[Ascaloth] Trial Run: True Tears, Episode 4 at Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

[Ascaloth] Trial Run: True Tears, Episode 4

(10 votes, average: 2.6 out of 5)

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Popularity: 11% [?] Published by Ascaloth January 29th, 2008 in Ascaloth, Anime

PIcking off from the "OH SHI-" moment from the last seconds of the previous episode, Hiromi tells Shinichiro about how she first met "No. 4", Noe’s onii-chan, and how she got interested in him. However, it’s pretty clear as hell from the way she didn’t dare look Shinichiro while she was talking, that she was basically spouting a load of bull to cover what she’s really feeling. While Episode 3 had me worried that True Tears was going to go down a cliched romance melodrama path, this episode reminded of the good stuff that caused me to pick it up in the first place. Sure as anything, this series is good stuff; I mean, if it can manage to make the green-haired loli one eat his/her words, and even achieve the near-impossible task of drawing out the "Nice Guy" Allelujah from the "F*** You" Hallelujah, it has to be something special, doesn’t it? And so it is.

True Tears, Episode 4.

I have been gushing about P.A. Works’ kami-sakuga over the last three weeks, so here’s something else for a change. For some reason, even though their rendering of the sky is as beautiful as anything KyoAni or SHAFT could come up with, there’s something strange about how it looks that I can’t quite place my finger on. It’s kind of like watching components in a photograph move, instead of clouds moving across a real sky. Oh well, not like I want to take anything away from them; they’re still doing a lot better than certain studios which are so bankrupt in the creativity department they decide to steal an idea from Neon Genesis Evangelion.

"It’s your fault, Ai-chan. You gave me false hope."

You were the one who were fantasizing too much, bakayaro! Don’t be a wuss and blame it on the lady! Jeez.

Anyway, basically Shinichiro was being emo by the beach, and Aiko just so happens upon him on a delivery. She manages to nudge him into going shopping with her, and here we see her going "yes!" once he gives in. Aiko may not have made much impression on me the first two episodes, but her "ha-ya-kuuuu" last episode was pretty amusing, and I’m starting to see why she has a fanclub of her own.

"Look at it properly!"

You brought a guy out shopping, darling. Did you really expect any other kind of reaction apart from the one he’s giving you right now? Even the Pink Princess wasn’t able to do any better with her Jesus Yamato, and I don’t think even Hinano-sama can do any better with JPMeyer even with her Fists of Fury.

That said, you want a guy to pay attention to you while shopping? Pick items which we shallow specimens of the male species would like to see you ladies in. :p

"I’m sure that in time, you’ll naturally forget about everything."

Pretty cute, isn’t she? What True Tears does really well so far though, is how the female leads give a vibe of having an undercurrent of hidden feelings beneath the exterior they show to other people. The seiyuu are a large part of that; especially for Ai-chan in this scene, the way she modulated her voice at exactly the right moments hit all the right notes with me. That is pretty good timing right there.

"Who’s the one who hooked you up with Miyokichi?"

Oh, so THAT is how it is!!! Shinichiro, you sly cad you.

"You really didn’t have to…"

However, it seemed like it wasn’t quite what Ai-chan was asking for, and it shows. I’ve been wanting some real character development for her for a while now, and I’m getting it here, so all’s well. Even if Aiko still isn’t quite yet at a level to compete with Hiromi or Noe, she can certainly stand on her own in terms of character development.

"Are you avoiding me by any chance?"

You think?!

That said though, we see Hiromi acting even more conflicted than usual due to what she told Shinichiro, and clearly she seems to deeply regret that she said what she did; heck, she almost broke down right there and then. My apologies, Hiromi-chan; I shouldn’t have called you a compulsive liar. It’s clear you have some underlying reason for pushing Shinichiro away the way you did, but…what?

But what really surprised me in this scene was how Shinichiro literally fled from the scene when Mother tried to accost him. That’s quite a display of hatred for your own mother there, lad; why the animosity? Are you just going through your rebellious stage, or is there some argument we don’t know about?

