Tag Archives: kimi ni todoke

I’d Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill For That Ability

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Heiwajima Shizuo of Durarara! is a man of many traits. He’s a berserker. He’s a man who wants to be a pacifist but can’t seem to get it down. There’s one quality in particular that I want to focus on however, and that is how unusually perceptive Shizuo can be.

All of us to some extent set up walls and barriers in our lives. Sometimes they’re to keep people out, other times we reinforce them and build upon them and even decorate them to the extent that we expect others to see us as these walls. But Shizuo’s personality is such that he sees the “truth” more readily, as if his senses are more animal than human. Wall-building is not a trait he’s familiar with, so he ignores it entirely. He’s naturally attuned to human nature, even if he isn’t aware of it.

Shizuo’s perceptiveness reminded me of  another show I’d been watching alongside DRRR! last season, Kimi ni Todoke. In it are two characters who could best be described as “simple-minded,” but it’s that simple-mindedness that allows them to sense deception or the absence of true honesty, much like Shizuo.

The first is Chizuru, the tomboyish friend of the main character Sawako.

The second is Pin, the loud-mouthed, belligerent teacher.

In both cases, you can see how much finely-tuned their instincts are to seeing past the elaborately constructed walls of human life when they interact with the character Kurumi. Kurumi is seen as beautiful and sweet, but her looks hide a manipulative personality. When Kurumi tries to turn on the charm with both Chizu and Pin, they can’t help but feel that something is amiss, even if they can’t pinpoint it. They can see the walls for what they are.

Personally speaking, I really wish I had a trait like this. Or maybe I do, and I don’t realize it. Or maybe I don’t, and I’m just kidding myself.

Zawa

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What is Kuronuma Sawako’s Favorite American Football Team?

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Umino Chika Spikes Water at Production IG, Kimi ni Todoke the Result

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I strongly suspect that Honey and Clover creator Umino Chika, while on her way to deliver character designs for Eden of the East, decided to “spice up” the lives of the members of Production IG. How else can I explain how good Kimi ni Todoke has been?

Not to take anything away from the original creator of Kimi ni Todoke, Shiina Karuho, seeing as it’s her strong story and nice character designs that they’re working with, and certainly Production IG has always been known for its high standards of animation quality, but KnT is a beast unlike any other unleashed by the Igg (that’s how the cool people pronounce it, you know). Rather than using their expertise to make a more fleshed out and realistic-looking show, as one might expect from the studio that brought us Ghost in the Shell: SAC, what Production IG has managed to achieve is a show that truly looks shoujo in a way most anime have not, including perfectly good works such as Cardcaptor Sakura and Itazura na Kiss.

There’s a very strong understanding by the staff on this show as to when to utilize the more visually two-dimensional and emotional elements and when to incorporate a three-dimensional sense of spacing among the characters, and it, and the result is that it achieves that pastel and wispy shoujo manga feel while still making sense as an animation. In a way it reminds me of 70s-style shoujo, only with less emphasis on the melodramatic, and more technical skill on the part of the animators.

And even if you don’t care about all of that stuff I just said, note that Kimi ni Todoke is still very good, and does a good job of murdering cliches with an 80 lb. battle axe, which I will assure you is the perfect metaphor for this show. Good shoujo, from Igg to you.