YMMV / Tsurezure Children

• Accidental Aesop: No one knows if Wakabayashi intended for this, but many segments give the impression that most of the misunderstandings and awkward situations in the story would be resolved if the characters were more sincere and open about their feelings, overcoming their shyness and trying to learn more about the thoughts and feelings of their Love Interests.
• Adorkable: From Mai's glee in keeping her feelings "secret" to her awkward attempts to bond with Ogiue, she's adorable.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: Does Katori act the way he does because that's just who he is? Or does he act like that because he's sick, and trying to have as much fun as he can before his illness overtakes him? Some readers have pointed out that Katori's coughed up blood before and was mentioned to be out of the hospital, but in the very same scene he's still as hammy as ever even while he's having a serious conversation. One thing for sure is that he is confirmed sick.
  • Some even surmised that the reason he acts the way he does is because he's really an Author Avatar; he's obsessed with resolving love problems, seems to always be in high school, and despite not being present for the final character group picture, he's prominent in the tankoubon releases' colored pages and as the main visual for the final volume's back cover.
• Base-Breaking Character: Due to the large amount of characters in this series, not all of them will be well liked by some.
  • Takase, Kanda, Takano and Sugawara. Their awkwardness about their feelings are either adorable or tiresome to look at as they are some of the earliest characters and yet still beat around the bush to confessing to their crushes. Conflicting feelings on the pairings got even more exasperated due to the anime adaptation giving the two pairings the most segments.
  • Yamane being an otaku with very low self-esteem who often cries comically and is very bad at sports is either funny and relatable or insufferable. His lack of backbone and refusal to act on his feelings are not helping either. However, things got better for him since he finally confesses his feelings in chapter 96, and he and Chiyo start dating.
  • A lot of people think that Ubukata is too much of a Jerkass and don't see why Shibasaki likes him. On the other hand, those who defend him point out that he's more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold and that Shibasaki's attitude (both as her regular self and as Miss Wabisabi) sometimes justifies his vitriol.
  • Onizuka has a lot of critics from the manga, mostly concerning his gimmick of being a rapper. His chapters basically come down to two fronts; those who like the strangeness of it and the characters, and those who think his rapping internal monologue gets stale and repetitive, with the only redeeming factor being Yamada.
  • Chiaki gets a lot of criticisms in chapters he stars in, for being very dense about Kana and having mostly relationship advancing on the brain or being far too shy to move forward. His drunken Forceful Kiss didn't win him any points, either. That being said, a lot of people do like his general silly personality and many heartwarming moments with Kana.
  • Nanase. It's one thing to feel resentful that Kaga may not like her back, but her constant harassment borders on bullying. Even Kaga himself thinks she is bullying him.
  • For that matter, Kaga himself. He fell in love with a girl he knows is in a relationship, yet still confesses to her and pines for her. Some of the audience didn't mind it, but others found it annoying and relished in his heartbreak when he got rejected. Not helping is his obliviousness toward Nanase. To be fair to him though, he didn't know Sasahara was in a relationship until Nanase spilled the beans.
  • Akagi. Many praise him for being "smooth" and having good intentions for Kaji, but others say that his initial blackmailing of Kaji and his treatment of her afterwards treads the line between being manipulative and abusive. Funny enough, Kaji's mom initially thinks the same until he actually comes over to pick up her daughter.
• Broken Base:
  • While some people criticize the manga and its adaptation due to too many Oblivious to Love characters and the great Idiot Balls caused by their indecision, other people like how the show makes fun of and plays with it, creating ridiculous and silly situations.
  • While the anime was generally well received, there were several complaints over a few of the well-liked characters and couples who didn't get included in the adaptation, or at least got reduced to only making Continuity Cameos, largely in favour of the Will They or Won't They? couples of Takase/Kanda and Sugawara/Takano who each had one segment almost every episode.
  • After three straight chapters of Cliffhangers with the couples featured having their feelings betrayed, the audience got split up about the endgame. Some turn to Too Bleak, Stopped Caring or rage because the manga seemed to end on a relatively bittersweet note despite the light tone of the rest of the series; in other cases, they resigned themselves to it, saying that the ending being more realistic (having some pairs get together while some never come to fruition) might be a good note to end the series on.
  • After Motoyama became an Ascended Extra and seemed on the verge of developing a relationship himself with Enomoto, he finds out that she plans on confessing to her childhood friend back home. Some considered this a realistic subversion while others thought it was a cruel Yank the Dog's Chain moment.
