AKA: トニカクカワイイ 女子高編 ; Tonikaku Kawaii Joshiko-hen (Wiki says the Japanese title translates as "Cute, No Matter What")

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Length: Web release, 4 episodes, 24 minutes each

Distributor: Currently available streaming on crunchyroll.

Content Rating: PG-13 (Mature situations.)

Related Series: Tonikawa: Over the Moon For You TV series (two seasons, 12 episodes each) plus two other OVAs

Also Recommended: Hayate the Combat Butler

Notes: Based on manga by Kenjiro Hata, published by Shogakukan.

Rating:

Tonikawa Over The Moon For You: High School Days

Synopsis

Nasa gets a request from his former teacher, Ms. Yanagi, to teach computer programming at an all-girls high school. Tsukasa, however, gets jealous about it- especially when Kaname's dimwitted sister Aya feeds her fears.

Review

Did you expect, from the title, that this would be about when the leads were in high school themselves? Then you don't know this show. We might, indeed, have had a show about Nasa in high school- but whatever Tsukasa was doing at that time, or even where she WAS, is something the show delights in dropping hints about, but studiously avoids giving us any solid information about.

OK, to be honest, at the beginning of this installment of the saga (AND at the end), Nasa FINALLY formally admits that this is a continuation of The Bamboo Cutter's Tale (AKA the Story of Princess Kaguya). It's still very coy about exactly what/who Tsukasa is herself, however; one might suspect that maybe Tsukasa IS Kaguya; but what about the young girl we see here- conveniently for the plot, a student at the very girls' school where Nasa was roped into teaching- who seems to be a genius, hints that she's an alien, calls HERSELF Kaguya- and apparently knows Tsukasa's past. I felt like asking, in the tradition of old quiz shows, for the REAL Kaguya to stand up, please.

The main problem in our four-episode "high school" series is that, aside from dropping more cryptic hints, there really isn't much here. The female students really aren't that interesting- I wasn't moved at all by "ramen influencer" Haru Miyako, and as for Yaiba Shirogane, I can only say she has questionable taste in men- and got, maybe, what she deserved for that.

For the life of me, I can't figure Tsukasa out here. Normally she's been the most sensible person in the cast, but here she's a carload of contradictions. She excuses stalking of men by women in one conversation ("When a cute girl does it it's not stalking, it's true love"); but when a male character thinks that he is, in fact, being stalked by a "cute girl", Tsukasa tells him that behavior is unacceptable- he needs to "let her have it". And despite her normally solid pragmatism, she lets Aya- who's always a torrent of emotions bereft of sense- talk her into doing some "embarrassing" things, despite Tsukasa's normal phobia about ever being embarrassed. (It's the fact that Tsukasa remains so reluctant to be casually intimate with Nasa that's convinced me that they've not gone that far physically, despite Nasa's growing assertiveness.) Still, Tsukasa does manage to recover her old droll sarcasm toward Aya at least once- with Aya, of course, being too dense to realize she's being made fun of.

A few of the other girls at the school are named characters, and I suspected they might have gotten more story attention in the manga. But the mere 4 episodes here reduce their parts to more or less just walk-ons.

Returning to the whole "is Tsukasa Kaguya?" question, it seems to me that if she IS, she's had a major change of heart. After all, according to the legend, Kaguya made it impossible for suitors to marry her, by demanding they perform impossible tasks. But in Tonikawa, Tsukasa insists that the first guy who wants to date her marry her first. I guess it really WAS pretty lonely on the moon. (As I've said in my previous review of the show, I'm still wondering what Tsukasa's long-term intentions are in this relationship. She really DOES need to explain things to Nasa, since we DO know that she's been around a long time (and might be immortal), and the mortality thing MIGHT become a stumbling block later on.)

I hate Aya; Nasa's yakuza-adjacent cousin Ginga is ALSO featured prominently in this installment- and I never liked him much either. Only a couple of the female students get much story attention- except for "Kaguya", and she's just dangled in front of us to tantalize us. The focus here, again, is on Tsukasa's jealousy and fears about Nasa's being with these teenage girls, and in this mode Tsukasa’s just not as amusing as her normally droll (and sometimes even fourth-wall breaking) self. Nothing here is really offensive, mind; but nothing here is essential, either. Completely skippable. — Allen Moody

Recommended Audience: Mature Situations, I suppose. Nasa would obviously like a little more "playfulness" from his wife, but she's obviously still uncomfortable about it, though they finally ARE reasonably OK with kissing. We'll go PG-13.