The Blue Fox Alley

‘Seriously P-Meister, the departure of your flight is SO delayed’ was what my lovely Sojourner-chan said to me when I told him I am going to do a review on True Tears. Giving him my trademark smile that could charm a thousand ladies, I replied casually, ”Better late than never.”

 ”This is the P-Meister! Blogonator! Ikimasu!!”

[Sojourner face-palms]

 True Tears is a rather short 13 episode anime. However, it has touched the hearts of many and the ones of the Sojourner and the P-Meister. At first glance, it was very heartwarming and brings back many emotions and memories, much like that in Boys Be(however Boys Be spans a larger number of episodes and had way more jokes as fillers). It has also plenty of thought provoking events that leaves it impression for days, months, weeks and even years… There is plenty to talk about, thus i will give a small overview of what it is and an idea of what it looks like, before jumping into its concepts, ideas and complicated stuff…

General Analysis

True tears is a drama like anime. Despite being short, it succeeded in providing a touching storyline. Averting from dynamics typical in other animes, like over bubbly personalities for instance, True Tears has achieved a subtlety that makes it easier for people to relate to naturally. The ending however isn’t cliche and had many twist and turns. The significance of this anime’s release is the chicken picture book. Through this, it expresses many ideas which could be invisible to the naked eye. These concepts and ideas are commonly missed out. The P-Meister would like to take the time to chill before jumping into these ideas and making everyone speechless, by expressing artwork below.

Artwork

The artwork and animation of the characters are detailed and beautiful. So is the artwork of the background and effects. These blended well with the storyline and provided quite an atmosphere that didn’t need jokes as fillers, delivering the full package of the romance with almost no distractions.

 Now comes the most important part in artwork, the girls!! Honestly, they are worth to be oogled at. Basically, there are 3 main girls, which will be explained under the background. I like them in their school attire and their corresponding attired. Besides school attire, i will list out my favourite attires below.

Hiromi: Basketball attire. I prefered this and the school attire more than the ordinary purple one.

Noe: Red coat. The big coat just makes her look smaller and cuter.

Aiko: Her clothes are generally pretty, but the badanna and apron she wears at work is just special!

WARNING: THE SECTION BELOW CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!

Anyway, time to get serious. I’ll start of by giving a general introduction:

of Shinichiro and Hiromi

The story starts off with Shinichiro Nakagami liking a girl who lived in his house, Hiromi Yuasa. She lost her parents in an accident. Because her father was a friend of Shinichiro, the Nakagami family took her in. Under their care though, she lived under the harshness of Shinichiro’s mother. (Her life must have been hard… if only the P-Meister was there to take care of her…)

 It is then revealed that she has known Shinichiro even before the death of her parents!! Does she like Shinichiro then? Yes she did, since young. But due to intervention from Shin chan’s hawt mummy, she was forced to suppress her feelings for him because of the lie regarding the two of them being siblings. The truth is however shown to be that they aren’t siblings and stand a chance to be together. However, its only ep 9-10 when this happens. Somehow, I knew Hiromi was going to get into trouble.

of Shinichiro and Aiko

Aiko Endo has little impact on Shinichiro’s love life. However, she is in love with him. In order to get closer to him, she got close to his best friend, Miyokichi Nobuse. Eventually she became his girlfriend, after Shinichiro gave his word that he’s a good guy! He is a good guy, very very good guy. He makes the P-Meister ashamed.

 Being spoilt by Miyokichi, she knew that she was being stupid for clinging on to Shinichiro. Still, it was impossible for her to seal her feelings for Shinichiro. She eventually asked for a break-up with Miyokichi Nobuse. Miyokichi refused and their relationship ended up on hiatus. She then confessed to Shinichiro with a kiss. However, her love wasn’t received by Shinichiro and she lost both her the boy who loved her and the boy she loved. (AWWWW!!! Everyone!! Give Ai-chan a hug!!)

of Shinichiro and Noe

Shinichiro then meets Isurugi Moe… oops i meant Noe, in school on a tree picking food for a chicken called Raigomaru. How wierd! Soon after, the chicken dies. It was then revealed that she didn’t cry because her grandmother ‘took away her tears’ as she died. What a wierd explaination. Anyway, she eventually replaced Shinichiro with the chicken, without even asking his permission too!! It was hilarious, as she fed him chicken food as well!

 Though irritated at her at first, Shinichiro became more closely attached to her eventually. This eventually reached the ears of Hiromi, who had then already decided to give up on Shinichiro. Somehow, she became Shinichiro’s first girlfriend.

 However, their relationship is deeper than it seems. Many ideas are brought into their relationship. IMHO, their relationship is the most complex of the 3. It was also because of her that Shinichiro started drawing the chicken picture book.

Concept of flying

This was first introduced in Raigomaru. Noe mentioned that Raigomaru wants to fly, unlike the other chicken in its pen, Jibeta. Now, consider yourself to be in Raigomaru’s position. You wish to fly, but you’re scared, your stomach growls, etc. Even though you wish to fly, you are bogged down by these conditions which make you decide not to fly. Furthermore, you’re a chicken, and chickens don’t fly, not more than 10 metres at least. What does it mean to fly then?! Basically, its a parable.

 It is wrong to say Raigomaru or Jibeta is one of the main characters. No… they are merely chickens and remain as chickens. However, as Shinichiro was the one who drew the book, Raigomaru’s actions is influenced to that of himself.

 If we stop trying to pair the birds to the characters, it is easy to see that this concept of flying can be applied to anyone in the story. Basically flying means getting out of your comfort zone, and doing what you truely believe in your heart.

