The findings hereby contained within this research argument are the sole property of Animesuki's mangatron, and will not be mutilated, plagerized or stolen without the handwritten consent of the mangatron. This page, and this report may not be posted on other websites without full owner rights properly given and linking back to this page. The mangatron has spent a number of hours and has performed a high number of carpal tunnel related handstrokes typing this report, so be a good reader and use your brain to read, not just your eyes. Tokimeki Memorial ~only love~ is a Konami production, all rights reserved. And watch it, for thy days will be enlightened.
On to the report! Note that I prefer you have watched an insane amount of anime to relate to these findings.
First of all, let's take the episode count into effect. 10 episodes aired so far. Total episodes: 26. About 3/4th's into the series. Girl count for the harem: 3. Rivals for the male lead: None so far. Friends of male lead: Those 3 Guys. Let the research begin....
We have 26 episode's, 3 girls and one male lead. We have practically a whole class to throw in, with enough female teachers to start a harem for Matsuoka-sensei. How can we predict what episode will reveal what? Simple. In case none of you noticed, episode titles have meanings lately, and TMOL is no exception. What do we know so far? Here's the tally:
- Ep01: Heart Throbbing meeting
- Ep02: Heart Throbbing Destiny(Fate)
- Ep03: Heart Throbbing After School
- Ep04: Heart Throbbing Water-Surface
- Ep05: Heart Throbbing Accident
- Ep06: Heart Throbbing Rain
- Ep07: Heart Throbbing Confession
- Ep08: Heart Throbbing Time
- Ep09: Heart Throbbing Nightfall
- Ep10: Heart Throbbing Evening (!)
- Ep11: Heart Throbbing Memory
- Ep12: Heart Throbbing Night (Moon? Redundancy detected)
- Ep13: Heart Throbbing Secret (whoo!)
Ep01: Naturally, the introduction of the series. Meet Aoba, man among men, enemy among friends, friend amongst enemies.
Ep02: With Amamiya-legends firmly implanting itself, meet Tsukasa Kasuga, and no, that was no tongue twister. Interesting fact of girl: socially withdrawn towards men, or self inflicted? :heh:
Ep03: Meet Tsukasa-chan. Again? No, meet her cooking. Moment of interest? Not quite. Moment of interest: water + blue haired girl = meet water loving girl :heh:
Ep04: Meet Mina-chan, but not yet. Well, at least till after XD. Moment of interest: that promise.
Ep05: Surprise, meet Sayuri-chan! Well, after, as in: Moment of Interest. MoI? "You are my memory today".
Ep06: Meet... a guy? No, meet Aoba-kun, Friend among Enemies. MoI? No, not Inikai-kun. Moment of Interest is Aoba-kun, for the, well, entire episode lol.
Ep07: Story-affecting MoI more almost halfway through the first half of the series. MoI? Episode title.
Ep08: For the first time in the series, there is not one, but two MoI. Moments of Interest? Ep07 carry-overs and the heart of Tsukasa-chan.
Ep09: Mizugi! A MoI? Sure lol, depending on your amount of ecchi-needs :heh: MoI: RE of Destiny
Ep10: Meet comedy for the first time in awhile. Not MoI, but this ep has probably the shortest MoI. Naturally, MoI = Sayuri-chan :heh:
Ep11: Did not air yet at time of post, but preview available.
Ep12: Did not air yet at time of post
Ep13: Did not air yet at time of post
Now, for the first time ever since Mahoraba ~HDtv~, pry into the mind of the mangatron. The Moments of Interest in detail:
-Ep01: Showed us the lives of the characters, and the lives that await them in the days ahead. The episode will be known as "the one that shakes the barley" :heh:
-Ep02: Meet the main girl of our male protag's life? Only time will tell, but time did tell me immediately what this girl is about. Declaring herself the victim of choice over fate, which all in all contradicts each other. What do I mean? I mean that this girl becomes what many girls of anime have become: a chooser of fate, who also receives it's most destructible side effect, the early symptoms of a one-sided love. How many girls of anime chose their man first, instead of vice versa? Not a really good percentage there result-wise...