    • The follow-up chapter, which has Enomoto and Motoyama hook up, was treated with a similar dividing opinion; since the event happens when Enomoto gets stood up on her date, allowing Motoyama to finally spill all his grievances and ask her out, some fans saw it as a good example of Motoyama disregarding his 2D ideal and passivity to go for the relationship he really wants, or feel like the whole thing was too sudden and felt out of character for Motoyama to be so blunt and for Enomoto to rebound so quickly.
• Cliché Storm: Invoked intentionally, since the author enjoys Stealth Parody on romance cliches and loves to play with them using Genre Savvy characters. That being said, they're used just as unironically in key moments as they are for parody.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Motoyama gets a lot of kudos for being an excellent wingman, being relatably self-deprecating while having his 2D ideals, and the source of support for his friend Yamane. Probably the reason he's now one of the main characters.
  • Minagawa ended up becoming the most popular female character in the West, at least when the anime aired. When the r/anime subreddit had their Best Girl seasonal tournament for all new female character introduced that season, Minagawa ended up coming out the victor, even topping other fan favorite characters like Karen Tendou and Nanachi.
  • Hotaru, surprisingly. While clingy tsunderes like her tend to be polarizing, Hotaru manages to avert this entirely. Her over the top reactions to Minagawa are just downright hilarious, along with the fact Haruka Tomatsu puts on an impressive vocal performance with many different vocal ranges for her from sweet little girl to deep-voiced murderous tsundere. This is especially in her introductory episode/chapter and the "Trap" episode/chapter where fans found her losing her shit to be unbelievably funny.
  • Toda and Sunagawa, aka the "Dry Couple" ended up becoming this for the ''couples, a fan favorite due to the hilarity of two stoic characters dating and the Running Gag of never giving straight answers in the Omake Questionnaires.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Katori has "Jojo-senpai" due to his poses and Love Master and/or Dating God for being romance-savvy for the other characters he comes across with.
  • Akagi has "President Smooth" due to his handling of Ryoko.
  • Sunagawa and Toda have the collective nickname of "the bruh couple" due to their Dull Surprise reactions.
  • Motoyama has earned the nickname "Brotoyama" for being an excellent wingman to Yamane.
  • Minagawa has the nickname "Troll Queen" for her mischievous personality towards both her love interest and his little sister.
• Fridge Horror: If one looks closely at the final chapter's color page, they'll notice that Katori is the only person missing in the photo while Kazuko looks to the side wistfully. Considering that he's ill, the worst that could happen to him is an off-screen death following his graduation.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The slapstick Katori suffers at the hands of Matsuura and Himemiya in the early chapters is Played for Laughs. Then comes the revelation much later that he's an ill boy and for all we know those moments exacerbated his condition.
  • In the omakes, Wakabayashi joked and talked about about Motoyama being Alone Among the Couples, and most arcs have him be wingman for Yamane and Chiyo. As of "Protagonist", it looks like he's wingmanning for his own crush too.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Kana Hanazawa teasing her classmate or his incredibly jealous younger sister to enjoy their amusing reaction?
  • A year after her Star-Making Role as the very popular Rem, a character voiced by Inori Minase says "the one who confesses to me, clearly went crazy". It's both funny and sad, considering that Re: Zero's protagonist pretty much does that.
  • In one omake, when asked "Who is your favorite Yo-kai Watch character?", one person answered with Kitaro. Looks like the comparison was more than apt, given the Darker and Edgier spinoff sequel, Yo-kai Watch: Shadowside, carried some of the tone of Kitaro before it. Even more so considering that Kitaro's main cast appears in the Shadowside movie.
• Ho Yay:
  • The conversation between Katori and Takase in the toilet is so permeated with homosexual vibrations that a little more and the actions of the first one could be regarded as an attempt at seduction.
  • Noro and Takase look a little too pleased with each other while they're comparing each other's penises in the bathhouse. The former then wait for Class 2-4 turn to take baths, where Chiaki and Keisuke joined in the pair's antics.
• Jerkass Woobie: Nanase. She like Kaga since middle school until he tells her to stops hanging around him to avoid rumors that they going out, which really hurts her and changed her personality from relatively normal to become more rough and cold. Though she not a very friendly person anymore she still likes him even after he develops a crush on Sasahara. While she does give him hints about her feelings he still doesn't get what are her trying to do.
• Les Yay:
  • Matsuura and Urara have moments like these during their chapters, as the former teaches the latter about acting.
  • Although it's fairly obvious she's protective of her brother, Hotaru at times seems to have a tsundere crush on Minagawa.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • WHY, JAPANESE PEOPLE?! ^Explanation Patty screams this in frustration during the Beach Episode, wondering why Sugawara and Takano won't get together already. Some fans share her sentiment and extend it to the rest of the cast, others use the phrase because it's just funny.
