Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai – 13 (Fin) – On Second Thought…Screw Duty!

Tada-kun never fell in love…until he did. And just his luck, it’s someone who is not only from very far away, but whose hand is promised to another. Against as a monumental, implacable an obstacle as Teresa’s stated duty to her country, he feels lost, defeated; like nothing matters anymore—even feelings that got him on a plane.

As Alec basically lets Teresa cry it out one more night (and cries right beside her, owing to her own unrequited love) Kaoru emerges from the sidelines to encourage Tada not to give in to despair or give up on saying what he came there to say to Teresa. While messing around, Kaoru accidentally lets the royal invite Rachel slipped in Tada’s bag.

That’s all the stimulus Tada needs to spring into action, retrieving the damp envelope at all costs. He’s regained the will and the imperative to see and speak with Teresa one last time…even if he’s being a bother.

Turns out Tada is far more of a bother to Charles and Alec than Teresa, but while Alec is quick to call for Tada to leave, Charles, who puts Teresa’s happiness before his own, lets her and Tada have some more time together. Nothing he says or does can change the fact Teresa simply doesn’t love him.

It sucks, but it’s not at all unexpected when two people are arranged, basically at birth, to marry one another. Love can certainly develop in such a scenario, but in my personal view it’s definitely putting the cart before the horse, and such arrangements aren’t a match for organically developing love such as Teresa and Tada’s.

When Tada finally confesses he’s loved Teresa since they met, she accuses him of being unfair. She left Japan so she could lock away all of her feelings deep inside for all time, but all it took was him following her to her home and saying a few words to break that lock.  There’s no “last day of crying” for Teresa, as long as she’s not in a situation where she can live with the one she loves.

As the credits roll, we return to Japan, where aside from Pin-senpai graduating, is more-or-less the status quo…with one very important development: Charles broke off his engagement to Teresa, rightfully acknowledging that it wouldn’t be fair for either of them to follow through with something that was not their choice.

In a bit of a surprise, Teresa not only seems happy to be free of her engagement to Charles, but took it further by “running after” Tada back to Japan, either delaying or outright cancelling her succession to the throne.

Tada is shocked that she would all but abdicate for him, but once they’re in each others arms, the whys, wherefores, and consequences melt away, and it’s just the two of them, Teresa, and Tada, no longer having never fallen in love. Is it a bit too neat and tidy of an ending? You bet…but who cares!

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai – 12 (Not Fin) – It’s Not You, it’s the Royal We

First, I have to applaud TKnS for shedding its comfortable Japanese high school milieu for something completely different that expands the story’s boundaries a whole hemisphere’s width and lends it a sense of occasion.

Second, I applaud Mitsuyoshi for getting over his aviophobia to make the trip to Larsenburg, for he feared something far more than flying: not knowing why Teresa left, and not telling her how he truly felt about her. (Kaoru also cheers his friend on, but keeps his distance)

Larsenberg is gorgeous, as one would expect of a fictitious Germanic-sounding miniature kingdom. You can’t help but notice how different it is from the Japan he left, right down to the fact it’s now wintertime.

Mitsuyoshi arrives at the address his gramps stipulated as the place where he’d find Reiko, AKA Rachel, but has trouble gaining access, because it’s a goddamn palace, complete with a Royal Guard that won’t answer his questions…or speak at all.

Meanwhile, Teresa, Alec, and Charles are busy with the duties of a royal couple and their bodyguard…only with a little bit of palace drama mixed in. Alec reveals her lifelong love for Charles when Teresa walks into find her hugging his recently-worn jacket.

Teresa also picks up on Alec’s tell, a grabbing of the arm that signifies lying. Alec denies and denies, not because she doesn’t believe Teresa knows about her feelings (she does), but because she knows nothing good could come of her expressing her feelings for Charles; he’s supposed to marry Teresa, not her.

Before Teresa and Alec can continue their discussion, Mitsuyoshi pops in. He had the good fortune of being spotted outside the palace by Rachel, who invites him in and tells him how she used to work at his gramps’ cafe when she was in college, before moving to Larsenburg to serve the royal family.

Rachel and Charles present Mitsuyoshi to a very shocked Teresa. He apologizes for surprising her, but she knows she’s the one who needs to apologize and properly tell him what the dealio is. Their reunion came far later in the episode than I expected, and it’s almost painfully brief and cordial.

In a sumptuous gilded drawing room the two sit across from one another, Mitsuyoshi expresses his relief that she’s okay and relays Teresa the others’ regards. Then Teresa comes out with it: she’s the future queen of Larsenburg, and thus there is, in her mind, “no way she can live the life she wants”, i.e. either as an ordinary woman in Japan, or as queen, but getting to choose her man.

