From Me to You: Kimi ni Todoke follows the shy high schooler Sawako, whose restrained and spooky appearance scares everyone. When the popular Kazehaya befriends her, Sawako begins to break out of her shell and fall for him.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Her eerie demeanor, spooky vibes, and spookier reputation scare everyone away from her, but the popular and cheerful guy named Kazehaya sees in Sawako what others don’t. As he befriends her, the shy and incredibly kind Sawako begins to gradually break away from her shell.
With his support, she starts making efforts at defying her reputation and making new friends. Yoshida Chizuru and Yano Ayane are the first two classmates who see Sawako for who she really is, besides Kazehaya.
Sawako becomes a bit more confident and also smitten by Kazehaya, who relentlessly woos her with his support and friendship. Their first hurdle comes in the form of Kurumi, who has had romantic feelings for Kazehaya since middle school.
To weed Sawako out of her way, she spreads rumors about her using her friends to get to Kazehaya, but eventually, those rumors are dispelled and Sawako’s bonds with her friends remain stronger than ever.
Sawako’s romance with Kazehaya blooms further but both of them remain restrained in their efforts at expressing to each other what they feel. The arrival of the overtly animated and confident Miura further complicates things, as Sawako begins growing cold feet about expressing her feelings to Kazehaya.
When he finally confesses, Sawako’s erroneous response gives birth to a misunderstanding and both of them end up thinking that they got dumped by the other one. Her friends help her realize that she needs to be clearer and direct in her confession, which she finally is, as she confesses her love and the two begin dating.
Meanwhile, Chizuru’s crush on Ryu’s elder brother breaks his heart but he’s relieved when it inevitably doesn’t go anywhere. Chizuru gets upset at him while Ayane’s romantic life suffers breakup after breakup until she begins dating Miura, who is compassionate and kind.
Ryu finally confesses to Chizuru as Kazehaya contends with his fears and worries about love. The next phase of everyone’s life has to do with the future and what they all wish to do with it.
Kazehaya wishes the take over his dad’s business, but his father doesn’t believe he has what it takes to achieve that. Kazehaya works hard to show his father he is capable, as he grinds for the entrance examination to become a sports trainer.
Ayane tries to suppress it all many times but eventually decides to follow her heart and try for the Capital International University, while also breaking up with Miura as she doesn’t reciprocate the same feelings he has for her.
Chizuru starts working at Ryu’s father’s ramen shop, and she finally gathers the courage to cheer him on, before Ryu departs for college, promising her to marry her when he returns. Ayane passes the entrance exam and also confesses to her first true love, Mr. Arai. She gets rejected but is happy that she got to express what she felt, as Mr. Arai wishes her all the luck.
Sawako recognizes that she has an innate talent for teaching others, so she decides to become a teacher, preparing for the college exam alongside Kurumi, with whom her relationship improves dramatically. At first reluctant to part ways with Kazehaya, she eventually decides to go to Sapporo University.
Kazehaya passes his entrance and has a heart-to-heart with his father, who approves of his education and life plans. Sawako and Kurumi pass their exams too, as everyone graduates high school.
From Me to You: Kimi ni Todoke ends with Sawako and Kazehaya reuniting as the former returns home, embracing each other at the same spot their love story began.
From Me to You: Kimi ni Todoke ending explained in detail:
Do Chizuru and Ryu end up together?
One of the more understated couples in From Me to You: Kimi ni Todoke, Chizuru and Ryu have been best friends since they were little children, running around and playing with each other with a bond they both valued deeply. They have been there for each other through thick and thin.
Whereas Ryu has only ever loved Chizuru, the latter has had a crush on his elder brother Toru instead. It’s a childhood crush that Chizuru never got over with. When Toru returns home, Chizuru gets elated and buys a miniskirt, to impress him.
However, she is heartbroken when Toru turns up with his girlfriend, announcing that he would be marrying her shortly. She is upset even more at Ryu, who tells her that he’s relieved that her hopeless love didn’t go anywhere.
She doesn’t talk to him for days and keeps her tears to herself, which worries Ayane and Sawako. Ryu asks Toru to come back again for one time and meet Chizuru. She realizes during their walk around town how he’s always loved her, but only as his little sister.
She finally lets her tears out and feels lighter. Ryu apologizes to her, as does she. The two make up and are on good terms again. Later on, a girl at the school talks to Chizuru after getting rejected by Ryu.
The girl tells Chizuru that Ryu loves someone else and that if this “someone” isn’t her, she should stop being around him so much, as it puts out a wrong message to everyone else. Miffed and annoyed, Chizuru confronts Ryu about this. Ryu confesses to her that he’s always loved her, and only her.
