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Goddamit, I didn't expect this anime to be as good as it ended beign.

Before I started watching To Heart 2: Dungeon Travelers, I had many doubts regarding the contents of this series: for once, it presented ourselves with a completely different setting and tonal structure to what we were usually accustomed from a To Heart IP and I was kinda worried on how it would deliver it.

Just so you know: I didn't believe Dungeon Travelers would be an "abyssmaly bad experience with little to no redeeming qualities", but rather as a somewhat mediocre experience who would leave me with a bitter taste on my mouth. ... Something completely unheard of from the To Heart franchise (at least in my experience) and would be kinda sad considering this is possibly the last of the franchise we will ever see, you catch me on that.

Well, let me just say I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Dungeon Travelers not only not proved to be a "rather mediocre experience" nor left me with a "bitter taste on my mouth" as I for so long had tought, but rather, exceded my expectations by a mile and turned out a rather fine experience among To Heart properties than I ended-up enjoying more than most of them in the end.

To Heart 2: Dungeon Travelers strikes me as a very fine parody-show of all those Isekai-Fantasy animes that were beign released in the early 2010s, when this series itself came out. It features most (if not all) the characters we so know and love at this point embodying various character archetypes common in these genres and twists them in such a way that not only pocks fun at these aforementioned type of animes, but also results higly enjoyable for the audience in the process. To Heart 2: Dungeon Travelers is not your "bland and generic Isekai with no tought or inspiration behind them", but rather, a threat for those who are tired of the repetidness of those shows.

And the fanservice, oh, what can I say about the fanservice? Never have I seen any other To Heart IP that dared to show so much skin, not the beach episode, not the bikini special, no, Dungeon Travelers tops it all. Hell we even have a character whose main gag is that she strips naked whenever she feels stressed (that would be Ilfa, in case you were curious), and even an slime and onsen scene. I know not everybody will aprobe of the inclusion of such heavy fanservice on this piece of media, but for people like me, who enjoy those kind of scenarios, that counts of a point in favor for Dungeon Travelers. So you'll have to bear with me on this one.

Dungeon Travelers is a MUST WATCH for people who fell in love with the characters of base To Heart 2 and wants to see them in more funny, complicated (and potentially, risqué) situations who no doubt will get a laugh out of them or two. It makes for a pretty good watch for anybody who might be having a good day and wants to cheer up with a little, easy to watch and understand anime such as this one.

Go on, give it a watch, it is worth your time :)

And so, with To Heart 2 Adnext we have reached the bare end of the cannonical To Heart franchise, at least those that takes place in the same shared universe, anyways.

What comes after seems to be in another completely separated plane of existence, and I cannot really speak on its cannonicity on the franchise, just so you know.

The most important aspect of To Heart 2 Adnext that sets it appart from the rest of the OVAs of this series no doubt have to an special episode that deals solely (well, sort of) with Kusakabe Yuuki, that mysterious black-haired girl who gets introduced seemingly out of ... nowhere and seems to have an unusually high level of affection for Takaaki who doesn't really make sense considering we know little to next to nothing about her backround to begin with (altough that could also be said for half of the girls on the To Heart franchise also, lol).

Just like HMX-17b "Milfa", or Harumi Kouno, as she is more formally known throught this anime, Yuuki never gets formally introduced the first time she appears in the show and lefts us, the audience, to speculate on whatever her backround lore might be.

As of the time of this review, To Heart has already do this with two characters, should I be mad about this? I mean, possibly yes, it's kind of lazy thing to do to us, the audience, and more inquisitive critics may have jumped on the throat of this show for daring to do it not once, but twice, at the moment. But seriously, you couldn't get me to be mad about it, since you know, the purpose of these OVAs is the advertise a dating sim and nothing else, what else where you especting? Lol.

Anyways, with the introduction of such an episode those wrongs regarding Kusakabe Yuuki are finally set straigh. Should To Heart done something about her earlier to avoid these kind of confusions? Also problably yes, but you know how this series goes, that's just what one get to expect here.

Other than that, we get a pretty solid episode on which Manaka daydreams about beign Takaaki on multiple ocasions and gets on a bunch of pretty funny and hearthwarming situations with him that no doubt doubt Manaka enjoyers (who, based on her numbers of favorites on her character page, aren't few) will enjoy.

