For Yudai and Chizuru, it’s clear they both love each other. One problem: their past relationships — Yudai for example went up 25 flights on an elevator and fainted in front of his then girlfriend while Chizuru once got drunk to the point that she definitely sent her then boyfriend to the hospital (ok, not that bad, but he left her at the restaurant during her drunken state) — end up making them fret about their future together. So during a seemingly normal date at a restaurant, Yudai gets a call from the place where he thought he bought a rabbit to give as a surprise gift to Chizuru, and is instead informed that it’s not wrapped up in the box.
A mini-donkey is.
…Is it too early to say this strange mini-donkey is the one that plays cupid in this OVA? Because it does!
Tokyo Marble Chocolate is a two-episode OVA series from Production I.G. that I saw over the weekend during JFF Plus: Online Festival, and is based off a manga by Fumiko Tanikawa. Good thing it was two, because on the site it said it’d be just about an hour and yet 23 minutes in it got to the end credits. Seriously was confused, but the series gives us two perspectives — first Yudai’s and then Chizuru’s. The anime briefly gives us their pasts and insecurities, leads up to the moment where they meet up, and each having to deal with this mysterious mini-donkey, who apparently snuck itself into the box, got wrapped up, and surprise! Now the two have to find it and also find each other, while also realizing that their past relationship heartbreaks shouldn’t stop them from getting together now.
Maybe it’d play better now in hindsight, but Yudai’s tale was not very good. Very wishy-washy and, while he is misguided and makes an assumption, he also manages to not own up to his own mistakes at one part, so I found his story boring. He is a good guy — helps an old lady, comes across as nice — but overall he’s not very memorable. Likely didn’t help that it didn’t feel like he spent much time with the mini-donkey. There’s a moment during the end where you can see how he grows (it involves Tokyo Tower), but honestly, it didn’t feel like his character was fleshed out to where I could care about him finding a lover.
But I began to look at that arc as set up for when the story shifts to Chizuru’s perspective. Her relationship woes compared to Yudai’s felt funnier and more unlucky. Yudai, for example, stopped going to his then girlfriend’s house after her dog barked at him, meanwhile Chizuru happened to meet up with her then boyfriend and watch him suddenly walk away terrified, not knowing his ex or person he was already dating was also right there, and looking pissed. While Yudai wants to say he loves her at the restaurant, Chizuru wants to end this relationship out of worry. So when the mini-donkey appears, a wild chase around the city occurs, one that connected a few elements from the first part into this second one and it’s not only fun, but made you want to root for Chizuru to finally find the one she wants.
The OVA does try to play up some fantasy elements that show off the skills of the animators but probably didn’t need to be put into the work. It doesn’t quite detract from it though, since it serves as Yudai and Chizuru’s state of mind when things don’t work out. The visuals are fairly nice, and there’s one moment during Chizuru’s arc that made the mini-donkey look exquisitely terrifying. There’s also times where each character shows off their emotions and style in a way that’s conveyed well, though there was one decision a character made where it’s hard to rationalize even in both parts. The music is not something that really stuck out, but there are two insert songs included in key parts and they probably weren’t necessary either. I won’t say they got in the way, but not having them in there would have been good too.
Overall though, Tokyo Marble Chocolate is tough to recommend for two main reasons: it’s currently not available officially, and Yudai’s arc wasn’t too satisfying, but the second episode that focused on Chizuru and the mini-donkey was a big standout. If it actually does get picked up at some point for streaming, this certainly is worth checking out. When JFF starts rolling out in other countries next year, it’s definitely worth trying out for sure.