"Those eyes…look exactly like your mother’s."

And here we have Mother finally outright playing the Bitch card, invoking the memory of Hiromi’s mother for some reason or other. Here’s one more clue as to the source of the tension between her and Hiromi; it clearly has to do with Hiromi’s mother, and there has been some wild theories flying around as to what it can be. I say "wild", but honestly, it’s still early in the series, so anything can go at this point.

And we come to what I consider the weakest link in True Tears so far; Nakagami Shinichiro. C’mon, you let a girl utterly overpower your weak ass?! I can understand if it’s a unstoppable megalomanic goddess like Haruhi-sama or a walking harbinger of pain like Hinano-sama, but Noe?! Man up and bash her a good one on the head already!

And what’s worse, you let her mindrape you as well. Kyon can be respected for his ability to withstand Haruhi-sama’s jiiiiii~ with minimal ill-effects, but you go all pale and blue like some sort of wimp under Noe’s gaze. Pfft, what a pathetic fellow.

In any case, Noe completes the full circle by sharing her past with Shinichiro; her search for tears is directly related to the fact that she has never cried ever since her beloved grandmother passed on. It was her late grandmother who told her she would be taking her tears to the sky, and that tears can only be taken from those dear to one.

Ever since then, she has been searching for someone else’s tears, and that is why she rejected Shinichiro’s tears at first as being no good to her. Well, that’s pretty interesting, although I’m no closer to understanding just what exactly is Noe searching for, and what she wants to do with them. For one thing, it seems that she’s adjusted relatively well ever since, apart from her queer little obsession about tears.

And as for Aiko, it’s clear that her eyes have been set on Shinichiro from the very beginning, even though she doesn’t begrudge the company of Miyokichi. It’s one of those cases where one has feelings for another, but can only watch him from afar, and being unable to do anything about it for fear of breaking the status quo for the worse.

And certainly it can get even more confusing, if one doesn’t intend to entirely reject the person who has been besides him/her all along. How does one reconcil such a situation? It’s the ages-old question; the person you love, or the person who loves you?

"I can help you get close to her."

And strangely enough, Noe actually offers to help Shinichiro get closer to Hiromi, having already deduced that was the reason for this current state of depression. You know, there’s something about this particular series; it’s almost as if everyone communicates through "heart language" as much as they do verbally, if you know what I mean. The way they act tells us a lot more about these characters than what they actually say, and I for one actually like this particular style of executing character development.

Then we come to Shinichiro. I called him the weakest link in True Tears thus far, and I’m beginning to like him less and less; he’s becoming little more than a typical male harem lead with so few distinguishing qualities about him, that it’s almost a pity he’s in the lead role. Not to mention his cheap emo-ing; it’s just plain disgusting. Miyokichi deserves the lead role more than this guy does, but of course characters of his archetype don’t ever get the chance. Why can’t he be a male lead of a calibre that would suit the three females better?!

Sis-con is what many are making of this semi-intimate scene between Noe and her Onii-chan, and I for one can certainly see where it’s coming from. It’s very nice how almost everybody in the cast has some kind of emotional stake in someone else in the cast, and I can see it all coming together in some sort of web.

The girl in Shinichiro’s visualizations had resembled Hiromi in the beginning, but now it has taken the form of Noe with angel wings. These visualizations symbolise something, probably Shinichiro’s subconscious state of mind, and as to how it would all play out…well, I don’t know, but it never ceases to intrigue me.

Have you not learned to knock before entering first, bakayaro, or are you actually trying to catch a repeat of the little peep show you got in Episode 1?! What a little cad.

"I have a favour to ask of you. Go out with my sister."

And to end things off, Isurugi Jun asks Shinichiro to actually date his sister. Erm, wow. Most onii-chans that I know of tend to consider chasing off their imoutos’ suitors like the little no-good brats that they are, but this one actually encourages Emo Boy to consider his little sister. Well, I guess it’s a positive indication towards the probability that they are indeed blood relations. So how’s it going to go from here?

