REVIEW: Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You, Volume 2, Standard Edition (anime TV series)

Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You boxed set 2 includes episodes 13 to 15 and 17 to 25 on both DVD and Blu-ray discs (episode 16 was omitted because it was a recap episode). It’s a high school romance series.

Oddly, the info on the back of the case indicates that Disc 2 of the Blu-ray portion has episodes 9-12 and Disc 1 has the episodes after that. I’m going to say that’s probably an error, because I think I watched Disc 1 and then 2, and I don’t recall there being any episode order issues.

This post includes a few spoilers.

Review:

Again, I’ve previously reviewed this series, so I won’t say too much here. This set picks up right where the first one ended. Kazehaya and Sawako continue to be adorable together, and their romance continues to move at a snail’s pace. The bit where Sawako fell asleep on Kazehaya’s shoulder was wonderful - as was Ayane’s continued enjoyment at embarrassing Kazehaya by taking a picture of the moment.

REVIEW: Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You, Volume 1, Standard Edition (anime TV series)

Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You boxed set 1 includes episodes 1 to 12 on both DVD and Blu-ray discs. It’s a high school romance series.

Review:

Right Stuf had a huge sale and I ended up buying this and a few other normally prohibitively expensive series, figuring that if I didn’t do it during the sale then I’d probably be passing on those titles forever. For the record, the series I picked up were Kimi ni Todoke, Cardcaptor Sakura, My Love Story!!, and Chihayafuru. Sentai Filmworks and NIS America are budget destroyers, although it could be worse. I could be pining for Aniplex of America titles. (Actually, there is one I want: Erased. $180 for a 12-episode, 5-hour-long series means I’ll likely never get it.)

This particular boxed set contains what I consider to be the best episodes in the series: the introduction of the series’ main characters, the beginnings of Sawako and Kazehaya’s friendship and romance, and the cementing of Sawako’s friendship with Ayane and Chizuru. I wish I could say that you could buy this boxed set and skip the rest in order to save money, but this first boxed set ends at a terrible spot and can’t stand on its own, if you’re at all invested in Kazehaya and Sawako’s romance. At the point the set ends, Kazehaya is running towards Sawako and Ryu, convinced that Sawako has feelings for Ryu and is about to confess those feelings to him.

Kimi ni Todoke - From Me To You, Seasons 1-2 (anime TV series), via Crunchyroll

Kimi ni Todoke is a slice-of-life romance series. The first season is 25 episodes long, although I should note that, for some reason, Crunchyroll failed to include episode 16. From what I've read, episode 16 was just a recap episode with a bit of filler, so I don't mind not getting to see it. The second season is technically 13 episodes long, but episode 0 is a recap episode.

This post includes some spoilers.

Synopsis:

Season 1: Sawako is a gentle, sweet, naive girl who wants nothing more than to be friends with everyone in her class. Unfortunately, she bears a striking resemblance to Sadako, the creepy girl with long black hair in The Ring. Everyone in Sawako's class calls her Sadako, and the more she tries to connect with them, the more she creeps them out.

The only exception is Kazehaya, the most popular boy in Sawako's class. He goes out of his way to be nice to her, and he understands her when no one else seems to. Ayane and Chizuru decide to befriend Sawako as well, and Sawako finds herself overflowing with gratitude that she has met such nice people. Although Sawako eventually realizes that Ayane and Chizuru have grown to genuinely care for her, she continues to think that Kazehaya is only treating her as nicely as he does everyone else in their class. What she doesn't realize is that Kazehaya has a huge crush on her.

With Ayane and Chizuru's help, and the interference of a rival, Sawako finally recognizes that her feelings for Kazehya have grown from admiration into love.

Season 2: Once Sawako realizes her true feelings for Kazehaya, she finds it impossible to treat him normally. Kazehaya notices this and has no idea what it means or how to deal with it. Does Sawako no longer want to be around him? Is he bothering her? Kazehaya feels guilty as he realizes he's always done whatever he wants around Sawako and never taken into account her feelings (I disagree with this, but it's how he stated he felt). That never seemed to be a problem before, but now Sawako barely even looks at him or talks to him anymore.

Interference from a well-meaning-but-clueless classmate named Kenta only makes things worse. Kenta misunderstands a comment of Kazehaya's and tells Sawako that Kazehaya is in love with someone else. Kazehaya becomes more and more concerned that he's causing problems for Sawako. As the misunderstandings pile up, it seems like the rift between Kazehaya and Sawako will widen until nothing can bridge it.

Review:

When I first heard that NIS America had licensed this, I couldn't wait to get it on DVD. Then I learned that buying the whole series would set me back anywhere from $140 to $210. They looked like nice boxed sets, true, but that's still a lot of money, so I resigned myself to waiting, possibly forever, for a more affordable release. Then Crunchyroll announced that it had acquired the streaming rights to the series, and I thought to myself, “Hurray, a way to at least watch it without breaking the bank!”

Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You (manga, vol. 3) by Karuho Shiina

Synopsis:

Sawako is invited to hang out with friends for the first time in her life. She eats ramen with Yano and Yoshida at Ryu's family's ramen place. When Yano realizes that Sawako probably has a crush on Kazehaya, she encourages Sawako to call Kazehaya and invite him to join them. Then, when he arrives, Yano messes with him a bit. It's an overall cute, fun gathering.

