Tsuredure Children, Episode 1
Produced by: Nihon Ad Systems, Kodansha, Movic, KlockWorx, Sony Music Entertainment, King Records, BS11, Animatic
Studio: Studio Gokumi
Genre(s): Romance, School
Episodes: 12-minute episodes
Premiere date: July 4, 2017
Synopsis: A series depicting various scenarios of young love. These stories range from a boy, crippled by his absolute lack of confidence in himself, cannot even accept the fact that the girl of his dreams actually asked him out on a date, to the near-psychotic girl that pours her own blood into her homemade chocolate in order to win his heart. –MyAnimeList
The first episode of this new, short-form anime series Tsuredure Children is quite sweet. Yes, there are some comedic moments in the episode that make it a bit over-the-top, but for the most part, for anyone who has ever been in school and has had a crush on someone, this episode feels right on with the way it presents some of the scenarios. I especially like that there doesn’t seem to be a main set of characters to the episode but rather it follows a few students throughout the episode to highlight the differing ways each of them approaches the subject of young love.
Two segments in particular really stood out for me. The first segment was the very first segment in the series in which a young boy finds it really hard to press on and state that he is interested in his classmate, even though it is evident that she is also quite smitten with him. This eerily reminds me of a situation I found myself in during my 8th grade year with someone I had a crush on and who also liked me in return… though none of us ever said anything about it.
The second scenario is the one regarding the young girl in the astronomy club and is only a member so she can be close to her crush. But because she is always joking around about her feelings for him, she is unsure that if she did come clean about her feelings if he would take her seriously. The situation is made more difficult when you find out that her crush is just a few days away from graduating and she may never see him again. Again, this reminds me of a situation in high school when my friend had a crush on a senior when we were sophomores and she joined a school club she had no interest in just so she could be near him.
The other scenarios presented in the 12-minute episode are also quite entertaining, even the one that made me a bit uncomfortable because of the way one student approached the other, and maybe because that student reminded me a little too much of myself at one time – but all in all, I thought it was an interesting first episode and presented the story in a sweet, if albeit exaggerated way, of dealing with young love.
I will definitely keep watching this series as it moves forward, interested in seeing how other scenarios play out or even if they follow up with a few of the ones that were presented in this episode. Either way, Tsuredure Children has me quite enthralled with the story it is presenting.
