To Heart 2

This was such a strange anime i dunno what it was aiming for,my guess is just advertisment for the visual novel. ^^;;
Nevertheless i kind of enjoyed it.

Story 5/10

There really is no story.Its just about this guy named Takaaki and his days in High school.There is a bit of romance...if you even wanna call it that.
I still question myself to why i even found this series enjoyable but i just did.

Soundtrack

... 4/10

I can't say the music is bad but none of the songs were really memorable besides for the op in the ova.

Characters

8/10

I think the characters are what makes up this anime.
They are all very unique
Konomi the cute childhood friend,Tamaki the big sister type,
yuma the tsundere,sango and ruri the yuri twins (lol...),Karin the alien and egg sandwich obbesed girl,lucy the alien and manaka the shy class representative.

I think there all special in theyre own way.

Overall 7/10

If your looking for a slice of life anime you should deffinitly look here.;O

Funny, I watched the original To Heart before this (at the time, I believed "To Heart 2" to be another season of the original) and was hype as heck to watch this...only to discover it was something entirely different. And I LOVED it, but not as much as the original. I loved the original so much that I am still writing a draft for that review and it's not even close to completion.

Anyway, not much to say about the core. Just another romance anime with a lifeless male lead designed to shoehorn you into buying the game it's based off of. And, well the original ... To Heart made a male protagonist with some personality, this one is just as generic as any harem male lead out there; and it doesn't help that it had to take place after Love Hina, the anime that popularized the male lead being tortured. And appropriately enough, nearly half of the new cast of females do this, which is why I feel more negative towards it.

One positive thing I will say about the anime itself was the use of the soundtrack. The soundtrack, for what very little they use of the actual piano segments, sound beautiful. Maybe the game has the same one, but if not, this anime has a splendid soundtrack and that is probably the highest number I gave was for its soundtrack, funnily enough.

Beyond that stuff, you obviously are reading this review cause you want to know of the female characters! This review ain't for the anime, it's so that you get to know the female characters in the game before you play! Cause, well, this one felt a tad bit lifeless for me to take it too seriously, so it's mostly a calm review about the characters and, well, that's about it. If you want to know about the main lead, Takaaki Kouno, he's not very fleshed out at all and his role in the anime is basically to be the generic nice guy that suffers various torture porn from some of the girls as it progresses. So, similar to what Love Hina started.

So, this character list will go from my most favorite characters to my least favorite. Sadly, I did not draft this or review it much before publishing it here, so my words might be a bit scattered since I finished this a while ago, but I did watch all the spin-off stuff as well as the extensions, so my memories of the original are a bit loose now because of this. Speaking of, I would give those a higher rating on the art cause they looked much more expressive in comparison to this one's rather bleak colorization. If this review is panned a bit much, I can just make another review on the next series that goes into fuller detail of everybody in case my sentiments here are mediocre.

With that, let us begin. By the way, partial spoilers. You have been warned. Also, I will not be counting any girls introduced in the special episodes; rather, they will have their own section in the next half of the review. Only girls that appeared in the original To Heart 2. Also, probably not gonna count the mom or maid robot, either.

Sango Himiyuri - What more can I say about this girl, besides her confidence being so overwhelming that she just upright decided to break the "no kiss romance" trope by straight up kissing our male protagonist the same episode she meets him! Yes, this guy actually gets some action, and she straight up admits she loves him! Well, "love-love" but you get the idea. I thought she was a breath of fresh air in contrast to the darker girls, as whenever she was in the scene, you couldn't help but smile.

I love her personality, her appearance and the fact that she's probably the most normal female in the entire cast with her non-exaggerated reactions and appreciation towards Takaaki. Doesn't help that she is apparently a freaking genius, either! She can create robots and do most things science. In fact, she even curbs her little sister multiple times in a very mature manner, despite how simplistic she sounds when talking to Takaaki. With a personality as unique as hers, there was no way any other girl would be number one. She was fully tolerable and nearly every scene she is in is filled with smiles.

Manaka Komaki - Oh yes, I assume for those whom have already seen this anime, you know my pattern now. This girl did compete with my number one spot, but I was judging the version of her that appeared outside the original To Heart 2, so that would've been unfair. If we count the version of her that only appears here, she's a solid second place on the list.

Sporting the warmest personality of the girls, Manaka is a very calm and delightful girl to listen to. Much like Sango, she sees more positive in Takaaki than negative; at least, in this particular series. She always listens to him and never exaggerates (often, anyway) anything, which I enjoyed a lot. Honestly, due to how little interaction she does have, or maybe it's cause my memory is a bit stale now since it's been a while since I saw the original, I can not really write much about her, despite her high placement. That's okay, though, cause she's still a fine character and most fans of To Heart 2 probably like her as well.

