Category: Bishoujo

Bishoujo

To Heart 2 Review (Part 2)

Review Coverage: March 7 to March 13

This week seems to be composed of days where nothing much has happened, but towards the end some heartwarming stories are abound.

Okay, here’s when I discover that indeed, Konomi is in junior high. In Japan, this seems to be the precursor to high school. It’s quite different with our own educational system, so that left me a bit confused. Konomi is also graduating on March 12, that is a Friday.

March 7
An earthquake happened. If this were to be the Sunday when Takaki and Konomi were supposed to go to an amusement park, I guess it’s obviously cancelled now.

March 8
Konomi and Takaki were talking about the quake maybe. Konomi turned superstitious by giving him a lucky item, a blue keyholder. At lunch, Yuji talks about useless crap again, but this seems to be interesting this time… because he seems to be describing a certain “maid robot” that has graced the grounds of their school years ago. Apparently it’s due to research and data acquisition that this maid robot is placed in the school, and the data served as the basis for the new models of maid robots for today. Well what do you know? It sounds like an oh too familiar story of HMX-12 Multi!

Going home, Konomi caught up with Takaki by running wildly. Takaki seems to be stubborn and didn’t worry about Konomi’s health too much. Also, Konomi made some mistake I’m not sure of, which may make her mother angry. Takaki said that they’ll apologize together, and so they did. At Konomi’s home, her mother scolded her a bit, but for telling the truth, she forgives her. The mother she also invited Takaki to eat dinner together.

March 9
That morning, Konomi’s mother gave Takaki more food. She seems to be caring a lot more about Takaki than her own daughter, and it made Konomi a bit jealous. You may think that their relationship is a bit weird, but on the contrary, it’s very strong. That’s why the mother is teasing her daughter so many times.

March 10
Konomi seems to have a little cold, but it’s okay I guess.

March 11
Konomi woke up late again. She tries to catch up to Takaki. Anyway after class, they go home together. On the way, Konomi talks about her graduating junior high. Tomorrow is graduation day, and so she may be going home late. She’s saying this in a somewhat somber tone. Konomi asked Takaki if they could still go home together tomorrow. Takaki promised to wait for her even in late afternoon. Konomi was happy with this, to the point that she got dizzy a bit because she’s jumping around like crazy.

March 12
This is quite an important day for Konomi. It’s graduation time, so we know what that means… Anyway in the morning Konomi reminded Takaki of the promise. And so after class, Takaki went to the junior high school. He waited until late afternoon, when Konomi appeared. Yup, graduation is the time for goodbyes. A classmate greeted Konomi goodbye, in a seemingly crying tone. Konomi told Takaki about how much fun school is, and she’s can’t believe it’s over.

Chie and Michiru will be in another school after graduation. Apparently, Konomi won’t see her two friends anytime soon, and the fun times at school will be over, and so she starts to cry. I suggest you guys read the dialogue in the [March 12->To Heart 2: March 12] entry. If this were in anime form I would be definitely touched. This is IMO the best event in To Heart 2 so far.

March 13
While yesterday seemes sad we see Konomi now recovering. She walks around with her dog named Genjimaru. Takaki joined them for a bit before going to school. At school, Yuji talks about going home together (yuk). Outside, they seem to have a man-to-man talk about getting a girl. Takaki has no girlfriend yet, and Yuji doesn’t seem to like that (YUK!) Yuji also told some things about her elder sister again. Yuji really is quite annoyed at her elder sister.

At home, we seem to hear noises as if there is someone in Takaki’s house! A thief? Takaki quickly turned on the light, and the thief escaped and ran.

And so the second week of To Heart 2 has passed. The week may be quite short, but it comes with a heartwarming scene about graduation, friendships and goodbyes. This may seem like a relatively simple plot, but in real life, it’s really hard to say goodbye. This game really reflects about our real lives.

To Heart 2: March 13

(My house)
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Konomi greets me good morning.

She’s walking her dog (Genjimaru)

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“I love walking my dog”.

(Streets)
I guess we’re walking together with the dog.