And yeah, that's about it, that's about all of what To Heart 2 Adnext has to offer. It's a small but nice experience to consume on some day you are bored and have nothing better to do, or something similar, anything, really.

I assume that if you are here is because you have already watched the rest of the To Heart series, no? C'mon, finish the damn thing the proper way and watch the last OVA of the cannonical universe, it takes just under an hour to do so and it can be pretty entertaining at certain parts. It won't let you down, I guarentee you that. Pretty solid for what it has to offer.

On To Heart 2 AD Plus we are introduced to two brand new robot girls to complement our already extensive set of characters: Shy but somewhat temperamental HMX-17c "Silfa", and HMX-17b "Milfa", or Harumi Kouno, as she is more widely known throught the series.

Speaking about Harumi, she's kind of weird character, she has so much lore behind her and yet it is never properly explained in pretty much any point of the OVA. For starters: yes, she is a robot, this also came as a surprise for me as she is only referred as such just ONCE in the anime and I had to ... actually consult her MAL page to confirm it. This however, makes sense, as her mysterious apparition on the franchise seemingly out of nowhere could very well be explained as one of Sango's excentricities towards Takaaki (because she is the one that builds the robots, you know) altough that is never explained properly also, as you might suppose, and I am only making suppositions on my parts, at this point.

Another thing I also quite don't understand about her is that on her character page she is listed also as "the robot teddy plush toy that Takaaki looked at", that would certainly explain why she is so obssesed with him, but still, that would have to mean Sango at some point transferred the "conscience" of the teddy (or whatever robots have) into a fully-fledged human robot body, but that's also never hinted at any point of the series.

By far, she most mysterious character to have been introduced into the To Heart franchise until this point.

Still, I like the idea of Ilfa, Silfa and Milfa (or Harumi, I don't even know how to call her at this point) beign three little robot sisters, each with their owns gimmick and personalities all competing for the love of Takaaki. So I'll let all of the aforementioned beforehand slide, just this time, and more importantly, because cute robot girls were involved and I also happen to have a sort of strange weakness for those.

Moving into the contents of this OVA in general: I am happy to announce we finally got what previous entries of this franchise had failed to deliver on large cuantities: fanservice. Yep, you heard me right, we finally got fanservice on To Heart! And yeah, yeah, I know what you are gonna say: we already got a few panty and upskirts shots on this IP before, but have we ever gotten an entire episode whose entire plot revolves around the girls beign in bikinis all day? Lol, I think not. Not even the beach special we got a few OVAs past was so daring when it came to show skin to the audience, it's for something that this anime is tagged as "Ecchi" on this website when the rest of properties from this franchise lacked such label.

My only complain is that we didn't got to see Karin in swimwear, tho >:(

Now, on a more serious note, the only thing that sets apart this OVA from the rest of the others is the inclusion of an explicitly "fan-service-y" episode among its catalog. Other than that, we got to see an episode were Silfa tries to get over her crippling shyness while Harumi does everything in her power to stop her to prove herself a potential better "wife" for Takaaki and all other sorts of situations that are very typical for the To Heart franchise, at this point.

Why don't watch it? I mean, it isn't anything special, but if you like To Heart in general you will no doubt like this also since, as I mentioned previously, is quite literally more of the same. This whole franchise of OVAs, ONAs and specials could very well be the same series fragmented between different IPs for how similar they are.

Go give it a chance, it makes for a nice watching.

To Heart 2 AD has just started and Kouno Takaaki has straight-up just lost his memory.

Should we be concerned about this? I mean, losing one's memory seems like a pretty bad thing to happen and it could very well hinder the development of this series going forward.

Well, none of the girls seems to be particularly concerned about it, some even seem to be enjoying this new, memory-less Takaaki more than his previous self, even.

What logic is this? you are asking. Why are none of the girls shedding even a shade of concern over the apperent memory loss of their male best friend? Wouldn't that be ... the logical thing to do?

And well, my friend, if you want a serious answer to that, I'll afraid it'll have to be stop taking things in this anime as seriously as you, relax, lay back, and absorb everything this OVA has in store for you. You would not be able to appreciate it otherwise.