Lucy Marioa Misora - What the hell, I thought she only went by "Ruuko" maybe they announced her full name on her debut episode, cause that confused the hell out of me.

Um, anyway, this girl is just adorable. I actually admired the way this anime introduced the girls, as they actually start off as a character you see at least once in the background (there's a whole episode that brings this up, actually, for all of them), but I didn't think anything of her at that time. She's, by far, the most supernatural girl in the anime, as she can legitimately summon storm clouds and lightning from the sky (only does so one time, though) cause, well, she is very obviously revealed to be an alien. Her antics throughout are mostly comical, as she has minimal character development and little to discuss, beyond introducing the longest running gag in both the original anime and spin-offs, the "Ru!" line, which of course, Sango just HAD to use indefinitely every time she sees Ruuko (and sometimes Takaaki), which made me love Sango even more than I already did. But, I already talked about her, so let's move on.

Konomi Yuzuhara - The last of the good characters, here is Konomi, a character whom legitimately sleeps in the same bed as Takaaki in the same episode of both her and his debut. Not sexually of course, but she was just scared of a horror movie and wanted comfort. It was quite adorable, but of course, now you're thinking "this is the childhood friend" well, you are correct. He does indeed refer to her by her first name, no honorifics attached, meaning he has the closest bond with her. Their relationship is honestly quite adorable, as it is indeed like they are siblings, but this adds a bit of drama to the anime later on.

Her personality is likable if you like adorable characters, she has some good one-liners every now and then and, well, I did not pay much attention to her. Beyond her debut episode, which also introduced both her friends that she had to say goodbye to (though they are minor characters, so they are not counted in this), she becomes somewhat recurring from what I can remember. She was mainly there just to greet Takaaki and not do much else other than tease him, which was typical of the female childhood friend role. So, she's a fine character, and I would rather not put her lower on the list cause of what is sadly coming up next later on.

Ruri Himeyuri - Here's the little sister I was talking about! She is basically Sango's exact twin, especially in this series where their hair color is lazily different from one another, with Sango's being slightly richer in blue, well Ruri's is slightly richer in purple, but a literal slight where, if you have poor vision, you'd just say they both have a low saturated tone of blue. Thankfully, Ruri always looking angry will help you tell her apart from her big sister.

Her character development is among the most intricate in the anime, but I won't go into too much detail to avoid spoiling the whole experience. Overall, she just loves her big sister a lot, but hates anybody that wishes to "steal her away" from her. As I said before, Sango did kiss Takaaki, but Ruri responded with an immediate (and quite unnecessary) shot to his groin, despite Sango initiating the smooch. Sango almost always scolds Ruri for being rude to Takaaki, but Ruri's selfish nature prohibits her from truly listening to her words.

One last thing I'd like to note about Ruri is that I'm not entirely sure how she "loves" her sister, cause it turns into a bit of a twincest thing throughout their arc; most notably, during one scene where she touches Sango's lips (very slowly) with her fingers and then touches her own well closing her eyes (still quite slowly, and I think she moaned a bit, too). She even kisses Sango herself at the end of their arc, albeit only on the cheek. It confused me a lot as to how much she "loved" Sango, but as of now, I believe it might be between a sibling love and a romantic love. Maybe also cause, since she wants Sango to herself, she might be willing to go so far as to marry her so that she is not "hurt" by anybody. Kinda creepy, huh? But, those are the exact vibes I get from her character, mainly due to her extremely antagonizing ways towards Takaaki.

Yuma Tonami - Close friends with Manaka, this girl has one of the most hilarious hate arcs in the whole anime. She is typical tsundere, but in the most cringe way possible. She first begins the streak by accidentally running into Takaaki, but blaming him for it and claiming it to be a challenge (second longest running gag in the anime, perhaps) and always wants to fight him. From what I could remember, I believe this hatred stemmed from family manners at home where, being unable to overt her true feelings towards the career she decided to study for, she perhaps takes out her hatred on Takaaki as a means to calm herself. That's what I got the idea from.

But, again, another case of lack of character development other than her debut episode, so it's mostly laughs when you see her come into the scene, since her hatred is quite obviously the most forced tsundere mode in the entire anime.

Also, outside the original, there's a small implication that she actually secretly loves Takaaki after they share a "romance glance" (where the music stops, flowers are in the background and she blushes well starring at him for a while), but that was a different series and I won't spoil how that happens. But, I thought I'd bring it up to compensate for the little bit of information I wrote for her.

