To Heart: Remember My Memories

To Heart: Remember My Memories is one of those animes that is hard to review. On one hand, it made some very questionable artistic and direction-wise choices that left me with a bitter taste on my mouth towards the beggining of the series while managing to redeem itself through an emotionally compelling and well-structured storyline towards its end. It's a bit of a tear-jerker, you see, which is something I actually didn't expect from a show I tought so little of once started watching. It's somewhat embarrasing to admit it, but it last episode legit almost made me cry, which is something few animes have ... accomplished to do until this point, which does nothing but add to the surprise factor this series had for me beforehand.

I guess the best way to start a To Heart: Remember My Memories review is by talking and to comparing it to its direct predecessor and place where most people watching this anime will come from in the first place: the titular To Heart. If you have read my previous review on that work of fiction, which you should do before considering jumping into this anime or not, you should know that I praised that show for its slow, laid-back but engaging approach to storytelling, stereotypical, but lovable and approchable main characters, and the icing on the cake on the form of an almost magical ambience composed of some the most fluid and beautifull animation you will ever see in any anime plus some of the best-drawn backrounds and entailing soundtrack that will get you inmersed into the To Heart universe without a doubt.

Let's say, if the original To Heart series reminds me of a nice, warm, summer afternoon everytime I watch it, To Heart: Remember My Memories reminds me of nothing of the sort, it doesn't even reminds me of anything at all. And you might ask, why is that the case? Well, very simple: for one reason or another, maybe it was some phony attempt to "get with the times", whatever that means, maybe because of budget cuts to the animation department, or simply because a different studio handled this anime than the first one, they decided to throw away everything that had made the first To Heart great and replace it with much more traditional and generic elements that come to mind when talking about slice of life shows such as this one. Yep, you heard me right, everything we loved and cheered on from the first season is gone now and you could aswell be watching a completely different (and worse) series compared to the first one, and I couldn't put an emphasis on that far enough.

By this point of the rewiev you could already stop reading: if you only watched To Heart for how good/relaxed it made you feel, then there is nothing for you beyond this point that is not sadness and dissapointment. The pretty artstyle of the first season was replaced with some ugly-looking stylized design choices that made some of the characters genuinly unpleasant to look to (looking at you two, Remmy and Hiroyuki). The backrounds aren't anything special compared to other animes of the time and the magnanimous soundtrack of the first series is all but gone now. A downgrade to its direct predecessor left and right, no matter how you look at it. Why continue writing then? you might ask to yourself, it is very clear that you don't liked the series and we all understand that, by this point, why continue, then?

Well, that is very interesting question, my dear reader, and it holds an equally interesting answer believe it or not. And that is that I believe, or at least would like to believe, that there is second type of To Heart fan that would enjoy this show infinitely more than the first type (those fans who enjoyed the original To Heart for its relaxed ambience and laid-back story) would. The type of fan who is here mainly for the characters and the stories that develop around them, you see.

If you look through the reviews on this series on the comment section, you'll find that most people who praise this show is for having an actual storyline in comparison to its '90s predecessor, those are the "second type of fan" I am talking about, dear reader. For if there is something To Heart: Remember My Memories has to praise for is the story it delivers to the viewers. It is true that it fumbles here and there, especially towards the beggining of the whole thing, and falls in some tropes and narrative practices that I personally don't aprove of. But man, if it manages to do something right is to tell an emotionally powerfull story that not only feels completely on-brand for the To Heart universe but also is a worthy final for the characters we came to know and love in the first season to begin with. I will reiterate myself on what I said on the opening paragraph of this review: few animes have managed to make me cry yet I was at the brink of shedding a tear or two in the closing episodes of this series. Yes, that's how emotionally powerfull this is, and you should consider giving it a chance just for that.

At this point of the rewiev, there's nothing else for me to say but petition yourself to ask what category of To Heart fan you fall into. Are you simply here for the nice ambience or you prefer seeign the emotional journey of the characters instead? There's nothing wrong with beign either one of these types, you are the one who sets your own priorities at the end of the day, after all. But in case you fall into the first category, I ask you to consider everything I said about this anime before and simply give it a chance, you'll enjoy seeign it especially if you are fan of the more emotionally charged characters on this show, such as Multi and Akari, for example.

Have fun watching it, in case you decide to do after all.

Overall
Ok, so by itself the original "To Heart" was awful, but it actually makes a lot of sense as a prequel to "Remember my memories". Where the first season was shallow, episodic harem nonsense, this season expands in every dimension and is actually really good.