Here, in To Heart 2 AD you will be able to enjoy a whole chapter dedicated to Takaaki's aforementioned loss of memory, the girls continuos efforts to bring it back (well, not really, if we are beign honest), some extra lore regarding Kouno's and Tamaki's childhood spent with one another, as well as a hearthwarming story about Yuma, our favorite tomboy getting drunk on new year's celebration and discovering some hidden sentiments she had for Takaaki that hadn't come up until that moment. I actually enjoyed this IP quite more than its predecessor, hence the somewhat higher score. If I had to recommend one of the secondary To Heart 2's OVAs to someone it would probably be this one, believe it or not.

The only aspect I would highlight as a negative from this anime has to be the duration of its chapters. 30 minutes is far too long for the episodic and comedic nature of To Heart in general, the chapters drag and drag and drag along and by the end of the whole thing you end beign pretty tired, as I was in the end. If they had went for the more traditional approach of 20-something minute episodes this whole OVA would probably have ended-up far more enjoyable than it did and have a better phase in general, or at least that's what I would believe.

Other than that, I would say, go for it, this OVA was pretty good in general and I ended-up liking it pretty much despite its flaws that I described on last parragraph. It's not a bad way to spend time one bored sunday afternoon, go for it, it's not a bad idea.

The main purpose of To Heart 2 OVA is to introduce the characters who, for one reason or another (mainly time constraints I am gonna guess), couldn't be introduced in the main To Heart 2 anime.

Yep, and that's about it, really.

Here, on To Heart 2 OVA you will meet:

Komaki Ikuno: the inquisitive albeit frail little sister of Komaki Manaka (remember her? the "quasi" unofficial librarian of the school's library) and character whose appereance on the series I speculated upon my last To Heart 2 review. Her cronic ilness that lefts her bedridden at her home for most of the time doesn't stops her from deeply ... analyzing the characters and personalities of everyone around her and making assumptions about them. And of course, supporting her elder sister on her crush on Takaaki anytime she is able to.

Kusugawa Sasara: the seemingly imposing and authoritative school student's council president who turns out to be a massive ball of nerves and shyness in her more personal aspects. Oh, and also turns out to have a massive crush on Takaaki also (seriously, Yuuji put it best, Takaaki isn't even trying and yet he is stealing all of the girls, haha).

And of course, how could I forget: Maako Asagiri, known simply as "Maryan" to those close to her. A chaotic "beign" whose only purpose in life seems to be to cause as much mayhem and disorder in all situations as humanly possible.And why is she that way? You may ask, and well, to be completely honest with you, I have as little idea as you have also, lol. However, she is that way and isn't going to change, so you better put up with her, haha.

Now, why I am talking to you about basic information on these girls that you might aswell get by simply looking at their biography on MAL? Well, very simple: the fact that this OVA exist essentially to introduce these characters makes them inseparable from the identity of this IP as a whole. And as such, speaking about them is also a way to almost directly speak about this OVA as a whole.

And seriously, what else would you like me to speak about? On this OVA you will see a pretty typical beach and school festival episode that you sure would enjoy should you be like of these things beforehand (especially the school festival one, wich is perhabs the most chaotic thing I have seen out of the To Heart franchise as a whole) and enjoys a somewhat better quality when it comes to animation quality and has its own unique opening and ending songs and slides. Pretty cool, isn't it?

To Heart 2 OVA isn't bad, really, and I see how you could extract entertainment from a product such as this one. Go ahead, watch it, you probably will enjoy it more than I did, lol.

What a fun little time I had while watching Sugar Sugar Rune.

It was the first Mahou Shoujo anime I had ever seen, and as such, I was worried about two potential issues (more accurately described as concerns, tough) I could have while watching a series so different to what I was accustomed to see.

The first of these issues manifested itself on the form of the incredible amount of episodes this show had compared to shows I was used to watch. At much, I had seen series with 20-something chapters at maximum and the 51 episodes of Sugar Sugar Rune represented a mountain of content for ... me who I wasn't sure I would be able to chew through even if I liked the contents of the series.

Speaking about the contents of this series, the second concern I had consisted of these contents themselves and the themes that would be touched upon throught the duration of this anime. As you might know, the target audience of Sugar Sugar Rune consists mainly of school-aged girls, and me, am an 18-year old boy who has just started university at the time of writing this review. It goes without saying, there exist some pretty deep and fundamental differences between the target audience of this show and myself, so to speak. I feared this anime would end-up beign far too childish for my enjoyment or that it would present some situations that would result too "girly" for me to really relate to them or enjoy them as a whole.