  • Sushi. ^Explanation Patty's catchphrase.
  • The fourth episode was the cause of many calls for Chiaki and Kana to "finally do it", after the fans and many viewers were incredibly tense because of their failed attempt to have sex. This is especially true of jokes and memes about the awkwardness Chiaki experienced because of the accidental appearance of his mother during the scene.
  • My name is Tomomichi Motoyama. I'm ugly! ^Explanation Episode 10 of the series, has Motoyama introduce himself as this, completely upbeat, as his internal monologue.
  • Bruh. ^Explanation Sunagawa and Toda's stone-faced expressions to nearly everything has people pretending that they're essentially saying this whenever they react to something.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Yamane won over a lot of his lingering detractors in Chapter 158 by paying back his best friend Motoyama's help in matchmaking by similarly becoming a matchmaker for the latter and Enomoto in turn. Even more so when Yamane gives up time alone with his girl to help comfort Motoyama through the latter's heartbreak.
• Strangled by the Red String: Kaga/Nanase was telegraphed since their introduction chapters, but the way they finally hooked up was questioned. Kaga confesses to Nanase while they look at the stars, and although he admits it's a little too soon after his rejection, he asks Nanase if she wants to go out with him, which she readily agrees to. While a good change of pace from three bittersweet chapters, some fans felt it too soon and out of character for Kaga to go after Nanase, especially given her abrasive personality. Nanase was also the one pining for the other most of the series, but because she didn't act on it the whole way through until Kaga confessed himself, it's seen as an undeserved win. Lampshaded by Nanase herself at first, who thinks just because he has given up on Sasahara doesn't mean he suddenly likes herself now.
• Sweet Dreams Fuel: At its cutest and most heartwarming, it's something you can go to sleep easy on.
• Tear Jerker:
  • "One Sided Love" has Alice finally tell Takase how she feels about him. She pulls out all the stops to confess to him on Christmas Eve, and despite being thankful for what she's done he just can't bring himself to love her the way she wants. An interesting and very well played out scene of rejection.
  • Kaga's one-sided love finally being rejected. We all knew it was coming, given that Sasahara was already taken and he knew it, but it doesn't make his heartache as he sees her go to Yukawa any better.
  • "There's Nothing Tying us Together" saw Shibasaki regressing back to her Miss Wabisabi antics after she realizes that another girl may be confessing to Ubukata. Even after Ubukata tries to correct her and confess to her, Shibasaki gets nervous and shoots him down. When she returns and tries to rectify her mistake she sees him accepting the confession from another girl.
  • "Protagonist" for a large number of people. Motoyama's newfound love for Enomoto seemingly goes unrealized very quickly, due to her already having someone she likes and seeing Motoyama as a friend. He then proceeds to push her to contact said friend, and swallow his heartbreak by exclaiming that he loves 2D. All of the fans who thought Motoyama deserved a good ending and those who experienced similar heartbreak with a crush expressed deep sympathy here.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The translation of the word Patricia uses for "like/love" was unfavorably changed according to English speakers. The fan translations of the manga chose "sushi" in a case of Intentional Engrish for Funny, but the English subs for the anime translated the word as "lice". Some fans weren't very happy with the latter.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Depending on who you ask, Motoyama is pretty much this big time: Several fans prefer him to be a realistically lonely wingman without a girlfriend to begin with, and eventually keeping his 2D ideals in check instead of ending up with Enomoto.
• Values Dissonance: Kaji and Akagi's romance focuses on the latter helping the former break out of her delinquent ways and becoming a more serious student with real ambitions. Unfortunately the way Akagi goes about helping Kaji is what led to him being more of a Base-Breaking Character in the West. A lot of his teasing and prodding of Kaji can easily come across as him being manipulative and controlling, and trying to "groom" Kaji rather than help her.
• Wangst: Some fans see Nashimoto's weight concerns as this, given that most of her strips are about her problem with it and that she doesn't look that much different from the other girls anyway.
• The Woobie:
  • Sugawara. His crush on Chizuru is pretty depressing to watch especially early on.
  • Nashimoto and her Weight Woe make her very easy to sympathize with. She's not very athletic and eats snacks often, which resulted in her putting on a little weight. She wants to lose it so she can seem attractive both to herself and to her crush, and where everyone else is trying to tell her that she's fine the way she is, Nashimoto herself is extremely unsatisfied with her body. She can't even try not eating something because of her constant stomach rumbles. It gets to the point where she tries to starve herself on a diet and runs away crying when she tells Sonobe her insecurities. Poor thing.
    "If you can't love yourself, your love story will never begin."

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