Anime: Kimi ni Todoke 2nd Season

'Kimi ni Todoke', vaguely translating to '(Let My Feelings) Reach You', tells the story of a gloomy girl falling for a handsome classmate. We saw in the first season that the protagonist Sawako used to be so creepy that her nickname is "Sadako" (reference to the antagonist from the 'Ringu' trilogy). One day she meets Kazehaya, a refreshing prince-like guy who didn't seem to care about her appearance or reputation, and Sawako sets out to change her own introverted personality in order to be accepted by him and other classmates. Series title is far more appropriate for the second season, as Sawako and Kazehaya both struggle to get their feelings across.

The premise in 'KimiTodo' was eerily similar to 2005 hit TV dorama 'Nobuta. wo Produce'. The only difference was that the prince sets out to produce/makeover "Nobuta" in dorama, whereas Sawako produces herself with help of friends. The appearance of Kento in the second season effectively cements 'KimiTodo' as a knockoff by completing Shuuji + Akira love triangle with the protagonist. It is especially disturbing that all three characters having identical personalities, and even same roles as the dorama counterparts. Both protagonists had a gloomy personality and appearance that scares classmates, both have unique nicknames derived from their names (Nobuko - Nobuta (Wild Pig), Sawako - Sadako (Ringu Character)), and both characters slowly gained confidence in themselves and earned the acceptance of classmates by the end. Kazehaya plays the role of the prince as Shuuji did in dorama, both of them are popular, cheerful archetype princes who casually interacted with respective protagonists at first, but slowly realizes their feelings and eventually confess their love. Finally, we have Kento. Unlike Akira in 'Nobuta', he appeared half way, but both characters have that carefree gaudy playboy persona and falls for the protagonist after the prince, to complicate the situation. Both characters try to steal the girl, both eventually fail, but remain supportive in the end. In addition, protagonists in both series had a rival fighting for the prince, again with identical persona. The two major events in the second season: Valentine's Day and School Festival (with protagonist as centerpiece) also happens to be the major turnaround events in 'Nobuta'. It's impossible to deny by this point that 'KimiTodo' is essentially a knockoff of 'Nobuta'.

'KimiTodo' depicts the development of unconditional friendship, joy of school life, difficulty of confession, and awkward and blushing first love. All of which staple themes of seishun (coming of age romance) genre, which begs the question: "Why anime?" I was puzzled at first, because live-action TV dorama offers far larger audience than that of anime, and as Japanese networks have been shifting from housewives to fangirls as main dorama targets in recent years, seishun has become the perfect dorama genre. So why does the author and producers decide to waste money drawing something they could've easily filmed live-action to reach fewer, less relevant audience for a seishun manga series? It became clear to me by the end of second season that there were two main reasons. First, it is apparent by the end of second season that 'KimiTodo' is a mediocre knockoff of 'Nobuta'... it would never be appreciated by the 'Nobuta' audience, thus cannot be aired in prime time. Second, pacing. While there are plenty of slow paced dorama around, 'KimiTodo' appears to drag on forever with endless shoujo monologues. This series would have been completely unwatchable without the chibi-forms used to constantly provide comedic relief.

Backgrounds were done really well for this series with spray effect that left a dreamy impressionist feel to most scenes. This is certainly a nice change to the standard digital fill or gradient effect in most series airing now. Unfortunately, characters often appear to be deformed because there were too little detail for the realistic design of their faces. The chibi-forms were also less than impressive compared to most comedy series. My biggest concern was the prevalence of frozen frames where little if any movement was present on the screen. This further contributes to the slow pacing that makes 'KimiTodo' a difficult watch.

BGM sounded appropriate for most scenes, but lacks variety, with same tracks being recycled over and over. Sawako's voice acting was very tiring to listen to because of constant high-pitched whispering. On the other hand, supporting cast's voice, especially Ayane, Chizuru, and Kento were very distinct and fitting. OP has nothing much to talk about, but the ED song was absolutely wonderful. 'Kimi ni Todoke...' by MAY'S has the same poignant feel of 2005 hit song 'Story' by Japanese R&B singer AI, that same emotional, all-out tone accompanied by amazingly touching lyric that was perfect for this series. It did not enjoy the level of commercial success as 'Story', but this song probably ranks in top 10 heart moving theme songs across all forms of Japanese media content I've come across.