You know, I have been liking True Tears a lot ever since I first picked it up. It’s quite unlike anything else I’ve seen before, and the feel about it is really quite unique. There’s a lot of plus points to be had about this series; for one thing, P.A. Works has some real skill in the sakuga department, with the added advantage of being still relatively unknown, and thus relatively safe from the misrepresentations and outright lies of certain people. The cast for the most part is also one of the strongest I’ve seen; each and every one of the main girls display a palpable sense of hidden emotions deep underneath their facade, and yet they cannot be fully pinned down as archetypes. Each of them seems to have their individual motivations driving them, and it makes for an intriguing story even as a slice-of-life. I may not know where it’s going, but I’m coming along for the ride anyway.

I know I said I’m extending the Trial Run by two more episodes last week, but screw that, this episode has convinced me once and for all. The Trial Run is over; I’m following this series for real. Let’s hope True Tears continue its relatively fine run all the way to the end, and for P.A. Works to score a success with it. There’s a lot of potential for this series.

Ascaloth, out.

Popularity: 11% [?]

11 Responses to “[Ascaloth] Trial Run: True Tears, Episode 4”

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1 boo 10 comments Jan 29th, 2008 at 2:08 am

I bet Noe knows her brother has the hots for her. There’s no way she can be that perceptive and not notice. She’s trying to get Shinichiro together with Hiromi so the incest can reach to new heights!
2 hashihime 31 comments Jan 29th, 2008 at 4:05 am

Great review. I live near the sea, and the skies in this show are skies I often see in real life, with different layers of cloud and fog going in different directions or at different paces.

I’m going in the opposite direction as far as Shin is concerned: I’m liking him more and more. He’s not the whiny brat of a harem lead you see in lots of shows. He has real feelings and some inner strength that will come out as we go along, I believe. The shouting in frustration scenes in ep4 worked for me. And I think Noe may be almost as magically powerful as Haruhi, anyway, lol.

Yes, such great voice-acting from Takagaki Ayahi (Noe), Nazuka Kaori (Hiromi), Takahashi Rieko (Mother), and now Iguchi Yuka (Ai-chan). Ishii Makoto (Shin) hasn’t struck me so much, but one line of his was great: the way he said “Isurugi Noe” in ep1, when she was walking on the seawall. And I think credit should go, not just to the studio in general, but also specifically to the actual director and writer, Nishimura Junji (Simoun) and Okada Mari (Sketchbook, Kodomo no Jikan, script work on Red Garden, episodes of Simoun and Rozen Maiden.)
3 Calawain 23 comments Jan 29th, 2008 at 8:17 am

Mmmmm I’m starting to eat my words from the Winter preview we did as well regarding this show. It has certainly not gone in the overly melodramatic way I thought it was going, although with only 4 episodes so far I can’t conclusively declare it one way or another. However, I will keep watching it for now until something else changes. Just hoping we don’t have too much Hiromi moping and he just goes ahead and hooks up with Noe. The biggest thing for me in the episode was his dreams/writing/drawing, where he says that his image of Hiromi has been crushed, and he starts to imagine an angelic Noe coming to save him in some respects. Hopefully this bodes well for their relationship.
4 Crusader 28 comments Jan 29th, 2008 at 12:39 pm

I resent being compared to that ingrate Haptism! I am no fan of that bastard who give mein Leutnant Soma a hard time. Still Impz did eat his words…

Good to see that True Tears is starting to win people over. I agree that Shin-chan lacks the sheer loyalty of Miyokichi and the wit of Isurugi Jun but until either one of them eliminates him then we are pretty much stuck. Still whenever Shin-chan is around Noe is usually not far along. At the very least Shin-chan isn’t groping everything without two balls and a twig. I like how they were able to convey the suspicion of sis con with nary a word, I expect great things from this series.
5 Mitsuki_Hayase 336 comments Jan 29th, 2008 at 12:58 pm

