I’ve actually just watched True Tears for the third time, (I have the DVDs) and my opinion on the series has varied with each viewing. The first time I saw it, I thought it was breathtaking and heartwarming. The second time, cheesy and forced. After watching it a third time, I realize that although this series is definitely not for everyone, it displays a very interesting mixture of dream and reality that you don’t find in a lot of anime.
The story centers around high school student Shinichiro Nakagami, an aspiring artist who lives with his mother, his father, and the love of his life, Hiromi Yuasa, (left) who hasn’t shown much happiness since she came to live with Shinichiro and his family. Loving Hiromi, chasing his dream, and being pressured by his family is tearing Shinichiro apart inside. Everything changes when he meets Isurugi Noe, (center) a very odd girl who claims that she has “given her tears away.” She tells Shinichiro that she must collect someone else’s tears in order to be able to cry again, and he is, unfortunately, the prime candidate.
I feel like the entire storyline is a ton of metaphors thrown together. This is not necessarily a bad thing, nor is it a good thing. If anything, this series adds originality to every cliché you would expect from a romantic harem drama. There are certain things that go unexplained, and certain things that seem to be tossed into the story in hopes of intensifying the mood. But overall, the way it was presented worked very nicely.
The art, especially the scenery, was probably the best part of this entire series. It was wonderfully animated, and most of the facial expressions of the characters were quite realistic for an animated series. I can vividly remember almost all of the background art in this anime. The scenery was so detailed and well-drawn that it’s kind of hard to forget. The only problem I had as far as the art and animation was the excessive use of certain elements. There was a lot of fan service, (mostly from Hiromi) as well as an overuse of colored pencil freeze-frames and extreme close ups on people’s lips. Sometimes it worked, but most of the time it was just kind of distracting.
The characters in the series were very unrealistic, but in a way that makes you love every one of them. These are the kinds of people you only wish existed in real life, in that their emotions are more powerful than most people’s, and these emotions are outwardly expressed through their actions. Sometimes, however, the characters personalities did seem a bit forced. It often seemed like the writers were trying too hard to make us feel sympathy for the characters.
The most well-done character by far was Isurugi Noe. Noe has a very childlike, free-spirited personality that’s pretty much irresistible. Not only is she a very likeable character, but she is probably one of the only characters, other than the protagonist, that we actually get to watch grow from the beginning of the series to the end.
I think you have to be a certain type of person to really enjoy this series. The main flaw in this series overall is that it was very, very cheesy. Therefore, in order to enjoy this series, you must be able to overcome the cheese. You have to be the kind of person who can relate to the characters, understand the metaphors, and apply the messages the anime portrays to your own life. If you’re not the kind of person who connects to the shows you watch, this series is not for you.
True Tears is definitely something special. It’s a very lovely drama about struggles that a lot of teenagers have to face. This series can either be viewed as a powerful love story, or a melodramatic high school series. If you look past the all its flaws, True Tears can be viewed as one of the most unique dramatic harems to date.