Animation
Nothing spectacular when it comes to graphics, but decent character design. Boy, am I getting repetitive or what?

Actually, it's too bad they didn't stick with the original art style. The graphics were far better in the first season.

Sound
Good voice acting (except for the obviously fake Amewrican Remmy/Lemmy.
...
The intro tune is likeable, but background music and ending theme are pretty bland.

Story
RMM is a direct continuation of the first season, and considering that was just an introduction of all the characters, the actual story begins here. And it's a good one. Both backstory and depth is developing, and it turns out to be something as unusual as a plausible and catching drama.

Remember my memories might not be very original (reminding of stuff like Chobits, Kimi ga nozomou Eien etc), but it fuses clichés together in a brilliant way.

Character
Since all of the characters got introduced in the first season, RMM can focus on developing them instead. And it is an impressive amount of character development going on. None of that boring episodic "girl of the week" nonsense, instead everyone get screen time when it fits the story.

Most of the characters are very likeable (Remmy's irritatingly bad english and the witchcraft girl are notable exceptions) and act pretty much like real people.

Value
The Anime keep translation was good, no complaints there.

I love it when a second season makes the first one make sense.l Makes me want to watch them both again some time.

WHAT IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT'S HOLY HAPPENED TO THIS SERIES!!!

The original To Heart is rather enjoyable. It's a nice slice of life show that gets misnomered as a harem romance. This extension on the other hand, should never have been made.

The story in Remember My Memories is set around a year after the end of To Heart. Multi has left, Hiroyuki, Akari, and the rest of the cast are still pretty much the same. Hiroyuki is pining for Multi though when she suddenly comes back to school, only for everyone to be told she has the robot form of amnesia!?!?

Okay, I'm not going ... to harp on about the rest of the story, which in itself is pretty much standard fare. The creators decided to turn what was an enjoyabl slice of life show into a true harem romance/drama. The only problem is they failed abysmally.

The art and animation are sorely lacking in Remember My Memories. Gone is the naturalistic character design and the nice watercolour stillframes. In their place the animators saw fit to make the faces more angular (pointy chins abound in this show). The animation is decidely jerky, and the colour palette has been changed to make the show more "cheery" (failing miserably at this as well).

The sound is another area where a lot of corners have been cut. There's no mellow BGMs in this show, and the effects are sometimes random. The voice acting in this show has also dropped in quality (even though the same actors were used - how the hell did they manage that?). Ichijou Kazuya (the voice of Fujita Hiroyuki), must have been up all night smoking and drinking before recording this series. In the original To Heart his was quite smooth and well defined. In Remember My Memories he sounds like he's desperate and screaming all the time. The other voice actors are no better, which makes me think that these changes were intentionally added to "heighten" the drama (when all it did was make me want to kill the characters or kill myself).

The characters are the main reason why the show is a huge let down. As I pointed out, the voice acting was a major disaster, but the character flaws don't just end there. The creators have tried to make Remember My Memories more "dramatic", and with this in mind they have turned the characters into an abomination of what they originally were. In the original To Heart Hiroyuki was a kind, sensitive (if somewhat absent-minded) guy. In Remember My Memories his character comes across as annoying, whiny, selfish, angry (in other words, he's a brat). Akari was originally a gentle, caring girl, and although they tried to keep those traits for her character, they spoiled it by making the show "dramatic". Akari's character flaws are highlighted in many of the "dramatic" moments of the show, especially towards the end of the series. The supporting characters also suffer from this "drama", as many of their characteristics and personalities are just plain annoying now.

I'm not going to recommend this show to anyone except a complete masochist.

If you're a fan of the original To Heart, or even To Heart 2 (which, even though I didn't enjoy it as much as To Heart, is still miles better than Remember My Memories), then do not watch this show- ever! If you like a good story, romance, drama, great characters, great animation and sound, etc, then avoid this at all costs, and go watch Kanon or Clannad, or even Da Capo.

I'm not going to say anything good about this show (so those of you who liked it, don't hold your breath). It's bad - end of story. This series is to To Heart what The Phantom Menace is to Star Wars.

I'm not going to insult anyone who liked Remember My Memories, but I will say this - compare it to any other show of it's type and Remember My Memories loses in every department.

If I could sue the creators for making this pile of ...., then I would happily do so.

Oh, and for those of you who wonder why I didn't drop the show, I should point out that the show has to rate as a 1 or 0 for me to drop it. Remember My Memories may be bad, but it's not the worst I've seen (which is it's only saving grace).