I sometimes have a preference for completed series because I think spreading out episodes weekly can sometimes dilute the impact of the storyline or direction. Regardless, sometimes I pick up on a series which I like and notice it’s still ongoing, and therefore I’m forced into that situation anyways. True Tears was one of those series, and it made me realize that there’s a positive side to ongoing series as well, which is that it’s kind of fun to discuss and go over individual episodes on the net. Especially when you have a series that lends itself to disagreements and differing interpretations like this one.

To be honest, I didn’t really expect to like this series because of a few things, the most important reason being that it seemed to be a “harem title based on a game” and I’ve never really been fond of these kind of shows because the ones I’ve seen have all been associated with very poor writing, pointless fanservice, etc. True Tears, in a literal sense, is a harem title but it is certainly better than the kind of show commonly associated with that genre.  The characters are fairly likable and developed to a reasonable extent.  Of course, there’s a problem with these kind of relationship triangle shows, which is that a lot of people tend to become attached heavily to one character who might end up not being the favoured character at the end. Even though I could see that a certain character ending was being implied, I favoured another character just because I preferred their development and personality. I won’t pretend I’m not a bit unhappy that they were given the short end of the stick, but it would be unfair of me to say I dislike the show for that reason. After all, other people might not have that same attachment to that same character.

On the technical side, the artwork was very nice and the animation was fluid, especially the dance scene in episode 12. I thought the overhead shots of people walking were a bit stiff as they seemed to be computer generated, but apart from that, I can’t really think of any complaints. The background music was pleasant and contributed the necessary audio backdrop to certain scenes, but it wasn’t really memorable enough for me to go and find the soundtrack.

There are some interesting bits to True Tears, such as the extended metaphors with birds (though this may cause the more cynical to roll their eyes), but overall I don’t think it did anything that made it stand out as a triangle-romance story.  The characters are likable but not extremely memorable (with one having basically no real purpose except to act as a third interest) and in the end it’s a series that I can see a lot of people enjoying without making a permanent impact on them.  Not nearly as vapid/empty as School Days, but not as meaningful as Honey and Clover.  If you like high school love triangles, it’s certainly one of the better ones in that cataegory.