The second half of the fall season was a mixed bag of shows and as I predicted in my preview to a large extent most were very heavy on the fan service. True Tears which I am reviewing here was the major exception to that. This plot driven romantic drama was a beautiful series both visually and in content. The plot reminded me more of a Kyoto Animation series, with plot depth, interesting fleshed out characters, beautiful music and an extremely moving story.
The tale of Shinichiro and his unconventional relationships with three girls is expertly told and soars high above most of the other series this season. From the thoroughly bizarre but always cheerful Noe, the brooding but beautiful childhood crush Hiromi and the feisty but confused Aiko, each of the girls has a special quality about them that makes each extremely likeable. I adored the use of imagery throughout this series from the use of the picture book to explain the inner most feelings of Shinichiro to the way the series appeared as if it was one of Shinichiro’s very own watercolour paintings. The 2D and 3D animation fit together seamlessly creating a visually stunning world I would have expected from a larger scale production. The bizarre use of chickens throughout to explain Noe and her way of thinking was surprisingly interesting, the way the story of Raigomaru and Jibeta mirrored that of Shinichiro, Hiromi and Noe added to the unique charm of this series. The use of the changing seasons even accentuated and to a vast extent represented the mood of the characters staring in autumn, then plunging into the depths of winter during the confusion but eventually emerging from the shadows of despair in spring with the expectation of a new beginning after an extremely moving confession between Shinichiro and I will say my favourite girl of the three. Several controversial subjects were dealt with extremely tactfully as the plot progressed which in my eyes showed how well put together this series was. The music lifts this series and really sets the tone of the series, making everything seamlessly flow together.
This series proved it was nothing to cry about unlike some others, but it will truly make you wish chicken’s could take to the air and hearts can fly on the wings of love. Having watched the series I can now see why Bandai had licensed it by episode 4. If you are looking for a shorter romanic series then this is a good choice and probably would have been my favourite of the season if it wasn’t for CLANNAD which literally just piped this at the post.
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