-Ep03: Tsukasa-chan's cooking? Why is it not a MoI? Actually, meeting Mina-chan is a big MoI in itself already. Why? Quiet, shy, loves water, everything is explained in that short amount of words. Those traits will, and have affected a high number of girls of anime throughout series after series. Mina-chan's personality might spell her life from ep01 till ep 26, as it had been shown from ep04 till [latest aired episode]. Experience shows that a vast numbr of shy, quiet cute girls confess, and get rejected. Not necessarily confessed, not entirely rejected, but you get the idea. And as for Tsukasa-chan's cooking: this is a carryover from episode 02, as explained in the Ep02 section above, this carryover shows more of the one-sidedness of things. Main points of attraction are: Tsukasa-chan's persistance and Aoba's quick, no-frills replies coupled with insecurities of situations. His main fault: his first action is repeated again later on, with later on being with more heart. Experience tells me a majority of anime with guys who are nice to girls have the end result as the girl is not a contender at a series end. So far this is the biggest tell-tale sign of the series yet.
-Ep04: That promise? What do I mean? Well, first let's cast aside the important details. No, not trash them lol, I mean tackle them first. Main factor here is Aoba making a big mistake of anime: complementing a girl with signs of affection, while getting a reply with no signs of affection, yet clearly the replyee is in an emotional state. How many relationships ended on a perfect note that begin this way? Not a good percentage...Now as for the episode MoI, that promise. No, not what was promised, but the promise itself. Mina-chan wants to confer with Aoba about psychological certainties. Or, in english, she wants advice from him lol. This is where the next big tell-tale sign of the series takes place: she actually wants to ask Aoba about things. What will happen when she intends to ask about something related to confession? When, or if she reaches that point in her life will she be able to confer with him at all? These questions must be answered by series end; if not I will be one mad warrior lol
-Ep05: This time for sure we really meet Sayuri-chan, instead of all those question inducing, one-liner replies towards Aoba. MoI is the "locked in a storage room" scenes. The point of these scenes prove Sayuri-chan doing more than just one-liner replies and Aoba actually leading a convo for a change. This is the next big tell-tale sign of a story element that begins between Sayuri-chan and Aoba. Other episode notes of interest: Tsukasa-chan's persistence being met by a surprised question; episode also sets stage for Aoba x Sayuri-chan agreements. Why is this important? Someday you will see...
-Ep06: Why do I say Aoba is the MoI of this episode? Well, Aoba is the MoI with Inukai-kun supporting the following fact. Why is this so important? Well, in this episode we get to see a real Mr. Nice Guy mode from aoba from an extended perspective. How do we do this? Well, throw in a delinquinty and we have ourselves the story. What affect does Mr. Nice Guy mode has to the story? Well, we see Aoba goes above and beyond the call of duty to help [his] friend in dire need (For more information on why I bracketed "his", please watch the MSLN series lol). This Mr. Nice Guy personality can, and most likely will affect his relationships with either of the 3 girls. Can you count how many anime that has a goody one-shoes guy that rejects a girl? lol...
-Ep07: Ah yes, the confession. When it happened it was a huge buzz, and even after it still is a huge buzz. This MoI now changes the previous stories and sets the stage for a brand new way of looking at things. For one thing Sayuri-chan has never been the same after this alledged confession, and the lingering emotions experienced during this confession affect her everyday life when in the proximity of Aoba. The series has now taken a series turn...or has it?
-Ep08: Ah, one of my favorite episodes to do research on. With two Moments of Interest this episode further fuels the Mr. Nice Guy personality of Aoba. For the first MoI, we have the carry-overs from Ep07 that still linger in the mind and heart of Sayuri-chan. For one thing, Sayuri-chan finds closure by returning to her one-liner question inducing ways so as to avoid the thought of the alledged confession. MoI #2, the heart of Tsukasa-chan. We get to see how affected Tsukasa-chan can be when her love becomes challenged by the ways of life. Her insecurity leads to emotional failure, which then is met by perhaps the most wrong answer one can find: Mr. Nice Guy. Yes, that's right. The personality. In case you haven't noticed Aoba showed his concern as a friend, just plain friend. Not as the friend that can go beyond the call of duty as shown in Ep06. How can I tell? Without explanation, upon hearing "something" happened to Tsukasa-chan, he dash's out as fast as he can in search of the girl in question. After finding her, he then proceeds to do the one failure that drives the nail in the coffin: he doesn't hug the girl, or grasp her, or grope her, or kiss her, or glomp her, no, he just uses word to stem her nerves. We then see that Tsukasa-chan's spirits are lifted by the mere presence of Mr. Nice Guy. Two different sides? I say so.
