moments of hesitation before settling on Hiromi? It certainly didn’t help that it was Hiromi, not Noe, who spoke the ominous 11th episode title.

At a glance this episode seems like it could act almost as a finale with Shin and Hiromi’s scene at the end. But I’m not ready to call it just yet, while the outcome seems likely, keep in mind exactly how much changed in the span of two episodes and remember that there’s nothing saying that it won’t happen again.

As I thought, Shin hasn’t explicitly broken up with Noe just yet, rather, he seems to have come to accept her as his girlfriend. Noe herself looks like she’s had her hopes renewed, somewhat back to her cheerful self around Shin. There was also her short monologue address to her late grandmother, suggesting that she’s not ready to give up on Shin just yet. Though at the same time, she knows that the odds are against her, when she tells Ai-chan that there aren’t such things as curses, I’m thinking the next line out of her mouth would have been about how she wouldn’t be having such a hard time dealing with Hiromi.

I still think a Noe end is reaching a bit, Hiromi definitely has the upper hand right now, but at least hope remains, as fleeting as it may be. But at the same time, it could be said that Noe has begun the process of moving on. The final shot in the dying moments of the episode and her behaviour as she bid farewell to Shin after dance practice suggests that she may be giving up.

Can’t say the same for Aiko though. We all knew that she was out of the running before the show even started, but having stolen Shin’s first kiss, there was a faint glitter of possibility that she may pull off the impossible. That was quickly shut down though, and now the poor girl is left all alone. I admire her though, not only did she build up the courage to make her feelings to Shin known even with the possibility of losing him as a friend, she stopped stringing Nobuse along. She may be single and her love may be unrequited, but she was the first girl of the three to come to terms with her feelings for Shin and pursue them with no regret.

And finally Hiromi, who is quickly redeeming her shortcomings. I don’t say this just because of the huge controversy of last week which called my objectivity in question, she showed genuine improvement in a rather short amount of time. Her actions, words and even her expressions were the most sincere they have been all series long. I guess it was the whole sibling issue that was trapping her feelings, because as soon as that was dealt with and she came to terms with Shin’s mom, she began to sort herself out.

Moving out of the Nakagami household made me initially think that she was running away from her problems, but it’s actually the opposite, she did it so she could level things off and start from scratch. No longer would she be Shin’s pseudo sister or feel obliged to his family for taking care of her. With this, Hiromi and Shin can see each other as a girl and a boy, no false pretenses, no obligations, no awkwardness. Even when Hiromi told Shin that she remembered that festival night years ago, she walked out on him before he could say anything while caught up in the moment.

It seems no matter how much thought I put into the foresight of events in True Tears, there’s always something that comes up and blindsides my carefully constructed theories. Honestly, who could have predicted the huge shift that would be caused by that motorcycle crash? I’m still thinking that we’re heading for a Hiromi end, it’s been the “obvious” conclusion from the beginning and the events that are building up suggest that won’t change. However, given the various “WHAT A TWIST” moments of True Tears, you can never be too sure.

As for my personal feelings on the characters, I can’t say that they’ve changed much. Noe > Ai > Hiromi

Hiromi has shown that she’s capable of being true to herself, but even in taking steps to do so she shows how inherently selfish she is, breaking up with Jun and moving out of the Nakagami household at her convenience. But humans are naturally selfish beings to begin with, so I can’t say I fault her much for that, at least she’s not sending mixed signals anymore.

Noe remains my favourite with her outward innocence that makes you want to protect her, but deep down she’s well aware of her situation and isn’t so innocent in dealing with it. Very early on in the series I noted that Noe was flawless in her manipulation of Shin, throughout the series that began to break down and her desperation to understand him became apparent during her confrontations with Hiromi. She seemed to have resigned herself to Hiromi last episode, but this week she vowed to give it one last chance. At this point in the series I think it’s Noe whose feelings are wavering the most.

A final point to consider is Raigomaru, in the context of Shin’s story, and who he represents in the overall scheme of things. Rather than a characterization of any single one of them, I think Raigomaru is a generalization that can be applied to any one of the characters. The desire to “fly” and the fears preventing them from doing so can be attributed to all six key characters in True Tears. How they chose to deal with the dilemma differs from person to person, but the theme is consistent.