Well, let me say, dear reader or readers, once I started watching Sugar Sugar Rune not only both of these doubts quickly went away, but this series left me surprised for how good its writing was but also for the maturity of the topics it somethimes touched upon. Indeed, Sugar Sugar Rune may be an anime intended for a rather young schoolgirl audience, but I can assure with confidence that it's not a series exclusive for them, as public from all genders, ages, and walks of life might come to enjoy it once starting to watch.

Contrary to proving a difficulty, the titanic amount of episodes blended seemingly well into my daily routines and my days as a whole and even came to become the highlights of some of the more tough of them, which is worth to mention were not few of them. This is no doubt because Sugar Sugar Rune is an extremely light series that is easy to understand and perfect for days when your days just years for something pacific (on the mayor part, lol) and easy to diggest to make for a hard day. If you are a person looking for an anime with such characteristics, consider Sugar Sugar Rune, it could result of your liking.

And while it is true that this show is primarly aimed at schoolgirls and its settings, themes and situations might relate better for them than it does for us, adults, I don't find this a problem as the amazing writing does wonders for keeping the audience engaged and entertained on whatever the series is throwing at our face on that particular episode. Sugar Sugar Rune belongs to a really tiny, tiny group of animes who I could confidently say has no boring or uninteresting episodes. No really, this anime managed to make episodes that in other shows would have make me roll my eyes out of dissaprobal, such as School Festivals and Sport Competionts as interesting experiences with a compelling narrative that left me engaged by the end of it.

Serioulsy, just to put an example of how well this show is written, let me utilize one of its titular propagonists to do so. Chocolat Meilleure: a bratty, undisciplined and lousy schoolgirl that also turns out to be the character we have to put-through with throught this series and are supposed to root for. Now, on any other situation I would probably have ended-up hating a character such as this one, especially is she was given as much screentime as Chocolat Meilleure gets, however through a healty dose of realistic writting and a given set of possitive characteristics who only get amplified and more amplified as the series goes by and Chocolat slowly matures along her quest for the queenship of the Magic World and its inhabitants. Sure, Chocolat Meilleure may be an inmature brat who more than not gets herself and her shy and introverted friend Vanilla into messy situations that end-up beign far more than she could have ever bargained for, she is also a kind, charitative girl who genuinly cares for Vanilla and the rest of her friends and who is willing to listen and learn from her mistakes in order to become a better friend, and of course, a better candidate for the Crown in return.

The result of all what's described previously is very obvious: Chocolat results an empathetic and pleasant character for the overall audience to see, despite all of her flaws listed in the last parragraph. Take this from me: I am a guy who, in theory, has an extremelly low tolerance for characters such as Chocolat, and yet I ended rooting for her at the end of the series and preferring her over Vanilla for the position of Queen. That should really tell you something.

The villains are a strong point when it comes to writing of this series. They progress from beign a misterious and seemingly far-away sort of menace at the beginning of the anime to slowly and steady becomming a more definned but powerfull foe that genuinly represent a threat to the candidates to the Crown in more than one occasion, having an straight-up advantage over them in more than one occasion throught this show. You also get to spend much time among them as the series progresses forward and even get to hear their history, motivations and inner toughts in more than one occation to such an extent that you get to know them, as much Chocolat and Vanilla, believe it or not. And let me just say: they aren't the "let's destroy everything and harm innocent people because we can" type of villain, the villains of Sugar Sugar Rune have genuine and to some extent, agreeable motivations that move them forward to achieve their goals. There will be times when you will be simpatizing with them more than you do with the heroines because they have legitimate reasons to be mad at them and the forces that prop them up as well there will be moments were you will be rooting for their dowfall because the methods they utilize to try to achieve their goals are genuinly messed-up and because, at the end of the, they are still the villains.

While at the beggining Sugar Sugar Rune might appear as your standard good-vs-evil story, as the plot advances forward, you will realize that neither the villains are as "evil" as the "good guys" might like to portray them, nor are the "good guys" as pure and flawless as they would like to portrait themselves. Let that speak for the level of maturity and good writing this show has.

