14 October 2008

True Tears

true tears ~ story of a girl who lost her tears.

I have recently watched this anime, true tears, and it seems that this anime managed to grab my attention, and my tears... That's why i decided to post my thought about this anime.

True tears story revolves around a high school boy called Nakagami Shin'ichiro. He lived with his father, mother, family butler, and a girl named Yuasa Hiromi. He also has a best friend called Miyokichi in school. His best friend, Miyokichi was dating Shin'ichiro's childhood "onee-san", Ando Aiko. Shin'ichiro actually had a crush with Hiromi for a long time, but after some time, he mysteriously met with a girl named Isurugi Noe.

I'll give a warning first, I'll talk about the whole story so watch out for SPOILERS! This anime is actually an adaptation from a visual novel, so i think it's best to tell the story for each characters. So here it is:


Isurugi Noe ~ the girl who lost her tears.

Isurugi Noe
Shin'ichiro met this girl while he was in his lunch break, wandering out of the nowhere. He met her who was climbing the tree near the school chicken coop. Without hesitation, Noe asked Shin'ichiro to catch her from jumping off the tree, and that's how they met and known each other. I think this is just your typical "meet the girl" scenario in most visual novel story.

Noe is actually a unique girl, she has this unique personality. She doesn't have any friend in school, and keep hanging around chicken coop, feeding the chickens and giving them name. One was named Raigomaru, and the other was named Jibeta (ground). She kept rambling about "you can fly", "you can't fly", and things like that. Yeah... Noe's can see through people heart, including Shin'ichiro.

Noe became interested with Shin'ichiro who always came to her hanging place every lunch break. She even told him her biggest secret about her tears: "she lost her tears". She was a crybaby once before, and after her grandmother passed away, she stopped crying. Her grandmother said that she'll fly to the sky and bring her tears away. The only way to get her tears back is "take someone tears who's precious to her".

After knowing Noe for a little while, Shin'ichiro accidentally met her with a mysterious boy riding a bike. He thought that the boy was Noe's boyfriend, but he was actually Noe's brother, Isurugi Jun.


Noe's my favorite character.

Because this is a visual novel adaptation, the story is kinda mixed up one after another characters. Noe's story development started after "the exchange with his brother". You can read detailed story of this exchange in Hiromi's part, all you need to know now is Shin'ichiro forced to declared his love to Noe and date her.

This is the part where everything got interesting for me. I like the part where they were dating, it's so (somewhat) romantic. Noe is my favorite character in this anime, and i like it when my favorite characters enjoying their happiness. In this part Shin'ichiro could focus on his picture story book and his festival dance training.

Just as i though, Noe's happiness didn't last for long. After Hiromi's accident Shin'ichiro realized his real feeling, and Noe knew about that. Moreover, Shin'ichiro even lied to her about couldn't go home with her because of dance practice. The worst part is, she couldn't even meet with him anymore.


I like this screenshot, her deep emotion.

There are 2 important parts of her story. The first part is where Noe didn't come home where it got so late. Jun asked Hiromi to ask Shin'ichiro to find Noe. And apparently he found her in the seashore. She was rambling about Jibeta's flight and "roach song", but the important part is in this song. The last line of this song is : "Inside Shin'ichiro's heart, there's Yuasa Hiromi". Shin'ichiro heard at exactly this line and he left.

The 2nd important part is the climax of this story. At the festival, Noe met Hiromi and Hiromi told her how she felt and asked her to left them alone. After the festival Noe climbed a tree near the chicken coop, and she jumped off. Falling off from some heights caused bone fracture in her leg. Shin'ichiro's confused at this moment, because he had to decide what to do with Noe and Hiromi.

Hiromi called Shin'ichiro to came to her place and told him to settle everything with her and Noe. And this is the last part of the story about Noe. He managed to do the dance in the festival, and he also managed to finish his picture book. He came to hospital where Noe was taken care of, showed her his book. Unfortunately she didn't want to see it, and the last thing Shin'ichiro did was ripping each page, fold it to paper aircraft, and throw it to the sea. Surprisingly, with that fractured leg, she managed to come and picked up each page.

And then, they engaged into a small decisive talk. Shin'ichiro told her:
"I love Hiromi, but when i see you, my heart wavers"
When i think about it, it's just too lame Shin'ichiro. Saying that to a girl who loves you so much. But that's just it, Noe accepted the fact, and then she left.