And so it’s another week long wait to find out if “The One You Like Isn’t Me” is really Hiromi’s line, if so, who is on the receiving end and the true weight of its meaning.

Scary thought: cyanide pill?

~ Shirukii ~

Post Script: This post was based off the raw, so if there are any mistakes, inconsistencies, etc. Feel free to point them out.

…damnit

Wow this episode completely shattered everything I could have possibly expected from the end of True Tears. Shin all but explicitly jumps ship to Hiromi, incest is ruled out and Hiromi and Shin’s mom make up, ruining any chance of the bitch getting her comeuppance. Shin going over to Hiromi was something that I expected, but the way it was done wasn’t at all what I had hoped and expected. This blows. It must have been the pinnacle of epic for Hiromi fans though.

Episode Rating: 8/10

A moment’s distraction when a rabbit crosses the road causes Jun to lose control of his motorcycle and crash. Luckily neither he nor Hiromi get hurt, but Jun’s motorcycle ends up a flaming wreck. Hiromi has enough money to pay for taxi fare, but in the middle of nowhere it doesn’t seem like getting one will be an easy task. Luckily, seeing the two earlier, Noe and Shin were on their tail and arrive at the accident site. Noe runs up to hug her brother and Shin…Shin hugs Hiromi, thankful that she’s alright, regardless of the fact that Noe, his girlfriend is standing right there.

After an awkward ride home and the formalities of calling the police and such, Hiromi and Shin reach their house, Shin’s mom immediately grabbing Hiromi and dragging her off for a talk. Shin goes to chase after them but is stopped by his father, who tells him to let them talk and smacks some sense into him, telling him that there’s no truth to them being siblings (FUUUUUCK ;_;). Shin barges into Hiromi’s room soon after anyways, but Hiromi quickly shoos him away by starting to change.

The next day at school, the rumors have already spread about the accident. The news has caused quite an uproar, theories flying left and right about what really happened. Luckily, Hiromi has Tomoyo and Shin has Nobuse to stick up for them in the face of anyone who hassles them. In response to the commotion, Hiromi is being temporarily suspended, Tomoyo, wanting to be there for her friend, insists that she be given some time off from basketball practice.

But the one who has been most shook up by the accident is Noe, having seen the way Shin acted towards Hiromi that night, she struggles to come to terms with her feelings and his. During school the following day, Shin gets into a fight with a random classmate, a fight which is eventually broken up by Noe, who throws a disgusted look at Shin before turning and walking away. Afterwards, the two talk at the chicken coop where Noe confirms that he was fighting for Hiromi’s sake. After school they take a walk together, Shin updating Noe on the progress he’s made on his picture book, Raigomaru has reached the top of the cliff but is unable to bring himself to fly, he’s scared, scared to come to the realization that he may be just a normal chicken who can’t fly, unable to bring himself to try. Noe wonders if it’s Shin who’s being reflected in his own words, she reassures him that he can fly, however, the place he must fly to isn’t here with her, and with that, she runs off.

Meanwhile, Hiromi attends a meeting with the school principal with Shin’s parents to deal with the events of late, a meeting in which Hiromi is strongly defended by Shin’s mom. When Shin gets back home he’s greeted by Hiromi, who is acting a lot friendlier, going on about how she went to get ice cream with his parents after the meeting.

Furthermore, Shin’s mom seems really sincere about making up with Hiromi, going into her room and having a one on one talk with her where she tells Hiromi that the story about her and Shin being siblings was a lie. She believes that people can sometimes harbor animosity towards others from the moment they meet, and doesn’t expect Hiromi to simply forget all the horrible things she’s done to her up until now. However, she wants to get to know Hiromi better, asking her to let her hang around in her room for a while, the two even find some common ground in their music tastes.

The final cut of the episode is of Noe, looking like she’s on the verge of tears, huddled up in bed.

Thoughts

Ugh, I have no idea what happened, after I posted, my thoughts section suddenly disappeared after a while and I had to rewrite it. This episode is frustrating me in more ways than one.