In the latter case, Teresa drops a second bombshell on Mitsuyoshi: her lifelong betrothal to none other than Charles. We never see if or how he reacts to this verbally after his initial pained look; we only see the aftermath, with neither Alec nor Charles able to approach a sobbing Teresa in her darkened chambers, while Kaoru finaly reveals he followed Mitsuyoshi here, only to watch his friend crying for the first time.

And it’s about here when I was wondering “Wait, really? You’re going to end it like this, show?” But the show didn’t. MAL misled me into thinking this was the last episode, but there’s one more. Thus, there’s hope everyone can walk away with some kind of closure!

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai – 11 – Decluttering

The sudden departure of Teresa and Alec for vague “family reasons” comes as a shock to all, especially when the reality of their absence sinks in via their now-empty apartment and desks at school. But no one is hit as hard as Mitsuyoshi, who is constantly encountering things that remind her of Teresa, and of the fact he had his chance to say something to her and blew it.

I don’t think Mitsuyoshi is mad at Teresa—nor should he be—so much as he’s angry at himself. He can’t hide his change in behavior post-Teresa from his best friend Kaoru, who quickly comes to suspect Tada liked Teresa and has been shaken by her disappearance. Kaoru wants to help him, but doesn’t have enough info, and it’s too sore a subject to broach lightly.

One friend who has no compunctions about broching sore subjects is Nyanko Big, who despite lacking thumbs is able to get into his closet and rifle through the box he filled with mementos of his time with Teresa.

Mitsuyoshi goes off on his own, and senses a great emptiness from all of the spots he’d previously visited on their last day together. Like the new tenants in the apartment, everything has changed, and there’s nothing for it but to move on. Mitsuyoshi tosses his Teresa Box in the trash.

That practical and emotional “decluttering” continues in the photo club, where he unceremoniously erases Teresa and Alec’s names from the whiteboard. Then they find an extra memory card filled with all of Teresa’s photos. They’re mostly of rocks, but the greatest treasure is the sole video file of their game of photo tag.

That’s the day Teresa and Alec truly became two of the gang, and she also managed to capture Hajime and Hinako’s unspoken love. Those memories of Teresa laughing and smiling just keep rushing through Mitsuyoshi until he can’t take it and flees home to retrieve the box from the trash, only to find it’s already gone.

He sulks in his dark room until Kaoru confronts him, though not before showing him the photo he was looking for, which Hajime submitted for him, and which won an Excellence prize. In it, Teresa is beaming, her hair flowing in the wind, rainbows reflected in her eyes. It’s an absolutely gorgeous image full of love—the photographer’s love for the subject in particular. Kaoru says there’s no way such a photo could have been taken if Mitsuyoshi didn’t feel that way about her.

Mitsuyoshi finally opens up about how angry he’s been since Teresa left, and how stupid he was to stay silent and close love out of his life. All he wants is one last chance to see Teresa and talk to her so he can tell her how he feels—even if she rejects them. Gramps comes in with the un-tossed box, telling Mitsuyoshi that now that it’s “stopped raining in his heart” it’s time to search for the rainbow that comes after; i.e. Teresa.

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai – 10 – The Larsenburgian Princess Makes an Irish Exit

This was a simple, quiet, beautiful episode focused mostly on Teresa and Mitsuyoshi’s date (there’s no other word for it) to the Rainbow Samurai show, which begins with the two meeting where they first met, by the gates of the Imperial Palace.

It’s an episode with a beginning and middle that will warm your heart and an ending that will break it—assuming you’re invested in these two.

It’s obvious how much fun both Mitsuyoshi and Teresa are having, but while they’re both smiling, there’s an underlying romantic tension that neither of them is bold enough to remark on with words.

Instead, they simply enjoy their time together, winning each other prizes at the cork gun stand (Teresa hitting hers thanks to an assist from the Yakuza-ish cafe regular), interact in the live show as “hostages”, and enjoy a rainbow-themed meal.

Meanwhile, in a rare cut from their date, Kaoru asks Alec if she’ll go on a date with him, expecting her to reject him for the umpteenth time…only she doesn’t! Not immediately; she gives him a chance to choose where they’ll go, but he’s too consumed in utter shock to suggest anything, and she retracts her offer.

The two encounter one another at the Tada cafe, where Alec delivered a letter to Gramps from Reiko, AKA Rachel, Teresa’s nanny, who introduced her to the Rainbow Samurai in the first place. What a weird coincidence…

When Mitsuyoshi and Terea scale the Sky Tree to the observation deck, it’s suddenly all gray and rainy, as it tends to be whenever the two meet up (or so Mitsuyoshi jokes). The weather, and the sight of a happy family beside them, reminds him of the last time he saw his parents, on a day just as gray and rainy.

