Tonikaku Kawaii (TONIKAWA: Over The Moon For You)

Nasa Yuzaki is determined to leave his name in the history books. Ranking first in the national mock exam and aiming for a distinguished high school, he is certain that he has his whole life mapped out. However, fate is a fickle mistress. On his way home one snowy evening, Nasa's eyes fall upon a peerless beauty across the street. Bewitched, Nasa tries to approach her—only to get blindsided by an oncoming truck.

Thankfully, his life is spared due to the girl's swift action. Bleeding by the side of an ambulance, he watches as the girl walks away under the moonlight—reminiscent of Princess Kaguya leaving for the moon. Refusing to let this chance meeting end, he forces his crippled body to chase after her and asks her out. Surprised by his foolhardiness and pure resolve, the girl accepts his confession under a single condition: they can only be together if he marries her!

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Adaptation:	Tonikaku Kawaii
Sequel:	Tonikaku Kawaii: SNS
Summary:	Tonikaku Kawaii: Kaisou

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Characters & Voice Actors

Yuzaki, Tsukasa

Main

Kitou, Akari
Japanese

Yuzaki, Nasa

Main

Enoki, Junya
Japanese

Arisugawa, Kaname

Supporting

Serizawa, Yuu
Japanese

Arisugawa, Aya

Supporting

Uesaka, Sumire
Japanese

Charlotte

Supporting

Oowada, Hitomi
Japanese

Kaginoji, Chitose

Supporting

Kohara, Konomi
Japanese

Aurora

Supporting

Nagaku, Yuki
Japanese

Yuzaki, Enishi

Supporting

Ebara, Masashi
Japanese

Yuzaki, Kanoka

Supporting

Asano, Masumi
Japanese

Arisugawa's Mother

Supporting

Hisakawa, Aya
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Matsuda, Akio

Producer

Kondou, Shuuhou

Producer

Usui, Hisato

Producer

Satou, Hiroaki

Producer

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Opening Theme

"Koi no Uta (feat. Tsukasa Yuzaki) (恋のうた (feat. 由崎司))" by Yunomi feat. Tsukasa Yuzaki (CV: Akari Kitou)

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Ending Theme

"Tsuki to Hoshizora" by KanoeRana

Reviews

Dec 18, 2020

Stark700

Recommended

This year, 2020, had a strange phenomenon of rom-coms. We had ‘Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It’ at the beginning of the year, where the idea of romance became an experiment as part of its storyteller. Spring dropped us into a fantasy world of reverse harem and otome tropes with My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Led to Doom. And of course, let’s not forget Summer 2020 that gave us ‘Kanojo, Okarishmasu’ a rom-com with relationships based on lies. Fall 2020 decided to give us a truthful romantic comedy of a married couple, and by marriage, I mean commitment ... and a lot of romance. Isn’t this just a strange year?

Kenjirou Hata isn’t known for being a masterpiece storywriter. Most of his works often deal with romantic comedy elements and among them is Hayate the Combat Butler. Watching Tonikaku Kawaii gave me a similar impression at first when we meet Nasa Yuzaki, the main protagonist who gets involved in an accident. Is it fate when at that moment that he encounters his future wife, Tsukasa Tsukyomi? And that’s the funny idea about fate. When we talk about fate, it seems characters are destined to meet and one of the recurring tropes from the author’s previous work. Nasa and Tsukasa develop a relationship quickly as they get married in the very first episode. If you don’t believe me, just watch their union and signed registration. When you have two main protagonists get married from the very first episode, there’s bound to be endless questions popping into your head.

One of the first questions may be why these two would get married in the first place? Doesn’t marriage take time and commitment? They barely know each other but now are a married couple, a type of relationship that may last until death do them apart. From the very first few episodes, we can deduct that both main characters does have attraction towards each other. Nasa sees Tsukasa as a girl that you can only dream of even dating, let alone marrying. On the other hand, Tsukasa sees Nasa as a gentle soul with a selfless nature that truly values her well-being. However, the two are lack experience when it comes to actual romance. For instance, it took a lot of convincing for Tsukasa to tell Nasa to talk to her without being so formal. Tsukasa herself has trouble expressing her feelings and this usually translates into dozens of awkward moments between the duo. You could easily say that each episode is a test for the two lovebirds. Although over time, Nasa and Tsukasa learns a lot about each other and what it means to love.

As mentioned before, marriage is a commitment and a lifelong vow. To comprehend this idea, Tsukasa and Nasa had to arrange their life into a state where they can live comfortably. This includes securing a stable job, buying the right furniture, and making time to be with each other. It sounds a lot harder than it looks but realistically, almost any normal couple would have to go through this process. For Tsukasa and Nasa, some unfortunate circumstances drops them into a temporary home in later episodes. It’s one of those old sayings where when life knocks you down, you have to get back up. From a storytelling perspective, the duo faces the hardship of life and reality. The main storytelling theme focuses on their way of life and how they live each day to be what they committed to.

