Tada Never Falls in Love (Japanese: 多田くんは恋をしない Hepburn: Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai) is a Japanese romantic comedy anime television series produced by Doga Kobo. It aired in Spring 2018. The series is licensed in North America by Sentai Filmworks.
The story follows Mitsuyoshi Tada, a boy who has never known love. He is taking pictures of the cherry blossoms in full bloom when he meets Teresa Wagner, a transfer student from a fictional European country called Larsenburg (ラルセンブルク, Rarusenburuku). It seems that she separated from her travel companion upon arriving in Japan. Tada helps her and brings her to his grandfather's coffee shop. Teresa's travel companion and bodyguard Alec arrives and beats up Kaoru misunderstanding him as chasing after Teresa. They discover that the hotel they're supposed to be staying in is actually next to Tada's cafe. The next day, they enroll in Tada's school and are in the same class. Alec agrees on joining the Photography Club on Teresa's request that she also wants to take great pictures. Mitsuyoshi is actually an aspiring photographer and wants to become like his father, who was a famous photographer. Mitsuyoshi lost his parents in a car accident during their childhood. The one last photo his father took and the camera were the only things that came back. The story focuses on the adventures of Tada and his friends and their building relationships.
Tada Never Falls in Love contains the examples of these followng tropes:
- Book Ends: The series begins and ends with Mitsuyoshi and Teresa standing in front of each other in Cherry Blossoms.
- Butt-Monkey: Kaoru always gets his ass kicked by Alec.
- The Cameo / Homage: Never mentioned within the show but Duke Todo, of all people, is apparently a regular at the family coffee shop. He even pops up during the street fair and secretly snipes a prize for Tada and Teresa.
- Clark Kenting: When Hinako is wearing glasses and sporting a more modest schoolgirl uniform, Hajime is completely unable to tell that she's really his favorite idol and crush Hina.
- Conflicting Loyalty: Teresa is torn between her love for Mitsuyoshi and Larsenberg, her country. Ultimately, she chooses the former.
- Connected All Along: The reason both Mitsuyoshi and Teresa know about the North Star and were told stories of its ability to guide people when they're lost and in need of help is because this saying shares a mutual source — the former's grandfather Shozo and the latter's nanny Rachel, back when she was a college student going by her birth name of Reiko Ryuzaki, worked together at the Tada Coffee Shop and heard those words from the same person. Reiko would later depart for Larsenberg, leaving her and Shozo as Starcrossed Lovers who exchange the occasional long-distance letter. If that wasn't enough, Rachel is the same "Rachel D" who penned the Sunflower Express manga series Yui is obsessed with.
- Fiery Redhead: Despite being The Stoic, Alec comes off as this when protecting Teresa.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Teresa is a blonde and a really nice person. And despite the fact that he was Teresa's fiancée, Charles is this too.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: After realizing that Teresa loves Mitsuyoshi and he loves her back, Charles lets his feelings go towards Teresa, and after that Alec consoles him.
- Lovable Sex Maniac: Hajime.
- No Communities Were Harmed: Larsenberg is an obvious dead ringer for Luxembourg, down to their flag and layout of their capital which is directly based on the Luxembourg City itself.
- Oblivious to Love: Tada is this, at least at first.
- Occidental Otaku: Teresa is a MASSIVE fan of a Japanese TV show called Rainbow Shogun. It's even lampshaded, with the question raised of which countries outside of Japan would even air the show. As it turns out, Teresa's nanny is Japanese by birth and brought children's picture books about the Rainbow Shogun with her to Larsenberg.
- Official Couple: Mitsuyoshi and Teresa.
- Public Domain Canon Welding: In-universe. The Sunflower Express romance manga* that Yui is an avid fan of chronicles the mystery-solving adventures of the granddaughter of one Hercule Poirot, Yoshiko Yamamura Poiron. Poiron's catchphrase ("My grey cells have begun to fire") is even taken from one of Poirot's.
- Really Royalty Reveal: Teresa is revealed to be the crown princess of the fictional European country, Larsenberg.
- Show Within a Show: Two; the period drama Rainbow Shogun and a shojo romance manga titled Sunflower Express. Both turn out to fairly plot-important to boot.
- The Stoic: Mitsuyoshi.