He tells Teresa how he blames himself for not telling his father his true feelings; delaying them just a little could have prevented the accident. This is something he knows is ridiculous, but he’s always felt that way regardless, and hasn’t been able to tell anyone…until Teresa.

As the clouds part to reveal a humongous double rainbow, Teresa tells him if he regrets not sharing his feelings in the past, simply try to share them from now on. If that’s meant to be a hint, Mitsuyoshi doesn’t take it.

After that, the two part ways at the cafe, and Teresa can barely hold back tears when thanking Mitsuyoshi for their wonderful day together, for a souvenir he got her, and for the photo of them posing with the Rainbow Samurai. He asks if she wants some coffee, and she shakes her head and returns to her hotel next door.

The next morning at school, the teacher announces that Teresa and Alec have returned to Larsenburg for “family reasons.” Mitsuyoshi and Kaoru are stunned. His entire day with Teresa turned out to be the last they’d spend together, and he didn’t even know it.

There were ample chances for Mitsuyoshi to take Teresa’s advice and share his feelings. On the other hand, every time she shared hers, it was through muttered words he never quite heard, and followed with “oh, it’s nothing at all.”

I would’ve gone a different way than basically ripping off a relationship like a band-aid, but ultimately it was her choice to decide how to say goodbye to Mitsuyoshi. Perhaps anything more would have only made it harder for her to leave at all…and she has to leave, for he good of her country.

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai – 09 – Various Things

Teresa’s head maid/nanny/governess-whatever warned her; if she went to Japan, she may encounter “various things”…Teresa just never knew that those various things would include falling in love, and not just with Mitsuyoshi, but with his friends, a simple life of school, having fun, and occasional cafe work…and with Japan.

At the airport Teresa all but confirms to Alec what Alec had suspected; that she has indeed fallen for Mitsuyoshi. But Teresa hasn’t abandoned her plan to marry Charles and become queen. That duty remains extremely important…but now it is competing with…various things.

With the air between the girls cleared, the next time Teresa is near Mitsuyoshi, she stiffens up and becomes conspicuously…formal. Mitsuyoshi does not change in turn; he merely continues being the kind fellow he’s always been, plucking a caterpillar from her hair, picking up her eraser, and lending her and Alec his umbrella (though it eludes me how someone as meticulous as Alec would forget hers).

Mitsuyoshi had hoped Kaoru would be able to share his, but neither of them have an umbrella, so they run through the rain. And the chances of someone in an anime getting a fever after getting stuck in the rain always hover somewhere around 99.999999999%, so Mitsuyoshi collapses. Teresa blames herself for taking his umbrella, and works a shift at the cafe with Alec so Mitsuyoshi can rest and recover.

Yui serves Mitsuyoshi her Special Red-Hot Rice Porridge (I’ll call it Reho-riho), but when Yamashita and Hajime leave his bedside, they neglect to bring down the dirty dishes, so Yui sends Teresa up to his room to fetch them.

There, Teresa finds herself all alone with the guy she’s fallen for, and the wind scatters his photos, all of them beautiful and full of love. Even with his fever, she can’t resist bending over to kiss him, but immediately tears up upon doing so, cursing herself for being unable to “stop.”

At this point its almost assured she’ll have to take a significant emotional hit in order to follow through on her royal duty to marry Charles, whom she simply does not love (though could presumably fall in love given enough time, as with some arranged marriages). But “in love now” tends to win out over “in love down the road, maybe.”

For now, once he’s better, Teresa seems poised to invite Mitsuyoshi to a day of Sky Tree Rainbow Shogun fun. And once she’s done having her fun, she’ll presumably return home and do her duty.

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai – 08 – Growing Up Quickly, Venturing off the Path

As their days in Japan grow less numerous, Alec might’ve hoped Teresa will gradually ratchet down her lingering glances in Mitsuyoshi’s direction. Instead, after a lovely trip to Lake Kawaguchi to photograph Fujiyama and the stars, the opposite seems to be happening, and Mitsuyoshi finds himself glancing back more and more.

The subject of the group’s conversation turns to love when they visit a shrine and purchase their fortunes. Ijuuin continues to quixotically flirt with Alec, while Hajime continues to make remarks about HINA when she’s standing right beside him. Pretty standard TKS stuff.

