True Tears is the story of a young man with a talent for drawing who wants to publish a book, but the main plotline is his burning desire for his de facto "sister," Yuasa Hiromi. I'm exhausted and disappointed so this won't be much more than a brief overview.
I came to this from Whisper of the Heart, as I'd heard this series also involved an artistically-inclined character who's inspired to create something that truly comes from the heart. And yes, I can say Shinichiro does exactly that, but it didn't quite strike a chord with me as WotH did. Anyway, True Tears had a really promising start, with what appeared to be a rather clichéd slice-of-life school romance story a la Toradora! or Clannad, but it seemed subversive in a way (at first). That is, the series seemed to be aware of this stereotypical treatment and took occasional jabs at itself, sort of a way to turn the clichés on their head.
From there (I would say from the second half of the eighth episode), it devolved into an ACTUALLY clichéd and heavy-handed school life story. Drama isn't a bad thing, but damn if it didn't drag the entire series down with it.
I think there are a few principle factors that led to this sharp decline: first was that the female lead/romantic interest was completely uninteresting. I can debate the personal qualities of Yuasa Hiromi's character from sundown to sunset, and it may in the end just be a matter of opinion anyway, but ultimately I never felt like I was "with" her, I never felt like I could realistically root for Shinichiro to win her over. I just didn't care.
Shin himself did quite a heel face turn as well. At least in that first half, although he was oddly fixated on Hiromi, he did seem to have some sense of self-awareness and conscience. Deep down, he seemed to at least mean well to his friends and acquaintances, even the more unusual among them. Over the second half of the series, he devolves into a generic school life jerk - that is, the one all the girls want, and God knows why.
I don't think True Tears is really a terrible series overall, and the last half may not even actually be bad. It just seems like episodes eight through thirteen could have been so much more than they were, and they ended up being a spectacular letdown. It had such a strong start and what makes it so disappointing as a series is how quickly it appeared to lose steam.
I don't know; maybe True Tears really is a completely subversive game-changer, toying with our automatic assumption that the main character of a slice-of-life romance may make mistakes and do stupid things but at least means well. Perhaps most of the cast save two was made deliberately unlikeable for that very reason. The weird thing is that looking back, I almost feel like after around episode eight or nine, the characters are turned into people they don't seem to have been just a couple episodes prior. It's like they're jostled permanently out of their own character. Maybe I'm the only one who felt that, but feel free to come to your own conclusions. And it's a shame too, because the OP is wonderful and the art at time is breathtaking.
Anyway, I think that's enough non-sequitur and passionate nonsense for one review. In a nutshell, my take on True Tears is as follows: watch it if you want, but it's neither must-see nor must-avoid. If you do decide to watch it, perhaps you'll come to a different conclusion than I did, but I frankly would've been much happier (and may even have rated the series a lot higher) if it had ended a few episodes earlier.