Despite some of the serious wordings of the plot elements, Tonikaku Kawaii is a fairly lighthearted show with tons of comedy and entertainment. You have to remember that the author wants us to experience a light rom-com, without too many tearjerking moments or despair. Indeed, this anime adaptation remains lighthearted that focuses on entertaining rather than a complex storytelling. With 12 episodes, the anime sets the bar for being what a rom-com should be although I emphasize that the ongoing manga is fairly long. In other words, this 1-cour adaptation serves more as a tool for viewers to get into the surface of the franchise. There’s a whole lot more down the rabbit hole. Otherwise, fans should be familiar with the overall tone of the comedy such as the character name gags (namely Nasa), misunderstandings, and other mischiefs.

With its small yet colorful cast of characters, the author also borrows similar character concepts from his previous work such as maids. Characters such as Kaname, Aurora, Charlotte are decorated with maid characteristics while Kaginoji Chitose serves the role of a jealous girl who gets the wrong impression about Nasa. No doubt, Chitose causes some unsettling drama between the couple and some episodes shows that she can be an annoying brat to deal with. Luckily, this is where we see Nasa at how he tackles the problem in his honest and sincere way. In many ways, Nasa is the ‘nice guy’ in their relationship but only that he doesn’t finish last. He’s first to be married to such a perfect housewife.

Studio Sevens Arcs may not be a powerhouse studio when it comes to animation but one thing is for certain, they managed to connect the dots in the right places for this adaptation. Tonikaku Kawaii’s visual style has a light touch with its character designs. It has a vibrant colorful art that retains the style of the manga look. Tsukasa in particular stands out as the poster girl and while other female characters are made with delicacy. Nasa himself also has a girly look despite being a male. This may or may not rub people’s impressions in the wrong way but for a rom-com, it suits them right. Plus, who can forget all those cartoony expressions.

It’s almost like a dream fantasy for Nasa, being able to find such a perfect girl like Tsukasa. Fate tied the knots together for these two characters and by no doubt, they retain a faithful relationship. Everyday is a challenge and every episode follows their steps of this married couple. If only the real world is perfect with all that buffet handholding.

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Dec 21, 2020

Gaspar445

Mixed Feelings

In Nasa and Tsukasa's new lives as a married couple, there is no drama and there are no high stakes. There are no drawn-out misunderstandings nor are there frustrating love triangles. Tonikaku Kawaii is twelve episodes of unwaveringly cute and inconsequential romance.

The art style is very reminiscent of the anime style of the mid 2000s with its most obvious comparison being Hayate no Gotoku from the same creator. Like the anime itself, the art and animation are inoffensive, simple, and consistent. The opening song "Koi no Uta" by Yunomi is a modern bop of this decade that contrasts with the previously mentioned mid 2000s ... art style. The sweet and sentimental sounding ending song "Tsuki to Hoshizora" by KanoeRana often pleasantly transitioned at the end of each episode. The voice acting performances from every character were entertaining and full of life. It felt as though the cast had a fun time doing their lines.

I remember two years ago, I started reading the manga for this when it was brand new. I stopped reading after a couple of chapters because I thought neither of the two main characters had any personality, and more importantly, I thought it was ridiculous that anyone would agree to marry a random person they had not seen in two years and only known for literal minutes prior. After reluctantly picking up the anime, my opinion is a bit different. Looking at this set-up alone, it sounds like uncreative wish fulfillment. But how Tonikawa articulates its idea of love throughout the show helps make that initial set-up less and less iffy. Tonikawa leans heavily into things like love at first sight and true love. For Nasa, he knew the moment he saw Tsukasa that she was the one. Though he knows nothing about her at first, something inside him tells him that it doesn't matter and his love for her is real. Tsukasa's character is more of a mystery, but she, too, made the insane decision to marry Nasa. Despite the entire situation being utterly reckless and crazy, there is nevertheless this vague notion of pure undeniable instantaneous love that attracts these two to each other. I personally don't believe in something like that, but I've always liked the exploration of the meaning of love, and Tonikawa's idealist take on it is interesting to me. Also, the anime just puts a dumb smile on my face.

So, I think Tonikawa's conflict-less and immensely fluffy romance works in two ways: It is a pleasant and cute show for those who want to watch two people endlessly flirt. It also justifies Nasa's immediate proposal to Tsukasa as well as her agreement to it. Their perfect relationship drives home the idea that these two really were fated for each other - that they lucked out on the one in a zillion chance of finding the person who is undeniably, without a doubt, one-hundred percent for them.

To me, Tonikawa is almost so full of fluff that it's almost depressing because nothing as perfect as Nasa's and Tsukuasa's relationship would ever happen and there's no point in ever hoping it would happen and 3D is just one dimension too many and.......

But overall, Tonikaku Kawaii is, well, cute.

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Dec 18, 2020

Kanavi

Not Recommended

I don’t understand the praise for this.

Tonikaku tries to be different and yet it falls short. Actually, scratch that. It falls FAR from being any different from any rom-com that I’ve seen. It attempted to mix up the order of a cliche and yet it still is the cliche. The show doesn’t know what it wants to be itself and there is near to nothing redeemable about the show. I have plenty of reasons why, as well. Let's dive in, shall we?

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Story

One look at the plot reveals that there’s nothing special. In summary, the protagonist, Nasa, gets really smart and later sees ...

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