Teresa probably also hoped Charles’ continued presence would steer Teresa back on course, but Charles is drawn away from the fun by work from home, and has to stay at the inn while everyone else sets out for the lake to make camp and wait for the stars to come out.

Everyone ends up dozing off except for Mitsuyoshi and Teresa, who end up talking a lot about their respective pasts. While Mitsuyoshi losing his parents was certainly more tragic than Alec getting wet and crying, the fact of the matter is both of them reacted the same way: by regretting mistakes they made and wishing they could go back and fix them.

But they can’t so Mituyoshi opines that regret is a means of reminding themselves not to repeat mistakes that were made but can’t be unmade. The symbolism of the clouds parting to reveal the stars just as the two possible soul mates open up to one another was not lost on me.

Unfortunately, any further developments between the two are curtailed when Ijuiin pops out of the darkness, though Teresa instinctively grabs hold of Mituyoshi’s arm, turning beet red when she realized what she’d done.

The photo club gets their star shots, and before you know it the trip is over and Charles is headed back to Larsenburg. When he kisses Teresa’s hand and bids her goodbye, her hilarious lack of emotional response is conspicuous, but Charles doesn’t let his disappointment show until he has his back turned to Teresa and Alec.

Alec, meanwhile, doesn’t have the same faith Charles does that Teresa will end up fine eventually; perhaps because she’s been by her side in Japan far longer. So she confronts Teresa right there at the airport, preparing to ask, no doubt, about what exactly she’s doing falling in love with Mitsuyoshi.

I doubt the question will be phrased quite that way—nor is there a version of such a question Teresa will be able to answer easily—but when the hair of anime characters whips around that emphatically, you know drama’s afoot.

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai – 07 – If You Give Up, Then That’s That

Nyanko Big, Pillar of the Tada family since the loss of its mom and dad, is missing. Mitsuyoshi’s little sister Yui takes center stage in the search for him, riffing off of her favorite manga that chronicle the cases of Hercule Poirot’s half-Japanese granddaughter…which doesn’t sound like a half-bad anime!

Everyone joins in the search, even Sir Charles, who was the one who saw him last with his “girlfriend” (a raggedy foxtail toy). During the search, Yui is happy to be partnered with Yamashita Dog, on whom she’s been maintaining a crush. (Hinako and Hajime sit this one out).

When we first see Charles reacting to something earlier on, and Yui’s gramps mentions how pets “take a trip” when their “time has come”, the episode is trying to tint the proceedings with foreboding, but while the thought briefly occurred to me they might kill off the cat, that thought didn’t last due to the search’s lighthearted tone.

Sure enough, they find Nyanko attempting to woo the disinterested Cherry, who happens to be the pet of “Chia-nee”, a lovely woman who knows Yamashita and pats him on the head as he coos. The joy of finding her cat is replaced by the revelation the guy she likes likes someone else, and says as much later when they’re enjoying celebratory festival snacks.

Teresa knows something’s up, and when asked what’s up, Yui cannot hide her tears of frustration, asking Teresa if falling in love with someone is always so painful. Like Nyanko Big, Yui is meowing up the wrong awning, but Charles later confides in Nyanko that he senses he may be doing the same with Teresa.

That aside, Teresa is the one who once told him “if you give up, then that’s that!”, when he tried to give up looking for his cherished gold bracelet (perhaps given to him by Teresa). She didn’t give up, ended up finding it, and he still wears it to this day. He, in turn, won’t give up, and neither will Nyanko and Yui.

As for Mitsuyoshi? Well, once again he’s a non-factor, only managing a momentary awkward meeting of eyes with Teresa. You can’t give up something you haven’t started, and with only five episodes left, he’s running out of time to do so.

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai – 06 – Teresa Can’t Fall in Love

For a show called “Tada-kun Never Falls in Love”, it’s somewhat stunning how little romantic development there’s been between Tada and Teresa, not to mention how little Tada-kun there’s been.

His interest in Teresa has been so…peripheral (one or two moments excepted) that the sudden appearance of Prince Charles—Teresa’s fiancee back home—feels premature. Why throw a wrench into the works when there have been barely any works?

Thankfully, Charles isn’t a tumbling dickweed despite his status and his Aventador rental(?); he seems to genuinely care about Teresa, and he has the looks and charisma to win over every skeptic at school. He doesn’t even make the mistake of blurting out the blindingly obvious fact that Hinako is HINA!

You get the feeling Charles isn’t interacting with Teresa’s Japanese friends out of obligation or a sense of royal patience. Even if his coming to Japan flies in the face of Teresa’s original intent for going—to get away from her other life—one can appreciate how her trip there might’ve felt to him like a warning sign, and how coming there allayed those concerns.