'KimiTodo' is incredibly unoriginal and cliché, but there were some dramatic buildups and touching moments. My biggest complaint with the first season was that Sawako faced too few obstacles and overcame those too easily. The second season does offer more conflicts. However, it was ultimately a bland series that played too safe, and had nothing particularly remarkable or memorable about. I would definitely recommend 'Nobuta. wo Produce' live action dorama if you're into this type of premise.

Note: Rate me! This review is based on [Eclipse] english subbing of the series and it may contain disagreeable opinions and spoilers. I aim to try and be assertive, objective and now spoiler-free when it comes to my reviews but otherwise enjoy. I hope this review turns out well for everyone and I'am listening on feedback from previous reviews.

PROLOGUE:
For those that are planning to watch the series, (Kimi ni Todoke), it is strongly recommended that you have must watch the first season as the second season here continues from what was left off in the first season. As such, there will be things that you won't quite catch if you start watching this on the second season alone. You may wish to read my review of the first season in case you are wondering if the show caters to you or if it's worth watching. Also, don't read this review if you have not seen the first as there may be some slight hint of spoilers. Though I'm trying this time around to keep it spoiler free. Anyway, onto the review.

Kimi ni Todoke second season is again written by Karuho Shiira and animated by studio Production I.G. The second season is a direct sequel from the first, starting back in the 2009 anime season appearing to me as a mix of romance, slice of life and somewhat comedy series. The second season continues the trend from the first with your female protagonist, Kuronoma Sawako, a shy, lonely and misunderstood person in appearance who is aiming to become a better socialised person by trying to open herself up to others. By being able to make friends and become more communicative with others, Sawako has a clear vision of becoming a more socially active, open and less misunderstood person than she is now. As she lacked confidence with her vision, it's not untill a well known friendly male student named Kazehaya Shouta, helps Sawako become a more open and socially active person to everyone. As Kazehaya helps Sawako acheive her vision in life the way, both of them discover a bit of romance between themselves throughout the coming of school events, others and issues along the way.

While Sawako has improved as an active social and open person, her problem this time stems around Kazehaya Shouta. As the second year of school proceeds, Sawako feels herself becoming more distant in relationship with Kazehaya as she still feels nervous and shy around him, causing misunderstanding and negative aspects between each other, particularly Kazehaya. Hoping to bridge the gap in friendship, Sawako aims to clear up the misunderstandings set by her in appearance to Kazehaya as well as dealing with other problems in school that can potencially damage their relationship even further.

It's been a long while since I've written a review this time as of April Fools Day 2011 lol... particularly with work during university as well as events in reality keeping me busy within life. Lots of things have happened such as rhe earthquake in Japan being all around terrible and I hope for all the best to japan to rebuild overtime. Anyway, seeing as I was positively satisfied with the first season of Kimi ni Todoke, the second season did peak into my interest when it was announced. As the first season finished, the series did feel somewhat incomplete and a little unfulfilling but after watching the second season, my view of the series has changed mostly for the better. While I may not be much of a romance fan who watches these types of anime, I did happen to pick up the series back in 2009 and ended up enjoying it since there weren't many shows that are worth watching or catered to my liking. As such, this series did look pretty decent for a romance, school anime and in the end, I didn't regret picking the series up whilst being more interested when the second season got announced. I also heard of a live action adapatation being made but I'm not too sure about whether I'd watch that one.

ANIMATION
Whats hot?
Very much like the first season, The animation of the second season still retains a simple and somewhat artistically hand drawn look in terms of its presentation of characters to backgrounds and atmosphere. Much of the simple atmosphere look hand drawn and presented well close to reality that it's colorful in contrast and easy to look at on the eyes. The atmosphere still consists of school yards, buildings, playgrounds, rooms and nature park environments. Like the first season, I still don't think there is any CGI used. As such, the series really emphasizes and works well on presenting simple, varied colorful scenery along with peers and the setting of school in mind. The camera itself retains its range of covering mostly first person to third person perspective of the characters and environments with some top down view perspective of it. In success, the camera persectives help make the viewer feel more at home with what's going on. Not to mention, the camera perspectives provide more appeal and immersion of the atmosphere, presenting it in detailed spades. The characters themselves appear more personal in interaction particularly in those moments when the camera emphasises more on first person perspective. Characters still retain the simple, detailed and varied look in appearance from the facials to the bodies and fashion. The variety of colors also help bring up the characters to life and atmosphere across the simple, yet detailed school setting of the animation. The motion fluidity also remains intact and looks to be a little improved from the first season. As such, the fluidity is quite solid and simple with characters. It's fluid in a way that such objects or characters moving from point to point in a simple manner are believable and successful in presenting comedic and certain important moments of this season.