Well, that just about does it for the Noe camp, we may have had hope in the past, but the inevitability of a Hiromi end is irrefutable at this point. That hug that Shin gave her after the crash was more sincere than any actions or words he’s ever shown to Noe, who isn’t an idiot, she knows what’s happening, even if Shin hasn’t realized it himself. I don’t think the Shin-Noe pair will split just yet though, Shin will probably guilt himself into chasing Noe for a little while longer, but if you’ll look ahead, the title of the 11th episode is: The One You Like Isn’t Me. ;_;

As for Hiromi’s development as a character, she did show some progress in this episode, showing that she can be something other than a lifeless doll in the Nakagami household. As I said before, while I favor Noe, I don’t mind a Shin-Hiromi pairing, as long as it’s well justified, that means a well played out situation that will convince me that the two really like each other and would make a better couple than Shin-Noe, and not just because Hiromi lives with him and is his childhood friend. It may be a predictable end, but at least make it a believable one.

However, despite Hiromi showing some improvement, I still have -A LOT- of problems with her, all of which I have outlined in past episodes and all which remain to a certain extent. She’s still cryptic towards Shin, showing no explicit signs of interest in him and still tries to isolate herself from him a lot, especially in that scene where she ran him out of her room after the accident without so much as a sign that everything was fine and he had no cause to worry.

And the one thing that really pissed me off with Hiromi this episode were her actions right after the motorcycle accident. Jun’s motorcycle is laying in ruin, on fire, and what does Hiromi do? She uses the flames to warm her hands. WHAT. THE. HELL. Poor Jun is standing there probably thinking something along the lines of “Damnit woman, I told you going for a ride in this weather was suicide. How the hell am I going to pay for this” and meanwhile Hiromi is standing there with a happy smile on her face saying that she’s good for taxi fare, using his bike wreckage as a campfire and noting that it’s actually quite beautiful. Wow…just, wow.

But I love how Hiromi still being used as the only fanservice hook in True Tears, I lol every time a random scene of Hiromi undressing is thrown in. True Tears is otherwise devoid of any fanservice, pantsu shots or filler scenes in general, I wonder why Hiromi is the exception to this rule. And people wonder why I keep calling her slutty, heh.

Oh, on that note, nice call by everyone who figured that it probably wasn’t Jun in the preview of the last episode who was with Hiromi. I guess I was so blinded by the possibility of a Noe end that I wanted to justify it by any means possible, which includes the furthering of the Hiromi-Jun pair.

Animation also took a dip in this episode, they used these watercolor-esque panning shots as budget savers, three times I think they were thrown in. I hope this is just PAWorks saving up budget to make the last couple episodes absolutely flawless in terms of technicalities, and not them running out of cash altogether. I would hate to see True Tears crash and burn because it couldn’t keep consistent animation to the end. Though, given the high quality they’ve demonstrated so far, I’m thinking the former is likely the case.

And for my final rant: what is up with the Japanese disciplinary system. Jun gets suspended for two weeks and Hiromi disciplined for getting into a motorcycle accident? One that didn’t happen during school hours or on their property, do they really have the right to do that? I understand the school has their reputation to think of and all, but to be able to reprimand students for actions in their personal lives, especially something like a vehicle accident where they clearly weren’t TRYING to kill themselves, does it really work that way? I guess I wouldn’t be surprised, this coming from the country that allows schools to prohibit their students from taking part time jobs, but still…wth Japan.

The preview for next week continues to shatter all that I consider holy in True Tears. There’s a shot of the Hiromi-Jun couple falling apart at the seams and the mention of what I assume to be Hiromi’s feelings trickling out little by little, not to mention that brief clip of Ai meeting up with Nobuse, suggesting a reunion of sorts. Argh, what’s going on! I repeat, this blows, GIVE ME BACK MY SISCON!

I found this scene incredibly cute for some reason, it’s almost as if Noe was intentionally inflicting physical pain on Shin to make up for the emotional pain that he’s causing her, and Shin just stands there and takes it because he knows he has no right to object. It’s a little early to think that that is what’s really going on in their minds, but meh, works for me.

~ Shirukii ~

Aside: Calawain! You were the only one who saw the post in its entirety before it imploded on me, can you check over my thoughts section to see if I missed anything that was in the original?

Lookin kinda slutty there Hiromi

Quite an interesting episode, progression on all fronts, as superficial as it may be. Noe is coming to love Shin more, but it’s on the premise of his similarity to a deceased rooster, Hiromi is being quite bold with Jun, but it seems to be out of spite more than anything, and Ai-chan…Well, you gotta feel sorry for her, she finally gathers the courage to own up to her own feelings and is hit with the friend zone treatment. Oh well, it was inevitable.