The best part of this story lies in the very last second of this anime. Noe standing around her "destined place" (around chicken coop, also the place where Shin'ichiro declared her love to Noe), watching the sky, and you can see her tears carried by the wind...
"If you think about person truly dears to you, the tears will flow by themselves"
This part is actually the part where i really cried. It's so sad seeing Noe was able to get her tears flowing again, but yeah, that's why i like this anime so much.


Yuasa Hiromi ~ er... she's.... beautiful :P.

Yuasa Hiromi
A girl who lived in Shin'ichiro's house for a long time. Her dad died and i forgot about her mom. Because her dad was Shin'ichiro's dad's best friend, he invited Hiromi to live in his house. Because they met each other everyday and every night, Shin'ichiro had a crush on her. He's tring to get her attention, but he can't. Until one day, where Shin'ichiro met Noe, Hiromi also started to realize true feeling.

She is a member of basketball club, along with her best friend, Tomoyo, who is also her classmate. Tomoyo kept forcing her to be true with her feeling, and until one day she admitted that she liked Noe's brother, Isurugi Jun. Shin'ichiro accidentally heard about this, and he became suddenly down and disappointed with it.

A day after that, Jun came to Shin'ichiro's house and told him to date Noe. Jun gave him a few days to think, and after a few days, he came to ask about Shin'ichiro's answer. Shin'ichiro actually offered an exchange "date Hiromi, and I'll date Noe", and Jun said okay without hesitation. This is the part where Hiromi was dating Jun, and Shin'ichiro was dating Noe.


After Hiromi lived alone, she started wearing glasses... Wohoo! meganekko!

The dating part is a happy time for Noe and Shin'ichiro, but also a somewhat torturing time for Hiromi. I think she started to feel jealousy at this time, seeing Shin'ichiro and Noe getting along pretty well, while Hiromi herself keep tortured and tortured because of Shin'ichiro's relationship AND Shin'ichiro's mother.

Shin'ichiro's mother kept annoying and harassing her. She even said that Hiromi's mother was having an affair with Shin'ichiro's dad and because of that affair, Hiromi was born. This is an important part of Hiromi's story. She said the truth to Shin'ichiro while he was still dating with Noe. At this part Shin'ichiro got more and more confused. Also at this part, Shin'ichiro's mother kept giving Hiromi more and more pressure and hatred.

The accident changed everything. Hiromi asked Jun to get her bike out at the snowy days, and after a few kilometres away from the city, they got into accident, but fortunately both of them were okay. Shin'ichiro who saw them before they were out of town, chased them with taxi. This is the part where Noe realized Shin'ichiro's true feeling, and... see the rest in Noe's story. I'd say it's pretty hard for Noe, if you see her "!? face" right after Shin'ichiro jumped and hugged Hiromi all of the sudden at the place where the accident took place.


She wore this kimono in the festival.

As i said before, the accident changed everything, even Shin'ichiro's mother hatred toward Hiromi. Shin'ichiro's mother wanted to make up for what she did to Hiromi. She told the real truth, about Shin'ichiro's father and Hiromi's is not related to Shin'ichiro's by blood at all. After this turnout of events, they became more and more relieved, everything seems moving very well both for Hiromi and Shin'ichiro, but not for Noe.

Too bad, Hiromi decided to leave Nakagami's house and live alone in small apartment. She found that she's more comfortable to live alone and somewhat start a new life. But because of this event, now both Hiromi and Shin'ichiro realized their true feelings and start to develop feelings for each other.

At the time of the festival, Hiromi helped the Nakagamis to prepare the festival, and at that time she met Noe and told her that she loved Shin'ichiro and asked Noe to left them alone. Pretty harsh thing to say Hiromi... I kinda surprised with Hiromi's action this time. Oh yeah, and not to mention, she also said that "I'm Shin'ichiro's girlfriend" to Aiko. This part really made me surprised.

The last part is where Hiromi asked Shin'ichiro to settle things once and for all, about Noe and Hiromi, and of course, this is the time when Shin'ichiro had to decide between Noe or Hiromi. Read Noe's last part, and after that Shin'ichiro really asked Hiromi to become his girlfriend. It's pretty lame for Shin'ichiro to leave Noe and chose Hiromi. It's pretty surprising and kinda disappointing because i kinda hate her at first, and this anime became Hiromi's path ending.