Ep09: Swimsuits, or Mizugi, is also an important factor of the series. How? Well, gotta have some service man, I don't know about you but I had a pantsu-view famine in recent days lol. As for RE of Destiny, the MoI is Tsukasa-chan and her reaffirmation of her reason for liking Mr. Nice Guy. But, that's not all. Yes, that's right, you heard me the first time. I said that's not all, because this is the second time, that's right 2nd time she declares her feelings in the midst of...no one. So to put it bluntly none still knows of her predicament....
-Ep10: For the first time in a long time, Comedy seems to have taken the majority of balance and once again bonds The 3 Guys and Aoba-kun. As seen in little snippets here and there, it is shown once again Tsukasa-chan's feeling met with questionable surprise. Also shown is insecurity of dedication. As for the MoI, it is once again about Sayuri-chan. But this time it's not what she say's, but what she does that is the main attraction. She still shows indecisiveness towards key issues, and she immediately activates closure and turns into her cheerful self. Why is this so important? Well, she clearly shows the "What are my feelings?" type of attitude followed by the "Let's just be friends" attitude. That's right, if you hadn't noticed the first time, when it came to her feelings, she was insecure towards them. But after that ToHeart2 dog butts into the convo she shows an attitude that says "I don't know if I love you or not, but let's just be friends and act like we aren't in love".
As for eps 11, 12 and 13 I cannot comment on their outcome as they have not aired at the time of this posting. Now, for the fun part of my research: interesting facts that I have come across. That's right, research has to prove something, and it also has to show what else the results can mean.
-At 10 episodes so far we have seen semi-definite looks into the lives of two girls. One girl we see deep into her heart, the other girl we see the extent of her outer image.
-The TMOL main website clearly shows 6 characters on the splash page. We see 3 guys, and 3 girls. Will this series no longer be a harem come the second part of the series? I had explained my theaory about Sakurai in my ep10 summary...
-Clearly Sakurai is increasing Aoba's popularity for a reason. Is this me thinking too much, or does Sakurai really play a important role in the latter part of this series?
-Inukai-kun clearly has a bad taste for annoyances. If he too plays an important role in this series will it end up with the popular "no two sides are alike" notion? Has anyone ever gave thought to a Tsukasa x Inukai pairing? XD
-Episode 11 is titled "Memory", to my knowledge. Based on this knowledge I don't see this as an Mina-chan episode, unless it has something to do with a memory, albeit a bad one. But being this far into the series, do you see a girl opening up all of a sudden? I know I don't. Can you even fathom a girl like Mina-chan having a bad past at all? For all we know ep09 clearly gave way to have her insecurity revealed.
-Episode 12 is titled "Night", as for all I know it could be a pajama party, it could be a Long Kiss Goodnight, heck it could even be about Tsukasa-chan doing a night time confession for all I know. Adding to the fact that next episode is-
-Episode 13 is titled "Secret", which ultimately in this case I can definitely see this being a Sayuri-chan revelation. Provided Ep11 does not prove me wrong, but I also had another thought. "Secret" could even be something about one of the male characters, heck it could be about Aoba lol. But I do see this being a Sayuri-chan ep primarily due to the fact that this is the marker for the halfway point in this series, and it would be quite a way to keep suspense up till the next airing of ep14 that should be next month.
-In Episode 09 Tsukasa-chan is the most notable character that has quite a....exquisite, yummy, highly detailed...curvacious....waistline and...bikini-lines....lol..
-Episode 03 easily shows a different take on the female-cook type. Normally, (and when I say that I do mean "most of the time") a girl will try her hardest to make a bentou for the one she likes. The male would then proceed to gobble it all up even if it tastes bad. And if it did taste bad the male would deny it tasting bad, and the girl ends up pleased and the male ends up...poisoned lol. What is more interesting to note is the end result. It has happened too many a time with the same result.