Episode Rating: 9/10

Jun comes home to Noe sitting in the dark happily staring at a picture of their grandmother, saying that she’s found the one who will retrieve her tears. Noe tells him the good news, that Shin confessed to her and they’re going out now. Back at home, Shin is sorting things out in his mind, some crazy things have happened the past few days, between Hiromi dropping the sister bombshell on him, starting a relationship with Noe and being kissed by his childhood friend Ai, things are pretty complicated. Little does he know of the heartbroken girls he’s left in his wake though, Ai-chan for one, having her feelings denied by Shin.

The next day Nobuse invites Shin to head over to Ai’s after school, but given the situation, Shin avoids it by saying he’s got a date with Noe. Trying to justify his lie, he heads to the chicken coop, and sure enough, Noe is there tending to Jibeta, the two head out for a walk, being looked on from afar by Hiromi and Tomoyo, confirming their suspicions that the two are dating.

With everything that’s happened to him, Shin can’t hide his slightly depressed expression from Noe, who sits him down and hugs him to cheer him up, telling him that he should always look towards the sky. Inspired, Shin starts to recite what he’s written of his picture book so far, which is turning out to be a story about Raigomaru and his desire to fly. Needless to say, Noe loves the story and urges Shin to keep writing, the further the story progresses the further in love Noe seems to fall with Shin, and it seems like the feeling is beginning to become genuinely mutual, as Shin settles down into the relationship. Of course the one getting shafted here is Hiromi, who sits home alone reminiscing about the younger days when she used to cling to Shin’s side.

So what does she do? Take out her frustration in the most roundabout way possible of course, ruining Shin’s early morning high by sarcastically noting how well he’s getting along with Noe and uh…insulting his hair. Before leaving the house, she drops into the living room to greet Shin’s dad, who tells her that she should not feel as if she is imposing on them by staying in the house and that he considers her as his own daughter, nostalgically saying how close of a resemblance she bears to her late mother. Shin’s mom takes her bitchiness to the next level, saying that she does indeed look like her mother, with the same docile looking face with the ability to deceive and captivate the hearts of men, swaying her husband and Shin to her ’side’ in the house.

Meeting up with Jun for a date of sorts, it begins to snow when he and Hiromi meet, when asked where she wants to go, Hiromi simply says she wants to go to a town where it doesn’t snow. Going with the next best thing, Jun takes her inside to the basketball court, the one thing that they have in common and proposes a game, three free throws each, for every one they get in they are allowed to ask a question to the other that must be answered truthfully. Hiromi shoots from the free throw line while Jun offers to shoot from the three point line, Hiromi doesn’t take the bait and insists that he shoot from half court if they’re to do this, in the end she makes two of her shots while Jun makes none of his.

Her first question: how many boys has Noe dated in the past. A simple one word answer: zero, but Jun stretches it out, rambling on about how strong Noe is as a person, delving into her past and how she is often misunderstood, curious as to why he’s so thorough, Hiromi accuses him of having a sister complex, bulls eye guess, so it would seem. Next she asks why Jun is dating her, not even hesitating, he explains the situation, how Shin asked him to date Hiromi and how he would date Noe in return, Hiromi wonders if that would mean if one relationship faltered, would the other, Jun offers to do anything she wants to avoid that being the case.

As the two head outside, they run into Noe and Shin, who came to check up on Jibeta. Noe tries to talk to Hiromi, telling her that she has a better opinion of her, being the first one to have a proper argument with her. But as soon as she sees Noe smile, Hiromi gets angry, cursing her innocent smile and its ability to captivate Shin’s heart.

Back at home, Hiromi returns to find the remnants of the photo album Shin found, burnt, with but a shred of a picture of her mother remaining. Confronting Shin’s mom, Hiromi is finally fed up, she apologizes for having to be taken care of all this time and the trouble she’s caused and runs off. With nowhere else to go, she heads to Noe’s house and asks Jun to ride his bike, for him to take her to a town where it doesn’t snow. At around the same time, Shin and Noe are returning from their date, just in time to see Jun and Hiromi speed off on Jun’s bike.

