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12 Nov 2008 mellow_bunny

Fanboyism | Part 1: Kannagi, True Tears and a little bit of Toradora!

I have come to .. adore Kannagi. It has reminded me of True Tears, most likely because it was being discussed in #ab as I watched episode six of Kannagi. I’ve decided to do a series of Fanboyism posts. Basically posts which delve into shows or characters that I like a lot. Usually I will discuss characters that I actually fanboy. Tonight I will touch on Tsugumi from Kannagi and briefly on Noe from True Tears. Both characters that I have on my himegimi list ;)!

OMG I JUST NOTICED THAT NOE HAS A MOUSE ON HER HEAD! SEE TOTALI! YOU COULD HAVE DRAWN IT EASILY! Hahaha I bet she wants her mouse to suck Shinichiro's finger. Search for 'mouse' on subculture and read the post that comes up .. carefully for the reference here.

So what really made me try and link Kannagi to True Tears? I suppose it starts with the three girls namely Nagi, Tsugumi and Zange/Hakua. The three seem to have similar relationship types with Jin as Noe, Hiromi and Aiko did with Shinichiro. Perhaps a weak link but enough for me to think about and attempt to write a post on.

Take for example Tsugumi, if we relate her character ‘position’ with True Tears she would match Hiromi. Hiromi however was a blood sucking vampire that I at once hated and also couldn’t help but love. That came down to the fact that I enjoyed True Tears immensely and the way in which it ended was suited. (read: not what I REALLY wanted but a perfect end for the story) Hiromi was meant to be with Shinichiro but it irked me because I wanted Noe to have him.

The reason I say Tsugumi matches in ‘position’ is because her manner and personality do not match Hiromi but the whole childhood friend thing does. This might be due to perhaps Kannagi making more use of comedy then True Tears ever did. Her worries about what Jin might think or perhaps wanting Jin to notice her match Hiromi I guess. See the thing with Kannagi is, up until episode six the only ending I forsaw and wanted was a Jin x Tsugumi ending. Which once again seems suited but perhaps only to me this time.

Up until episode six and the Cosplay Maid Cafe incident I had seen nothing from Nagi to indicate that she might at all consider Jin as anything other then just Jin. In fact I had plainly seen the opposite. But all of a sudden my world is spinning around and I am hooked just as I was with True Tears because I cannot predict which way this story will go. Will the unthinkable happen? Will Nagi, Kannagi’s equivalent to Noe from True Tears actually win at the end of the day?

Might I see a reverse of True Tears?

I honestly cannot say what I would think or feel about that happening. With True Tears I was so angsty and still am over the ending. It was an ending that was perfect for the story as a whole but I could not help but feel sad for Noe and angry at Hiromi. Funnily enough I did not count Shinichiro into the final equation. Almost like I discounted him from who mattered in the story.

Quite obviously Jin = Shinichiro I mean if you haven’t noticed the artist similarity already I should shoot you. As a quick side note Daitetsu’s reaction in the Cosplay Maid Cafe was priceless. I am just waiting for some sort of animal made out of a tissue box to appear. That being said Jin is definitely less whiney and emo (see: Linkin Park) then Shinichiro was. I believe he had mentioned earlier that he had something he wanted to tell Tsugumi .. but said something about telling her himself. WHAT DID HE WANT TO SAY?????

His character definitely does not seem to have quite as many irl issues as Shinichiro did but his Father sounds like he could be interesting. No word on what happened to the Mother either… I don’t think.. I might have been sleepy when/if that was mentioned. I am curious to see how he continues to react to things. After the Cosplay Maid Cafe incident he showed that he was.. what.. jealous? I think that’s the right way to describe it. He showed that he perhaps wanted Nagi to himself? Yes more to develop there indeed.

Like Aiko from True Tears, Zange/Hakua seems almost superfluous to the story. She makes things interesting for sure but her impact seems to be minimal and more aimed at filling out the required male to female ratio. She doesn’t seem to hold any feelings as such for Jin and is more focused on beating Nagi at this point but maybe that will change soon? We will see.

As a brief note if you were to count Toradora! into this mix you would only be able to do so on character count similarities? You would have Ryuji as Shinichiro/Jin then Yusaku as Miyokichi/(Daitetsu/Meguru). When it comes to the girls it gets interesting. I cannot actually think quite how to relate them to True Tears or Kannagi girls. Other then the fact there is three of them i’m not sure there is much more in common.

MINORIN! <3

So anyway so ends my thoughts on Kannagi vs True Tears. I like both shows so far and i’m also enjoying Toradora! All in all a swell season for me. I have lost my lust to watch violent action anime all of a sudden and attribute it to moving house and having less bandwidth available.

Till my next rant friends, toodles!