Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai

Love has never really been a concern for Mitsuyoshi Tada, and as the aspiring photographer enters his second year of high school, it truthfully could not be further from his mind. However, things just might change after he meets a bright and bubbly foreigner named Teresa Wagner while he was taking pictures of a cherry blossom tree. Nevertheless, after she asks him to photograph her, the two soon separate, only to meet each other again twice more that same day. Finding Teresa just as she is caught in a sudden downpour, Tada invites her to his family's coffee shop to dry off. There, she explains that she was separated from her traveling companion, a no-nonsense redhead named Alexandra "Alec" Magritte. When Alec reunites with Teresa shortly after, they say their goodbyes, expecting to part ways for good—but the two unexpectedly show up as transfer students in his class the next day.

Teresa and Alec quickly get used to their lives at Koinohoshi High School and decide to join Tada in the photography club, along with his narcissistic friend Kaoru Ijuuin, the idol-obsessed Hajime Sugimoto, the serious class rep Hinako Hasegawa, and the dog-like Kentarou Yamashita. With these two peculiar additions to his equally eccentric group of friends, Tada's second year of high school is about to get even livelier, and he might need to start rethinking his approach to love.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Wagner, Teresa Main

Iwami, Manaka Japanese

Tada, Mitsuyoshi Main

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Ijuuin, Kaoru Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Hasegawa, Hinako Supporting

Ishigami, Shizuka Japanese

Magritte, Alexandra Supporting

Shimoji, Shino Japanese

Tada, Yui Supporting

Minase, Inori Japanese

de Loire, Charles Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Sugimoto, Hajime Supporting

Umehara, Yuuichirou Japanese

Yamashita, Kentarou Supporting

Shimono, Hiro Japanese

Rainbow Shougun Supporting

Koyama, Tsuyoshi Japanese

Oowada, Tomoyuki Producer

Tanaka, Shou Producer

Iizuka, Aya Producer

Ogata, Mitsuhiro Producer

Reviews

May 29, 2024

chillvyb

Recommended

First of lemme just say I was not expecting to fall in love with this show the way that I did but I’m happy I decided to stick with it and finish it because wow it was so cuuuteee (о´∀`о)
It just reminded me of when you realize you’ve fallen for someone but you don’t even know exactly when it started or how but you just know that you like that person..I don’t even know if I’m wording this correctly but yh also if you feel the show might be a little slow on the romance let me just say it picks up ok don’t give ... up on it just keep going.
Mehnn I really enjoyed the last 4/5 episodes definitely kept me going to the end.
So if you’re a shoujo/romance girly or person I’d say you should definitely check this out
-chi✌︎('ω')✌︎

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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May 28, 2024

Snaiy

Mixed Feelings

Well dear reader, where to even start.
I will start by saying, that Im probably a little over critical with the series, as Im tired.of half assed cash grab lazily written pilea of nothings marketed as animes, even tough this series is probably not better than my score in a more objective light (this looks to be affirmed by the other, better written reviews).

First, the story. Oh my where to start with that. This is basically a Rosamunde Pilcher or any C category romantic happy ending drama copy. They just made it into anime, but everything is literally the same. I literally saw this same story ... in one of those films, of course with different characters and not set in Japan, but 90% of the story was the same. The story is just, well, meh, average, kinda bullshit, you get the point. Without spoilers, there are some secrets and plot twist you see from miles away, they are all bullshit and lazily written anyway (the whole setting is that).
The thing that bugged me, is that the writers had absolutely zero idea about Luxembourg or European culture at all, other than from a quick wikipedia article and google search. It would have been a way better idea and story if they made an anime about their own princess abandoning the royalty for love. I can kinda understand the japanese now, who hate weebs who think they know everything about Japan while only watching animes and never doing a minute of research.
The only good thing about the story, is that they knew it was shit and it probably would only live for one season, so they wrapped it up in the season, they did not leave an unnecessary cliffhanger, where you would be needed to buy the og source material to know what happened to the characters you could not care less about.

The characters and the way they are written is just infuriating at this point. A slice of life or romantic series lives or dies by its characters (to be fair, good characters can save almost even the worst stories, but not vice versa), and this series died by a lot of wound, one of them the aforementioned characters.
The best character is the Mc's cat AKA Nyanko big the big boss, and we only heard his toughts for like an episode (if I remember correctly we heard his toughts in some episodes for a few lines later, but thats it). Our Mc is dumb as rocks and it was never explained why, other than his tragic backstory, which was also not explained properly, and it was not explained how it affected him either. Our Fmc is just a cheery girl, thats her personality, the side characters are meh, we never get some real depth to them other than some forced story bits or interactions, and their personality is completely restricted to their assigned position in the story (for example, the ever supporting, but eccentric bestfriend, is literally that, he has no other toughts behind his eyes other than being a supportive homie by doing dumb shit and being a self proclaimed, albeit with some proof chick magnet, or the bodyguard/beast friend bestie of the Fmc, her personality being a tsuntsun, scary I will protect Fmc from everyone type of sthick). The story tries to build some humor around the characters, but it becomes tiring real quick, when the no progression + shit characters + slapstick humor combo hits, it hits harder than any Super Smash Bros character combo.