Thoughts

Well, that pretty much confirms what we’ve been thinking all along, Jun has indeed fallen prey to the forces of siscon. Hiromi calling it out in the open was a shocker though, by far the most interesting thing she’s done all season. With that all but explicitly confirmed, the idea that he set this whole dating situation up to seal his feelings for Noe and at the same time shield her from the conflicting emotions she would feel if it were to come out in the open seems most plausible. With a Hiromi and Shin ending still probably the most likely, this leaves the door open for a double incest ending. Which would be an unprecedented amount of win, despite Hiromi getting the guy and Ai-chan left all alone.

I still don’t like Hiromi, who continues to lie to herself and others, that scene where she jabs at Shin and his relationship with Noe was pretty low, as was the scene with Tomoyo where she once again denies her true feelings towards Shin. And instead she’s pushing herself on to Jun, the two actually make a decent couple in a really retarded way, both running away from VERY similar circumstances seeking each other out as an emotional crutch.

As much as I like Noe’s character, this episode reinforced my belief that she is pretty clueless when it comes to relationship matters. While she is inadvertently wooing Shin, she’s doing it with the wrong mentality and for all the wrong reasons. I don’t know if I should call her naive or selfish, but she doesn’t seem to be taking Shin’s feelings into consideration much. The praise of his storybook and the encouragement to keep looking at the sky aren’t products of Noe’s affection, she’s just trying to mold him into what she wants him to be, which to me still seems to be a replacement for Raigomaru. She knows Shin likes her to some extent, but pulls at his heartstrings at her convenience and personal gain. Buuut, all that being said, she’s still ridiculously cute and earnest (selfish…but earnest), plus she seems to have a lot of fun with Shin, and the opposite is beginning to ring true.

And the one getting screwed (not literally) in all this, is Ai-chan. She works up the courage to make a move on Shin, discarding her false relationship and embracing her true feelings, the only one in the show to have done so thus far…and she gets shut down, hard. I don’t think Shin understood how bad his rejection was. He could have told her that he’s dating Noe now, and can’t accept her feelings, or even that he didn’t want to betray Nobuse, but the one thing he should not have done was tell her that he would forget that her confession ever happened. Ai-chan didn’t ask him to go out with her on the spot, she simply asked him to look at her, not as a childhood friend, not as a sister figure, but as a girl, one that he may come to like one day. Yet Shin shuts her down, tells her that he could never think of her that way, and vows to forget the instance which took all of Ai’s courage to build up to. Not that I can really blame the guy, hell if I know what I’d do in that situation, but still…that was pretty bad of him.

I’m still calling a Hiromi end overall, Ai has suffered a crushing defeat and will probably never be looked at in that way by Shin, they’ll likely make up as friends by the end of the series, but nothing more. And Noe…I think her “love” is far too shallow to be a series ending relationship, this might change over the course of the next few episodes, but I’m thinking it’ll be too little too late. Hiromi will undoubtedly come to accept her feelings and start to slowly act on them, seeing as she was Shin’s first choice in all this, it’ll probably work. Which, as I mentioned before, would be a good way to ‘give back’ Noe’s tears.

Shin! Hey Shin! Look! I can be moe too!

~ Shirukii ~

Aside: The more observant of you may have noticed that I split the summary section into two huge parts, one for each half of the episode. What I was trying to do was reduce the length of the summary portion of my posts. It didn’t really work, I ended up writing more or less the same. Things have been getting busy lately and I’m finding the little time I have for blogging in a week being reduced even further, in response I’m trying to shorten my post lengths, toying with the possibility of cutting the summary section out entirely, as I’m beginning to notice most people who read/comment have watched the episode already anyways. Thoughts?

The frustration that I feel right now for having to wait another week to see how this turns out is immeasurable. I mentioned before that a reason why I love/hate True Tears and Kimikiss is their annoying aptitude at cliffhangers, and they really outdid themselves this past week, first Kimikiss with Mao’s confession and now True Tears leaving us hanging just as Ai-chan makes her feelings quite clear.

That said, great episode for Noe and Ai-chan, I’m really torn between the two now, if Shin ends up with one of them, I’ll be quite happy…not so much for Hiromi though, as she’s gone back to being harder to read than my thermodynamics textbook. While I don’t particularly like or dislike her, she’s currently the most undeserving of Shin’s attention in True Tears.

