Ranked #3679

To Heart: Remember My Memories

To Heart: Remember My Memories is the long awaited sequel to the original To Heart series. Many people will not watch the original To Heart for two reasons; number one, it is often considered boring because no real “action” or true romance actually happens, and number two, because of this, it is not a very well-known series. Compare the original To Heart’s 7,500 members to something like Death Note which has over 122,000 members with it on their list. My point to all of this is; To Heart is a great series and needs more credit.

This sequel, however, does not.

If you are a fan of the original To Heart, you will either hate or strongly dislike this series. There is a very slim chance that you will love it and call it one of your favorite anime ever.

(Very mild spoilers to follow.)

In my honest opinion, I could not stand the story of this anime at all. The whole idea of Multi having “amnesia” is the most unoriginal idea in film-making/anime history. Where does this sound familiar? Yeah, just about every soap opera out there. Because of this, Hiroyuki seems to completely forget about Akari at first. It was like Hiroyuki was now in love with Multi. I was under the impression that he really was. He was always wanting to be with her, always supported her, obsessed over her, etc. It was kind of creepy. Multi’s cute, but please see that she’s only a robot. This totally takes away from his original character who didn’t act like this at all. But the beauty point of all of this is that the whole amnesia bit (which is what they act like the main problem is in the story synopsis) only lasted for TWO EPISODES out of a THIRTEEN EPISODE series. Then it moved on.

I liked the characters very much in the original To Heart. They weren’t kids who were piloting mecha robots, or were concocting plans to save the world from evil forces or anything; they were simply Japanese high school students who got along with each other very well. Remember My Memories ruined them. May I ask something? Since when did Ayaka Kurusugawa have such a huge role in all of this? And Serio, too? Since when did Tomoko Hoshina get a more friendly and social personality? When did Kotone and Aoi become best friends?

Questions that I doubt will ever fully be answered.

I whole heartedly realize that one to two years are supposed to have passed since the original’s time, but to add in puzzling character developments with absolutely NOTHING to back them up with can just confuse the viewer. I know it confused me. Some of them also have very different personalities from the originals. Hiroyuki in the original was a laid back, sort of go with the flow guy who seemed pretty caring, but at the same time a bit reluctant to notice people’s feelings towards him (like Akari’s and Shiho’s mainly). In this sequel, he is nothing but a whiny brat who obsesses over robots (like I stated before). And for another example; Serio. She seemed emotionless and well (not to blatantly state a bit of a pun), serious. Now she’s… kind and caring? What? When did she get emotions?

Consider all of these factors when comparing these characters to the originals. All of this, and the fact that their appearances are totally different. This brings me to the art.

There is no excuse for the art in this series. We all knew that the animation style would be different (going from 1999’s cell animation to 2004’s digital animation), but this is ridiculous. The character designs were totally whack. For example, Hiroyuki and Rio have black hair? Since when? And another obviously noticeable feature were the faces. Pointy chins and puffy cheeks, I guess, are the new looks of the century. That and the bright colors. The colors were changed to look brighter, happier, etc., totally in contrast to the calmer and, as some people would say, boring colors of the original. I am telling you now, THIS IS A TOTAL FAIL. The To Heart series was not meant to have this style of art!

The sound was okay, I guess, but Hiroyuki’s voice…dear lord. Kazuya Ichijou seriously must have been drunk while voice acting. He sounded annoying, bratty, and just plain irksome to hear. "MARUCHI!" (a.k.a. Multi) Every time he would talk, I thought I was going to end up with a migraine when he was done. That’s how terrible it was. All of the girls’ voices were okay, but not great. Serika’s voice in the original was so quiet that you couldn’t hear it at all throughout the whole series. Her voice in Remember My Memories was legible most of the time, thus taking away from her character. Another voice acting problem that I had, that also went along with this person’s change in personality, was Tomoko’s. Why oh why was she so cheerful? This is one thing that boggles my mind more than Hiroyuki’s robot obsession. Along with the voice acting, there’s also the background music to consider. In the original To Heart, there was little, if not any background music. In Remember My Memories, there was a good amount, it wasn’t overwhelming, but too dramatic and sometimes way too cheery.

Overall, this anime is terrible in comparison to the original and really shouldn’t have even been made. There is honestly no point in calling this a “sequel.” I do not recommend it to any original To Heart fans. All that you will get out of watching this series is sheer disappointment.
read more

WHAT IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT'S HOLY HAPPENED TO THIS SERIES!!!

The original To Heart is rather enjoyable. It's a nice slice of life show that gets misnomered as a harem romance. This extension on the other hand, should never have been made.

The story in Remember My Memories is set around a year after the end of To Heart. Multi has left, Hiroyuki, Akari, and the rest of the cast are still pretty much the same. Hiroyuki is pining for Multi though when she suddenly comes back to school, only for everyone to be told she has the robot form of amnesia!?!?

Okay, I'm not going to harp on about the rest of the story, which in itself is pretty much standard fare. The creators decided to turn what was an enjoyabl slice of life show into a true harem romance/drama. The only problem is they failed abysmally.

The art and animation are sorely lacking in Remember My Memories. Gone is the naturalistic character design and the nice watercolour stillframes. In their place the animators saw fit to make the faces more angular (pointy chins abound in this show). The animation is decidely jerky, and the colour palette has been changed to make the show more "cheery" (failing miserably at this as well).

The sound is another area where a lot of corners have been cut. There's no mellow BGMs in this show, and the effects are sometimes random. The voice acting in this show has also dropped in quality (even though the same actors were used - how the hell did they manage that?). Ichijou Kazuya (the voice of Fujita Hiroyuki), must have been up all night smoking and drinking before recording this series. In the original To Heart his was quite smooth and well defined. In Remember My Memories he sounds like he's desperate and screaming all the time. The other voice actors are no better, which makes me think that these changes were intentionally added to "heighten" the drama (when all it did was make me want to kill the characters or kill myself).

The characters are the main reason why the show is a huge let down. As I pointed out, the voice acting was a major disaster, but the character flaws don't just end there. The creators have tried to make Remember My Memories more "dramatic", and with this in mind they have turned the characters into an abomination of what they originally were. In the original To Heart Hiroyuki was a kind, sensitive (if somewhat absent-minded) guy. In Remember My Memories his character comes across as annoying, whiny, selfish, angry (in other words, he's a brat). Akari was originally a gentle, caring girl, and although they tried to keep those traits for her character, they spoiled it by making the show "dramatic". Akari's character flaws are highlighted in many of the "dramatic" moments of the show, especially towards the end of the series. The supporting characters also suffer from this "drama", as many of their characteristics and personalities are just plain annoying now.

I'm not going to recommend this show to anyone except a complete masochist.

If you're a fan of the original To Heart, or even To Heart 2 (which, even though I didn't enjoy it as much as To Heart, is still miles better than Remember My Memories), then do not watch this show- ever! If you like a good story, romance, drama, great characters, great animation and sound, etc, then avoid this at all costs, and go watch Kanon or Clannad, or even Da Capo.

I'm not going to say anything good about this show (so those of you who liked it, don't hold your breath). It's bad - end of story. This series is to To Heart what The Phantom Menace is to Star Wars.

I'm not going to insult anyone who liked Remember My Memories, but I will say this - compare it to any other show of it's type and Remember My Memories loses in every department.

If I could sue the creators for making this pile of ...., then I would happily do so.

Oh, and for those of you who wonder why I didn't drop the show, I should point out that the show has to rate as a 1 or 0 for me to drop it. Remember My Memories may be bad, but it's not the worst I've seen (which is it's only saving grace). read more