The music was okay, nothing bad, nothing sock blowing.

The only aspect where the anime shines is the art, it was clean and beautiful, very crisp, it gave a cheery tone to the whole anime, which would have been fitting, if not for the bad story machinations.

So all in all, if you are a caveman, who coincidentally can understand japanese, or a sub/dub language and you have as much emotional IQ as "haha, women, haha men, go in cave, good time be", then this series is for you, if you do not fit the above descriptiom, you will just waste your time watching this.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Dec 22, 2022

RebelPanda

Not Recommended

Informative

Tada Never Falls in Love is like a colorful bouquet of plastic flowers. From a distance, you might mistake it for the real thing. But upon closer inspection, you'll find it's merely a lifeless imitation. Factory produced from the most generic mold, identical to its fellow flowers rolling off the conveyor belt alongside it.

Undeniably crafted with talent, Tadakoi offers refined background art and detailed character animation in place of quality writing. While the show had the potential to be good with its solid audiovisuals, they are entirely wasted on generic characters and a poorly written story.

The story follows the titular Mitsuyoshi Tada, an uncharismatic photographer ... whose tough past has prevented him from ever knowing love. Through a chance encounter, he meets an enthusiastic foreigner, Teresa. She acts overly excited, running around trying to hop fences and expressing crazy interest in a Samurai TV series, which seems to have given her some wrong impressions about Japan. All of it is played to comedic effect. It's fun and lighthearted despite being unrealistic, with her voice actress's upbeat performance selling her personality well.

Then, through another chance encounter, she ends up being stuck in the rain protecting a stray cat and splashed from all directions by water like the universe is punishing her for being nice. But to her rescue comes the lethargic Tada with an umbrella and an invitation to go to his family-owned cafe. The cafe is lushly ornamented and has warm lighting to contrast the gray rainstorm, a cozy atmosphere. Teresa compares what she believes is Tada's heroism to the samurai she idolizes in her favorite show, and that's how she falls in love. She meets his family, has a meal, changes into dry clothes, thanks Tada, then heads home to the house she just moved into… which happens to be right next door.

Tada and Teresa's relationship feels contrived and hard to believe from the moment they first meet. An unbelievable amount of plot conveniences bring them together. It feels less like their relationship develops organically and more like a writer forces them together. The show attempts to play off the cliched intro as a joke, but it's still lazy writing no matter how much you laugh about it. Aside from these contrivances, the leads don't have much chemistry with one another for most of the show.

Often times it feels as though Tada's writing bends backward to Fall in Love; his character and relationship with Teresa never feel believable enough to be the foundation for the series. He's unrealistically oblivious to Teresa's pining over him until the plot decides it's the right time for them to finally acknowledge their feelings. Obliviousness for the sake of stalling the story is lazy writing and does not make good characters. It's contrived to create a compelling resolution, making Tada difficult to look at as anything but a plot device for most of the show. No analysis of his personality wouldn't lead to frustration. Occasionally the show lampshades his emotional unawareness with the fact that his parents were killed in a car crash when he was younger, but we never see him from a personal enough perspective to understand why he became closed off or to what degree it affects him in the present. Why does it feel like these days, more and more anime mistake emotionally-damaged characters for brain-damaged ones?

In one of the show's best and funniest episodes, narrated by Tada's cat Nyanko Big (a far more interesting character), the two protagonists share a sensitive moment that seemed like something out of a much better series. However, this is Tada-kun we're dealing with, so there's practically no introspection; when Teresa catches Nyanko Big from a tree and falls back onto Tada, only for him to catch her, it's a perfectly timed moment of silence between the two, yet it has almost no impact. While that moment showcases Teresa's understated burgeoning love for Tada, it never feels like a mutual romance. When they make eye contact in a seemingly mutually tender moment, there is no sign anything is on Tada's mind. He's totally vacant. There's never a hint that he might be in love outside of these moments where he might blush a little and only return to ordinary moments later, unphased. Any potential for development is squashed. There is no satisfying growth for him. When the ending inevitably has to wrap up the story in a 'satisfying' way, his character arc takes a jarringly rapid change to compensate for the missing development. Leaving both him and the finale feeling underserved and artificial.

At least Teresa's feelings for Tada feel somewhat genuine. The lasting effects of their understated flirtations are seen in Teresa throughout the show. Her feelings develop more and more until she has to face them in a somewhat effective resolution. Sadly, any potentially remarkable scenes focusing on Teresa get entirely snuffed out by Tada's dull idiocy, but they're also somewhat helped by the interesting visual language. Through subtle visual storytelling techniques, we learn that she's pining for him from the start; over the show, we see brief moments of her lost in thought, looking at him with starry eyes. It's not a one-dimensional drama like Tada's; she gets enough scenes describing her life situation for us to know that she is constantly considering the arranged marriage she's in and how it ensures that she could never have a relationship with Tada. Her dilemma is miles more compelling than anything else the series offers emotionally, thanks to the strong directing rather than the writing.