Tamaki Kousaka - VERY close to being the last girl on the list, but not quite. Like Konomi, she has a childhood bond with Takaaki, giving him a pet name and is rather not afraid to get up and close with him. On her debut episode, when Takaaki is unfamiliar with who she is (apparently, she was gone for a while in her own school, alongside some of her classmates saying their goodbyes, whom you never see again in the entire anime), she teases him for a while till he figures it out. Straight away, she hugs him, slams him to the ground (despite how it looks, and the camera angles, this isn't romance, but a very hilarious reunion hug) and just rubs her face against his a lot well he's doing the "Um, Tamaki?" line well looking down all nervous.

Coming off as very sweet thus far, you'd think she'd be higher up, especially since it's another one of his childhood friends. But, unfortunately, she has a bit of a yandere side to her. I guess it never came off to me right away, but near the end of the anime, it made sense. This will be a heavy spoiler, but I figure I should bring it up. It is implied that she loves Takaaki when they are children (she leaves him around this time, so he doesn't see her for years, I think) and so, well, she has a rather strange tsundere vibe around most of the girls in the anime, and it's quite condescending and overpowering.

Most of what I'm about to say next is kind of not done in this series, but was worth a mention since I did not wish to write multiple reviews of it. Throughout most of it this one, the original, her eyes will switch from innocent to devious (the sharp, thin looking eyes) whenever she is about to have her way, and she always does, which was a major turnoff to me since I didn't like that very much. But, in the next series, it is shown that her yandere mode is much worse, as she is apparently four hundred percent stronger than the average human (she stops the attack of a freaking robot) and this just proved to me that her character was mainly meant to be a kind of "bring the balance" character, since nobody could defeat her. Well...maybe one, but she's not in the original series.

Overall, Tamaki is a rather peculiar character that's hard to love due to her condescending nature, but she is indeed the only one that wrote a real love letter to Takaaki (we find out more about this in the next series) and, judging from how she reacts around the other girls at times, she can kind of look like a cryptic yandere type of girl. It's hard to elaborate, but that's the best way I can describe her.

Karin Sasamori - Quite honestly, I wanted to skip most of the girl reviews and just write about her, but since I knew that would be a rather poor writing of the anime, I had to include the other girls, too.

Yes, this is the girl whom I consider to be the worst in the series and for multiple reasons. Despite not being as intimidating as Tamaki, Karin manages to do one of the lowest things in the entire anime. I honestly don't want to spoil how it all leads to this, since I will leave that up to you to watch.

But, at some point, a sign falls on Takaaki and the "anime accident" occurs where the main guy just happens to have one of his hands on the female character's breasts as he fell. Taking advantage of the situation, Karin asks that he is bold (general running gag in most anime when a male lead goes in for a move) and, before Takaaki can remove his hand, Karin places it back on her breast, albeit harder. She then says if she were to scream in agony, everybody in the sports team (coincidentally right next to them, just outside the room window, doing warm-ups) would hear and his reputation as a man would be ruined.

And thus, begins the third longest running gag in the anime where Takaaki has to aid her bidding or else she will ruin his reputation. With Tamaki, despite her tsundere ways, she still cares for Takaaki and wouldn't truly hurt him (she does, inadvertently, in the next series, but it was by accident), well Karin is the very definition of sadistic. Her character is just not likable to me and she has no redeeming traits aside from having the most normal hair in the group. I was gearing up to enjoy her when she debuted, until that episode went on.

Even worse, she indeed enforces this on Takaaki, even when he's in the drama portion of the anime where something serious happened. Only once, I believe, does he get out of her bidding, but only cause a friend pulls him out of the room they're in. Otherwise, she also has her way like Tamaki most of the time, but the thing is, she doesn't care if he hurts him or not. And that made her the cruelest character in the anime. Cause both Ruri and Yuma admittedly like Takaaki, but in their own unique way. Offscreen, according to Sango, Ruri admits at home that she "misses Takaaki" sometimes; as to which, she does the obvious blush before talking, hinting the fact to be true. As for Yuma, well, not much happens there until that light spoiler I gave of the next series.

Yeah, this review was...pretty lifeless. It was hard to be optimistic writing about this, cause the anime became a bit of an earful, among other things, as it progressed. I just began disliking it a lot, with a few notable exceptions such as Sango, Manaka and others really managing to have bright enough personalities to cheer me up. I would've had more to write if I didn't wait so long, as it faded my memory of the anime and I wanted to just write something cause it had been a while for me.

