There's no business like snow business
Were you teased as a child? Well, I bet you weren’t teased as much as Shota or the viewers of Kimi ni Todoke…
Story
KnT is a pretty standard shoujo story, with the slight twist being that Sawako looks all creepy and gets teased a lot. Naturally this quickly falls by the wayside, other than for the occasional creepy Sawako gags, and the rest of the story focuses on the developing relationships between Sawako and her friends and Sawako and her crush, Shota.
While the story is sweet, and generally enjoyable, I felt like the pacing was unnecessarily slow. Chizuru was fun, but did we really need to spend all those episodes on her crush? Not only was this totally unfair to Ayane (I know, I’m still bitter), but it highlighted just how slowly the Shota x Sawako relationship was moving. By the end of the two-cours we got a small amount of hand-holding. Man, that sucks!
Characters
Although the meandering story made for some really slow burn pacing, it did give KnT time to really develop its main trio of Sawako-Ayane-Chizuru. Any good shoujo story needs a good group of friends, and KnT’s trio was very cute and enjoyable to watch. I think watching those three really got me through KnT when I was getting unbearably frustrated by Sawako and Shota, and the friendship-building was much more interesting than the love-building. I ended up liking almost all the characters, even the annoying ones. In fact, other than that bastard Souichi, the characters all added a little something special to the show.
Tilt
For a shoujo series, KnT had good art, and the animation quality remained consistent through both cours. I liked the music a lot, and the OP and ED really grew on me. The voice actors all did a great job, and all the side elements of KnT combined to make KnT more than just a sum of its parts.
Verdict
Kabitzin's Rating: 4/5
Overall, I liked KnT, but while it remained consistently enjoyable I never felt it took that step into greatness. KnT is certainly a nicely executed standard story, but I think the pacing could have been better. There was very little tension after Ume’s challenge was dealt with, since Sawako x Shota was always a given, but even with no roadblocks the progress was painfully slow. I guess this is why shy romantic n00bs like Sawako don’t get dates IRL, in spite of how great they are at taking out the trash really quickly or how hot they look with a side hairball.
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This post was written by...
Kabitzin – who has written 1940 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the founders of Sea Slugs, I handle most of the blog admin tasks while wearing my I AM BOSS shirt. I like my action series well choreographed, and my romance series extra trashy. I also have a soft spot for puns.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hope they make another season once the manga gets far enough ahead. Sawako and Shota actually start to make headway in their relationship; of course not before another stupid misunderstanding that makes the needless drama seen thus far look small. It should really be toned down as this series works better as a slice of life than a romantic drama.
I’m all for mad drama! I’d have to be reassured that those two actually get further in their relationship before I go in for another 13-26 episodes, though.
I’m missing the show already. It was a nice show to watch, and made me feel fuzzy inside. Especially seeing some Sawako pics, but that’s beside the point. Yes the show did have a slow tiempo, a part of me thought it was fine. They may not be the norm, but I really did want more progress.
Now that you mention it, Ume didn’t make a big appeal, and when I saw her at the end. I suddenly remembered, that she’s the rival. I couldn’t believe I forgot about her so easily.
Not sure, but I feel we got to know Chi a bit more as a person. Even side/best friend characters need some lovin. And they did a good job portraying the helplessness in those situations. Heck even seeing Ayane get smacked really hit a chord in my heart. And she was my least favorite character.
How could you not like Ayane?! Ume’s rivalry was a really weak obstacle, considering Ume got swept aside and was barely heard from again. I’m not sure if I want to read the manga, because if a sequel ever came out I highly doubt I would watch it if I already knew what was going to happen.
I wasn’t against Chizuru’s arc, but I guess I got frustrated that Sawako and Shota barely advanced their relationship.