Outcomes of Trying to Fly

There are two outcomes of flying in the chicken picture book. The first one can be seen under Jibeta, where he tries to fly. However, he fails and falls to the ground and dies. In this case, it means sometimes, if you step out of your comfort zone, you won’t get what you wish to achieve and things may turn out ugly!

 The other outcome wasn’t written in the chicken picture book. Shinichiro mentions however in his head that Raigomaru flew in episode 12. Did he actually fly, I didn’t believe so. He changed his mind in the end. His drawing at episode 13 showed that he believed he could fly though. Many readers would have believed him to have flew. Please read till the end of the whole article before commenting. However, also please note that my views are not absolute.

Shinichiro’s Choice

Shinichiro chose Hiromi. Shinichiro feels that his heart quivers when he sees Noe. What does that mean? It means uneasiness and unrest. However, he decides to pick the easier option. In the actual book he wrote, he states that Raigomaru was ‘just like the other cowardly chickens and could only say sorry, The End’.

 Many other evidence come into play. For example, Hiromi told him not to hate her. She herself knows that she is the factor, the distraction, that prevents Shinichiro from flying, but she refuses to let him do so. Also, if he really did ‘fly’, he would have not drawn a plane and a man, but instead Raigomaru flying. Finally, as he thought of flying, he though of Noe. At first he wanted to fly, but he couldn’t. Tears ran when he realised this.

 Noe however doesn’t blame Shinichiro, as through him and Jibeta, she realises that its not wrong for someone to choose to stay in the comfort zone. Personally, I also feel that there’s no right or wrong in Shinichiro’s choice. He loves both of them. If he left Hiromi, I’m sure tears would run as well. No matter what, they are all true tears.

(This is only my opinion of what happened. This story can be analysed in many different ways. My method is not absolute, however this is what I feel happened. I wish readers would keep their minds open to analyse this in many dimensions.)

Significance of Aiko

The most amazing thing about this anime is how it has so many hidden stories and meanings. Aiko didn’t exist to be just a side love story, but she was easy to miss out. In fact, she could be depicted as a chicken who keeps trying to fly. As she ‘tried to fly the first time’, she failed, resulting in her losing both the boy she loves and the boy who loved her.

However, after a while, she din’t just leave Miyokichi. Eventually, she plucked up courage and admitted her mistake through the phone, saying ‘its difficult to knit a sweater on the first try’. This could be translated as: its difficult to make the right choices the first time. Even if she was afraid to face rejection, she still had to try and thus stepped out of her comfort zone. In the story, I believe, she flew.

Impressions of Hiromi and Her Relation to Noe

Now that we’ve spoken about Aiko and Noe, its time to talk about Hiromi. Hiromi was brought up under hardship. She resists her feelings and never ‘tried to fly’. As soon as she achieved Shinichiro, she holds on in desperation and refuses to let go. She could be said as the ‘growling’ of Raigomaru’s stomach. However, her character is deep and she isn’t just a plain jealous pot.

Was Hiromi one of the chickens? Yes she was. She was Jibeta. In episode 7, Noe mentioned that she couldn’t fly… ever… and it would be a waste for Shinichiro to be in confusion with one who couldn’t fly. Shinichiro ended up with her, thats why I didn’t think Shinichiro actually flew.

She however argues back that Noe could never understand. At that time, what she said was true. There was no way for Noe to understand what she felt. Later in the series however, Noe tries to force Jibeta to fly. However, Jibeta can’t fly even if it wanted to. She then finally understands those who do not fly. The action to resist one’s own desires and forced not to be able to ‘fly’ brings about sadness, therefore she says, ‘your tears are beautiful’ to Hiromi near the end.

Noe Flew

The last time tears sprung forth was when she was with her granny. She cried because she didn’t want to leave her granny, which is her comfort zone. In fact, during that time, she didn’t want to ‘try to fly’, she didn’t want to leave her comfort zone. Those tears were the same tears as that of Hiromi and Shinichiro, the tears of resist.

However, she didn’t have a choice, as her granny ‘took her tears away’ and flew to the skies. As a sign that she flew, she stopped crying. She no longer had feelings where she was forced to resist her feelings and do whatever she didn’t want. She had lost something important as a consequence and felt that there was nothing more important to cry about anymore. She became strong.

Eventually, as stated above, she figures out that its not wrong to not ‘try to fly’, just like she did as she shed tears for her granny. Forcing yourself to resist your desires, to not fly is more pain than flying. She constantly sings the song however, even till the end, that a parasite lays near Shinichiro. This parasite is none other than Hiromi.

Several months later, Noe finally cried. Was it because she was forced to fly and lost Shinichiro? Or because she finally decided not to fly anymore? It doesn’t matter.

Conclusion

It is our choice to decide whether we want to fly or not. Even if we don’t fly, we are not in the wrong. We cannot judge others for not doing what we think is right, neither can they judge us. Flying has it consequences, not flying has its hardships. Either way, tears will flow, whether its due to the hardships or the consequences. As long as it comes from your heart and out of love, I believe thats the true meaning of true tears.

 I’ll leave you to do the rest of the thinking yourself. Like the bible *No religion pls. thx-The Sojourner*, there are many ways you can perceive the same words. I hope you would accept my explaination but not take it to be absolute, keep your minds open.

Ironically, it still remains as a picture book about chickens =) , its not worth your time to spend days to think about. Anyway, I do hope you like my opinion on True Tears. Thank you for reading.