But, before I end things...there is one more girl in the bunch, one that apparently only has a cameo in a flashback sequence in this anime. Since she appears, though, and is considered a potential love interest for the main character (as a "bonus" according to what I saw, but was simply left out of the anime), I feel she counts.

Yuuki Kusakabe - Honestly, if I count outside of this anime, this girl is probably my real third favorite...oh, who am I kidding, I've already mentioned the next series enough already, I'm not fooling anyone.

She appears in a small flashback, revealing that she had to move away and also change her last name, so she could never see Takaaki again. As such, she is not necessarily a "childhood friend" of his, but close. She only ever got to interact with him for a little, but she grew close to him and, arguably, Yuuki is probably the girl that he has the most potential to date in the actual series as a whole. If you want to know more, you can read the last paragraph of her description or wait till you watch the next series.

In the full version of the flashback, in a rather sweet way, Takaaki offers his last name to Yuuki so that he will never forget about her, saying she can go by "Yuuki Kouno" if she likes. This shocks the other girls in the next series, as this kind of implies that he proposed to Yuuki, and technically, inadvertently "dated" her before any of the other girls. It's pretty cute, honestly, but they only share one real heartwarming moment in the next series. Their interaction is also rather subtle, maybe cause the next series might take place a year later and, by this point, maybe he hadn't seen her in so long (want to say over half a decade by this point) that he just forgets about her. It's rather sad, really, but it also did not help at all that, in this series, she has teal(?) hair, well in the new one, it's black. Maybe they just couldn't write her character fully for the anime and she was more in a "beta" phase during that flashback. Either way, I enjoyed her in the next series a lot and, indeed, she would be my personal number three if this review wasn't bias towards the original series.

So, that's the last of my sentiments towards To Heart 2. It's very vague, cheesy and this review wasn't fleshed out at all. In fact, due to the lack of free time I have to write this stuff anymore, I didn't really want to pour my soul into this, either. I'm saving that for the original To Heart later on this month, if not the next. So, this is more of an opinion thing I have between all the girls.

My final sentiments regarding the anime are that it would've been better if it was made before Love Hina, like the original was, as it would've allowed for better development, no tsundere bull and, well, less negativity perhaps. The drama was a welcomed idea, of course, considering how lighthearted the series before it is, but they do it in very strange ways; only becoming stranger in the next series.

Hope you enjoyed the read, and look forward to my sentiments on the original To Heart!

To heart 2 is animated from it's visual novel which was a dating sim so due to that I can understand why the story was all over the place and episodes were poorly linked together.

Furthermore, this creates many 2 episode arcs for the girls in which the viewer obviously gets to learn about them and the creators try VERY hard to squeeze in as much as they can about this character and get them to grow feelings for the MC which makes the story all over the place since the newly introduced girl will just be used as a side character for the rest ... of the show.

Plot: 3/10
Nothing to expect! Just the mc running into all these girls accidentky due to his kindness and hanging out with them. Surely nothing you've seen before!!

Pacing: 1/10
Absolutely horrendous. I'm aware that this is a harem and that the main character will obviously have many girls over him, but it was atrocious for me to watch 8 possible love interests get their backstory and chemistry with the MC get squeezed in 13 episodes!

Characters: 2/10
Nothing interesting. The main character is your very typical harem MC who is kind to everyone and is very naive to girls' feelings with that same generic character design. The girls were all very cliche and easy to read bc of their very one dimensional personality.

The girls almost felt forced, for example Yuma just always picked fights with the mc because she thought he was "challenging her" as she clashed into HIM with her bike twice. She was obviously a tsundere so the creators tried to always keep her fuming and that's her main drive towards Takaaki. It was super unrealistic and immensly annoying as Takaaki would never even dare to correct her in this misunderstanding.

Music: 4/10
Background music was very simple and usually unnoticable. Opening and ending was very forgettable and I didn't find it very remarkable but that's individual.

Animation: 3/10
To Heart 2 is quite outa dated however The animation was actually apalling. It started off decent but towards the end I could really tell it was a bit rushed and usually the character dialogue wouldn't match the animation; at one point it felt like watching a powerpoint slide tbh. Yeah it felt fanmade- super choppy!

So personally, To Heart 2 is a very bad spin off of To Heart and is deserving of a 4 for effort. I surely didn't enjoy it due to how generic and cliche it was, however if you truly want to experience this anime to its best- I suggest you give the visual novel a try as you could acc pick your own route instead if having them all dumped on you.