It seems that after the success of Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, Doga Kobo attempted to replicate that with Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai. Due to most of the main staff reprising their roles: from the director, to the opening theme's singer and to the main character's VA, most hailed this as a spiritual successor to GSNK.
Let's see how they did.
WARNING: Spoilers!
STORY 5/10
The premise of Tadakoi is rather simple: Teresa transfers to Tada's school and joins the photography club, where the rest of the characters are introduced. Teresa and the Tada slowly get closer and closer. Unfortunately, Teresa is a princess and the only child of the royal family, so she must uphold the tradition and marry a noble in her home country. Meanwhile, Tada doesn't fall in love due his past experiences (hence the title: Tada-kun never falls in love). Cue drama!
It's simple, but that's fine because most slice of life romcoms are. It leaves plenty of opportunities to create funny and emotional scenes, so what matters is the execution. Sadly, this is where Tadakoi fails.
The plot is basically seeing each character fall in love, since everyone is set up with a potential love interest right from the start. Each subplot gets its own episode to be focused on and develo- WAIT! There is no development...
Alas, the person in charge of series composition must've been fired halfway through production because none of these subplots go anywhere. By the end of the anime, not one subplot has been resolved, they were simply introduced and then forgotten about.
The main plot focusing on Tada and Teresa is better, but the bar was low enough that it's not really an achievement. Most of their time is spent bonding, though their dynamic is so bland that this becomes rather boring and repetitive after a few episodes.
After realising they've fallen in love with each other, Teresa runs away because she has her responsibilities as a princess, and Tada chases after her and must overcome his past regrets to finally confess how he feels. Teresa is distraught, because she loves him too but considers her duties more important, hence she cannot accept his feelings. Tada makes his peace with this, and goes home. They vow never to forget their feelings for each other.
It's a nice plot, with a good underlying message of "Sometimes life doesn't go the way you want but that's okay."
But then Teresa goes:
Well, fuck being a princess lmfao, I'll just be a transfer student again so I can never be away from you Tada-kun!
And then they kiss... what?!
It's a mess.
CHARACTERS 2/10
This is by far the worst part.
The characters all start off as very basic archetypes. Thankfully enough, there's a few quirks thrown in to make it a little more interesting.
Starting out with very simple characters is fine, but from there you should:
Tadakoi makes a pathetic attempt at doing both.
As a romcom, the focus is on romance and comedy. Gags depend purely on each of their character types, but none of the situations are unique or interesting enough for them to actually seem fresh. After a few episodes I could almost predict every line they were going to say. It's not funny when you can predict the punch line in almost every scene... it's just boring.
Side characters were simply introduced and then used as background pieces that interject ~~frustratingly repetitive~~ "funny" lines like some horrific broken record that won't stop playing. Ijuin Kaoru started off as entertaining but then somebody decided that he should butt in at the end of every emotional and dramatic scene with his obnoxiously overacted voice, and he quickly became insufferable. I never thought I'd dislike Miyano Mamoru's voice acting but I did by the end of this show.
A love square develops between Tada, Teresa, Alec and Charles. Alec and Charles are both willing to sacrifice their happiness for Teresa, and the show seemingly punishes them for this by creating a situation where either one can be happy and the other cannot. To make matters worse, neither get the chance to properly express how they feel, yet the show acts like it's a good ending.
The biggest failing is Teresa and Tada's relationship. They have no chemistry. They are not interesting to watch. Their interactions are basically limited to Teresa constantly nerding out at every possible Rainbow Shogun reference and Tada making small noises of approval. After seven episodes of this, they finally have some meaningful moments when they open up about their past. With this single moment where they actually have some chemistry, Teresa just fucking falls in love with Tada.
She then promptly runs back home without explanation, scared of her feelings. Her whole country celebrates her and Charles' engagement. People are selling photos of the royal family, they're going to hold a royal ball, Teresa is convinced that this is what's right as the only child of the royal family... and then decides it's not and runs back to Tada. MAKE UP YOUR MIND GIRL!
If it sounds poorly written then that's because it is.
ART & ANIMATION 8/10
This is almost the exact same staff that worked on GSNK, which is clear from the art and animation.
The art style is simple but pleasant, and the greenery in particular is really beautiful. The animation wasn't as interesting or dynamic as I had hoped, but there are some gorgeous moments in there. In particular: Tada and Teresa's first meeting and later Teresa realising her feelings for him. The directing is great, with some really evocative shots in the most climatic scenes.
SOUND 8/10
The opening theme is happy and upbeat, perfectly fitting for the concept and a personal favourite of mine. The ending theme is a bittersweet ballad sung by Teresa's VA. It's pleasant and gives some nice foreshadowing to the events of the show.
The OST is mostly composed of piano, guitar and violin pieces. They're enjoyable and fit the mood of each scene well. The track that plays when Teresa realises she's fallen in love with Tada is particularly stunning and complements one of the best scenes in the show.
Voice acting was of a high standard, but there were no exceptional performances. This is mainly due to most VAs not getting the opportunity to showcase their skills. Few side characters had moments of heightened emotions, so their performance was limited to normal conversations. As mentioned before, Miyano Mamoru's performance was overdone but it fit Ijuin's character perfectly, it's just the way that his character was used that irritated me (mainly that he never dropped the playful tone of his voice).
ENJOYMENT 2/10
The only thing stopping me from rating this a 1 is that I didn't actively dislike Tadakoi by the end, I was just very bored by it. It had a lot of promise but the execution was just appalling. The final episode had plenty of moments that should've made me cry but the lack of attachment I felt towards any of the characters meant that I just couldn't feel emotional for them.
The wasted potential is incredibly frustrating. Hopefully Doga Kobo gets their act together for their next project.
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