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Now in Japan
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Saturday, 24 February 2007 00:00 |
 Three more episodes of To Heart 2, three more girls for Taka to get friendly with. And this guy claims he has problems talking to girls!? Earth calling Taka-kun, come in - although I suppose being blackmailed could count as "girl problems", come episode five. In the meantime, though, there are two perfectly normal and attractive girls for him to get to know...
3 - The Small Tea Club
Manaka Komaki's just beginning her 2nd year - and having just been chosen as her class rep, she's getting used to the added responsibility she's been landed with. She's also managed to get roped into helping recatalogue the school library's archives, so to say she's busy would be an understatement - but fortunately, Taka decides to offer a helping hand, and in the process learns there's more to his class rep that he would have thought. Much as she loves working in the archives, though, the Library Club chairman seems to have other ideas...
4 - Bicycle
Poor Taka's just minding his own business on the way into school, when he's flattened by Yuma & her bicycle - and to look at Yuma's face after the accident, you'd think it was all Taka's fault. A later incident with Taka, a baseball and a water fountain just gets her riled up even more, to the point where she begins to think Taka's out to get her and goes on the offensive - much to Taka's confusion, as he can't remember actually doing anything wrong. He only gets more ocnfused when Yuma begins challenging him at every turn - so eventually Komaki steps in to try and calm her friend down a little. Meanwhile, Yuma's other great frustration - her family's insistence on controlling her life - begins to get too much for her...
5 - Invitation
With this year's entrance ceremony out of the way, it's time for the school's clubs to begin recruiting new members - and the Mystery Club, led by energetic redhead Karin Sasamori (also the only member) is having a hard time gathering suckers. Behaving like the gang from Scooby Doo just doesn't seem to be on many people's plans, sadly for her. One look at Taka, though, and Karin thinks she's found herself a new member - and as soon as she's tricked him into signing up for her club, she resorts to blackmail and manipulation to make sure he doesn't change his mind. Her first club activity takes them into the mountains around town - but they soon find themselves lost and unable to get home...
First thoughts after these episodes: where are Tama-nee and Konomi? They're both conspicuous by their absence - especially Tama, who I'd been expecting to be a constant source of frustration for Taka. Instead, this batch's frustration is provided by the twin troubles of Yuma (Taka really can't understand where her competitive attitude came from) and Karin (who has a really neat line in blackmail techniques). Manaka (episode three) is the most normal of the bunch, even if she is naturally a bit of a hermit - there's nowhere she'd rather be than buried in the library archives, her own little private place where the worries outside the door can't bother her. That doesn't make for the most exciting of episodes, even by To Heart's pedestrian standards.
Yuma is a much more interesting piece of work, with her family life and expectations constantly getting in the way of the normal life she wishes she had. That's where her frustrations with Taka come from - not from anything he did himself, just as an escape valve for everything she's feeling, so it's easy to feel sorry for her and wish she'd just turn around and tell her family where to go. It doesn't look like she's prepared to do that just yet, though.
Karin's the most manipulative of the bunch, by a long margin. Desperate to save her club from being wound up, poor Taka ends up on the wrong end of her scheming, but she's not really a bad girl under the surface - as he eventually finds out. I don't know that I'd have been so forgiving in his position, but then To Heart doesn't really do heavy-duty interpersonal conflict (big words today), so the way this episode played out wasn't really surprising.
I think there are a few more characters still to be introduced, so I'm expecting a few more of this sort of episode before we see any of the other girls again. There's a feeling that maybe this series is trying to cover too much ground and give too many girls their screentime when, with 13 episodes, there isn't really time for it - especially with strong characters like Tamaki just begging for more appearances. The laid-back, slice-of-life feel that made the original series such a favourite is still here, though, so I only have niggles rather than complaints. I just wish they'd hurry up and finish with the introductions - otherwise, good stuff as usual. |
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