(Park)
“Let’s walk a bit more”

“What’s wrong Genjimaru?”

Genjimaru seems tired.

I have to go now. I say goodbye to them.

(After class)
Yuji will come home with me (yuk)

(Streets)
“Have you got a girl you like already?”

Obviously not yet.

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“It’s troubling if you don’t find a girl anytime soon.”

Yea as if.

Some talk about his aneki again.

(Home)
(Hmm… I can’t read the text but it sounds like)

A thief? I hear noises…

I turned on the light and… the thief ran away I guess..

To Heart 2: March 12

(Konomi’s house)
“Good morning”

Mother teases Konomi again.

“mou~”

(Outside)
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“Umm… Taka-kun, yesterday’s promise, remember?”

“So bye…”

(After class)
Going to Konomi’s school… I remember the promise from yesterday.

(Konomi’s school)
And so I waited until late afternoon.

Konomi appears.

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“Taka-kun, you came…”

“Umm… Taka-kun…”

Classmate “Konomiii… bye!!!” (in a crying tone)

“Bye bye! See you soon!”

“It feels like yesterday, as if we were just starting…”

“Yup, it was fun”

Konomi wants to go back to the school building…

We hear announcements, well we can’t enter the building anymore I guess…

“I really… had fun…”

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“Walking to and fro with Taka-kun”

“Being with Charu and Yochie…”

“I thought it would last forever, but now it’s over”

Charu and Yochie seems to either be going to a different high school, or moving away, I’m not sure.

“That’s why today is the last time we’re together”

I asked her to say goodbye to them…

“It’s okay, we said our goodbyes enough”

“Besides… I decided to say bye bye with a smile on my face.”

“Because I never wanted to cry…”

“Going home together… I shouldn’t cry”

“I never wanted to cry…” (she starts crying)

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“But… it’s okay now isn’t it?”

“It’s okay to cry now, isn’t it?”

Konomi cries a lot, I try to comfort her, as we go home together.

To Heart 2: March 11

(Konomi’s house)
Konomi woke up late again.

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“Umm… the time…”

“Wait Wait!”

(Gate)
She apparently has cleaning duties for the day, but she reached me on time.

“Nice timing”

(Street)
Hmm… she seems to reflect on how school coming to an end.

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She’s kinda exhausted studying…

She telling me various stories, well… school memories I guess.

She’s graduating, so she may be late tomorrow.

“That’s why we may not go home together tomorrow.”

“Do you have something to do tomorrow?”

“I was thinking, it’s the last time anyway, if we can go home together tomorrow…”

Choice: It’s okay.

“Really?”

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“YAY!” (so cute~)

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“Uhh… my eyes…”

To heart 2: March 9

(Konomi’s house)
Konomi’s mother gave me more food?

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Konomi is getting jealous because I’ve been given more attention this morning.

They have a very comic relationship.

(After class)
Gone home.

(Home)
Went to bed.

This is annoying. I bet there are short days with no events like this, but there are extremely long days ahead.

To Heart 2: March 8

(Outside)
I’m not quite sure, but it seems that Konomi was worried about me during the quake.

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Konomi offered to play around somewhere after school, it seems that I declined though.

“Lucky item today is a blue keyholder”

She’s superstitious? Maybe just because of the quake.

“It’s cute isn’t it?”

She gave me the keyholder.

(Lunch)
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Yuji talks about maid robots again.

Some maid robot helping out at a school…

Huh?? Is she talking about Multi??? Whoa!

(To home)
At the school gate, Konomi doesn’t seem to be there, so I went home myself.

Along the way, Konomi caught up, said she was stuck up with some classmate talk and ran to catch up with me

I seem to be talking along the lines of “you shouldn’t have”.

“That’s not I wanted to hear from you”

“Like, are you tired from running? I’ll buy you juice… something like that”

“The kindness is the point”

(Park)
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Konomi seems to be forgetting something (to buy)? Mother would be angry…

Choice: Let’s apologize together.

“Taka-kun, thanks”

(Konomi’s house)
Well, her mother scolded Konomi a bit anyway. But for telling the truth, mother forgives her.

