Changing a title’s name for American audiences can sometimes confuse someone and cause them to possibly miss an anime. This case of mistaken identity was almost the case for me! I had read and reviewed volume 1 of Fly Me to the Moon from VIZ Media and really enjoyed it. I didn’t know that TONIKAWA: Over the Moon for You was the anime adaptation of it. What made it worse was that the ACTUAL name for this series is Tokikaku Kawaii! HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT!?
Yeesh!
In any event, this is a rare time where I am entering an anime while reading the source material at the same time! Was the adaptation as good as the manga?
Let’s Go!
First Episode Synopsis
A boy named Nasa is puzzled by why people are laughing at his name. He eventually learns his name was taken from the American N.A.S.A. organization. He vows to become a man so great that when people hear the name Nasa, they think of him instead. As he returns home from receiving his scores from a mock exam to get into Japan’s top-rated high school, he spies a girl so beautiful that he wants to talk to her. He goes to do so and is hit by a truck. The girl shields him and that’s the only thing that kept him from dying on impact. Adrenaline kicks in and he ignores two broken legs and a concussion to chase her down. When he meets her, he asks her out… she says only if he marries her… he says yes immediately!
Despite this, two years go by before he ever sees her again. She shows up and formally introduces herself as Tsukasa and she brings a marriage form with her. Nasa humors her and fills it out. One trip to the ward office later and the two of them are officially married!
Worth Watching?
MAYBE – Okay… I already said that I reviewed the manga and loved it but I’m giving this a MAYBE watch it rating. Why?
Quite simply, I’m a sucker for romance stories. This one just so happens to be a romantic comedy but with the way the marriage is set up, I can definitely tell that not a lot of people will buy into the believability of the premise. This is kind of one of those “forget about reality” type of shows and just go with the flow to see where it takes you. Not a lot of people can enjoy shows that are like that. While I will most-definitely keep watching, there are some who will look at this and might not like what they see.
While that is true for any anime, I can usually tell when something will be accepted by a lot of people, therefore, I would give it a YES recommendation. In this case, this is going to be a love it or hate it show for a lot of people which is why I’m giving it the MAYBE rating. For me, I like the manga, therefore, I liked the first episode.
It only covered about half of Volume 1. It looks like the second episode will finish off the volume. Since the manga just came out in North America, I don’t know anything beyond it but I will say that the first episode was a near panel for panel adaptation of the manga, meaning they are being very faithful to it! My only regret is that by watching the anime, I’m going to spoil myself when it comes time to read the manga… but now I get to play the game of trying to spot the differences and, sometimes, that’s pretty fun to do!
If you like far-fetched romcoms, this is going to be a great show for you. If not, you might not have a good time but check it out anyway and judge it for yourself!