When Ijuuin invites everyone to a fancy celebrity gala and neither Charles, Teresa, nor Alec can attend, only for their previous engagement is that very party, seems to be the universe once more working in Teresa and Tada’s favor, even if the two have done precious little with such opportunities (with good reason, considering Teresa’s obligation to marry Charles).

It’s here at the party where it should be plain that Teresa isn’t just a mere foreign transfer student, but someone quite a bit more…important. Nevertheless, Tada treats her like he’d treat anyone else, and when she wanders off on her own after washing a drink off her dress, and she and Tada are caught in the rain, he does the appropriate thing and give her his jacket to keep her warm.

As Charles and Alec dance to pass the time, Tada and Teresa simply shoot the breeze, enjoying one another’s company. But while Tada is being as open and honest as someone who “never falls in love” can be, Teresa basically continues to sit on a throne of lies (or at least omissions).

Teresa and Tada look for all the world like star-crossed lovers, what with the fact they both stared up at the same North Star as kids. And Tada is once more swept into the background when a panicked Alec arrives to scold Teresa.

Charles is not nearly as worried (unlike Alec he recognizes she’s an adult, if an easily-lost one), but the sight of him taking Teresa by the shoulder and walking off is the first time we’ve seen anything resembling anguish from the oh-so-stoic Tada.

What Tada has yet to learn (and will he ever?) is that Teresa has already decided that when she’s done this Japan trip, she’s going back home marrying Charles, and becoming queen once the present monarch kicks the bucket. It’s all set in stone.

With this episode, the title of the series can be viewed in a different light: it’s not that Tada isn’t capable of falling in love—he’s on his way to doing so with Teresa—but he never falls in love because in the one instance he did, it’s with an unattainable woman.

But as Teresa looks up at the North Star after retiring for bed, one gets the feeling she might feel lost, despite her stone future. After all, that’s what people do when they’re lost and the North Star is in view!

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai – 05 – A Good Meal, a Nice Bath, and an Unexpected Guest

The first minutes of this episode of Tada-kun are, in a word, heartbreaking. A grown Mitsuyoshi and Yui pray at their parents’ grave with their gramps, and we’re taken back to the rainy day their dad suddenly has to hop on a flight, and their mom drives him to the airport.

As they pull away, his dad pokes his head out the window and snaps a picture of his kids. Mitsuyoshi is sullen. Yui is cheerful. It turns out to be the last picture their dad took; he and their mom were killed in an accident, and would never return.

Back in the present, Kaoru blasts into the Tadas’ cafe to announce the “Tenth Annual Ijuuin Kaoru Show” is on, and it’s live. This year, all are welcome, from Hajime, Hinako and Yamashita Dog, to newcomers Teresa and Alec. Kaoru asks them all to sit back while he utilizes his not inconsiderable culinary skillz to prepare all their favorite dishes.

When Mitsuyoshi and Teresa are tasked with putting some food away in the fridge in the upstairs apartment, she’s drawn to that last photo Mitsuyoshi’s dad took, and when he explains the context, she remembers when she fell in the drink and was saved by Alec around the same time Mitsu and Yui lost their folks. She considers both times when they decided they had to try to become stronger; in her case for Alec’s sake; in his case for Yui’s.

The exchange is interrupted when Kaoru announces he’s completed everyone’s dishes and it’s time to dig in. Everyone agrees Kaoru (who comes from a restaurant family) is damn good at cooking, even if, in Alec’s case, she doesn’t outwardly say it. Instead, she merely polishes of every last bit of her katsu bowl and asks for seconds.

The Kaoru Show continues after dinner with a trip to a bathhouse he’s rented out for the evening (he’s a young man of means, after all), and the two genders split off to their respective sides of the bath. Since they’re in the bath, there is talk of boob size on both sides, as well as Yui thinking out loud that Teresa would be a great girlfriend for her big brother. Alec says Teresa already has one, only to dismiss it as a “joke.”

Over on the boys’ side, Yamashita pines for an “older girl” presumed to be Hinako, while Hajime overheats and slips on a bowl, nearly cracking his skull. When the two groups reunite, Hinako is right there by Hajime’s side to help him, for which he’s grateful, even if he told his friends in the bath that his getting romantically involved with her would never happen (likely because he’s still mostly convinced Hinako and HINA are different people).

After the bathhouse, the Tenth Annual Ijuuin Kaoru Show comes to a close, and we learn about it’s raison d’etre: ten years ago, when Mitsuyoshi lost his folks, Kaoru, who was his classmate but never got along with him before, took pity on Mitsuyoshi, and made cheering him up at any cost his life’s work from that point on.

