I don’t think anyone considers To Heart amazing or a must watch. Perhaps it’s simply because of age, but To Heart simply doesn’t work its magic as a eroge adaptation (not that I’ve played the game) or a slice of life show. After watching other slice of life shows, I find To Heart simply uneventful and tedious. There was nothing that attracted me to the show and I still lack any affinity for it.
Aria and Lucky Star have their own unique charms. Aria is simply mystifying, otherwise captivating its audience in an unexplainable way. I’m at a lost for words when I try to describe the anime or manga to others. All I can manage to say is that it’s wonderful. Lucky Star brings those real-life moments we can relate to as well as references and moments that make us laugh and smile. I’m sure Hidamari Sketch and Sketchbook are similar (I have watched neither); there is something that brings you back.
Unlike those other slice of life shows, To Heart lacks appeal. For the modern, average anime fan, the show offers bishoujo, but that’s it. Where is the comedy; where are the absurd, comical renditions of characters when they’re mad, sad, or happy; and where is the magic that keeps each episode from being a drag?
After reading Omo’s post which explained To Heart’s relevance and significance in anime, I tried to appreciate and enjoy it more. Unfortunately, nothing came out of that effort. The main characters annoy me (Shiho needs to shut up) and the lack of humor makes each episode even longer. At the core, I think it’s the show’s format that irritates me. In other harems like Kanon and Love Hina, we see each girl’s story fleshed out and given a few episodes. In To Heart, each of the girls is given one episode, but I want more. I want to know more about Kotone and Serika, but I simply get one episode a piece.
Maybe I’m spoiled? I’m too used to Kyoto Animation’s catering to the fanbase of each girl, even if the original story wasn’t supposed to be that way. I expect each girl to get at least a few episodes about her (although Clannad broke that trend of theirs with the merging of Kyou and Tomoyo’s arcs… and how frustratingly disappointing they were). At least that would help feel each character feel more complete as we see her character development.
I do have to give To Heart some props for not being the typical visual novel adaptation. I don’t know how later shows turned sour, but it’s nice to see Akari as a childhood friend that isn’t tsuntsun or often jealous. It’s almost refreshing to see that the show is almost realistic. I may very well like the absence of typical VN adaptation fare.
To Heart is just slow and there isn’t anything that special that keeps me coming back for more. The only reason I continue is merely to get my money’s worth; I did pay $24 to buy the boxset, after all. It’s nearing ten years since it first aired, so maybe I shouldn’t compare it to something from the past few years. Still, I haven’t been watching anime since the 90s with the exception of Pokemon and Card Captor Sakura; I understand what To Heart may have done and how important it is, but the show’s enjoyability is nowhere close to that level.
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Extra note: If you’re a blogger, why don’t you participate in some roundtable discussions about the best (or your favorite) anime of 2008?
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I guess it goes to show everyone has different taste, especially when it comes to more slice-of-life series–Aria put me to sleep (dropped after 6-7 episodes), but I really liked To Heart. To Heart isn’t perfect, and the pacing is definitely on the slow side, but somehow like Yokohama Shopping Log the slow pace just worked for me. It’s definitely had a huge influence on other anime, with references popping up all over the place in other series, and Multi really got Hocchan’s career as a seiyuu started. I wouldn’t put To Heart in my top 10 or even top 25, but when I’m looking for a laid-back slice-of-life series that isn’t cramming fanservice in your face and has a decent cast of characters, To Heart fits the bill for me. I agree as a two cour series it would have been better though, with more time to flesh out the cast more fully and maybe give it a more conclusive ending.
I always thought that I belong to a minority of To Heart lovers, especially in this day and age. I did watch To Heart during my earlier anime days (when I watch only few but good shows), and because of that it had a greater impact on me as one of the major foundations of my fandom. Nowadays almost no anime does a show this slow anymore, and even if we still have slice-of-life ones being produced, it won’t be as slow as this one.
Maybe that’s the problem, because the climate is so different now, and we have more anime to compare it to, that a first-time viewer would tend to dislike (you) or like (Omo) it depending on more factors that if you watched it in the early 2000s. We expect a lot from our anime lately, and To Heart does not offer a lot. But it certainly captured my heart though, and I wished that it would be appreciated by more people, even if sometimes I can’t explain why I like it.
I agree with bluemist (and yeah I loved those “Summers of Bishoujo” posts btw)
Anime and me go back a long long way. To Heart was a landmark show in the sense that it offered the true harem + bishoujo feel of which other shows in the 90s did not have. At that time, I did not look at it as a “slice of life” show….more of slow-paced romance in the shounen spectrum. But I did enjoy it…osananajimi ftw
It still is a genre defining show and one to remember for posterity.
@suguru, bluemist, The_Observer, jpmeyer: I don’t believe slice of life can stand on its own without something interesting in the mix. For Aria, that’s the undine aspect, the humor, and the wonderful, mysterious scenarios Akari finds herself in. For Lucky Star, it’s simply the references, the humor, and otaku appeal. Regardless of what its impact was, I’m saying that it did not last a decade and it’s awfully dated today.
@RedMaigo: Precisely. You pretty much got everything else I wanted to say.
Ichatta…
Finally someone has said what I have always felt about To Heart. I understand that without the success and popularity of To Heart that the latter-day anime eroge adaptions (Kanon, Air, Clannad) or even the iyashikei shows like Aria or Sketchbook may not have been made.
I think that To Heart was successful simply because no one else was doing this type of show at the time it was aired. It was new and different for those who were tired of the manime, mecha or dystopian cyberpunk offerings that were de rigueur for anime back in the day. Well, at least for us in the West that is.
I can understand why To Heart would touch so many people and is fondly remembered. To Heart can be seen arguably as something that changed the game forever.
However, we now live in the post-To Heart world where the tropes introduced by the show are not only standard in it’s own genre but have been incorporated in others such as the afore mentioned iyashikei or even mecha. (I am looking at you Code Geass.)
But when does a trope cross the line and become cliche?
When everyone and everything has used that trope to the point of being sick of it. When I watch To Heart I watch the same old eroge-harem thing that not only has been done to death but has been done better somewhere else.
Okay i feel like I have just spit on an icon but I think I feel this way because it is held in such high regard. And maybe that is my problem. I was expecting more from it than an afternoon nap.
Because it’s slice of life that is actually a slice of life, making it boring, rather than all sorts of WACKY, KER-RAZY shit that doesn’t actually happen, which never happens in my life but is a lot more interesting?
I’m with bluemist as well. I’m one of a few who enjoyed To Heart because, as someone put it, it left me “feeling good” inside. It just had this air of innocence and calmness that just kept me glued to it. Methinks anyone looking for drama or action would definitely be turned off by To Heart.
Now perhaps for these people with other expectations, To Heart: Remember My Memories might fill the bill for them, and so would To Heart 2, which has a bit more hilarity and craziness in it.
I don’t think it has a lot to do with comparing it with stuff. I’m probably as jaded today as I was in 2000. In fact I dropped (or put on hold indefinitely) To-Heart way back then.
It might be because I developed a taste for that low tempo, slice-of-life stuff, but at the same time I thought I always had it and it was something that almost no anime has exploited until the past few years.
Where it did have something to do with comparing stuff is … well, I’ve watched a lot of crappy anime since 2000 and I can spot a good show when I see it :)
Anyways, To-Heart was never a show that a lot of people will like, and I think that much we all can agree on.
You’re lying, why do you think I pressed you to buy the show?
Bitch please.
Lrn2lurvegudthings.