TONIKAWA: Over The Moon For You 05
Tonikaku Cawaii: Fly Me to the Moon 05
Tonikaku Kawaii/トニカクカワイイ

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Tsukasa is shocked that Nasa does not own a TV, meaning she won’t get to watch her shows. Nasa realizes how important this is to his wife, so he goes to buy a TV for her. Sometime after, Nasa proudly reports to Kaname regarding his successful proposal. However, she “educates” him on the need for him to buy rings.

Nasa and Tsukasa walk home from the bathhouse, where Nasa informs his wife that he has to work. They stop by a park, where Nasa takes a moment to be romantic with Tsukasa. At work, he comes to realize why rings would be useful. As such, he returns home to run the idea past Tsukasa. She educates him on the difference between an engagement ring and wedding bands.

Even though she says she doesn’t need a ring, she decides to go shopping with Nasa. Tsukasa’s plan to shock Nasa on the expense of diamond rings nearly backfires, so she takes him to a cheap place to ultimately settle on much less expensive wedding bands. However, she is happy with the rings and the memories they will bring of this day.

Thoughts/Review:

While I liked TONIKAWA: Over The Moon For You 05 on the whole, I was rather bummed by some of the cuts.

Modifications to the Source Material

The story for TONIKAWA: Over The Moon For You 05 was adopted from source manga chapters 15 (about half), 16, 17, and 18. I noted the following modifications to the original story.

• After the Human Centipede reference, the manga ends Tsukasa’s diatribe. But the anime continues to extend it quite a bit.
• In the manga, as soon as Tsukasa ends her diatribe, the pair go to the store to shop. Chitose doesn’t enter until after that has completed.
• The aftermath of the shopping trip is cut, as is Nasa and Tsukasa visiting a DVD rental store. I get cutting the jokes about porn videos, but the other cuts were quite disappointing.
• Again, the anime is removing references to Tokiko. That’s red flag territory. More on that in a bit.
• The “discussion” of Nasa’s jobs is shifted in the narrative and him asking to quit one of them is cut.

I get that Seven Arcs likely wanted to have a more tightly focused episode about wedding rings. And since they couldn’t do the porn video jokes, they had to make other adjustments as well. But considering how important TV and games are to Tsukasa, I missed her taking Nasa to the DVD store, and her reaction to having “culture” when they brought a TV and video player home.

Romance Over Plot?

I know there are some folks who read the Tonikaku Cawaii (Fly Me to the Moon) manga (why couldn’t they have just settled on ONE name and had done?) who only want the romance stuff without plot. And they don’t want fun side stories either, just romance fluff. But while Hata-sensei kinda jacked the plot up a bit in Hayate the Combat Butler, he is good at trolling fans with plot tidbits, making his series have a higher level of interest.

While Seven Arcs has certainly included the Kaguya-hime story elements, I’m really annoyed that all references to Tokiko have been trashed to date. Even if the anime isn’t planning to bring Tokiko into the series (she doesn’t fully appear until chapter 70), the groundwork should still be lain. But then Seven Arcs may not be planning to do more than one anime series, which would be a crime.

That said, I do love the romance stuff that was in TONIKAWA: Over The Moon For You 05, I have red flags when important plot characters or elements are removed from an anime adaptation.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review of TONIKAWA: Over The Moon For You 05 with some final thoughts.

• I still laugh that Hata-sensei has apparently watched Human Centipede.
• Also, the parody of Sharknado was funny.
• Chitose, Charlotte, and Aurora get the same cameo in the anime that they did in the manga. I’ve been missing them in the current manga.

In the end, TONIKAWA: Over The Moon For You 05 is fine, but some of the cuts to the source material were very disappointing.