Going back to the first point: I didn't tought any moment of Sugar Sugar Rune was particularly "childish" or "girly" for me to understand or enjoy, maybe there were, but the good writing made me not realize of them in their totality. Quite the contrary, I would say this show is quite mature for the type of public it tries to reach: It teaches it's audience the valor of letting go something or someone instead of clinging to it desperately in the hopes it will return to their side, to not let the opinions of others to disuade you from who you trully want to be, and perhabs most surprisingly of all, on employee-employer relations on the workplace and the way they should look on an ideal ideal. Definitively a very mature anime to be directed primarly for schoolgirls and that you can bet I will show to my children provided I end-up having a couple of them a few years from now-on (we can always hope to, no?)

On the tecnical standpoint, Sugar Sugar Rune doesn't really stands-up from other shows from the early-to-mid 2000s. Its backrounds are pleasant to look like, but are nothing to write about (the irony, I know). Some of them, especially those who aren't are at the center of the scene poorly and lazily drawn and come out as sort of sloppy more than anything. The artistic design of the characters isn't exactly bad, you can come to enjoy it if you are into the more "cutesy" style of things. I personally, don't have a problem with it, I could go as far as saying I enjoyed it in the vast majority of the episodes, but that it can come of quite "aggresive" in some situations, if you look at it closely. The music is straight-up fire, there wasn't as song from this anime, be from its overall soundtrack or its more "up-front" songs that wasn't good. All of them are going into my anime soundtrack playlist no doubt.

Overall: Sugar Sugar Rune is a good anime that no doubt Mahou Shoujo lovers and even wider audiences will enjoy and find memorable for its characters, history, development, music and artstyle. This series didn't really get an audience in North America, but is fondly remembered in Europe and Japan were it enjoyed a wider release, and that's for a good reason. Go watch Sugar Sugar Rune now, it's an experience worth it!

If you came here expecting to see our beloved To Heart 2's character in bikinis, maybe a beach episode even perhabs, like it covers suggests, let me tell you are in, sadly, for a dissapointment :(

This anime special's contents are pretty well sumarized by its synopsis: Yuzuhara Konomi and Kousaka Tamaki join the audience in a little retroespective journey of the series up until the 12th episode perhabs (when this special is canonically supposed to take place, actually) and provide comentary on various moments of the anime we had already seen until this point. Not sure why the creators decided it would be a good ... idea to use Komaki Tanaka in swimwear besides what I am pretty sure is her sister , a character who doesn't even apear in the main series (and maybe in the animated franchise at all, I am not sure) as a cover for this IP, tho.

Maybe we could be looking at an extremely early case of clickbait on the web, lol. Who I am to know, after all?

Everything is discussed and talked about on this special: from simple explanations of what is going on in screen and we already know, to personal toughts our two presenter girls might have over the various situations Kouno Takaaki might find himself through his tumultous school year. I wouldn't recommend this special for more casual viewers who might just be watching the To Heart series as a way to kill free time or who simply don't want to see something they have already seen again. This is howewer, far from beign a bad piece of media, tho. This special features a unique intro and outro to the main series and some of the reactions of the girls in a bunch of the more spicier situations genuinly made me chucle a laugh or two.

What I am getting at, is that you shouldn't avoid this special simply for beign something you had already watched or it wasn't what you were expected. It is only 23 minutes long and may even get a couple of laughs out of two. If you still don't want to proceed with that, no problem, at the end of your day, you invest your time in whichever you determine good and worthy of it. But I will ask you, consider everything I have just said before and take a decision out of that, its the best thing you can do in these kind of scenarios after all, don't you think?

To Heart 2 stroke me as on of those animes that, let's just say, suffers from a slow, dull and, admitedly, boring beginning just to keep getting better and better the more time it progresses towards its inevitable conclusion, many of these around this medium, huh? More than anything, it's one of those shows that relies on an extensive and ecletic set of characters to carry forward its story and get us, the audience, interested on it. And let me say, it does pretty solid and decent job at doign just exactly that.

At the beggining, I was questioning my decision to pick-up To Heart 2 ... to watch in the first place, and in the end, I was glad I didn't dropped it mid-way to go watch something else.