In other words, or more accurately in Alec’s words, Kaoru is a “pest”, but “has some good points too”, one of them being he can always be relied on to cheer you up when you’re feeling low. He’s never failed to do so with Mitsuyoshi (and Yui!) for a decade and counting.

After everyone goes their seperate ways and the credits roll, we move on to an entirely new development: the arrival of Teresa’s apparent fiancee/suitor/betrothed, Charles, who not only can stop Alec’s attacks with one hand, but confirms that Teresa is not only a princess of “Larsenberg” (maybe not Luxembourg?), but its future queen.

That makes things a bit more complicated for her and Mitsuyoshi, now doesn’t it?

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai – 04 – A Daifuku is a Daifuku

I’m compelled to preface this review with a bit of a rant: I simply couldn’t buy Hajime not knowing that his childhood friend Hinako is his favorite idol, HINA.

Most anime rely on a certain degree of suspension of disbelief, but I can tell quite plainly that Hinako is HINA, and so can Alec. Both of us have just met her. And the only elements that “disguise” her are glasses, a big braid, and hair that magically changes color (what’s up with that?)

Therefore it’s nigh inexcusable that someone Hajime has known since they were little kids, and seen nearly every day, could not discern the resemblance, unless he were “face-blind” like Oliver Sacks or Chuck Close. Since there’s no indication he is, his inability to see HINA in Hinako makes him look stupid, and made me feel stupid for going along with it.

Now, an amendment to that rant: I wrote it before I watched the entire episode, pausing it after the cold open. And here’s the thing: once I did watch it, the show managed to not only restore my suspension of disbelief, but reinforce it.

By the end, the charm of the episode convinced me that maybe it’s okay, for now, for Hajime to be an oblivious dolt. Perhaps because, for the time being, it’s okay for Hinako herself, and that’s what matters here.

When Hajime announces to the club that he’s won one of only 100 passes to a live meet-and-greet with his beloved HINA, it suddenly places Hajime in a bind: there’s no way he won’t recognize her when they come face-to-face, bereft of the filters of photos on glossy paper or the scan of television screens and the internet.

Moreover, Hajime is an emotional wreck, and cannot fathom coming face-to-face with HINA at all without collapsing in a puddle of flop sweat. His club members suggest he “practice” how to interact with one of them, and that one of them ends up being Hinako.

It’s definitely interesting seeing the two interact together, as Hajime lists all the weird ways he loves HINA, and Hinako outwardly saying no girl wants to hear those things while being inwardly flattered. She also tells her childhood friend the best way to calm oneself: write the character for “person” on his hand and “swallow” it.

Somewhat dragging down the perceived intelligence of the entire cast, Alec and Alec alone is the only one who clearly and immediately realized that Hinako was HINA. Thankfully, it’s something Teresa also realizes as soon as she’s told the truth, giving Hinako two allies in which to confide.

She tells them how a one-time deal taking the place of an ill model suddenly snowballed into a side-career, and when Hajime announced he was a fan of “HINA”, Hinako felt it impossible to tell him. It’s clear to Alec and Teresa that Hinako likes Hajime, but Hinako wants him to figure it out for himself that she and HINA are one and the same.

When Alec calls Hajime “an unfortunate man” for unknowingly worshiping the girl right in front of him, Hinako objects, as Hajime’s oldest and dearest friend has every right to. As she puts it, he may be “stupid and a little perverted” but he’s also a shy sensitive boy with a gentle heart who will always have her back when push comes to shove.

Hinako is worried Hajime will be “disappointed” if he learns the truth, and wishes he’d simply take a stronger interest in the “real her”, but Teresa objects to that: HINA is a part of the real her; she shouldn’t forget that.

The day of the meet-and-greet arrives, and despite their earlier grumblings, everyone turns out to support Hajime (except Hinako, who had “errands to run”). Sure enough, Hajime overcompensates for his shyness by dressing way too…too much, and the boys play rock-paper-scissors, resulting in Tada having to swap clothes with him.

He heads in, and it’s all over so fast. Hajime lost his precious notes in the clothes he gave Tada, and is initially a nervous, sweaty mess with the clock ticking. But HINA asks him what he should do when he’s nervous, and he remembers Hinako telling him about writing “person” and swallowing it.

That just barely does the trick; the staff is about to shuffle him off, but he makes contact with HINA and says what he came to say: to thank her for being born. He’s then taken away by security, leaving Hinako wondering if he finally noticed who she really was.

