Tokimeki Memorial: Forever With You

Information of Anime

Tokimeki Memorial: Forever With You is about the lives of 12 Kirameki High School student girls from Konami's popular video game.  This takes place at the start of the third year, the last year before graduation.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

I can't recall every thing that has happened in the series since I had a huge gap watching between episodes one & two.  All of this is based on my memory.

The story does involve the 12 girls, but it's more focused on Shiori Fujisaki.  She's in love with her childhood friend who happens to live next door to her.  In fact, the rooms are across from each other.  She's afraid to confess her feelings to him.  All she does is watch him from a distance.  She opens a club where students can listen to Classical music & learn about the purpose of each piece.  She does this to have her childhood friend to join in, but he doesn't show up.

During the course of the series, Shirori talks to a "no name" girl about their love lives.  This started out when the "no name" girl accidentally calls Shirori by dialing the wrong number.  However they manage to become friends over time when the "no name" girl calls her from time to time, even though they don't know each other or even their names.  They talk about their problems, their love confessions, & their love progress.

Near the end of the series, we learn that the "no name" girl is Megumi Mikihara  who is Shiori's best friend.  Megumi tells Shirori in her final phone call that she was rejected from the boy she loved when she finally confessed.  The story ends when Shirori calls her childhood friend to the legendary tree in the schoolyard that grants happiness to a couple. when a girl confesses to a guy.  During the credit roll, she talks to him about how she watched him for a long time & confesses.  After the credits are over, she asks him to take care of her from now on.

My Personal Review

Tokimeki Memorial: Forever With You is an interesting short OVA.  I haven't played the game before, so some of it was a bit hard to understand some of the characters.  However, it's still understandable if you haven't played the game.  But playing the game will most likely give you a better understanding & enjoyment of the series.

Animation

Comparing it to today's anime, it's pretty dull.  Colours that are pretty bright or dull due to unbalanced toning, but it could be the problem of the source that the fansub group got it from.  The faces have round with pointy chins, typical 90's anime designs.  The hair isn't too nice.  It's like 1 piece with very little hairlines drawn.  But, I would say it's pretty good for it's time in terms of the drawings.

The animation movement is natural.  It's pretty flowing & clean for cell drawings.

Sound       

The sound effects are clean with some fuzzes at times.  Sound quality back then wasn't great, especially the OVAs for some reason.

The voice actors are average.  The girls either sounded too old for their age or high pitched in deep voices.  Back then, voice actress didn't start out as young as today's ones.

The music is calm & soothing.  A lot of it is classical music, which I don't enjoy much.  However, it fitted the story's theme very well.  There is some soft rock ballads in the OVA, but it's not much.

Story

The story is actually surprisingly well done.  It manages to cover the 12 girls in two 50 minute OVAs.  Although there were some girls that I didn't understand, it managed to tell the stories well in terms of their relationship with each other.  However, the pace may be slow to some people; especially Shirori's.  Most of the time, we see her talking on the phone, looking at her childhood friend from a distance, doing 'slow' activities, & recalling past memories with him.  Although this is probably done to see her character background in depth, it can feel slow & boring.  Luckily, the sides stories can help keep the attention span going.  However, the story is based on the girls' point of view.  You don't see the male's side of the story like in the game.

Overall Conclusion

Tokimeki Memorial: Forever With You is a nice slow love drama to watch.  The pace may be slow, but it's quite relaxing to watch.  If you liked To Heart with some love drama, I recommend watching this.

Tokimeki Memorial: Forever With You graduates with an eight out of ten.  The excellent story telling & calming theme is the OVA's strong points.  Plus, the girls are enjoyable to watch.  The bad part about it is the pace.  It can feel slow, especially since it's 50 minutes long per episode.  Sometimes you wish that the episode is over or have the story move on to the next scene.