To Heart 2's main problem lies in the fact that said "extensive and ecletic cast of characters" the show depends, and I couldn't emphazise enough, ABSOLUTELY DEPENDS to be interesting hasn't been introduced yet by the beginning of the whole thing. How's a franchise that's supposed to be about a wide array of the characters doign a wide array of different things supposed to work when none of the titular characters are present just yet? Very simple: it doesn't, the result: the very first episodes of the To Heart 2 begin as a rather forgetable experience that will make more than one member in the audience roll their eyes, no doubt about that.

However, I must remark, dropping the anime from the bad first impressions one might get from it is more than anything a mistake that should be avoided considering what awaits the spectators later down the line.

As we progress further and further down the show, more and more enjoyable characters and their crazy antics get introduced and the whole thing finally begings to pick-up steam. More and more charecters begin to appear and the more and more interesting the story begins the get. And, how could it not? When you such diverse personalities a sweet and innocent girl such as Yuzuhara Konomi with confident but adorable older sister Kousaka Tamaki and from there the quiet and helpfull bookworm Komaki Manaka paired with her best friend, the tomboyish albeit a bit aggresive at times Tonami Yuma with the questionable antics of paranormal-afficionado Sasamori Karin, closing the whole thing up with the peculiar and almost-opposite to each other Himeyuri sisters and a girl who's an actual alien.

Yep, you heard me right, there's a girl in this show that's an actual alien, the To Heart saga is back to its weird shenanings once again, lol.

And there is, where the main strenght of To Heart 2 lies, it has such a diverse stream of characters, each with their own backstory, quirks and own sub-plots going on in their main life that by the conclusion of the whole thing, you aren't even gonna be mad for the faults the show presented on its first episodes: the later half of it will be enough to convise yourself the series has been able to redeem itself through its plots on the later half.

Dropping the anime just because you didn't like what you saw on its very first chapters would be a wrongfull and precipitated decision considering what is in store for you if you just keep watching. That's what I am trying to get at, if you hadn't catched the memo by this point in the review.

To Heart 2 might not be anything special when it comes to the overall slice-of-life series, but it sure as hell provides a memorable experience for those who are both patient and know how to appreciate this media. Go give it a chance, it's worth your time and you won't be dissapointed of doign so at the end, I can guarantee you that.

Very quickly after starting to watch these specials you'll notice how fundamentally nothing really makes sense about them. The history is nonsensical, all over the place and actively contradicts itself on more than one ocation. This goes as far in some points of the episodes that characters see themselves forced to break the fourth wall and call out the producers for putting them in such absurd situations.

All of this, however, rather than beign a downside, complements perfectly what another reviewer smartly pointed out in his own comment, is nothing more than excuse to introduce fanservice over this IP and show pantsu to the audience. And ... oh God, is there pantsu everywere.

To Heart: Remember My Memories Specials is essentially an excuse to show the main girls of the show's underwear presenting itself as a parody of Dragon Ball Z and other popular action and mecha animes of at time while also trying to get a laugh or two out of the audience. Going back to my first point. here, you will not see any coherent storyline beign followed yet you will see lots and lots of epic fights, their amount only surpassed by the amount of pantsu you will see in total :P

Have you ever wondered what color of underwear Akari and Shiho wear below their school uniforms? Did you know that Multi and Serio are both equipped with a white pantsu to wear at all times? And many other questions you probably will never ask because, unlike me, you are a well adjusted individual in society that doesn't spend his days writing deranged reviews for obscure anime specials that came out almost 20 years ago, hahaha.

On all seriousness, tho, To Heart: Remember My Memories Specials is a good anime that managed to get a laugh or two out of me and found mostly enjoyable. No episode last longer than 6 minutes so I would recommend it to anyone who has just finished Remember My Memories and has a little bit of free extra times to spare. Plus, this series also introduces Yuzuhara Konomi from the To Heart 2 spinnof and pretty much confirms both universes are linked in some sort of way. Just how cool is that, go give it a watch!

My only gripe, however, would be with the music. That while it is true that we saw a general worsenning of soundtracks from one season to another, I found the tracks composed specifically for these specials to be kinda bad. Hence, I rest this anime one point on the scoreboard.

Other than that, I would say its a great special that will make you laugh and you should give it a chance, go for it!

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.