I’m of the mind that perhaps it did…a little, subconsciously. But Hajime plays his cards close and maintains the belief that Hinako and HINA are two different people when he calls her up later. He first describes how amazingly beautiful HINA was in the flesh, then thanks Hinako for the advice that ended up saving his ass.

While initially disappointed, Hajime’s heartfelt thanks put a smile on Hinako’s face, and she later confides in Teresa and Alec that she’s fine with things the way they are, at least until she summons the confidence to tell him herself. I’m totally fine with that; the ball is in her court. I’m not holding my breath Hajime will ever take the initiative, even if the truth fully comes to him.

As for Teresa, she laments to Alec that she’s kept something from everyone else in the club—namely, I suspect, that she’s Luxembourgian royalty—but Alec tells her not to sweat it and just to enjoy the time they have in Japan, because, after all, it’s only a study abroad trip, and one day it will end and they’ll return to Europe.

As Teresa quietly develops feelings for Tada, she can’t help but relate to Hinako’s dilemma, as Tada perhaps hasn’t shown as much interest in her as she’d like. Only one thing for it: more time and more interactions together.

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai – 03 – A Day in the Life of Nyanko Big

Much of this week’s story is told by the Tada family cat, Nyanko Big, who is over ten years old and hence not only knows a few things about life and the Tada family, but has a very deep voice that commands respect. But he’s also a fat-ass glutton, and so cannot leap nearly as far as he thinks he can. The cat-POV premise is a bit twee/hokey, but never offensively so; it’s mostly just charming.

Nyanko Big observes Mitsuyoshi with Teresa and Alec, two human women even he can see are pretty special, but he knows the boy who saved him ten years ago has never been that into women. The universe seems committed to changing that, both by having Teresa and Alec live right next door to his home and family cafe, but have then help out at the cafe while his gramps is out.

We encounter both newcomers in a young nervous couple and regulars like an elderly couple and someone who gives off a hitman vibe but shares Teresa’s love for the Rainbow Shogun, and also has the reflexes to catch a pitcher of water Teresa nearly drops.

The group takes a break, during which time Mitsu makes everyone coffee, while Teresa provides “hot chocolate spoons” to dip in their cups. Mitsu nonchalantly takes a taste from Teresa’s cup, making it an unspoken indirect kiss, but he doesn’t seem to realize it.

Later, the photography club gathers at Hibiya Park for some Spring-themed photos, and not only does Ijuuin remember when Mitsuyoshi saved him from a “kappa” the river years ago, but Teresa remembers when Alec saved her after Teresa jumped in to retrieve the crown of flowers Alec made for her.

Nyanko Big, who had finished his patrol and was lounging in the park, encounters and falls in love with the local salon cat, Cherry, but once again his leap is far shorter than he’d like, and he ends up in the drink, then quickly up a tree.

But when he slips and falls, Teresa is there to catch him…and Mitsuyoshi is there to catch her. So far their romance has been extremely quiet and low-key, with no words at all said about it…save those of a cat. Whatever there is between Teresa and Mitsu, it’s clearly going to take some time.

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai – 02 – Photography Club Can Be a Hoot

Between TKS and 3DK, Tada-kun takes round two. While we only took the tiniest step further in the ostensible romance between Tada and Teresa, we’re introduced to the rest of the crew and…I kinda like all of them?

On Teresa and Alec’s first day they’re the toast of the school, and bespectacled Class Rep Hasegawa asks if they’d like a tour to determine what club they’d like to join (they have to join something). 

That leads them to the photography club, where Teresa and Alec are reunited with Tada and Ijuuin, and upon inspecting a shrine of the club president Sugimoto’s favorite gravure idol HINA, Alec suddenly realizes that class rep Hasegawa is HINA.

Honestly, Tada and Teresa kinda chill in the background of most of this; the stars that shine brightest are Hasegawa, Sugimoto, and the trusty junior member Yamashita, nicknamed “dog” because he comes when Tada calls him.

When Teresa voices interest in joining the club, Sugimoto decides to hold a traditional photo-snapping contest to begin their trial period. The group splits in to, and they turn out to be inspired combinations.

Ijuuin ends up with Alec, with whom he clearly didn’t get off on the right foot, while Sugimoto and Hasegawa round out the 4-person Team B. Once the clock starts, they take turns running around the school trying to get good pictures of the other team, who doesn’t make it easy on them.

Tada, Teresa, and Yamashita make up Team A—a new couple and their pet dog—and the episode takes on a breathless, exciting energy as the club runs around the school with abandon, enjoying their youth.

In the midst of the competition, Yamashita reveals his excellent sense of smell, while Alec shows off her kunoichi skills (again adding fuel to my little princess’ bodyguard fire). We also get a lot of interesting interactions between Sugimoto and Hasegawa. She calls him “-chan”, so I wager they’re childhood friends.