Ando Aiko ~ unrequited love.

Ando Aiko
A girl who was 1 year older than Shin'ichiro. She was his childhood friend, and his guardian onee-san. She ran an Imagawayaki shop business alone. It seems that she fell in love with Shin'ichiro. But Shin'ichiro introduced her with his friend Miyokichi, and apparently Miyokichi was in love with her and asked her out. Aiko couldn't do much in front of Shin'ichiro, so she accepted Miyokichi's feeling and started to date even with Aiko still held feeling toward Shin'ichiro.

Almost everyday, Shin'ichiro and Miyokichi hung out in Aiko's shop after school. Without Miyokichi's noticing, Aiko still trying to get even closer to Shin'ichiro. Damn you bastard, Shin'ichiro! Eventhough Aiko isn't really that cute IMO, but i know that Shin'ichiro is one of the lucky bastard who has every main girls in the anime loved him.

Aiko's story itself isn't really that interesting. She kissed Shin'ichiro just after he came and said that he started to date Noe. And even worse, she asked Miyokichi to broke up their relationship. At first, Miyokichi refused, but after asking for Noe's curse, he accepted that fact. Seeing that Aiko herself didn't really have a chance to get Shin'ichiro, she gave up Shin'ichiro and start over a relationship with Miyokichi. Pretty short, but yeah that's it for Aiko's story. I didn't really like her, so i think she deserved that. Just because she was in front of Shin'ichiro doesn't mean she had to accept Miyokichi if she didn't like him.


true tears OP ~ Reflectia, i like it.

This anime is actually has a unique theme: tears. And this anime also has pretty interesting "subtitle" :
Story of girl who lost tears ...
It refers to Noe actually, but yeah, when i thought it's all about Noe, it's not...

I like true tears storyline, too bad Hiromi's path became the ending of this story. I want to see Noe's ending though. Noe didn't shed even a tears (except in the ending) in this anime, regardless of how sad she is. But just because of that, you could cry after watching the ending. If you want some romantic story that can make you cry, you can try true tears.

OP song of this anime, Reflectia -performed by Eufonius-, is one of my recent favorite song. I really like this song!

So that's it for my rants about true tears. Look forward for another anime!

8 comments:

  1. It was a great anime...
    I loved it!!!
    I rewatched it twice too!!!
    Good anime...

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  2. @Rin
    You got that right my friend!

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  3. Great romance anime...
    Really touched when I see Noe in the last scene...
    And a nice review there :D

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  4. @av03
    Thanks. I also love the last scene.

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  5. Noe was one of my favorite charactesr as well. I love her so much! *o*
    It really saddened and upset me when Hiromi got what she wanted, because, honestly, why would Shin let go of the person that brought the best out of him? It's depressing.
    Shin was just stupid. Well, if he's happy being with Hiromi, that's fine with me...but the series upset me a lot.
    It had a false theme. Meaning that the theme was, "Choose the past/embrace the past," and also, "Choose the one that brings temporary contentment."
    Shin could've fallen in love with Noe if he wasn't so stuck in the past with Hiromi. Noe was the future; she was the light in his world.

    The series also upset me because they put little emphasis on Ai-chan. She was a very deep character to me, but they merely shunned most of the good parts out of the series. They didn't put a lot of scenes with her and Miyo. The producers depicted her as this shallow girl, but I think she could've came across something more deeper.

    Hiromi was a selfish little thing, she was. She didn't care about Noe's feelings, only hers. And she was quite immature about love too. She hid her feelings and lied about who she really liked.
    Shin was also immature about the whole thing too.
    Honestly, the only people I ever saw as being the most mature were Noe and Jun.
    Hell, I ship Jun x Noe. Who cares if it's incest? They make an awesome couple. Noe doesn't deserve Shin, and Jun definitely does not need Hiromi.
    ...haha.
    I'll stop ranting now.

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  6. @Mimi
    Hmm... Although i disagree about Jun x Noe, i too feel that Hiromi is really a selfish girl. I don't know why she lied to Shin'ichiro and also dated Jun eventhough she knew she liked Shin'ichiro.

    Nice ranting anyway, Noe FTW!

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  7. weh weh weh,,, nice picture

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