Pojo's Anime: Episode Reviews

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Introduction to To Heart

To Heart is a rather short series; it lasts for 13 episodes. It is a Shoujo Anime, but that doesn't mean that you action fans won't enjoy it. The actual story follows Akari and Hiroyuki, second year high school students, through their high school life. Each episode tends to introduce and focus on a new character. The new character of each episode that is focused on usually has some sort of problem and Akari and Hiroyuki will help them get through it. Not every episode follows this format, but a lot of them do. I enjoyed this anime quite a bit, but it did move rather slow at times. This isn't an anime I was able to watch in one sitting, but I found I enjoyed it much more over an elongated viewing period, it helped to keep the story fresh. Action and Comedy fans may have somewhat of a problem with this series, but I think that most people will enjoy it.

The series also consisted of six Omake, which were little skits that lasted only a few minutes and featured the characters in a more cartoon drawing style. They don't really have any bearing on the actual series, but did consist of the characters in the series.

Characters of To Heart (There are more characters, but I am just giving you bios of the characters that are present in each episode, not the focus characters of each episode)

Hiroyuki: The main male character of the series and best friend with Akira. They have been friends with each other since pre-school and Hiro treats Akira like she is his sibling. Hiro is quite the whiner, he always seems to want to sleep or eat; He also is very lazy. Hiro seems to make a new female friend everyday, but he never shows much interest in them or looks at them as possible girlfriends. Hiro is a great athlete, as is shows during field day, but he never participates because of his laziness. Hiro does always look to help people out, though, no matter how lazy or tired he may be.

Akira: The main female character of the series and best friend of Hiroyuki; the two have gone to school together since pre-school. Akira is a very loving character who is always looking to help out people. She likes Hiro a lot, but never tells him so, she does hint at it, though. Akira never seems to get jealous of all the girls that Hiro becomes friends with and is often the one reminding him when he has plans with a particular girl.

Masashi: Masashi is the best friend of Hiro and is a sports super star. He is the school soccer star and is an all around nice guy. Masashi captures the heart of Kotone.

Shiho: Shiho is the best friend of Akira and all around big mouth. She is always talking about her information network which consists of knowing every single student in the school and knowing something about them, she is also one of the first people to know when something happens. Shiho always brags about how she is the karaoke champion. She says that if there was every a beauty contest or karaoke contest during the school field day, she would win for sure. Like a lot of girls in the school, Shiho also has a crush on Hiro; She doesn't want to believe it and would never tell Hiro, though.

Review: A little slow moving at times, but as an overall I enjoyed this anime a great deal. It is a shoujo anime, but I think that everyone can enjoy it. Each episode consists of something new, which is always nice.

Plot: The plot consists of following Akira and Hiro through their high school life and it focuses on the problems them and their friends run across. I thought that this plot was very well done and in most cases pretty realistic and believable.

Music: I like the opening, I liked the closing, and I liked the background music; not much more to say.

Artwork: There wasn't a ton of action, so the artwork was pretty basic, I felt it was very well done. They did use still frames for a few things and you could see that some parts used recycled animation, but the artwork was very well done. I especially enjoyed the character designs, I thought they looked great.

Plot: A-
Music: B+
Artwork: A
Overall: A-

Overall Thoughts- It deserves the A it got, even though it is slow moving at some points, it is still a very original and realistic anime. I recommend it to everyone, I think that even fans of comedy and action anime can enjoy this one. For being based on a dating game for psx, this one turned out great.

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This summary is the copyright of Andy Diehl, August 2001.

Permission is not given to use this summary on any website other than Pojo Anime.
Permission is not given to use this summary in a magazine unless I am contacted first.