Overall, the animation keeps the same breath of the first, being quite solid, somewhat artistically appealing and unique, detailed as well as colorful, and decent in fluid animations. As such, it's more appealing and detailed than average looking anime series like Shakugan no Shana, and which of course appealing enough to keep the viewer remaining fuzzy when continuing from the first season.

Whats not?
The animation still retains the same look of the first but this time around, I felt characters were fluid and detailed enough. However, I felt more could have been done with motion fluidity given across particular elements of the school environment as sometimes, it does look a bit stiff. Certain elements of backgrounds, objects and environments also feel a little bit lacking in detail as well as being a bit bland overtime thanks to the simplicity of the whole school setting animated across the season. While the animation may suffer from certain lack of minor details and few bland elements, the animation as a whole still remains to be artistic, solid and unique in presentation, just like the first season itself.

SOUND
Whats hot?
Like the first season, The sound overall lives up to standard in terms of the voice acting, music and tone in between certain atmospheres and interactions. The opening theme this time around is "Sawakaze" by Tomofumi Tanizawa while the ending is "Kimi ni Todoke..." by MAY'S. To start off, the opening song is pretty catchy and overtime touching and joyful along with the set animation. The ending however, provides a more soothing and instrumental rhythm, bringing out a calming and fuzzy feeling of closure after each end of an episode.

Similar to the first season, the instrumental tunes in soundtrack still retains its goodness and adds emotion towards the viewer with some tunes being potencially memorable. Such emotions experienced through tune were peaceful, joyful, cheery, eerie and warm emotions as there were certainly moments with a tune that adds more immersion for you to feel in set moments. The tunes themselves work in regards to setting the mood of certain atmosphere, environments, character interaction and setting of school elements. Sound effects in objects and environmental elements still sound about right with water sounding like water. As such, they help add a certain degree of believability towards the reality of real life environments, interaction between characters and objects. The voice acting still remains to be solid as continued on from the first season. Sawako for example, still has the same cheery, nervous and that little mischivous voice that we all know and love from the first season. Her voice comes off less tedious and nerve racking in comparison to the first thanks to her boost in confidence with others this time around. Overall, the voice actors did a good job in delivering character dialogue, interaction and lines successfully without being overly too dramatic, bringing belivability towards the characters across many moments of comedy romance, school events and seriousness. Judging the sound as a whole, the sound effects and emotional mood throughout the season still remain the same from the first season, being that it's still good and overall, fuzzy and varied in vibe, moment to moment from start to finish.

Whats not?
The sound and tunes overall has remained more of the same from the first season, being mostly solid with some tunes being memorable this time around. The gripes with the sound however, comes from the new opening and ending themes, not being wholly memorable or great personally but your mileage may vary. However they are rather catchy and interesting enough to serve as a vibe of emotions that continues to give the series a joyful and soothing feel, each time you start watching and finishing it at the end of the day. Overall, the sound department remains to be well done, being more of the same from the first season but nothing that I would feel I'd listen and remember much from outside of the whole series.

