[Anime Reviews]

true tears final: the end(ing)s justified by the mean(ing)s

Posted by Martin  [Tags: True Tears]

When I say that true tears was my favourite show of the season I’m not implying that it’s a groundbreaking, genre-defying milestone nor, by the same token, implying that everything else was mediocre. It’s a series with an everyday premise whose characters, storyline and overall themes were also of the everyday; what it did within the territory covered by those themes makes it extraordinary. That and the amazing quality of presentation from a virtually unknown studio, which I’m sure we’ve all discussed to death by now. I’ll say that it looked and sounded considerably better than what we’d normally expect from mere made-for-TV series and leave it at that.

Partly because of this it’s become one of the most talked-about shows of the season so I’ve found trawling through my feedreader to read them to be an insightful if occasionally exasperating experience. There seems to be quite a bit of vitriol floating around concerning the ending, though. Perhaps because of the love triangle there was bound to be contention however the main story arc resolved; I actually thought it was a great ending; not because of the nature of this resolution, but the way it was handled.

[4 Comments]

[Anime Reviews]

true tears 8-10: thru the eyes of Noe

Posted by Martin  [Tags: True Tears]

Ouch, obvious. >_< As cheesy as it sounds, the hackneyed line about how “the eyes are the windows to the soul” gets a lot of mileage in this show. As for the whole ‘large eyes’ thing that is synonymous with anime in general (funny how you can forget about that stuff when you become a fan of the medium, huh?), I guess it has some sort of explanation in that the expressiveness of the characters’ faces, and eyes in particular, is one of the best cards in true tears’ deck - you can’t not pay attention to the looks in their eyes, and they say one hell of a lot.

The series isn’t particularly dialogue-heavy really, so a lot is conveyed by pregnant pauses and meaningful glances; in other circumstances this would make the narrative hard to follow - and, dare I say it, boring - but the effectiveness of the realistic fiction aspect is proved to me because I can read between the lines and think I understand what each of them are thinking. There’s a sense of connecting with the characters and their feelings here, which means that even if everything else goes wrong (not likely at this stage, but it could happen) I’ll remember it as a show which achieved that much, which really is something.

[5 Comments]

[Anime Reviews]

true tears 4-7: you burned your wings, now watch me fly

Posted by Martin  [Tags: True Tears]

Ah, Ride, how I miss you.

There’s a lot to be said for subtlety and sophistication. While all too many shows these days play the fan service card or placate the eager fanboys in some other way, true tears (I can has capitalisation??) is one of the few that expects its viewers to appreciate something more than an upskirt/cleavage shot and instead moves the narrative along using those handy things called characterisation and storyline. I still can’t find fault in the artwork and music of course - the op/end themes are in one ear and out the other for me but the incidental score is outstanding enough to be worth a mention because it fits the gorgeous visuals so perfectly. The end result is something that brings joy in the slightest details; be it a barely-perceptible change in facial expression, such as those JRoxas picked up on, or other little touches that I doubt anyone but we hardcore fans of the series would notice. Some touches however cannot be ignored:

Similarly, take the gymnasium scenes for instance: a meaningful stare and an atmosphere breeding a storm of “Yatta! Cat fight!” here, a dash of violin-driven BGM there…and then the animators pay as much attention to the bounce of the basketballs as they do to that of Hiromi’s breasts. This sums up what makes true tears stand out from the crowd: it’s a show that doesn’t insult the viewer’s intelligence and as a result appeals to those of us outside the high school demographic, just through portraying romance and drama how it should be portrayed.

[4 Comments]

[Editorials]

Valentine’s Day post: zoom lens love vs. wide angle romance

Posted by Martin  [Tags: ABC, Kare Kano, Makoto Shinkai, Random thoughts, Saikano, True Tears]

The mission, should I choose to accept it: write a Valentines Day post without taking the Holden Caulfield-esque stance that I take towards most things IRL. I didn’t want to limit myself to a True Tears follow-up post so tried to make a list of romance anime I’m familiar enough with to write about; this didn’t get very far either. It did throw up an observation that I found interesting though: my limited experience of romance anime seems to show two main approaches which, in keeping with the anime blogging tradition of inventing new descriptive terms, I’ve decided to call zoom lens and wide-angle lens storytelling. Yeah, I know categorising things can lead to all sorts of misunderstandings but I had to call them something.

Cutest. Couple. Ever.

[6 Comments]

[Anime Reviews]

True Tears: I only have myself to blame

Posted by Martin  [Tags: realistic fiction, True Tears]

It’s a funny thing, fan hype. Others’ efforts at trying to share enthusiasm for something can be counter-productive, putting me off watching it completely (Re: Cloverfield). This isn’t the case with True Tears though: although I heard many good things about it, I must admit that it’s something I’d enjoy anyway. Granted, it’s yet another high school-based show but to be honest finding an anime series that isn’t set in a high school is often a waste of time: it’s easier just to accept that I fall outside the target audience for quite a lot of stuff around these days, and concentrate on what it does have to offer instead.

To illustrate my point of it being a refreshing change, consider this situation that’s met with realistic embarrassment as opposed to the typical kick to the face. Marvellous

Here’s the rub: I actually agree with what the blogosphere has been saying about this show. Even to my critical eye it does everything as it should, and does it wonderfully. The snag is, televised drama is not a passive experience: the viewer’s assessment of the characters and their motives is clouded by his or her own judgement and, as I found out to my dismay, is a more significant deciding factor on enjoyment than I realised. The frustration for me here is that True Tears actually does everything right…it’s just unfortunate that my own opinions have been skewed needlessly by personal experience, which irks me no end.

[11 Comments]