Episode Rating: 9.5/10

After having the whole sibling bomb dropped on him by Hiromi, she goes back to being completely stoic within the Nakagami household, leaving Shin a confused mess as he tries to figure out if the whole ordeal is was just his mom scheming against Hiromi or if it’s the truth.

At school that day, lunchtime rolls around and Shin is offered his daily rations by Noe, who tells him that she thinks he’s not being thrown into disarray be her presence, but rather by trying to figure everything out all by himself, in these situations it helps to have someone alongside you. However, Shin just shrugs her off with a simple “you don’t understand”.

So instead, Noe goes to the root of the problem, and forces Hiromi to have lunch with her where she accuses her of being the source of Shin’s problems. Noe tells Hiromi to apologize to Shin, that he no longer looks at the sky, even though he can fly, and that it’s probably Hiromi’s fault. Hiromi gets pissed that Noe would accuse her like that, like she understands her, because she doesn’t. Now Noe is mad too, having been told twice in a row that she doesn’t understand the situation, she knows she doesn’t, so why can’t they just tell her instead of ignoring her.

The exchange of words eventually builds up into a physical fight, which is soon after broken up by Shin. He asks Noe what’s gotten into her, she simply replies that she wants to understand him, she wants to help him, she knows he’s suffering yet he won’t let her help. Suddenly, something in Shin’s head clicks and he asks Noe if she likes him…romantically. With a semi-embarrassed, semi-angry look on her face, Noe runs off without answering him.

Even more confused than he was at the beginning of the day, Shin pours his frustration into his dance practice with Ai-chan looking on as the rest of the group praises him. Afterwards, as they’re walking home together, Ai-chan reminds Shin that she measured his shoulders for the sweater, and asks if he would want her to knit one for him too. But before he can answer, Jun shows up to talk business, so Shin sends Ai-chan home ahead of him.

Jun wastes no time, reminding Shin that he asked Hiromi out, so now it’s his turn to do the same to Noe. Shin says he never made such a deal, but he can’t deny that he suggested it, jokingly or not, so Jun still expects him to hold up his end.

Meanwhile, Ai-chan gets a call from Nobuse asking to come over for a while. Nobuse tries to be his usual self, doing his best to act the boyfriend part. But when he asks how his sweater is coming along, the conversation takes a turn for the worse, Ai-chan tells him that she can’t do it, she can’t finish knitting a sweater for him. She goes on, asking Nobuse if he remembers that the shrine where they stand is where Shin made her listen to Nobuse’s confession. Just as she’s about to finish off her point, that she’s actually always loved Shin, Nobuse stops her, saying he doesn’t want to hear anymore, grabs her hand and tells her that she’s the only girl for him…

Shin gets home to find his family situation as complicated as ever, his mom continuing to harass Hiromi and Hiromi continuing to ignore his offers of help. He goes up to his room and begins to think, does he actually like Noe? He’s been thinking of Hiromi for so long that he never even considered Noe romantically, but now that he’s pretty much given up on Hiromi, he figures he must like Noe, else things wouldn’t have gotten as complicated as they have.

Over at Noe’s house, she’s just as confused. She tells Jun that she thinks she’s in love, that she’s so embarrassed she can’t even look Shin directly in the eyes anymore, and it’s scary, changing, that is. Jun comforts her, telling her that there’s nothing wrong with changing, that actually, change is a necessary.

The next day during lunch, Nobuse says he isn’t feeling well and declines Shin’s invitation to go eat together, on surprise there, seeing as his “girlfriend” all but said she’s in love with his best friend. So instead, Shin chases down Noe, and I mean that quite literally. Realizing her feelings for Shin, Noe tries to run away from him, but is caught rather easily, after which Shin confesses and asks Noe if she’ll go out with him. Noe blushes a light shade of red and asks him to make it absolutely clear, telling him to write it down. Taking some nearby rocks and using Noe’s gloves to finish it off, he writes it out “I like you Noe”. Seeing it written out, Noe says she feels like crying, yet she’s not sad, she’s so happy that she could almost cry.

After school, Shin heads over to Ai-chan’s place as usual, standing outside in the freezing cold with snow piling up on top of him. As soon as he gets inside, Shin tells Ai the news, that after a strange sequence of events, he’s now going out with Isurugi Noe. Ai stands, frozen, for a second, then throws a towel in Shin’s face and starts to wrestle around with him, eventually kissing him. As their lips part, Ai-chan asks him with a pleading look in her eyes, a look of shock and confusion on his, “Please, please look at me too.”