Following his confession, Chizuru acts all awkward and fidgets around him. When an important baseball match arrives, she grows cold feet and fears that she’d have to part ways with him. She confesses her love to him and runs away.
During the game, she’s away but recalls her memories with him, finally gathering the courage to cheer him on and later encouraging him to go to college and continue baseball, reassuring him that she’ll wait for him here.
At the end of From Me to You: Kimi ni Todoke, the two finally kiss as Ryu promises to come back and start a family with her.
What happens to Ayane?
From the very beginning of From Me to You, Ayane has been rather unlucky with her romantic relationships.
Despite her big heart and so much love for others that she has, they’ve never helped her succeed in her love life. In fact, her failed relationships have enabled some students at school to spread and believe nasty rumors about her.
The first kind of healthy relationship she has is with Kento Miura, who recognizes her character and qualities, as well as just how much she underestimates herself. They share a nice relationship until Ayane realizes she doesn’t have the same feelings for Kento as he has for her.
This is around the same time she feels conflicted about her prospects. She wants to enroll in Tokyo’s Capital International University, but striving for that means that she stops underestimating herself and also that she gets separated from Miura.
She finally meets him and he amicably breaks up with her, encouraging her to follow her heart. Acknowledging Miura’s great qualities, she parts ways with him, before deciding to go for CIU in Tokyo, with much help and guidance from Mr. Arai.
During her meetings with Mr. Arai, she realizes that she has fallen in love with him. She eventually passes her entrance exam but the thought of inevitably confessing her love to him scares her, but she finally meets him to break the good news.
Despite him stopping her before she confesses, Ayane continues and tells him he’s her first true love. He obviously rejects her, but does it in a manner suitable of a loving and caring tutor and a gentleman, as he congratulates her on passing the exam and wishes her all the best.
At the end of From Me to You, Ayane departs for Tokyo without telling Chizuru and Sawako as it would make her cry a lot. The two girls arrive nonetheless and bid her a tearful and happy farewell.
Do Sawako and Kazehaya reunite?
The central couple of From Me to You, Kuronuma Sawako and Kazehaya Shouta are also two of the most adorable people. Throughout the show, Kazehaya helps Sawako a great deal in breaking out of her shell which had rendered her socially awkward and with a spooky reputation with others for years.
However, when her romantic rival, Kurumi comes into play, their blooming romance suffers from a couple of hitches. Rumors spread by Kurumi state that Sawako has been using Chizuru and Ayane to get to Kazehaya. Additionally, she also manages to make everyone believe that Sawako spread rumors of Chizuru being a delinquent in middle school and Ayane sleeping with 100 boys.
When she manipulates Sawako, the poor girl starts distancing herself from Kazehaya, Ayane, and Chizuru, in fear of decreasing his popularity and hurting the girls’ reputation should she continue to hang out with her.
However, Kazehaya finally confronts her and discourages her from giving in to meaningless rumors. The two resume their friendship as per usual, as Kazehaya rejects Kurumi’s proposal. That’s until Miura arrives, and instantly gets close to Sawako, right around the time she starts getting more nervous around Kazehaya.
Miura fills up her mind with manipulative nonsense too, wanting her for himself, as Kazehaya gets jealous and hurt. He finally confronts her and confesses her love, but due to a misunderstanding, she believes he doesn’t like her the way she likes him. Meanwhile, Kazehaya believes the reverse of that, as both of them, believe they’ve been dumped by the other one.
Her friends make her realize her misunderstanding and Sawako finally confesses to Kazehaya, as the two embrace each other and shortly have their first kiss. After that, their relationship is approved by Sawako’s parents as well as Kazehaya’s father.
Kazehaya later becomes increasingly distant when he fears that he’s got greedy and selfish in his love for Sawako, which can hurt her, but he’s relieved by Sawako. Later, the two fear that they both might meet others in their respective colleges who will be closer to them. However, both of them reassure each other that they’ll always love each other more than anyone else.
At the end of From Me to You: Kimi ni Todoke, Kazehaya enrolls in the local college to study to become a sports trainer, while Sawako heads off to Sapporo University to study and eventually become a teacher. They spend an intimate night before parting ways until they reunite again.
From Me to You ends with the two reuniting under the same tree where they first met, as Sawako cheerfully announces her return and Kazehaya welcomes her with open arms. Their happy-ever-after is them walking away, holding hands, as credits appear on the screen.
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