Kimi ni Todoke

Known for her semblance to the Sadako character of The Ring series, Sawako Kuronuma is given the nickname "Sadako" and misunderstood to be frightening and malicious like her fictional counterpart, despite having a timid and sweet nature. Longing to make friends and live a normal life, Sawako is naturally drawn to the cheerful and friendly Shouta Kazehaya, the most popular boy in her class. From their first meeting, Sawako has admired Kazehaya's ability to be the center of attention and aspires to be like him.

When Kazehaya organizes a test of courage for the entire class and encourages her to attend, Sawako sees this as an opportunity to get along with her classmates, starting with Ayane Yano and Chizuru Yoshida. Through each new encounter and emotion she experiences, Sawako believes that meeting Kazehaya has changed her for the better. Little does Sawako know, her presence has also changed Kazehaya.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kuronuma, Sawako Main

Noto, Mamiko Japanese

Kazehaya, Shouta Main

Namikawa, Daisuke Japanese

Sanada, Ryuu Main

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Yoshida, Chizuru Main

Sanpei, Yuuko Japanese

Yano, Ayane Main

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Kurumizawa, Ume Supporting

Hirano, Aya Japanese

Arai, Kazuichi Supporting

Ono, Yuuki Japanese

Maru Supporting

Jounouchi, Souichi Supporting

Yamanaka, Masahiro Japanese

Sanada, Tooru Supporting

Hatano, Wataru Japanese

Wada, Jouji Producer

Tamura, Manabu Producer

Nakatani, Toshio Producer

Nakatake, Tetsuya Producer

Reviews

Apr 1, 2010

Skadi

Recommended

Only rarely does a series break the mold its genre has cast for it and even more uncommonly does it set itself apart from all others. Such is the case with Kimi ni Todake. It takes all the classic shoujo romance stereotypes and plot devices and flips them on its head leaving us with a thoroughly rewarding and groundbreaking romance.

At first, Kimi ni Todake drew me in before I saw its first frame of film with its story concept. Our heroine is Sawako, a sweet and gentle girl with an awkward personality and an uncanny resemblance to Sadako from The Ring. ... Desperately wanting others to understand her she is instead shunned and feared by her classmates. This all changes when she meets a boy named Kazehaya who is the first to truly see her and slowly she begins to draw herself out of her shell. The remaining story is one of self discovery as Sawako experiences the first feelings of love and friendship she has ever felt. While her situation is a bit contrived and not overly realistic, the way it is presented is so wonderfully sweet and beautiful that it is impossible not to love.

I firmly believe that in order to really fully appreciate just how special Kimi ni Todake is, you have to already be a veteran of at least a dozen or more of its shoujo peers. There are none of the usual tired clichés. Sawako isn’t the plain and perky heroine determined to get a man to fall for her who ignores her or treats her horribly. She isn’t out for revenge nor is she being pursued by a harem of bishounens with a desperate struggle to choose between them. Kazehaya isn’t a dick, for lack of a better term. He’s a guy who will be loved by viewers not because he’s hot, but because he’s just a really nice guy any girl would want to fall in love with and guys would want as a friend.

The feelings and situations presented to us are real and powerful but not in an overly dramatic way. Nobody has torturous family lives or tragic pasts or other situations that always feel forced in a way to create drama that could be better achieved with fantastic characters and storytelling. The concepts are simple, the pacing slow, and full of the required blushes and aw shucks moments. Much like its soft artwork and color palette, Kimi ni Todake is the kind of show you will sit back and relax too, forgetting about all the problems of your day.

This is not to say that it doesn’t have its faults. While just about every aspect of the series was wonderful to behold, the series already slow pace comes to an even greater crawl over the last 8-10 episodes. While I still enjoyed them immensely, I suspect some viewers will likely begin to lose patience at the lack of progress or action in the story. And while perhaps we are also being setup for a continuation at some point, since the manga is still ongoing, the ending was also not particularly ideal.

