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 – 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.