We all know the drill for tonikawa. Two seasons two ova's same thing really. 99.9% of the time when shows follow this pattern you don't really expect anything more. Some sort of improvement or change, and why should we expect anything? Studios will obviously stick to the method of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Despite all that, I believe tonikawa may be a rare outlier, a "fine wine" of sorts that will improve with time. After two seasons and two ova's, you probably either like tonikawa or you don't. It's very repetitive and vanilla and some people like that and others don't. Or so I thought, tonikawa high school days gives me hope that this franchise has a lot more left to offer than what meets the eye.

I may have talked up this 4 episode special but obviously the series still sticks to it's roots of the main love interests being touchy-feely and shy all the time. That hasn't changed and it never will. There are a few major changes here I must add though. I think the series takes more of a focus on the side characters. I think the side characters have always been brilliant in tonikawa but we get to see more of them here. For all the people that think that tonikawa is cliche and tropey, they have made a fundamental misunderstanding. Tonikawa is a SATIRE a lot of the time, the whole joke is that it makes fun of said tropes. I think that while it takes the light-hearted thing too far sometimes, I really like how tonikawa does jokes. It's fun to watch and considerably better than most other romcoms which actually are tropey.

Now for the big news, tonikawa has a plot and a backstory! Now who would have thought this to be the case? Why did they wait so long to introduce this? Well I guess the manga has to make money somehow but the manga isn't popular for no reason. Character development and plot were the major things holding this series back from becoming among the best romcoms in the game. The backstory of Tsukasa and her relation to the princess kaguya and the moon masterfully created a suspenseful cliffhanger of an ending that will leave anime-only's fiending for season three. The final two episodes of this short series almost serve as a prelude, a trailer to the impending shock that will await us in the third season. Mind you it was all foreshadowed from the very beginning, what was all that in season one regarding chitose, tokiko and the moon rock? Why was the moon rock offered to Nasa at the end of season two? We are about to find out all that and more and the sudden shift to a vague, roundabout storytelling method is brilliantly juxtaposed with the otherwise vanilla and straightforward comedic nature which only electrifies the suspense and excitement for the viewer as the fourth episode draws to a close. Tonikawa is like a big, unfinished puzzle, and high-school days only puts the first few pieces together in what maybe the resurgence of the century in a romcom we thought was done and dusted after a slow first two seasons. Buckle up folks, because what we thought to be a "vanilla boring repeitive romance (myself included) might just have played us all for fools as the imminent plot twist, or twists, awaits us.