STORY
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Similar to the first season, the story this time around places more emphasizes in developing the ongoing relationship between Sawako and Kazehaya. Sure, the story may still be a bit cliche and predictable this season with the common theme of school love and boy ends up with girl. However, it's actually developed very well to an extent that you'll care and emphasize the main relationship and how their romantic story unfolds. In terms of continuation, Sawako appears to still be shy and nervous around Kazehaya. As she is unable to speak or face up to him properly, she causes misunderstandings around Kazehaya as he feels he's falling apart with her. As the story continues from the first season, the difference is that you won't be seeing much sub plots develop much further in conflict with other characters such as the relationship between Chizuru and her lifestyle alongside Ryu. However, a few sub plots do still exist with characters such as Kurumi and new blonde guy Miuta tieing into the story to add conflicting moments between Sawako and Kazehaya. The subplots are again developed well with Kurumi's in particular, carrying over from the first season whilst giving the viewer hints of their ideas within the story. Not to mention how their subplots can add conflict and needed development within the central plot relationship of Sawako and Kazehaya. Overall the main story is developed well as a continuation from the first, emphasizing more and bring much needed development and background towards the central relationship of Sawako and Kazehaya. The central relationship is developed well thanks to the conflicts with certain characters and other events. Such events and conflicts seen are such as Kazehaya and Sawako's love for each other and how it develops to spread across the school, causing love triangles from other students and characters. As such, the events are handled well, bringing to add tension and development towards Sawako and Kazehaya's relationship. The ending itself is alot more satisfiying as the story's developed from the first season, bringing much needed closure towards the relationship of Sawako and Kazehaya. Not to mention, the ending also adds closure towards other characters and peers such as Kurumi and Miuta and how they see and change towards the central relationship in the end. There is also those hints of comedy that are presented well within all of the characters particularly Pin Arai in example as I found it funny how he stalks and make work of Kazehaya's relationship with Sawako. Sawako too, also has her funny moments in narrative while she still tries to become more upfront and clear in misunderstandings with Kazehaya, despite her nervousness. As such, the comedy moments are well worth it, giving the viewer a break, funny times and keeping the show from being not overly serious like Toradora, yet mature during the development of the central relationship between Sawako and Kazehaya.

Overall, the story is developed very well from the first season. As such, it is well developed for you to not only keep rooting for the best of Sawako and Kazehaya's central relationship, but also to acknowledge how other characters like Chizuru, Ayane, Ryu, Miuta and Kurumi see through and provide their personal point of view in support or conflict towards developing the relationship as well. The story is simple and developed to the point where it is satisfying, memorable, conflicting, warming and endearing in romance and comedy where you'll care more for the characters and gain more insight for how each view the central relationship of Sawako and Kazehaya all the way towards the end.

Whats not?
As the story may be well continued and developed from the first season, it still suffers from a bit of slow pacing at times. The slow pacing really affects the interaction of supporting and conflicting moments, which adds development in the story's central relationship between Kazehaya and Sawako. As such, the slow pacing can add a bit of dead time and boring moments to be had within the story. Also, as the story heavily relies on misunderstandings between characters for conflict, the second season goes a bit too far with this premise, making the story suffer in being a little over dramatic at times along with some questionable and ridiculous moments for development. As such, the story could have emphasized more on other types of conflict such as bullying or rather to tone down on misunderstandings for conflict and development within the story. All in all, these are small issues that presented within the second season and with a more satisfying conclusion this season, the story is still worth watching.

CHARACTER
Whats hot?
The characters still remain likeable, appealing and interesting from the first season, being that they have undergone good development from the first as logical characters. The second season continues that trend with no one being the same as each other, playing their part each towards adding support or conflict in developing the central relationship of Sawako and Kazehaya. The whole cast each are developed further this season as they have their own different attitudes and morals given the genre of stereotypes. Stereotypes, the characters may be but overall, the series does a god job in expanding their backgrounds well. The main protagonist still remains to be Sawako as she's become more socially active and friendly but the problem this time is with her lack in confidence and nervousess around Kazehaya in their relationship, causing unintended misunderstanding and separation overtime. The main supporting cast still consists of: Kazehaya being the all round friendly character and main love interest, Chizuru who is the Joyful, comedic sort of character, Ayane who is the most mature and generally logical of characters and lastly Ryu, The silent but action type of character. The second season still contains other comedic but minor cast members such as Arai Pin and Joe each of which add funny moments and minor developments towards Sawako and Kazehaya's central relationship. There are also some new and returning characters such as Miuta, who appears to be a rival and conflict to Kazehaya for Sawako this season and Kurumi who despite being rivals, adds some support to tension and development towards Sawako confidence in character in relationship with Kazehaya. Like the first season, certain character motives and actions are presented well towards developing the central relationship of Sawako and Kazehaya, making it believable and plausible whether it'd be in support or conflict. For example, Kazehaya's situation and way of thinking that he's being rejected by Sawako is believable and plausible. This is thanks to Sawako's body language of looking down, lack of eye contact and lack of communication when facing towards him. As such, this type of body language can show deception and deceit particular given across Kazehaya's point of view as well as building conflict in separation, developing their central relationship in the story this season. While Kurumi remained a bit or tad undeveloped in backdrop and out of screening towards the end of the first season, it's good to see that she's been given more backdrop and acknowledged as a rival to Sawako, yet a bit of a supportive character too considering episode 0 and throughout the second season. The comedy shown in characters during the season still remains to be successfully funny from the first season especially when it comes to the narration of Sawako's thoughts and actions to Arai Pin's stalking of students.