Sawako herself goes down as one of my all-time favorite characters. She is so completely earnest and innocent that she is impossible not to love. While her character concept is initially not all that unique she becomes so much more than just a socially awkward, shy, and moe girl. Everyone can find something to relate with her over and from a character development standpoint, the person she becomes by the end of the series is so remarkably different from her beginning that it’s truly amazing. Yet despite this enormous change she never deep down changes from what she really is at her core. Her closing monologue at the end of the show is a prime example of just how much she has grown.

Kazehaya is a rare breed for a romance series. First he is the one and only love interest. No reverse harems of bishies here to waste story time or antagonize the heroine. He is also unique in that outside series such as Kanon or Clannad, he is one of the only leads that looks and feels like a real person. He is never made out to be a caricature of the fantasies and dreams of young girls. He is not super wealthy, nor is he a famous athlete, or come from a notorious family. Sure he is really good looking, popular with the girls and the guys, and good at baseball but you never feel like these are things that he didn’t earn with his own merits. Unlike most of his anime contemporaries who have abrasive or aloof personalities but are still enormously popular because well they are supposed to be. They’re perfect men after all! His personality is the kind that draws people to him and his popularity is not just because he’s handsome. People like him because he's nice to them. What a novel idea!

While on the surface, Kazehaya and Sawako seem to be completely different people, deep down they both share the same confusing emotions and fears about the feelings each has for the other. The interaction between the two is truly special and lovely. Amazingly I never really lost my patience with them either or yell at the screen, “Oh come on just kiss her already!”

Kimi’s supporting cast is also quite remarkable. This is nowhere more evident than with Sawako’s new best friends, Ayane and Chizu. From the start of the story you never would have though these girls would have become her friends. They had almost written on their faces “villainess” and it was such a pleasant surprise to see these two develop into perhaps the best shoujo best friends I have seen yet. They are so completely different from one another that it is a bit surprising they are friends. Ayane is the beautiful, fashionable temptress, while Chizu is the butch and athletic type. Their reactions to Sawako kind of mirror the way the audience will perceive her. There bonds grow stronger as they experience things together, and overcome some adversity. They were truly a joy to watch.

Other characters come and go but are no less impactful to the story. The only real rival, Kurumi, who appears in the middle portions of the story never, outstays her welcome and while she would technically serve as the series villainess, she never really feels to me like a villain. Shockingly Sawako’s family life is also quite normal, she neither has a tragic home situation or a perverted father, and they are both loving and normal parents (both to her and to each other).

Artistically Kimi really shines. Its soft colors and artwork just match the beauty and sweetness in the story perfectly. It does a good job of mixing in comedic art along with its beautiful scenery to make every episode visually appealing and smile inducing. This is even more brought out with the spectacular musical score and cast. Mamiko Noto seems to have been born to play this role. It’s a typical character type for her, one that we have heard from her many times, but this will be one that fans will remember for years and years to come. I can’t say enough about the OP theme, I was instantly in love with from the first chorus and its animation is tremendous. I also found the ED to be equally perfect, though I suspect Chara’s gravelly voice to be unappealing to some.

Overall, Kimi ni Todake is easily a top 5 series for me and one of the best shows of the decade. It was immediately appealing to me from the first episode and I am extremely sad to see it end. This is how more romance shows should be done and is not to be missed by anyone who likes the genre in even the slightest bit. It really doesn’t get much better than this one.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Apr 2, 2010

Stachipopp

Mixed Feelings

This anime left a bad taste in my mouth. Before watching I read some of the previous reviews and was spurred to watch it after many comments stating how original it was. It's not. There are certain aspects of the anime that differ from the usual but really it was just another shy girl meets popular boy type of anime.

The first few episodes were definitely enjoyable, the back story to why Sawako is an outcast is different and interesting and so is how she begins to make friends. Unfortunately after about episode 6 or 7 you are wasting your time. This anime should have been ... shorter as it moves at an incredible slow pace. Honestly it began to become a mission to sit through another episode. Not only were the episodes repetitive (never has a character cried so much before this) but you can pretty much guess what is going to happen in each episode after the first minute. Unfortunately there is no great ending to uplift the series, it just sort of flattens out part way through and never gets any momentum back.

