From Me to You with Kimi ni Todoke

by eternal on October 21, 2009

Kimi ni Todoke[110 gou]

Kimi ni Todoke doesn’t jump out at me. It doesn’t make my heart go aflutter; it doesn’t make me want to sit in front of my computer with a box of chocolates in hand.

And yes, that’s been known to happen.

But even without the bittersweet pining and the hesitant blushing and the warm acoustic guitar, the show does have something.

It has heart.

Considering the kind of reception the show has been receiving – unlinkable, since I don’t want to track down the countless positive impressions posts and tweets – I thought I would fall for this at first sight. I was setting myself up for another legendary shoujo, for the kind of emotional bliss that I haven’t felt since reading my last Arina Tanemura manga.

And I can’t say that I was disappointed…but I didn’t quite find what I expected.

The problem is, I was expecting love at first sight – of the same variety that Sawako and Kazehaya felt. Although, it’s a bit too early to assume that there’s no chance for a bond like that; perhaps it’ll be a late reaction, something that grows over time? In the four episodes that air over a month?

Anyway, what I mean to say is that Kimi ni Todoke doesn’t seem like the be-all-to-end-all that the hype is making it out to be, but that doesn’t make it a letdown. It has, like I said, heart. And isn’t heart what matters the most in shoujo? The people who want action watch shounen and super robot; for drama, visual novels, and for story, seinen. Shoujo can share traits with any genre, but the most important thing is heart. Without heart, Sawako is just Sadoko and Yuki Sohma is just gay.

(Some might still like to argue that Yuki is gay, but that’s beside the point).

At any rate, after sorting and skimming and not really reading most of the impressions posts, I intuitively feel that Choux said it best.  This series has awakened my inner fluffy fangirl, she’s not about to go away any time soon.

~ ETERNAL
つづく

P.S. That red umbrella reminds me of the creepiest thing.

{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }

lelangir October 21, 2009 at 8:29 pm

This is a mildly tangential point but: “The people who want action watch shounen and super robot; for drama, visual novels, and for story, seinen.”

For the most part yah, but ‘secondary elements’ are quite important. This season’s example is JC Staff trying to make money off of briefly developed (hence ‘secondary’) yuri themes in Index and expanding it into a whole show. It’s why s’life elements in mecha and war anime is so….awesome. Yang sipping tea, Nanoha and Fate eating lunch with Subaru and them, [Kuroko raeping onee-sama, you could actually say that JC did a good job of baiting the market with Index], sci-fi brainy stuff in Suzumiya Haruhi, etc.

“and Yuki Sohma is just gay.”

wwwwwww

I’ll just repeat what I said elsewhere, somewhere, I dunno where it was. These days it’s common for males to automatically self-insert-ify male leads in anime, it’s become a mere psychological routine. Obviously it gets fucked up when a male does it in a shoujo show where there’s a female self-insert and the male’s behavior turns a 180 in regards to how otaku in front of the screen actually want to insert themselves. Hence, Kazehaya is magnificently barftastic…to dudes. Sawako is still awesome though.

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ghostlightning October 22, 2009 at 12:21 am

+1

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Martin Dupont October 21, 2009 at 8:33 pm

Gay people have an heart too.

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usagijen October 21, 2009 at 8:53 pm

So Kimi ni Todoke/Sawako didn’t exactly Reach Your Soul the way it did mine, or others? :(

No doubt about the heart of this show. I can only hope it’ll grow on you more (bawwsome Sawako at least!) :3

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ETERNAL October 21, 2009 at 9:12 pm

@ lelangir: Secondary elements are definitely important, but I didn’t feel like dedicating a paragraph to explaining that too. I would never say no to Kuroko raeping onee-sama!

As for the self-insertion, I think most of us can relate to Sawako…regardless of gender :P

@ Martin Dupont: That is true… but it takes a lot of heart heart to make an effeminate bishounen appeal to a straight male reader. And it worked.

@ usagijen: Yeah, I wouldn’t say that it Reached my Soul, but it was pleasant. Basically, it’s the kind of thing that I love about shoujo.

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Kiri October 21, 2009 at 10:32 pm

I’m kind of with you on first impressions. I think I was expected to be blown away by sappy adorableness or something similar. I feel like the series so far is very, very typical shoujo as far as having a rather moe protag goes. I’m not particularly bothered by this, but I’m waiting for it to thoroughly impress me with something.

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Shin October 23, 2009 at 7:58 am

I found Sawako to be easily one of the most moe characters this season despite not being a loli. That said, it is the whole range of characters in the show that made me love this so much. I fell in love with the guy who sits behind Sawako~

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Shinmaru October 23, 2009 at 6:54 pm

I love Ryu, too. People with great names think alike? :O

I hyped Kimi ni Todoke a lot in my mind before the season started (mostly because I fell so hard for Toradora!), and then I tempered my expectations quite a bit, just because I hate going into something expecting the world and being disappointed. If something is going to raise my expectations, then it should be the work itself.

But, yeah, Kimi ni Todoke has raised my expectations each week, although I have had much the same reaction to it as you — it’s a pleasant experience to watch, and it has the kind of heart that makes it fun to keep viewing. Sawako has thoroughly charmed me!

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Misu October 24, 2009 at 12:26 pm

They’re in love with each other already, at least by the end of episode 2. It may be budding, but it is there.

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Saturnity October 25, 2009 at 12:05 pm

I think it kind of hinges on how much the viewer wants to gush over Sawako. I absolutely agree with you on this post; this series makes me feel like a little girl.

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ETERNAL October 27, 2009 at 8:06 am

Looks like we’ve all had pretty similar experiences then. I can only hope that things continue on at this rate. There’s still more than enough time for it to thoroughly win me over :3

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