Tsuyokisu Cool X Sweet
[Score: 78%]
- Drama: Med (the final episodes provide even some depressing scenes)
- Comedy: High (that's what this show is about: Everything can happen!)
- Action: Low (mostly ruckus, no really competitive fights)
- SciFi: Low (some superhuman abilities but nothing important)
- Ecchi: Med (lots of nude loli skin, some yuri fanservice, and lots of oddly shaped daikons)
Starting with an ambitious female transfer student moving to another school and trying to blend in there but pursue her dream at the same time, the first half of this series is a chaotic high-speed school rivalry comedy full of silly ruckus with a strong focus on fanservice (mostly boobs and pantsu shots, but some almost-nude shots of very young girls as well) and very little Story. As such, with all the forced ecchiness, it gets certain downgrades in the relevant categories from me.
Then, slowly but surely the series turns into an interesting, shy romance story with an unusual twist and an exceptionally strong side character - Kurogane Otome, being the cousin of the lead boy and becoming a very good friend of the lead girl. She's the light shining throughout this story, providing a lot of fun and action as well as support for her friends but intolerance against unnecessary weaknesses. Compared to her both leads aren't that interesting, which is a pity. Although there is an awfully large staff of other side Characters, they all fit nicely into this story.
From episode 6 on the childhood friends Sunao and Tsushima become the focus of the story, and we now switch to a kind of harem story - being told by one of the girls involved! We get our fair share of drama here (even though it's that kind of "mountains out of molehills" drama). And the final episodes are everything I could ask for: Touching as well as hilarious, with a number of great surprises, most of which had my laughing out loud! And you'll see how finally all those side characters are necessary to make this series what it is - a story about friendship and "being frank".
In the end this anime turned out to be neither a serious drama nor a great romance, but one of the best anime teenager comedies I've seen to date. And I guess those who are more likely the target group than me will give this series even higher ratings.
A more serious and less ecchi version of the main heroine's story can be found in Clannad (TV).
Last updated Thursday, June 05 2008.
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