Tokimeki Memorial: Forever With You

I'll be honest, I've known of Konami's 1994 game Tokimeki Memorial for a good number of years now. I know it's a dating sim game and I've known of the game's lead female character/poster girl Shiori Fujisaki. That being said, my knowledge of the game stops there since I have never played it. Which means that I pretty much went into the OVA adaptation with no knowledge on the game's story or any of it's characters. After conducting a little research for this review, I learned that the game's story basically bolis down to this: You play as a student at the Kirameki Private High School whichShiori Fujisaki, who is also the player character's childhood friend, also attends. The protagonist also learns of a legend passed throughout the school that couples who confess their love under the school's Tree of Legend (Seriously?) on their day of graduation will be blessed with eternal happiness. From then on, the game basically has you date any number of the game's female characters in the hopes of one of them confessing her love to you in the end. The OVA adaptation, released in 1999, pretty much follows the basic plot of the game but puts Shiori in the protagonist role and focusses on her struggles to confess her feelings to a faceless male student at school (basically the player character from the game) all throughout her graduation year. In between Shiori's arc are some insights to the lives of some of the other girls who attend Kirameki High who are also dealing with their own issues, such as the tomboyish Nozomi Kiyokawa who loves swimming and sports and is also struggling with her own feelings of love and Megumi Mikihara, Shiori's boy-shy best friend. Oh, and there's also some mystery girl who keeps mistakenly phoning Shiori who is also struggling with expressing her feelings to the same male student Shiori has feelings for but doesn't specify who the boy she's in love with is which leads to Shiori cheering her on in confessing her feelings to said boy. The story isn't exactly anything special and is pretty much your cliche melodramatic romance shtick of a bunch of cute girls in high school all crushing on the same boy. What keeps this from turning into a typical harem anime is that we never actually get to see the boy the girls are crushing on nor do we see any kind of character interaction with him. Characters don't really get any form of development through the story other than dealing with their feelings and having to pick up the pieces from any inevitable heartbreak that happens. Not to mention the OVA makes sure that every character from the game gets an appearance with some not having any form of involvement within the story and being relegated to simple speaking cameos. But hey, it's not like anime based on fighting games haven't done the same thing. Which brings me to another issue of this anime is that it assumes that the viewer is familiar with the characters from the game. Sure people who have actually played the game will know all about them but for anyone else going into it with no knowledge of the game will be at a loss on who is who. The only exception to the rule being Shiori who we're given plenty of insight to through her thoughts and feelings. Though this makes sense as she is the protagonist and needs to form that connection with the audience. Another issue I have with this anime is that at times the anime feels like it's trying to pad out the run time, mainly through montages of the characters going about their lives while a piece of music plays in the background. Gotta make sure every girl from the game gets their fair share of screen time I guess. If there's one point where the the OVA really shines it would be the art style which is colourful and vibrant which adds to the appealing visual design of the characters. As for the animation, it's decent enough for what it is. To sum up, the Tokimeki Memorial OVA is something of a mixed bag. The visuals are pleasing but the story is rather cliche, the characters are rather one note and the run time feels padded out. I also may be a bit more biased towards it given my lack of experience with the anime's source material. It isn't one of the greatest OVA titles I've seen but it's certainly not one of the worst, though fans of the original video game will likely find more enjoyment out of it. For anyone else, I can only say this: If melodramatic romance anime with cute girls is the kind of thing that's up your alley, give it a try and see what you think.