But as Sugimoto falls for Yamashita’s “Look behind you, it’s HINA!”, it’s possible he’s unaware his friend is his favorite idol…and she’s fine keeping it that way. Still, gestures like Sugimoto shielding her from a bucket of water suggest that regardless of whether he knows, he definitely cares a great deal about Hasegawa.

Teresa and Tada thought they’d gotten the best shot of the contest by snapping a surprised Sugimoto and Hasegawa (cameras are good at picking up love between two people), it’s Ninja Alec who swoops in and snaps a picture of Teresa and Tada laughing, which ultimately wins.

So the two had a lot of fun together, and it looks like we have one long-standing couple and a pairing of opposites that just might work given time. And hey, even Yamashita has an admirer in Tada’s sister, Yui. Teresa and Alec join, and when Hasegawa takes her leave, Sugimoto stops her and invites her to join them in celebrating, since she’s part of the club too. All in all, a great ensemble effort.

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai – 01 – Meet Cutes and Coincidences (First Impressions)

“Oh Hai! I’m not weirded out by you taking my picture AT ALL!”

There are three basic kinds of anime rom-coms: those that do something totally unique and/or unexpected, those that hew close to the well-worn conventions of the genre, and those that stride the two extremes. From the moment Tada Mitsuyoshi catches his love interest Teresa Wagner in his viewfinder, it’s clear we’re dealing with the well-worn variety.

That means it’s up to things like the execution of the romance, the quality of the comedy, the likability of the characters, and the technical aspects that determine whether I’ll watch it. And if I do, I’m still looking for surprises somewhere to liven up an otherwise boilerplate affair. So let’s see what TKS has going for it, and what it doesn’t.

“We meet AGAIN? It’s almost like we’re supposed to be in the same anime!”

Regarding execution of romance, the title says it all: “Tada doesn’t fall in love.” That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t, can’t, or won’t, mind you; it just means he usually/typically/classically…doesn’t. But it’s almost immediately clear from the Imperial Palace Sakura Photo Meet Cute that Mitsuyoshi is struck by Teresa’s beauty, if nothing else. First impressions matter, and can make the difference between “doesn’t” and “could.”

Mitsuyoshi is most likely someone who has never fallen in love because a.) he’s young,  b.) hasn’t found the right person, and/or c.) he’s focused on photography and school. I’m glad he doesn’t fall head-over-heels for Teresa from the start—he knows next to nothing about her—but at the very least, the air-headed foreigner is an intriguing  new presence in his life.

Alec kicks the overcaffeinated sidekick (THANK you…)

As coincidences continue to pile up that bring the two together, Mitsuyoshi brings Teresa before his whole family, consisting of his cafe-running grandfather (who likes the same old samurai tv show as Teresa) and little sister/waitress Yui (obligatory Minasi Inori presence). The shrine in the Tada residence indicates the loss of one or both Tada parents, one of whom was a photog like Mitsuyoshi.

Before long, Mitsu’s best mate and self-professed “Adonis” Ijuuin Kaoru shows up and tries to put the moves on Teresa as soon as Mitsu tells him she’s not his gf, but he’s quickly thwarted, not just from the cafe cat Nyanko Big (who amusingly resembles a friend’s cat), but by Teresa’s traveling companion, Alexandra “Alec” Magritte, who assumes Kaoru is attacking Teresa and swiftly deploys her itchy trigger leg.

Alec and Kaoru look like a dead ringer for the “opposites attract” trope, but while I appreciate what Miyano Mamoru does with his voice at times, his performance as Kaoru feels a few notches too extreme for this milieu (which is probably intentional).

If you were surprised by this development, you don’t watch many anime rom-coms

Why, do you ask, do two Luxembourgish women in Teresa and Alec have perfect command of Japanese? I imagine it’s the same reason Teresa almost gives another surname other than “Wagner”, and why Alec is so well-versed in martial arts and is protective of Teresa: it’s likely she’s royalty, and Alec is her bodyguard/valet.

She’s come to Japan, likely her favorite foreign country, to soak it all in. That means transferring to Mitsu and Kaoru’s school, and even their class. Ye gods, the coincidences…

Of course, they don’t want to broadcast that fact, but it will be interesting if a.) I’m right about this and b.) it creates a conflict with Mitsu, because at this point, there are no conflicts beyond Mitsu’s general normalness and heretofore non-existent love drive. Maybe she has a betrothed? In any case, this was an establish and introduce episode, and for the most part I’m on board.