Next, the school is gearing up for its sports festival. Kazehaya has been assigned to be part of the sports festival committee, which means he'll be spending a lot of time with Kurumi, a girl who appears cute and nice on the surface but who seems to be manipulating others into pairing her and Kazehaya up. When she notices that Kazehaya likes Sawako, she declares herself one of Sawako's friends, with the intention of manipulating Sawako into giving up on Kazehaya and helping her end up with him instead.

Other than the whole Kurumi situation, things are going well in Sawako's life (and Sawako, by the way, doesn't even realize that Kurumi is trouble waiting to happen). Yano and Yoshida are trying to get Sawako to be more relaxed with her fellow students. They start by encouraging her to call her friends by their first names. Yano is Ayane, Yoshida is Chizu, and then there's Tomo and Ekko. Yano, who I will call Ayane from now on, continues to try to encourage the budding romance between Kazehaya and Sawako. She tells Sawako to try calling Kazehaya by his first name, Shota. Of course, Sawako tries, but she can't manage it. Kazehaya also can't manage to call Sawako by her first name (he calls her Kuronuma), which later causes Sawako to become upset, because he seems to be able to refer to Kurumi by her first name.

Review:

Okay, first, I have to admit that I was not able to stick to my personal rule of only reading the next volume after I'd written a post about the volume I just finished reading. I recently finished volume 6 and probably would have read more if I owned volume 7. The good news is that this means I already know how all the Kurumi stuff ends. The bad news is that it's going to take a little extra willpower on my part to write posts about volumes 4 to 6.

Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You (manga, vol. 2) by Karuho Shiina

I think I managed to keep the spoilers to a minimum.

Synopsis:

Persistent rumors are flying around. Supposedly Yano went out with a hundred guys in middle school, supposedly Yoshida was a major delinquent in middle school, and supposedly Sawako is the one who started and spread all these rumors. Yano and Yoshida refuse to believe this at first, but then Sawako's behavior causes them to doubt her.

Sawako is, at first, unaware that anything is going on. Then she starts to notice that Yano and Yoshida are unhappy. When she finally learns about the rumors, she blames herself for their unhappiness and worries that, even if she can clear up the misunderstanding that she believed caused the rumors, her presence will only continue to bring them more unhappiness. She also worries that she will cause Kazehaya to become unpopular.

Miserable, Sawako is unsure of what to do. She was alone prior to meeting Kazehaya, Yano, and Yoshida, so she thought she could just go back to being alone, but she misses them too badly. At the same time, being with them seems selfish, since she thinks her presence will only cause them problems.

Meanwhile, Kazehaya has noticed the change in Sawako's behavior and is worried about her. Yano and Yoshida are miserable, too. Deep down, they feel that Sawako can't possibly be the one who started the rumors, but they haven't even been able to solidly confirm that Sawako really does like them.

Review:

Whereas Kiyo Fujiwara's Wild Ones continues to get a "so so" response from me, this series is solidly in the "absolutely love this" end of the scale for me.

This volume made me cry. I don't mean "It made me tear up." I don't mean "It put a lump in my throat" (although it did do that, too). No, I mean I had to actually wipe the tears away so I could keep reading. A while back, there was a blog I read called The Otaku Librarian (which sadly has not had any new posts in ages). It had a post on female friendships in anime and manga, which in turn linked to an Anime News Network post on female friendships in anime and manga. This manga, or at the very least this volume, would have been perfect for those discussions.

This entire volume is about the friendship between Sawako, Yano, and Yoshida. Shiina could have chosen to just spend a chapter on their friendship and then gone back to the romance slowly developing between Kazehaya and Sawako, but she didn't. Which I think is just awesome, and something you're still more likely to see in shounen manga than shoujo. Kazehaya is there, but (proving how great he is and how worthy he is of eventually ending up with someone as sweet as Sawako), although he frets a little about not getting to spend more time with Sawako, he purposefully stands aside so that Yano and Yoshida can be the ones to come to Sawako's rescue and so that Sawako can have more girl time with her new friends. Kazehaya was there for Sawako, but he was more there as the only person her age who was willing to talk to her, listen to her, and give her advice, rather than as her love interest (although there was that bit early on where she was fascinated by his forehead).

Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You (manga, vol. 1) by Karuho Shiina

Synopsis:

All Sawako wants to do is make friends with everyone in her class. However, she bears an unfortunate resemblance to Sadako (the girl with long black hair in The Ring), and, although she doesn't realize it, everything she does has a tendency to come across as creepy.

Sawako is sure that, if she expresses her thoughts and feelings honestly, someday someone will understand her. In the meantime, she tries her hardest to make those around her happy, so she's usually the one who volunteers to do the things her classmates don't want to do. Her goal is to do at least one good deed every day. She doesn't seek recognition for the things she does and doesn't actually see her actions as anything special.

Someone has noticed her, however - Kazehaya, the friendliest and most popular boy in her class. She is shocked when he tells her that he admires her - how could he admire her when, from her perspective, he inspires people to do better just by being around them? Sawako gradually starts to open up to Kazehaya, completely unaware of his crush on her, and unable to recognize that her feelings of admiration for him are becoming something more.

Commentary:

I have heard many good things about this series. It's been on my TBR list for a long time, but I wasn't really looking forward to the time it would take to get yet another series one volume at a time via ILL. I finally decided to break down and buy it, or at least the first volume, just to try it out. Well, I've tried it out, and now I want the whole thing. It's fantastically cute and sweet - I only hope that it's just as good several volumes into it as it is right now.