Thoughts

Well, don’t I look like an idiot for previously saying that Ai-chan didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of winning Shin over, she’s very much in the game now. I’d love to see Ai end up with Shin at the end, if she pulls it off, it will have been very well deserved. Despite her early weakness in remaining complacent with her relationship with Nobuse, she came to terms with her feelings and started to work towards setting things straight. Last week I noted that giving a guy false hope when it comes to love is far FAR worse than outright rejecting him from the start, it’s certainly not the reason why Ai broke it off with Nobuse (or at least is trying) but the end result is the same, she’s fixing her mistakes. Whether or not it’s too late remains to be seen, let alone the fact that Shin just started dating Noe, you could tell by Shin’s expression after she kissed him that he just got completely blindsided, evidence of the childhood friend effect. Shin hadn’t thought much about Noe in a romantic sense, there’s no way that he could have fathomed the idea that Ai-chan might be in love with him too. That will be the hardest hurdle to overcome for their love to grow.

Gotta feel sorry for Nobuse in all this though, it’s been downhill for him ever since he confessed. A relationship based on feelings of obligation is doomed before it starts. I love how they portray Nobuse’s character, every time he talks with Ai-chan he constantly brings up their relationship and their girlfriend-boyfriend status, constantly looking for some response from Ai-chan, for some vindication of his feelings, but all he gets are averted gazes and conversation deflectors, that’s gotta hurt. He scared me for a second in the shrine scene where he told Ai-chan that she’s the only one for him, almost in an “if I can’t have you, no one can” tone. But the next day at school he sort of submits himself to defeat, thinking that if it’s Shin he loses to, it might be okay.

It’s a tough call, but I think i still prefer Noe ever so slightly over Ai-chan, perhaps it’s that element of mystery and unpredictability that makes her so appealing. At the beginning of the series I noted that her ability to manipulate Shin was perfect, but wasn’t sure if her feelings for him were romantic. From her behavior in this episode, it would seem that they weren’t at that point. Because when she actually realized that she was in love with the guy, she fell apart, barely able to face him, let alone manipulate him. I lol’d so hard when Shin confessed to her and her face slowly became a shade of red.

I suppose another reason why I like Noe is because she’s the most straightforward, non-cryptic of the three. She tried to help Shin by talking to both him and Hiromi, only to be told that she can’t help because she “doesn’t understand”, so in response, she asks them to explain things so she CAN understand. Now that may seem intuitively obvious, but how often do you actually see someone react like that, at least in the realm of anime…

…contrast to Hiromi, who’s all over the place with her feelings and actions. There’s been a lot of bashing/defending of Hiromi, and even though I try to remain impartial in it all, I’m still finding myself annoyed with her. It’s not like I don’t understand her situation, the complexity of it surely puts her in a tight spot and I don’t really blame her for her actions, but that doesn’t make them any less frustrating to me, a viewer. Regardless of how hard we try to put ourselves in Hiromi’s shoes or in Shin’s as the recipient of her actions, we’re watching this anime from an omniscient perspective, and as such, I for one think Hiromi’s actions are stupid.

But with that in mind, I still think she has the best chance at ending up with Shin, if not for the sole fact that she’s gotten the least development so far. If you take the Key model of harem arcs, this means that she’ll have the last section of the show devoted to her, and will thus “win”. I’m alright with that, as long as it’s not a stupid last minute reversal where Hiromi suddenly realizes the err of her ways and Shin just jumps willingly away from Ai and Noe into her arms. Hiromi better work for her love, because Noe and Ai-chan sure as hell are, and nothing would anger me more than to see all that be for naught just because Hiromi wills it to.

tl;dr: Basically, while Noe > Ai > Hiromi, in my books, I don’t have a preference as to who Shin ends up with, so long as it’s well justified.

Preview for the next episode doesn’t give much in terms of speculation. Just Noe going all rabu rabu, Shin’s mom being her usual bitchy self and Jun continuing to treat everything like a game. Yeah, leave out Ai-chan huh? Bastards…

. . .

~ 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 ~

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 ~