I think was really annoyed me the most is the lack of development with the characters. There were so many beginnings of side stories and other love interests in this anime that never really developed. At least these could have livened up the second half of the series.

A few good things about this anime were the art, I thoroughly enjoyed the almost water colour style. The opening track is lovely to listen to as well and suits the anime perfectly. Kazehaya was actually quite a good character and was probably the most original out of all of them with his glass half full attitude that never wavered.

Overall I am giving this a 5/10 as although the first half was enjoyable the second half nearly put me into a coma.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Nov 17, 2016

Palkaline

Not Recommended

Funny

There is such an amount of stupid in this anime it goes quite simply beyond words, so I will stick to the basics:

Story:
if I thought that romantic animes tend to make everything that happens to those lame drama queen teenagers a matter or life or death, Kimi ni Todoke has gone overboard.
What story, by the way? Is this a story about autism? If it was so at least it would have a purpose and it would be promoting something serious.
Keyword: Misunderstanding that could have easily been avoided and even more easily been cleared from the beginning.

Art is OK, Sountrack was a bit too ... simplicistic and childish but pleasant.

Characters:
Should I laught or cry? There are two characters who are savable and they are Ryu and Yano. Kazehaya is only half savable. The rest is trash.
Sawako isn't just shy, she has problems. She has hallucinations. She lives in a weird limbo, I don't know. We've all had our problems when we were an awkard mess in middle school, some dealt with it better and some just couldn't cope with school mates, but when you finally emerge from the darkness and people come at you with outstretched hands, ready to start fresh like normal people, you don't just stick to your conviction that everyone hates you in face of all the evidence of the contrary.
That only means being stubborn, and Sawako is probably 99% stubborn and 150% stupid (yes I suck at math).
Oh, and another 50% tears, because there seems to be no end to the amount she can shed for no reason at all. And in the beginning? Was the start of a new friendship supposed to be this tragic? Who in the world has cried so much and reached such depths of despair for one single rumour and two people who are willing to give you the time of day? I mean, if that is how she goes about getting friends I'm curious to know how's the rest.

Enjoyment:
NO, I haven't enjoyed myself, and Sawako wouldn't have enjoyed herself either if I'd had the chance to put my hands round her neck at some points of the story. At MANY points of the story.

I feel like I have just seen a bunch of cliches stuffed together and pushed to the tenth power. Or maybe maybe maybe! Maybe this is actually the birth place of many of the cliches that you see in anime these days, the source of all evil. Maybe this is the reason Japanese people think that love is so much of a bothersome burden that if you're not driven by the most powerful and pure emotions you're not even qualified to try.
This is what I call non-educational.

P.S.: the second season is just as useless as the first one and although it LOOKS like it provides closure, it's just another one of Sawako's pointless tiny steps toward finally becoming a normal person, and I can only pity her because if that's how she goes about things then her life will just a nerve-wrecking chain of events that she can barely deal with without crying or passing out or giving herself stress-induced gastritis.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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NIS America announced at their panel at Anime Expo their licenses for Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera and Kimi ni Todoke. No release date for Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera w...read more

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According to Bessatsu Margaret, the second season of Kimi ni Todoke was announced to start in January 2011. Source: Scan of BetsuMa Previous topic: Director Mizushim...read more

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	Poll: Kimi ni Todoke Episode 14 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) tsubasalover - Jan 12, 2010	193 replies	by bakakisima »» Dec 11, 4:46 AM
	Animation looks pretty good for 2009/2010 Zeloge - Nov 1	16 replies	by AdisAray »» Dec 6, 6:52 AM
	Poll: Kimi ni Todoke Episode 5 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) HawthorneKitty - Nov 3, 2009	218 replies	by bakakisima »» Dec 1, 9:39 AM
	Poll: Kimi ni Todoke Episode 25 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) francismeunier - Mar 30, 2010	370 replies	by Fairytelly »» Nov 25, 9:32 AM
	Poll: Kimi ni Todoke Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) maji_saikou - Nov 10, 2009	256 replies	by aSpaceCowboy »» Nov 24, 5:08 PM

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