Tokyo Marble Chocolate Review
Chizuru and Yuudai are an ordinary couple living in Japan, however due to their mutual shyness, awkwardness and general bad luck, the pair constantly struggle to talk to each other and truly express their emotions. One day, Yuudai decides to give her a present and finally confess his feelings, whilst Chizuru has decided to break up with him thinking he’s not into her. Can Yuudai’s mysterious gift save the day?
With a title like ‘Tokyo Marble Chocolate’, you expect either a chocolate-heavy anime, or at least something purely made as an overlong advert for a sweet brand. Despite the misleading name, it’s none of those, in fact the only part that comes into play within this two episode OVA is ‘Tokyo’, where it’s set. The rest is neither seen nor said, making it an odd-name choice by director Naoyoshi Shiotani. That name may not ring any bells, but he has been in the industry for a long time with one of his earliest credits being Ah! My Goddess the Movie back in 2000, and having worked in many anime projects from Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away to Ghost in the Shell (2nd movie Innocence and the TV show) not to mention his own directed projects which include the Psycho Pass franchise. He has a lot of talent and has been involved with many critically acclaimed, or at least very well-known, projects. It’s a shame that his talent is not enough to save this rather bland anime.
The OVA is two episodes long and covers the same time period of two days where the couple’s continuous frustrations and mutual love come to the point where it’s make-or-break time for them. The first episode tells the story from the male’s point of view, whereas the second is from the female’s and they both follow a format of them narrating how they’re bad at relationships and their intentions as to how the date will go. The idea on paper is sweet by itself and the concept of telling it from one point of view then another, whilst not being unique, is a nice selling point for the OVA, especially since both of them have very different ideas about where they are at that point of their relationship. The problem however comes from the characters themselves and their supposed ‘romance’; despite an episode being solely dedicated to each one’s perspective, we don’t learn anything about them outside of their awkwardness, nor do we learn how they are as a couple. We get the odd flashback of them on a date but it’s not enough to really paint a picture of whether these two are meant for each other or not, and whether their mutual awkwardness is a ‘something in common’ that brings them together or a great hindrance to the relationship. For most of the OVA’s runtime they are apart and thinking internally about their own issues, which doesn’t paint a great picture as to why the audience should care about whether they get together or if we even like them as characters. You need more than just ‘clumsy’ or ‘shy’ to portray a fully rounded character or create sympathy for them, but neither of these bumbling fools ever get past that point. It doesn’t help that their entire goal (him to confess his love, her to find out how he feels) isn’t given a proper conclusion; when we get the big emotional moment at the end where the pair finally seem to understand one another, before the big confession happens the OVA cuts to black, then the credits roll. We see stills of their ‘relationship’ from then on in the credits but it’s a cop-out for those who WERE invested because we don’t even get to see how they worked out their issues and got together in the end.
Another hindrance to the OVA is the comedy, which plays a large part into why the couple are separated for the majority of their ‘date’. Most of it stems from unlikely circumstances, which is not uncommon for romantically led stories. There’s a reason that most ‘rom-coms’ tend to be a bit outlandish in nature, either having highly unlikely events happen (like the guy’s ex whom he hasn’t seen in years suddenly popping back into the picture) or actions that the characters have to go through (e.g. a carnival just so happens to appear right in the middle of the street when the girl is trying to catch up with the guy she wants to confess to). But ‘rule of funny’ can easily be pushed too far into the outrageously contrived, and this OVA does that too many times. Whether it’s the telescope that Chizuru uses, breaking the laws of reality to spy on Yuudai, or her present being whisked away by a random balloon that somehow comes back in one piece the next day, it really pushes it too far to be comical considering it’s meant to be a more down-to-earth romance. The main problem however is the mini-donkey, Yuudai’s mysterious gift; it’s an ugly animated creature and fails to be funny in every scene it’s in. It’s neither cute nor amusing, it’s just an unpleasant distraction that unfortunately encompasses the OVA’s problems.
A lot of these issues are maybe due to this being Naoyoshi Shiotani’s very first project he directed back in 2007, with previous credits before this being mostly animation related. Luckily since animation is his strength, it excels here. The style is very distinct (you won’t mistake it for any other director’s work), the colours are very bright and despite its age, it really looks lovely in the Blu-ray edition. There aren’t many scenes where the animation gets to pop out and draw attention to itself, so it’s not any mystery that the prettiest scene from the OVA, in Episode 1 where Yuudai dreams of them both falling from Tokyo Tower, is used in the main menu and special edition packaging. It is a lovely sequence, but it’s a shame that there’s nothing else like it within the OVA.
Both the DVD and Blu-ray contain the same content and number of extras; English trailer and music videos for the two ending songs; ‘Full Powered Boy’ & ‘See You Again’. The discs contain Japanese language and English subtitles only, no English dub at all. The collector’s edition also comes with special packaging and a booklet.
There’s nothing wrong with a simple love story but Tokyo Marble Chocolate is TOO simple for its own good. The characters are flat, the comedy doesn’t work and the story feels like a first draft of what could have been a cute little romantic tale. The animation quality is not enough reason to invest in this unless you’re an avid anime collector who loves niche, if flawed, stories. But there’s plenty of other anime that attempt similar ideas and succeed. Not worth your time.
