To Heart Vol. 2: Finding Courage Review

Originally published on otakureview.net

Intro

            Normally I’d make fun of Hiroyuki for being dense but to be honest, I used to be much worse than him.

The Story

            In the first of three episodes on this volume, it’s time for the annual school sports festival but Hiroyuki is in a bad mood for some reason. Even though he hates competing, he is in one race which means that he has plenty of time to walk around and see every girl that he’s met recently and in turn every single one pledges her support to come cheer him on during his race.

            A new character is introduced in the second episode in the form of a girl named Rio. Rio is a little odd since she’s very clumsy and tends to compare life to manga. After a couple of chance encounters with Hiroyuki though, the two get to share a nice walk together and get to know each other and Hiroyuki even helps her pick out a present for her little brother. Misunderstandings arise though when Shiho sees the two of them out together.

            In the final full episode of the volume, one more character is introduced. This time it’s a girl named Kotone who seems to be an outsider that everyone shuns or ignores. After meeting her very briefly one night, Akari is really curious to know what is going on with Kotone and what her big secret is but not even Shiho’s information network can dig up the answer. When the answer is finally revealed though, Akari and her friends decide that they want to reach out to her… even if Hiroyuki thinks her secret is nothing but a big false rumor.

The Good And The Bad

            Last volume I mentioned the animation and how badly I thought it needed to be remastered. After that review was published however, I was told by Right Stuf that the animation is actually the best that they could get it after receiving very rough masters so I will no longer be mentioning animation quality.

            The most glaring flaw that I saw on this volume was in the fact that there were only three episodes on the volume and two new characters were introduced which led to very little character and relationship development which really disappointed me.

With so many characters introduced into the first volume, I was really hoping that those characters would be more fully developed instead of being left in the background so much, most especially though I wish that there had been more development of the relationship with Akari and Hiroyuki. While there was at least some mention of their relationship, it wasn’t much which already is making me worry that the final couple of volumes are going to create a mad dash situation to clean up any loose ends.

The writing in this volume continued to be well done though and I’m really finding myself growing more and more attached to these characters. Akari continues to be that sweet girl that you knew growing up who just felt the need to be friendly with everyone and Hiroyuki is that guy you knew who everyone thought was the coolest thing on two legs and yet he doesn’t care which is part of what makes him so cool to begin with. 

As I mentioned with the relationship and character development, I’m finding that the story development is also moving very slowly. This series is based on a game so naturally they have to spend a lot of time introducing the characters and fans knew and loved from before but I do still wish that the primary story were developed a bit more.

Music

            Some of the music used in this volume was just absolutely over the top melodramatic. The scene in which Rio is riding home on the train during the second episode of the volume was just ridiculously overdone all because of the music. The emotion was there and I did feel it but I was taken out of my element and had to work to ignore it as best I could.

            Other than the bits where the music is just overplayed and over the top, the music in this volume was nice. I’ve already acquired the soundtrack to this first series and I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve heard thus far which is always nice to hear an anime with music so good that it plays well out of context.

Dub vs. Sub

            The dub cast is really winning me over bit by bit. Rich McNanna is utterly convincing as the tragically cool Hiroyuki and Angora Deb is adorable as Akari. Even Zoe Fries as Shiho managed to grow on me much more this volume as opposed to last volume.

            The performances for the two new characters were fun as well. Anna Morrow gave a very pleasing and pleasant performance as Rio and Amy Kincade as the sweet but tragically flawed Kotone sounded just perfect. I really can’t complain at all about this dub cast.

Extras

            Most of the extras on this volume are the same as they were on volume one with character bios that provide some basic insights and translator notes which once again are going to be informative to both the anime newbie and anime veteran.

            The two best extras on the volume though are two mini episodes which tell two separate stories. In the first mini episode, Kotone sits down to write a letter but gets distracted by a sneeze and a tissue. Trust me; the episode is much more interesting than the premise makes it sound. In the second mini episode, a flying monster is accidently unleashed from the occult club and is attacking people’s lunches!

            These two mini episodes are each only five minutes long or so and I was actually most disappointed because they weren’t dubbed but they are still fun to watch even if they have no real point. They’re just cute and the selective use of chibi animation also makes them worth viewing at least once.

Overall

            There were more than a few things about this volume that I really didn’t care for but there’s certainly not enough here to make me want to run away. I enjoyed this volume even with the lack of character and relationship development. The characters are remaining sweet and I’m still very curious to learn more about these secondary characters. If you enjoy some good teen drama with a nice love story thrown in, this is certainly a great direction to look. Right Stuf hit a gold mine with this release and they making their releases into must see volumes.

Final Grade: 82% - B