life line by line

Tamaki Kousaka is a senior at a private academy, transferring back home to keep a long ago made promise. Tamaki’s close friends try to get her to reconsider as even Tamaki knows it sounds pointless, but it’s something she has to do. Without much fanfare, she leaves the three girls as she heads back home…

… and is next seen about to serve tea to Takaki. Yep, Tamaki is not only a childhood friend of Takaki but also Yuuji’s (another childhood friend of Takaki and Konomi) older sister! Takaki initially doesn’t realize who Tamaki is but after an hilarious hint from Yuuji and some great sibling “bonding” from the Kousakas, he soon figures everything out. There’s a lot of groping on Tamaki’s part with their reunion, Takaki unfortunately having to take it like a man. Konomi later drops by and its a childhood reunion as the four enjoy looking at a rainbow after the day’s rain stopped.

Following day Tamaki wakes Takaki up, much to his charging. Initially surprised he soon learns Taka-nee (Takaki’s and Konomi’s nickname for Tamaki from childhood) is there to pick him up to go shopping with everyone. Takaki has zero excuses so off to the mall they all go! Some Tamaki playfulness involving women under garments highlight the group’s trip to the local mall.

The day after Tamaki decides to gather the group again to watch cherry blossoms but Yuuji is nowhere to be found. Tamaki and Konomi dropping by Takaki’s house leads them to find no one is home… until they hear Takaki’s pitiful attempt to leave his house with Yuuji unnoticed. Tamaki charges after the boys while reliving some childhood memories of a similar situation. The cat and mouse game eventually lead them to a nearby shrine where Tamaki easily finds the boys and grabs her “prize”: Takaki. The two reminisce about the past as Tamaki brings up her childhood promise with Takaki. Takaki vaguely recalls the event but doesn’t think much of it. Tamaki lets it drop as she’s finally back with everyone again just as Konomi comes to find them, having captured the escaped Yuuji.

New school semester for Yuuji, Takaki, and Konomi. The later two wonder how Tamaki is doing as she must be back at the private academy by now. Yuuji shows signs of knowing something but wisely keeps his mouth shut. Konomi idly mentions she should show the school uniform to Tama-nee one day as she heads off… only to trip and be saved by Tamaki! Seems like Tamaki is back for good as she transferred into their school as a 3rd year (senior)! Konomi is thrilled about having her Tama-nee around longer while the boys aren’t so happy. Who would when for one guy, its their older bossy sister while for the other, its a friend who basically treats you like her personal pet. Thus ends another episode of To Heart 2 with the cast a little bit bigger and the male characters a little bit sadder

Tamaki Kousaka plus Shizuka Itou as her voice… a winning combination! I have to say, so far To Heart 2 is two for two in my book. The staff has generally stuck to the game events which make players like myself very happy but at the same time, still write a good enough story that anyone could enjoy. I think one of the biggest positive for the show is the fact the audience gets to view the episode mostly through the view point of the “girl of week.” Personally I think it makes for a more interesting show as for once, we get to see the lives of the various girls in the series without too much of the male lead being in the way.

From a technical standpoint, the animation was a little bit worse than last week. Mostly at group shots or when there’s a wide angle shot but then again, I’m not expecting much now knowing how the animation will generally look. I also have to wonder what was the point of the chime sound like everytime a sakura (cherry blossom) passed by Tamaki? I almost felt like it was a savepoint in the game or something! Beside the two small complaints though, I thought the episode was good overall.

Once again, it’s insanely hard for me not to be biased for this series and particularly for this episode, since Tamaki is currently my favorite character from To Heart 2. I just love her playfulness and “hard edge” (ojosama attitude) personality with the occasional cute moments of kindness. Tamaki always seems to be on the prowl when dealing with Takaki while to everyone else she’s the perfect ojosama. However when she gets closer to Tamaki, that’s when she really shines as she lets everything down and just acts like any typical girl in love. It’s rather endearing when Tamaki does so in the game Of course, Tamaki being rather beautiful doesn’t hurt either.

Next episode is Manaka! The shy, quiet, yet very fan-loved 2nd year student whom is a classmate of Takaki and also works part time in the library. I can already tell Manaka’s episode is going to be sweet in that “aww” kind of way!