Tsuyokiss

After going through so many anime and game, my experience tells me that mostly all visual novel game have one thing in common: 1 lucky guy got surround by lots of lots of pretty girl with romance add it but in the end he choose 1 and happy ending, that's call harem in genre. Even it had a chance to be animated, they all are probably the same.

Some great visual novel like Keys visual novel or D.C./Ef and to name the other were the best with their good story telling moment, weather is mysteries, suspense, tear-dropping moment. But for Tsuyokiss, trying to be 'Cool X ... Sweet' (that's in their full tittle) wasn't enough to bring the whole house down; but a least they alter the way how harem anime look like. Rather focus on the guy, Tsushima Leo, who was the main lead in the game; but the anime focus on Konoe Sunao, one of the main female (and tsundere!) in the game who is the main lead in this show.

This anime is completely different from the original and the other visual novel anime. Point 1 is what i mention earlier.

Point 2:
Though i don't know the original game plot line. The anime is about Sunao who is love stage play and being doing it from childhood til today. As she enroll her new school surprisingly and shockingly she found out that:

A, the stage play club has been disbanded. Much of her disappointment

B, Leo also enroll this school (who also kept calling her 'daikon' (bad actress) unintentionally, but actually is for being strong and great. That's what he mean)
. Much of her dislike.

C, Seitokai prez won't let her establish the club, and instead 'torture' her form start to finish endlessly. Much of her getting fired up!

Because of this (and SHE IS A Tsundere!), is her 'mission' to establish the club no matter what.

Point 3:
Rather throwing Sunao with Leo into a loving-harem-romance situation, the anime staff just have to throw Sunao into crazy situation (and a lot of 'daikon'!) to show off Sunao tsundere side. Plus she didn't do it alone, everybody is involved in the situation, weather is ninja girl, Leo, loli, other male and female cast are here and making sure the show keep the flow energy that are made by Sunao and the rest of the cast.

That's the 3 point of being different. Overall from this 3 point, point 2 of the story is nothing special and not worth remembering. Is just serve as a normal basic for a slice-of-life story. But point 1 and 3 was somehow able to overwhelm point 2 weakness.

The cast however also not worth remembering, the only character was Sunao only. But still they were able to put some gimmick for their own like for example 'Crab girl' Kinu and 'Coconut girl' Nogami always calling their nickname and fight. (and Nogami wins!) Other of course Leo kept calling Sunao 'daikon' is something strangely i find never gets tired of the jokes. Only some have their own stand point and character status, other like Otome who is the ninja girl, or Erika the Seitokai prez and a Ojou-sama, for example. Still that wasn't enough.

Why? The visual and art quality. Look very decent and normal, nothing special. It almost fall in the category of 'poor', but instead hang in between 'decent' and 'poor'.

Speaking of hanging, the music, opening, ending also has nothing worth remembering or special.

Lastly, the cast seiyuu. You find someone you familiar seiyuu like Mizuki Nana (Sunao), Nakamara Mai (Erika), Kobayashi Yuu (Nogami), Wakamoto Norio (The principal), and to name other. Might consider needless talent but i praise their voice effort on the show. Especially Mizuki and Nakahara-san as they play out their role. Of course the other were likable as well.

Tsuyokiss, 'Sweet X Cool' might not 'Sweet X Cool' enough to convince why we should watch the show because if the bad visual quality. But try think of it this way: What happen if a show is focusing one of the main heroin of the game rather the guy? Will she have his love or the guy went out with other girl then sad ending? Well, that's just thinking.

Not a worth remembering anime but a good change on how we think about harem. And more daikon!!! Try out Tsuyokiss, and you be the judge.

This review is completely opinionated and should not be taken overly seriously.

WARNING: I highly suggest watching the anime before reading this review as to preserve the quality of your watching experience

Although the story was somewhat fun it was overly disappointing. Besides being 80% fanservice and very predictable it lacked originality. another one of those animes where the girl always thinks about a boy since childhood and is motivated by the actions of that boy. girl meets boy in new venue and gradually falls more in love with them. insecurity and depression sets in due to another girl who likes boy. boy turns out to help ... girl passed depression and feelings are conveyed and recieved. Nothing else happens(dissapointing for it to end that way). ive seen this done a million times but due to my ablility to completely absorb myself into anything and treat old as new i enjoyed the story to some extent.

I liked the art style and animation seemed smooth. The way the expressions are drawn really annoys me though. it almost seems as though they're getting ready to each a banana vertically(up and down) whenever they smile and once or twice the animation seemed overly recycled and relied upon.

Seeing as i don't pay much attention to the sound i have no right to remove points or comment on it.

The character layouts carried a few original characters which is more than i can ask from most anime. besides the few original ones though everyone else is rehatched and boring. the typical shy, kind, idolizing, first friend for the heroine and the cold, cool, strong, and strict character who's nice towards most girls. Of course theres the frequently used dense, nice, popular male lead and the heroine is just another hides her true feelings with an angry front type. overall nothing special really just another set of the same types.

The enjoyment for this was good. it was fun and made me laugh often and for those who like fanservice(i don't mind a bit) it was probably the holy grail. in the end you enjoy watching this girl give it her all throughout and finally have her dreams realised.

Overall it was good but not really special. it was very rehashed but contains all the same fun elements as well. it looked good and made me feel like i was watching another wacky and enjoyable cartoon only with more fanservice and a little bit more reality. It leaves you mostly satisfied without much more to long for from this genre.