Sawako's journey of self realization, boost in confidence and meaning to Kazehaya continues to be well developed in terms of character as well as being the central core of relationship in story this season. This is thanks to the supporting and conflicting events that happen and are presented by certain characters. Certain characters such as Miuta and Kurumi are also given some perspective in development of ideas and schemes as to how they support or add conflicting moments towards the main relationship with Sawako and Kazehaya. As such, certain themes such as jealousy, trust, deception and dignity are some of the themes you'll see presented within character to character moments and thought processes. Each of which plays a part in supporting or adding conflict towards the central relationship of Sawako and Kazehaya. As a whole, the cast itself is developed well enough to understand, symphathize and care for their thoughts and motives in the story as well as them having some form of development in background to the main story in which they play a part as.

Whats not?
Character development is less apparent this time around particularly in the supporting cast. Ayane along with Chizuru and Ryu for example haven't really changed much from the first season besides being happy with their lives and providing continued support to Sawako in her hopes of repairing the relationship with Kazehaya. Not to mention, the comedic characters such as Arai Pin and Joe didn't get much as much as minor simple backdrop as characters towards the story but rather to serve as comedy elements and moments during this season. Also, the new character, Miuta hasn't all been seen developed much either in terms of his background as a character but rather to serve as a potencial love triangle and rival, love interest to Sawako and threat to Kazehaya in central relationship. In certain dramatic scenes, characters in interacting moments including Sawako can get on your nerves in minor occasions being that such moments can get a little overly dramatic. Not to mention, Tomo and Ekko again were given little focus and remain the same as added support and flavour from the first season. However even with such minor lack in developments and little nerve breaking scenes, the cast roles and development of which added conflict or support towards the central relationship of the story makes up enough for vital and solid characterization.

VALUE, ENJOYMENT AND FINAL THOUGHTS
Despite suffering from the same shortcomings from some of the side cast’s little underdeveloped backgrounds in story, Kimi ni Todoke second season lives up and brings much needed closure as a worth sequel to the first series. It manages to appear as a concluding sequel to one of the better anime series from 2009 to today particularly in the forms of a romantic comedy. The story and emphasise in the development of Sawako and Kazehaya's central relationship is enlighting and endearing and in the end quite moving and memorable. Not to mention, the sequel adds more of it's romantic moments in the focus of developing Sawako and Kazehaya's relationship, making the season just as warm and fuzzy as the first but better towards the end. The comedy is still spot on most of the time in humor surprisingly espcicially in Pin, Ryu and even Sawako herself. As much I enjoyed the first season in inspiration of Sawako's journey to become a more socially active person in life, the second season really builts up to a more romantic conclusion and in the end, I felt just as warm and enlighted if not more than finishing the first season.

In terms of rewatch value, I’d probably watch it the second season again in the long run just for being one of the better developing romanctic relationships in anime that Sawako and Kazehaya have presented. Not to mention, perhaps the comedy and character interactions are funny enough to warrant another watch, even the first season. Although I did find myself liking the first season a bit more, simply because of the way Sawako was developed, the second season is still worth watching as closure and for fans of the first. Again, I do recommend you watch the first season first if you haven't already. Even if you're not much of a fan in romantic genres, the series itself is still worth looking into if your looking into the genre. Alhough if you're looking for a romance anime series that's a bit more adventurous or has action, you may want to look elsewhere such as Eureka Seven. However like the first season, the second season didn't dissapoint me at all and in any case, its well worth the recommendation.