Still Trial Run?
6 Kaioshin_Sama 101 comments Jan 29th, 2008 at 5:23 pm

I want to clarify something here as a blogger and fan of Gundam 00, something that was brought up in this article. In that screenshot posted from Gundam 00, The event is really nothing like anything to do with Evangelion or it’s angelic nature. It is a shot of the Gundam Drei activating a jamming field with it’s particle reactor (Known as the GN Reactor) that causes a blackout in communications equipment. If anything the scene is invocative of the moonlight butterfly from Turn A Gundam and an homage, not a ripoff of or theft of an idea from Evangelion, which has a seraphic wing in the opening sequence, not a particle ejection that happens to look like one.

What does this have to do with True Tears? Nothing. Though it was brought up in this article for some reason and I am here to debunk the assertation.

As a comparison:

Eva-01’s Seraphic Wing: http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/9361/evaseraphicwingle1.jpg

Gundam Drei’s Stealth Field Shot Provided By Ascaloth: http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y141/HyperionEnergy/Gundam00-16-Large14.jpg

These are your comparisons that you brought up, but these are some shots of the Moonlight Butterfly.

Shot Of Drei’s Stealth Field Activating: http://animehistory.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/snapshot20080127231145.jpg

Shot of Moonlight Butterfly Activating (From A Production Cell: http://www.mahq.net/mecha/gundam/turn-a/lineart/system-a-99-moonlight.jpg

Stealth Field Spreads: http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/7713/stealtfieldspreadsyy7.jpg

Moonlight Butterfly Spreads: http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/6092/moonlightbutterflyspreapv9.jpg

Moonlight Butterfly Aftereffect (Taken from Gundam Musou): http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/7940/moonlightbutterflyafterxl4.jpg

Also if I’m not mistaken, Full Metal Panic had a similar effect where the Lamba Driver manifested as spreading wings briefly. This is a very common effect in mecha series. There was also an homage to G Gundam’s Bakunetsu God Finger in one of the attacks that Sousuke used with the Lamba Drivers power. I don’ think you or I would say that was Gonzo/Kyoto Animation being creatively bankrupt and stealing ideas from Sunrise, but that they were showing tribute to a classic.

Ascaloth, if you are going to acuse a studio of being creatively bankrupt and resorting to theft of ideas you need to do more research before making the accusation. There is a lot of evidence running contrary to this.

Now, with that out of the way, I must say I am considering watching True Tears. I have heard nothing but good things about it from various sources, so I don’t see why I shouldn’t give it a chance.
7 Setsukyie 34 comments Jan 30th, 2008 at 5:53 pm

Great review.
I wish I can review like this too..

True Tears is getting better and better.
I feel that its quite different from other animes of the same genre..
desu ne..
8 leefe 120 comments Jan 31st, 2008 at 2:23 am

True Tears is my current favourite of the season…
And Noe is moe!
9 suneo 3 comments Feb 1st, 2008 at 8:59 am

Nice walkthrough for ep 4. I’m really liking series as well. I’ve come across a few people who threw this series away just going by the “typical approach” to the romance drama, and I say they are really missing out. I think that the way the show captures the character’s emotions are done really well, and not only that, like you’ve mentioned the art direction is really somethin else. Makes for a very pretty show to look at and draws you in at the same time. It’s pretty down to earth and is also one of those series that can really make me think of things like “what would I do if I were in his situation?” If this keeps up it may end up being one of the series I actually collect on dvd! (only three series to date). Definitely one of my favorites this season!
10 Derek 1 comment Feb 2nd, 2008 at 5:04 am

“The girl in Shinichiro’s visualizations had resembled Hiromi in the beginning, but now it has taken the form of Noe with angel wings.”

The second time he was drawing in episode one… where there was a big tree. I swear that is Noe at the bottom - odd tho, since it’s before he meant her. He also seemed to have a confused look on his face, before deciding to focus on the tree.
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Do not use any < and > for your own sake. It will end the comment there and then. Also, there is an automatic IQ filter which weeds out comments made by those who accidentally got transported from the stone age.

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