Tada Never Falls in Love

Episode 5

The majority of this week's Tada Never Falls in Love follows the sweet yet bland formula the show has developed so far, focusing on one or two characters to show that they're slightly more than they initially appeared to be. This week, the spotlight fell on Kaoru Ijuin, Tada's annoying friend who likes to hang out at his family's café. Kaoru may have seemed like a self-centered goofus, but it turns out that he has a hidden heart of gold when it comes to his lifelong best friend. Deepening these supporting characters is all well and good since it makes us care about them more, but this pattern can only hold for so long. As charming as Tada's friends can be—and I was plenty charmed by Kaoru in this episode—they aren't interesting enough to carry the entire series on their own. They make for good one-off episodes, but I'm glad that we're moving back to the main couple next episode.

This episode already showed some movement in that direction. While Kaoru is the star of the show, the reasoning for his behavior entails revealing important information about Tada's past. We already knew that he had mysteriously absent parents, but now we know the full details; they both died on the same day, and this is ever-present in Tada and his sister's minds on the anniversary of their parents' death. Kaoru has been Tada's friend since he was young, so he makes sure to liven up that gloomy day by distracting them with fun activities. Awww. This also helps explain why Tada puts up with Kaoru so much. We're generally more tolerant of our friends' foibles the longer they've been our friends, but Tada understood that Kaoru had positive traits that others couldn't readily see.

I'll be honest though, this particular detail about Kaoru wasn't that shocking to me. He'd never seemed like a bad dude, just melodramatic and obnoxious. The worst you could say was that he was self-centered, but a lot of his histrionics seemed centered on impressing other people. So while the episode presents this as "shocking" new information, it doesn't really come as a surprise, any more than the gravure-idol-obsessed geek being secretly shy when he actually meets his celebrity crush. (I mean, who wouldn't be?) Perhaps the revelation about shy Hasegawa being HINA is more surprising, but it's hardly incongruous with her character. Heck, blending into the background at school is the ideal way to hide a Hannah-Montana-style secret.

You know what did surprise me? That Teresa is a princess.

For all that happened this week, none of it really stands up to this episode's last-second twist. I'd seen some comparisons elsewhere to Roman Holiday, but I hadn't quite picked up on that myself, given that foreigners falling in love while on vacation is basically a romance sub-genre on its own. As of this twist, the direct homage is unmistakable. Not only is Tada a reporter photographer (to be fair, photography plays a role in Roman Holiday too), but Teresa is really a princess. Some viewers may find this direct riff worrisome, but I think there are enough differences in Tada Never Falls in Love to avoid retreading the plot of a classic film. Tada is a citizen of Japan rather than another traveler, Teresa already seems far more integrated into his life and not like she's deliberately hiding her identity, and so on. If anything, I think this opens up more potential to explore their relationship.

We already got more exploration into Tada himself this week, so I wonder what we'll learn about Teresa next time. She seems just kind of happy-go-lucky and perfect, but certainly there's more to a princess who just decides to spend a year in another country for some reason. This also complicates her relationship with Alec. At first it just seemed like she was another student in her exchange program, but now it's clear she's probably some type of handler or bodyguard. And what does this mean for the fact that Alec might have romantic feelings for her princess? I'm not so convinced anymore that Teresa is only here for a "Rainbow Shogun" pilgrimage. This reveal raises so many intriguing questions.

The presence of Charles is another big question mark. As Teresa's suitor, what will he make of her life in Japan? Was she hiding this trip from him? Will he get in between her and Tada? Maybe he could force an epiphany for one or both of them instead? Next episode's preview suggests that Tada and Teresa will be on some romantic date, which is sure to complicate matters.

Tada Never Falls in Love has been cute and fun so far, but it was starting to seem like "nothing special" despite its initial promise. It was a fun weekly diversion, but it ultimately developed just like any other cute school comedy we've seen already. With this latest nugget of info, Tada Never Falls in Love could turn out to be something entirely different. It still probably won't set the world on fire, but I appreciate a good fish-out-of-water travel romance, and I'm glad that the show seems to be returning to that strength.

Rating: B+

Tada Never Falls in Love is currently streaming on HIDIVE.

Rose is a Ph.D. student in musicology, who recently released a book about the music of Cowboy Bebop. You can also follow her on her Twitter.