-So far I don't like the current situation with Tsukasa-chan. Time and time again experience has shown us that this current situation with Tsukasa-chan will end up as her being the "I tried so hard, and got so far, in the end, it's....as far as I thought it would be but in reality it only meant one thing to him: Let's just be friends." You could throw in the "I like someone else" bit in there if you want...
-In case you haven't noticed, every one of, or most of the MoI discovered in my research occurs at the end of the episode, rather than the middle or start. In this case each episode begins with a story that builds the MoI at the end. And in case you also have not noticed, a majority of the MoI also occurred at the end of each preview. A clue to follow? It is highly possible...
-Almost every one of the MoI have been shown at least a second in every preview so far, coincidentaly at the end of the preview as well. And who says previews are just that, previews....
-Speaking of pv's, how about the OP. Well, in many cases the OP is merely ident candy, so there's nothing much that I can say. Well, this could be long lol....We have the sequence starting with each of the 3 girls doing a take towards someone, in this case Aoba. Wanna know more? Well, Tsukasa-chan does a take of surprise, Mina-chan does a take of delight, and Sayuri-chan....she does, what I explained earlier, the "Let's just be friends" take lol. Creepy? That's not all of it. We then have Aoba turn tail and run towards...life? Who did he see, and where is he going? Was it,...Hiyoko-kun? LOL....then, the nail-driver. We see each of the girls doing what they love most [before they meet Aoba]. But, we don't see anything about Sayuri-chan. Well, nothing except...The Amamiya Tree. That was pretty important back when the series started, but has anyone ever thought about how much it matter at the end of the series? Maybe there is more to the tree, perhaps it has something to do with "Memory" or maybe "Secret". Whatever the case may be, it is safe to say that Sayuri-chan has got to have a deeper meaning to her side of life, or there is only one, and I say only ONE other solution to her way of acting: once again that "Let's just be friends" syndrom.
-Two of the 3 girls have total ties to a club. Both girls have made thought of tournies and what not. Both girls also love what they do.
-Sayuri-chan has started the series with her one-liner question inducing talk, and lately she has shown her "When I'm around Aoba = Doki doki".
-Sayuri-chan has captivated Aoba's heart since episode 1. Naturally he would be crushed if he were rejected, but his Mr. Nice Guy attitude can overwrite a simple thing to him, like a rejection. Although being rejected isn't a simple thing, but it's...different for him lol. Many a anime, and even manga have Mr. Nice Guys who just accept things without any more thought. We just haven't seen anything that can tell us if Aoba is an emotional guy or what. We do know that he was a loner in his earlier school days, so perhaps that would show us something?
-You know, as much info that I have put here, I simply did not add other sources (game, radio, drama's etc) due to the fact that my research is based soley on what has happened, and what we all have and will see. So keep in mind that I researched the anime only.
As Episode 11 air's within the proximity of a week, what can I expect for TMOL? I can only enjoy, not expect. And each enjoyment comes as each episode airs one by one. Expectations will only fuel my research more, and open debate as to the outcome of my mind.
With that, I conclude this report until the next episode airs. And, now you have seen what kind of anime viewer I am. I am not only crazy, I am not only insane, I live for this, I research every tiny bit of data and event that has happened and I crunch them together, I mix them, I bash and mash them until I can come up with the answers that lie within. Why do I research anime like this? Someday I want to quit my current job, and focus on working on manga projects that hopefully in turn become anime projects, and the only way for me to succeed where others fail is to learn from them, and to learn from their mistakes. I don't intend to overthrow the current manga-ka's, or dethrone the current popular anime, no, I want to make good stories, I want to create characters that will be loved, I want to create something that will make a person open their mouth and scream "YEAH!!!". I want to make them cry, I want them to feel the characters, I want people to know that not everyone is the same....
That is why I watch anime and read manga. I have been researching for years now and
all this knowledge is assimilated into creating many other scenarious, many other possibilities, and just about any way that can be bent as much as possible. I hope you enjoy this report, albeit incomplete, and your comments are welcomed here.
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