I’m often told I’m too critical, and that sometimes it’s okay to enjoy a simple, easy story. I understand why people think this way of critics, but just because something is lighthearted and easygoing doesn’t mean it doesn’t need effort put into it. If you want to watch a fun, light anime then the anime must use various methods to give yout this feeling. Comedy takes as much effort as any thoughtful story.

There’s nothing very brilliant about Tsuyokiss. Nothing about it stands out from its genre. If you have no interest in Slice of Life stories about school, then there’s nothing here for you. It’s ... not even an admirable failure, like how Date A Live has sparks of originality but holds itself back. The only purpose this anime has is to deliver a light story with amusing characters, but it’s successful in doing that.

Plenty of school life anime has been released since. Plenty of them tried to add craziness to make it feel alive, like Kemeko DX or Akikan. Nothing worked like this anime. Somehow, I found way back to this unassuming anime and rewatched it. That’s because Tsuyokiss doesn’t breathe life into its world by artificial craziness or just making everyone scream their lines. It does it by having a wide cast of characters, each with their own quirk.

None of them are deep or as memorable as Galaxy Angel, but they’re all branching out out from the archetypes they start with. They start as tsunderes or lolis or best friend or sexy blonde, but quicky get a bit more than that. It didn’t dawn on me that Kani is supposed to be the loli until very later. That’s because she’s defined more by her short fuse and simplistic worldview. Erika isn’t just the beauty. She’s a person who is so successful she’s bored of success, and is dying for someone to challenge her and stand up to her. Her stereotypically beautiful look is just a visualization of this nature.

It’s an anime that’s aware the characters need a life outside the plot. The romance doesn’t pop out of nowhere. Rather, it’s added smoothly like another aspect of everyday life. Romance in real life may be dramatic, but it’s rarely something that traps people’s lives. People keep meeting friends, going to school and do things other than fantasize about their crushes (or if they don’t, that’s a very bad sign and it stops being romantic). Showing Kani playing video games with the guys, Sunao’s fight to establish a drama club and attempting to get a day job are all here to show these characters lead an actual life and don’t just serve the plot. Everyone also seems to have hobbies or things they’re into.

It doesn’t always work, of course. An episode about Nagomi’s familiy problems is means well, but is out of place. It’s a series that creates unique characters with silly attributes, not deep ones. Such a story would be more fit for something like Mushishi (Actually, Mushishi would be a whole lot better if it had one). This stands in contrast to the part-time job episode. That one takes advantage of Kani’s and Sunao’s personalities – one is a self-absorbed actor and the other is childish and vulgar. Boring females with straight long hair seems to be everywhere for some reason.

The whole tsundere thing was supposed to be the game’s selling point, but only Sunao feels like an actual tsundere. Then again, she’s only the second girl to be involved in the romance. Sunao is another good example of using an archetype and playing with it. She’s not aggressive and hides her feeling for no reason. She’s a wannabe-actress with big ambitions and a big obsession. Her obsessive nature comes into play much more than the tsundere one, with Shizuka and Honoka acting as foils (althugh of different kinds). It’s these ambitions that drive most of the episodes, with Sunao trying to do everything in a gradnois way even when it’s not needed. Tsundere is also, in a way, an act – so it fits to make your tsundere girl an wannabe-actress. It’s the hobby and the obsessive nature that lead to tsundere-ness, not the opposite.

As always with these things, the male is competing against growing grass to see who’s more boring. The lack of effort put into such characters is astonishing. Just compare his designs to the other males, who do have a personality. Shinichi has big eyes that give him a soft look that goes well with he’s romantic but wimpy nature. Subaru sports narrow eyes and sleeveless shirts that show his confident, calm nature. These two act in unison.

What is Leo’s personality or purpose? He’s not even a voice of sanity, because that’s a role Subaru or Nagomi often take for that group of friends. Even if a character’s only role is to be a voice of sanity, the character it’s related to can affect how it’s done. Shizuka is the voice for Sunao, but she also acts as an admirer that goes well with Sunao’s view of things. Leo just stands there, doing what requires of him. There was no way to connect anything he does to a personality. When Kani thinks Sunao is sad for a silly reason, it’s because Kani has a childish nature. There is no moment like that for Leo.

That’s why the series loses steam when the romance kicks in. I could live with the switch in tone. These characters are alive enough to make me care about their emotional problems even if they overdo it. When one person in the romance exists so there will be the romance, it’s hard to care about it. A romance never exists alone. A romance always grow out of two people’s personalities. It’s not a mystery that can have no relations to the people involved.

Isn’t it odd that most romances directed at males have these terrible male characters? Look at a shoujo romance and there will be pretty girls and pretty boys. Look at a romance directed at males, and the male lead is so boring you run out of creative ways to say it. What does it say about viewers?

The art style is very simple and contains nothing flashy. There aren’t any unique character designs, except Kani’s braids (co-incidence? She’s the best character) and Yoshimi’s hair color. It’s weird how characters that aren’t very important like Yan, who becomes active only in the second half and Murata have more effort put into their designs than main characters like Leo or Yagomi. It understands its style, and everyone has a colorful hair and the simplicity of it all goes well with the story. If you look at the visual novel though, you’ll get something different. There’s something so lifeless and stiff in it. If they tried to replicat the visual novel’s art style I wouldn’t survive.

This flaw is all too common, but at least everything surrounding it is fun enough. Tsuyokiss has nothing to offer to those who don’t like the genre, but it does what a school anime does good enough. I could tolerate not aspiring to greatness, so long as the creators understand their style well enough.

3 tsunderes out of 5