Konomi’s mother offered me to eat dinner with them.

Mother “Don’t be shy”

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“YAY!” (She’s so cute when she does that)

Arrgh, we never see how the dinner went.

To Heart 2 Review (Part 1)

Review coverage: March 1 to March 6

So, these are the first parts of To Heart 2.

March 1
Takaki is the main guy in this bishoujo game. If you are playing To Heart 2, YOU are Takaki. Suspend your reality to go into his beautiful world where the sky is blue and all the girls are moe~. Yup, a clear escape from the darkness of today’s real civilized world. Takaki wakes up in your seemingly tidy room. Then he hears the doorbell. Yup, it’s Konomi, his childhood friend. Such cliches. Takaki seems as lazy as Hiroyuki (To Heart 1), still needing a girl/childhood friend (Akari from To Heart 1) to wake you up in the morning. But wait, don’t be fooled by this yet. Him being woken up is but a one-time affair for now. On normal days it is actually Takaki who picks up Konomi at their house.

Anyway this is somewhat a special day, so Konomi cooks breakfast for Takaki. It’s still early so they eat… and do a bit of siesta. Well, after they woke up from their short siesta… they’re now late for school! So they run outside, and…

(To Heart 2 opening movie)
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The opening is a fully animated OP, which left me wishing now for a To Heart 2 anime series. Heart to Heart, the title of the theme song, is just as good and nostalgically similar to Feeling Heart. I listen to the song everyday. While we’re at it, the title of Konomi-chan’s main theme and background music is Small Courage ~ Don’t Give Up, Girl! It’s my favorite theme too, mostly because I hear it anytime Konomi is around.

After the opening, we see that they have run enough. They meet Yuji, Takaki’s friend and classmate. He’s the sort of typical 2nd guy we see in other bishoujo games. A playboy, somewhat a pervert too, your typical guy. He’s not too nosy unlike Comic Party’s Taishi, but not too bishounen unlike To Heart’s Masashi. They talk about Yuji’s new robot maid. Hmm… I wonder what HMX-##…

Take note that To Heart 2 timeline is apparently 2 years after To Heart, and so there doesn’t seem to be any cameos of the To Heart characters anywhere. I’m quite disappointed, but it’s alright.

After a while, Konomi’s two friends are introduced, Chie and Michiru. Chie is the energetic type, Michiru is a slow and sweet meganekko girl. Apparently, Konomi and her friends is actually in another school, which explains the different uniforms. Maybe middle school, while Takaki is in high school. And so the girls go to their school, while the boys go to theirs, which is the same high school from To Heart.

We meet another female character named Manaka Komaki. She is an acting-class representative, although she’s quite incompetent in it. She can’t promote order in class, and is quite clumsy in terms of rep work. She’s similar to Chisa in Comic Party. Anyway the real class rep appears, and seeing that he is quite busy on some things, the class appoints Manaka to be the official new class rep. She’s in trouble.

After class, Takaki meets Konomi in going home, but first they have to buy some groceries. Konomi is quite the meticulous buyer, telling stuff about nutrition, product commercials and various brands. I think she wants to stay over to Takaki’s how and join him in dinner, so she tried to ask permission from her mother. Her mother is a good sukiyaki cook, she says.

At home, Takaki meets Konomi at the door, bringing some food Konomi’s mom made. She got scolded a bit because her mom refused her permission. It’s Taka-kun’s fault, she says. Anyway she goes home afterwards.

March 2

We see here that it is actually Takaki who goes to the Yuzuharas and picks Konomi up. We see her mom trying to wake up the clumsy Konomi. Takaki seems to be growing impatient while Konomi pleads to wait for her.

Afterwards they go to school again, when suddenly this bike girl zooms in on Takaki, almost hitting him. That’s another character named Yuma Tonami. More on her later.

At lunch break, Takaki meets another character, Karin Sasamori. She’s quite the happy gal, and seems to like eating eggs.

Takaki was ordered by a teacher to relay some things to the class rep, and so she talks to Manaka, who seems to be slumped with requests from other students. She is very very busy, and can’t seem to handle the pressure. She talks to Takaki and exclaims that she doesn’t seem to be fit in this Iincho business.

