刻どキ

TOKIDOKI

ONE_SHOT

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
Not Available
RELEASE
October 20, 2016
CHAPTERS
1

DESCRIPTION

A heart can only beat so many times in a lifetime. Kokuhaku disease, a rare condition that weakens the heart, leaves the victim with less heartbeats and a shorter lifespan than normal. With the right device, the amount of heartbeats remaining can be measured. When Hato Iijima accidentally walks in on Hatsu Takagi changing her clothes, he sees this device attached to her chest. Hatsu has resigned herself to an uneventful and isolated life to avoid elevating her heart rate. However, she expresses her true desire—to freely and wholeheartedly experience every second she has left. Recognizing her wish, Hato swears to help her enjoy life to the fullest and make her heart beat like crazy.

CAST

Hatsu Takagi
Hato Iijima

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

GGShang
90/100
A story about what it means to be free and live life to the fullest
So I reread this in order to prep for this review and now I'm feeling way too emotional for 10 AM on a Friday. But first of all, if you're wondering if you should read this or not, it's only like 47 pages so just go do it. It'll be faster than reading this review, that's for sure. So if this oneshot is so short that you could finish it before this review, why am I writing it? Because I really like this story, and when you got something to say you gotta say it. There will be some spoilers for the story

Toki Doki is a prime example of how you don't need to have dozens or hundreds of chapters to make an emotionally riveting story.

Toki Doki is a short story about a girl with a heart disease that will cause her to die earlier if her heart beats faster. Because of this, she avoids doing strenuous activities and having fun with everyone else so that her heart rate doesn't needlessly increase, but it leaves her feeling lonely and unfulfilled with her life. That all changed when she meets Poppo, who wants to take her out to enjoy the life that she has. Throughout their fun few months together they experience so many fun things and Poppo gets to see a side of the MC that no one would have thought possible from who she was earlier. It all comes to a head when they go to play for the cultural festival and our MC realizes that Poppo has the same disease as well, and is going to die during the performance.

Alright, so plot out of the way, now what makes it good? Well first, a large part of it is due to the fact that the characters are likeable, with the MC's joy of experiencing new things feeling almost tangible to the reader. Another part is straight up how well the story is written, with the big twist being slightly foreshadowed before being revealed and with the mixing of lighthearted with serious tones. But of course the thing I love the most about it are the thematic beats of the story.

The heartwarming and sad parts of Toki Doki are all centered around the theme of freedom. At the beginning of the story, when we are introduced to the MC, we can tell that she is a closed off person, and later we find out from her that she doesn't necessarily want to be that way. She has let the weight and consequence of her disease take control of her life and rob her of her happiness and joy. She was bound by the disease and no longer free to live her life as she wants, that is until Poppo comes in to break her free. The newfound freedom she tastes is intoxicating, and we root for her because she is finally able to be happy. We are able to feel happy even at her death since we know she lived a full life, despite having to live with her disease. Yet by the same token it feels a little sad doesn't it? It's sad because, in the end, their freedom of life was ultimately taken too soon by death. We can no longer see what they would be like if they grew up: maybe they would have dated and lived a happy life together, maybe they would part ways then but still live their lives to the fullest after being mutually spurred on by each other. But we'll never know because that freedom was cut short.

To have the freedom to live life and be happy is one of the greatest joys of being human. If there was ever a message Toki Doki was trying to tell, it would be just that: to live your life unhindered by whatever may try to stop you. Maybe it is a disease like in this story, or maybe it's poverty, family expectations or something else, but this story is saying that none of that has to hinder you from living a free and happy life. That idea is the lifeblood and the beating heart of Toki Doki.
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NextUniverse
63/100
Nothing to write to home about with this one.
Short review because short story rada rada rada.

__Story - 60 Art - 70 Character - 70 Enjoyment - 50__
__Intro:__
This is just a blown out of proportion one-shot.

To be fair, for a one-shot this is pretty good, but considering its acclamation, I went into this believing this would be able to fit in with general manga despite its length. I won't say that this then suddenly becomes worse because it wasn't what I expected, I am not some entitled person that would downvote because I didn't get what I wanted. However, I also won't say that this story isn't automatically better because of some handicap, short stories are still able and liable to make great stories despite the length. It is merely the average that comes and goes really. Seriously have no clue as to how people connected to this but I guess they did, to each their own.

__Review:__
The narrative is already given in the synopsis ~~(yo AL stole that from MAL Rewrite lmao)~~, what I talk about is how the story goes around it to present it. I think everything about the execution is fine really, with good pacing and it doesn't feel too dramatic, in fact, there is more fun and games throughout really, which just enforces the happy atmosphere that this one-shot tried to bring, in that, do the most with the life you have. It does well in that category. Characters are presented quite well too, they have their background and their development which does seem a little forced, but I can't say that isn't to be expected. Tagaki and Poppo's pairing feels well made too, both characters are made well for one another rather than existing for the sake of it, in such a short amount of time I have to give props on the decent characters that don't feel like they came out of some shoujo one-shot. What really got me was the damn ending (everyone seems to hate endings now don't they), and how that literally turns this story into something you could post onto r/thathappened. I would like to keep this spoilerless but for anyone who wants a bit more understanding featuring implicit spoilers then:
At the end, we get to know the truth about Poppo's life, it basically turns the story into a bruh moment with cliched character actions and emotions for the sake of "let there be heartstring tug haha yes"

I know Komi Naoshi isn't supposed to be taken seriously (well actually I don't know if he should or shouldn't), but this man literally runs on only one idea with manga he makes, goddamn Nisekoi checks out too much, he just can't fit another plot device which isn't the main one.

Art is good. It has that slightly bubbly/sparkly feel to it you get from Shaft or what have you and the character designs are fine but tweaked in a way that makes this Komi's own style. For example:
legit just searched this up on google images, can't be bothered to read this again.
That ending really killed it for me. It might do the same for you. I won't lie, I didn't expect it, but that made it even worse in this case. Felt more like a "wtf!?" ending more than anything. For the most part, though this was quite average in terms of the norm with fun times that teenagers have. Nothing more to add to that matter really, so I can't see why the enjoyment factor should be high honestly.

__Final Words:__
I can't imagine where this would be if this ended up being serialized lol. Komi has some of the silliest stories I have ever read and it isn't even funny ironically, idk why this rubs me the wrong way because I can usually take just about any and every joke, but this is just, nah, it's not here m8. You can find better elsewhere. Spend time on this one if you want but you are not doing yourself a favour tbh.
__Overall - 62.5/100__
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