Plenty of care has been put into the visuals. There's no shortage of small but purposeful details added to the settings the cast inhabits; homes lined with photos of memories from previous episodes or ones that refer to their backstories. Is it enough to outweigh the mediocre characterization? No, not by a long shot, but at least it's something to keep you engaged with it and tells you that the director cared about their craft. Where the visuals are more effective is the comedy. With the director of Monthly Girl's Nozaki-kun, it's clear why the comedy here is so strong; jokes are well-timed, and there's so much character animation to telegraph a joke and convey the cast's personalities. Of course, when jokes are derived from bland characters, they almost always fall flat.

Where the majority of my gripes come in is the side cast. This is a rom-com, after all, so there are quite a few. None of them make up for what the protagonists lack. A few even bring the whole show down. Most of them are incredibly generic one-note cardboard cutouts, the ones that do receive development are somehow made even worse with insufferable episodes dedicated to telling us the boring story of characters that I can't imagine anyone would care about. Teresa's friend/servant traveled with her to Japan, Alec. Her whole character is just the tough girl who is overprotective of Teresa because a few shallow reasons told us through a backstory. She often beats up the group's clown, a generic clown kid whose name I literally can't remember. His only purpose was comic relief, and his animation was the most detailed of the group to showcase his comedic personality, but in truth, everything about him felt so cringy, with an overdone voice performance to add even more annoyance.

A few others hang around the group, like Tada's sister and occasionally the prince who is engaged to Teresa. I somewhat appreciated how Teresa's suitor wasn't portrayed as an evil threat like many tropey arranged marriage stories, but instead as a nice guy who respects her wishes. However, his passivity also makes him have no impact on the story. He's surprisingly forgettable for one of the more unusual archetypes, but the show wastes all his on-screen presence, leaving him a bland cipher like the rest of the recurring cast.

Hajime, more commonly known as Pin-senpai, is undoubtedly the worst part of the show by a wide margin. Introduced by him creepily ogling the female cast to ascertain their breast sizes, defusing the saccharine factor this series was going for whenever he appears on-screen. He is never content with fading into the background while on-screen with everyone else. He's constantly yelling, so much yelling with such an irritating voice. He has to scream as loudly as possible whenever he speaks. Having an obnoxious character like Pin is fine for a comedy series of this type, but what he screams about, no, what his whole character is about, is so pointless and weird, sometimes downright creepy. He adores a model, Hina, to an absurd degree because he loves big boobs… You can have a perverted character, that's fine, but he is over-exaggerated to an obnoxious and unbelievable degree. None of his jokes are funny unless it's other characters making fun of him, like how they used Hina merchandise to trick him into losing their photography club game.

Pin's character arc seemed less than an excuse for him to seem less like an annoying walking cliche, and it fell flat. Sadly, the show gives him an entire episode to show he had some compassion. His character had potential, with his childhood friend Hinako (notice the name??), who is very clearly the model from the moment she's introduced right next to the pinup poster. Throughout the show, there are plenty of hints to indicate she's in love with him, despite him not realizing the model he ogles every day is actually his friend. Hinako looks the same as she does in her bikini shoots, except that she wears glasses. It's such a stupid conflict that the show lampshades the lazy writing by having Alec point out that it's obvious. This stupid conflict damages the believability of both Pin and Hinako because other than the cookie-cutter personalities, they have nothing else to prove their unlikable stories aren't all there is to them.

Wow, great themes, Tadakoi. Their episode is the most boring because of how one-dimensional the situation and characters are, but also one of the most distasteful ones. Their relationship arc culminates in Hinako being disappointed at how Pinhead never realized she was the model, but she's happy that he at least likes her idol personality and her boobs. I guess you could say Hinako technically had character development. She discovered her fetish for cucking herself. Amazing. But Pinhead still has no redeeming value even after we're forced to sit through his 'development' episode. Screw that guy.

Barely anything happens in Tadakoi until the final few episodes. That's when it finally decides there must be some kind of progress made before the end. Regardless of the artificial developments made by the end, it's always predictable; from episode one, you can guess how the story will play out. Perhaps with more interesting characters, it could have been watchable despite these flaws, but instead, it's just aggressively bland. No amount of lush sceneries and trained directing could save dull, lazy writing. At least the opening song is pretty good.

Tadakoi is the variety of mediocrity that will pass through the anime community with no impact, then inevitably be forgotten forever. You might get something out of it if you're a fan of the director or new to anime. Otherwise, I suggest you skip this generic fluff.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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