After class, Takaki and Konomi walk home together. Konomi tries to do some stunts in the stairs. We hear Konomi’s trademark “ehheee~~”. It kinda sounds like Misha’s *tee hee hee hee* in Pitaten. They also talked about plans of going in an amusement park. They planned it for Sunday, but Takaki seems to have plans, so Konomi proposed next Sunday. Takaki still has plans, so I think the amusement park date will be indefinite.

From this point, I realize that To Heart 2 is slow-moving. True to the form of a Visual Novel, the game contains long narratives and events that completely flesh out the characters. I can imagine the game-players being extremely engaged into bishoujo games, because character development here is much, much more detailed compared to anime series. This is a good sign somehow. The little things they do create their character.

March 3
Konomi asks about playing card games. I think she’s quite weak in that area, but she wants to because there seems to be candy for a prize. While they’re walking, that bike girl zooms past Takaki again. Another near miss. He talked to Yuji about it, but he doesn’t seem to be interested in the topic. Maids, waitresses, etc… he’s fulfilling his youth manhood. Yuji seems to want Takaki to be interested in girls too.

That’s why when Manaka is in trouble and Takaki is trying to help, Yuji says that he seems to have a sis-con (sister complex). Yuji suggests Manaka and Takaki hook up together, but Takaki obviously declines on the idea. Manaka too.

March 4
Finally, that bike girl hit the mark. Yuma hits Takaki, which turns into a little petty fight. Yuma Tonami is a feisty girl. I can say that she is similar to To Heart’s Shiho. Yuma blames Takaki for her being late, and talks about a lot of other stuff. Anyway, Manaka arrives, and she asks if there’s a problem. Manaka is actually a friend of Yuma.

At lunch, our boys notice Manaka only eats bread, and she can’t find an empty seat. That’s kinda lonely. Yuji calls her but some classmates call her to sit too. Well at least she is gaining some friends because of her class rep status. Yuma suddenly appears and annoys Takaki again. But she got some sort of trouble with the staff over at the canteen, so she went away.

You can see the difference between the slow Manaka and the energetic Yuma. It will be interesting to find about their friendship, if ever I see it.

Takaki goes to a nearby coffee shop, where Konomi and friends are. Chie and Michiru, being Konomi’s friends, tries to pair up Konomi and Takaki. They try to make her jealous by sitting close to Takaki (lucky guy). Konomi, being so naive, isn’t affected at all. Chie says it’s boring.

Chie and Michiru are minor characters in To Heart 2, but I think we’ll be seeing more of them than the other main girls because we’re going through Konomi’s scenario.

March 5
Yuji tells some bad news (to him at least). Her elder sister, Tamaki Kousaka, will return home and transfer to their school! This is headache to Yuji, but Konomi is quite excited. Takaki doesn’t seem to remember her though.

Anyway, Tamaki will be a major character throughout Konomi’s scenario, but I don’t find her appealing. More on her later.

In PE baseball or softball class, Yuji talks about girls again. Takaki sees Yuma drinking in a nearby fountain. Takaki is quite the wuss here. It’s his turn to bat, and he intentionally hit the ball to an area such that Yuma will be quite troubled. She wets herself in the fountain. Takaki seems to continually see Yuma as some sort of threat. Well, because this is Konomi’s scenario, any hopes of having rapport with Yuma may be lost, but we’ll see.

March 6
I’m confused here. March 6 is a Saturday, and yet they have classes? Anyway, this may be a miscellaneous class. The teacher seems to talk about the upcoming final exams. Which means trouble for Yuji. Out of the blue, Yuma appears, and talks about her incompetence when it comes to exams. This turned into a conversation that made her embarrassed, and then she left. Manaka again asks if there’s something wrong. She’s so clueless in some situations.

Going home, it is only Takaki talking to himself, and because it’s in Japanese text I won’t be able to interpret it at all.

We see that some plot is moving in terms of Tamaki coming over. I wonder what kind of girl is she. I don’t like onee-san types in bishoujo games.

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