Think of your first romance anime. Or your first romance manga—anything of the sort. Then throw it all away.
Cliches are a recurrent element in stories—and the thing is, you will never be able to get rid of them. They are cliches for a reason, and their existence proves to be essential in composing a story. Most writers and enthusiasts of literature believe that there is no thing such as originality; everything exists from being based off of something, with just some modifications to make it stand out from the rest.
Of course, it is fairly common to see overused tropes in the like in a subculture as wealthy as the anime culture—which is the embodiment of Japanese animation and the counterpart to Western graphic novels we encounter today. Content creators are always expected to bring something fresh to the field, so as to not drown in the deep ocean riddled with gimmicks and twists to the usual elements of a story. It has become so that gimmicks are the only things that the norm, and people aren't expecting as much as a good story anymore.
But what if you go back to the basics?—keeping that heartwarming feeling and simplistic vibe of a typical romantic comedy?
Tsurezure Children originated as a web manga in Pixiv by an artist known as Wakabayashi Toshiya, and it consists of several short stories consisting of a boy and a girl—and the gradual buildup to their romances. It is filled with all your usual character archetypes; you have the couple that are too shy to admit their feelings to each other, you have the clingy childhood friend who is also part yandere, you have the senpai and the kouhai, the couple who feels that their love is unrequited—any of the sort, within several 4-koma strips that result in a form of plot progression or character development between them.
Objectively, Tsurezure Children is nothing new—but isn't trying to be one, either. The series works itself as a big tribute to the celebrated and most successful tropes in terms of characters, settings, and plot progression, placing them in true-to-life scenarios mixed with a prolonging and subtle twist mirroring that of misunderstandings—the defining trait of a romance manga.
From a subjective perspective, Tsurezure Children to me is a reflection of the ideal high school life—moreso the high school that you always see as the typical setting in an anime or a manga. It stands as a reflection of my nostalgia from my early days of watching the rom-com slice-of-life stories you see on TV, gently pulling my heartstrings with moments that invoke positive and warm emotions.
Ah, the innocence of youth! This series would be an escapist work in its prime—celebrating on the joys of scenarios to dream of and characters to love with.
Think of your first romance anime. Or your first romance manga—anything of the sort. Then throw it all away.
And relive the experience all over again.
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