But he does make a good love triangle protagonist.
Like Nishimura’s previous series, Simoun, True Tears manages to rise above what some may call a cliched and hackneyed genre in anime–that of the harem-esque love triangle (or, since this is anime, love dodecahedrons)–and puts a fresh spin on it. I’ve really enjoyed the mellow mood of these first two episodes. There’s just enough light humor to keep it from being a total drama-fest, and mysteriously-in-good-taste fanservice of sorts. I think NIshimura is having fun throwing in the random pantyshots in this series (he did, so sayeth ANN, direct the nudity-fest that was Ranma 1/2).
And I really like Shin’ichiro. He’s one of those characters that they could just as easily made a flat stand-in for the viewer to project their emotions on (as is common), but they instead opted to flesh him out. We’ve only got two episodes of development, but he’s certainly not the king of spineless whiny wimp that ruins these sorts of series for so many people. As I expected from Nishimura, they’re aiming to tell a story, rather than parade girls around for the viewer’s lustful enjoyment–a tried-and-true tactic, to be sure, but not one that wins awards.
In sum: after two episodes, True Tears will probably be one of the two highlights of this winter season (the other being Okami to Koshinryo), so often a season of dullness and drudgery while waiting for the real deal to start in spring. Breaths of fresh air in this season are always appreciated.
And, hey: classier panties than Rosario + Vampire. Quality > quantity.
Anime wa Bakuhatsu da! 
I still need to check this out, as it is one the only other shows of interest this season, besides Spicy Wolf, Persona Trinity Soul, and Shigofumi, and I’ve seen 2 episodes of each of those already. That and I’m still watching stuff from the fall (and by stuff from the fall I mean Gundam 00 and Clannad, since Shana II isn’t really living up to it’s promise and Dragonaut is just out and out terrible). That and my backlog of other stuff. Spring is looking amazing though, even better then last year’s.