life line by line

To Heart 2 fans rejoice! The anime adaptation is finally here!

For those that do not know much about To Heart 2, I highly suggest going over to bluemist’s To Heart 2 Project where he details the game and its characters. Fair warning it’s rather spoilerish but it does give good descriptions of all the girls in the series.

Konomi Yuzuhara has just graduated junior high school and as is the occasion, spends the remaining time with her close friends since they’ll all be going to seperate high schools. In comes childhood friend Takaki to pick up Konomi, her friends conveniently leaving at the same time, leaving the two to walk around the junior high recalling various events together. All the memories of the three years there eventually lead to Konomi finally breaking down and crying over the saddness of graduating and parting with friends.

Later that night, Takaki has dinner with Konomi and her mother as he’s asked to watch over Konomi while her parents will be gone for a few days. It becomes quickly apparent Takaki and Konomi are close childhood (and neighborhood) friends with Konomi’s mother easily trusting Takaki to look after her daughter.

The day of Konomi’s sleepover, the two have an outting to just chill, window shop, and buy food for the night’s dinner. After a surprisingly good dinner, Konomi shows off her new high school uniform (she’s going to the same school as Takaki) much to his pleasant surprise. The two later watch a horror movie that scares Konomi enough that when she tries to sleep, she can’t. Konomi ends up sleeping with Takaki as she talks about the past and future.

Time elapses as the two are running late to school thanks to Konomi’s constant oversleeping, but somehow make it in time. Ends as the two part ways, with Konomi getting reassured by Takaki about the two of them always being together.

Opening

Ehheee~~

Ending

First and foremost complaint has got to be the animation. Seems like all incarnations of any To Heart series will be cursed with less-than-par animation. One would think that a popular game like To Heart 2 would boast better quality animation but I guess the people in charge felt the die-hard TH2 fans wouldn’t mind as long as their characters got animated. I can only hope the animation at least stays on the current level or gets slightly better; I fear to think if it becomes worse like this series did.

Animation aside, I’m happy to report all the original seiyuus from the game have taken on their characters’ roles in the anime. Currently we only got to hear Konomi but Yurika Ochiai does an wonderful job in portraying the adorable omouto-type Konomi. Oh, we also got to hear (and slightly see) Manaka for like five whole seconds! Also can’t forget to mention the Tamaki filled preview voiced by her seiyuu Shizuka Itou, which was an highlight for me being a Tamaki and Shizuka Itou fan

Talked about the animation and cast, so next up are the songs and background sounds. I think both the OP and ED songs have the feel of To Heart 2 and I didn’t really notice anything wrong about the background sounds/effects. I do have to question the choices for the animated sequences for the OP and ED but that’s for bitching about on another day.

Plot-wise, the first episode pretty much follows the beginnings of the game where you go the Konomi route. Events from the game that was in the anime that stuck out in my mind were Takaki going to Konomi’s last day of junior high (I’ve actually NOT picked this choice a few times), Konomi coming over and cooking a curry dinner, and Konomi coming in to sleep with Takaki. There were a few more minor events but overall, the game was followed to a T. Of course, this time around it was in Konomi’s point of view, which was a nice change from the usual male protagonist’s view, plus an extra for those that have played the game.

It’s really hard for me to judge the episode unbiased since I’ve played and fell in love with the game. Best I can probably say is it’s like the usual harem game turned into anime; not as deep as SHUFFLE! but enjoyable nonetheless. I can probably guess the staff will have the protagonist choose between Konomi or Tamaki as they’re the closest to him; that is, if they even decide to start any major love triangle. As it stands, each girl in the game will most likely have an episode dedicated to them as they’re introudced and somehow linked to the other characters. For the remaining episodes pass character intros, figure it could go all fluff or have a quick love drama that’ll end with “the girl” being chosen.

Personally, my vote goes towards Tamaki if any serious drama happens but I might be just a little biased about it