Tari Tari Episode 5: Sakai's Mother

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Summary

It’s the badminton nationals! Taichi tries his best, and finishes in the top 8, which is great considering he always plays by himself. For him though, he’s dissatisfied with his result, since he lost, and tells himself that he will never allow another loss, focusing on his mistakes.

Meanwhile, Sakai couldn’t stand the ruckus made by the choir club, and so she went on a walk by her lonesome self, meeting on the way Sawa’s mother, Shiho, who happens to be an old classmate of her belated mother. This causes the daughter to have memories of her mom, and we go through a bunch of flashbacks, ending with the death of her mother, which calls for the end of the episode as well.
 
Impression

The emotions are building up… I can’t say I cried during this episode, but just seeing the preview for the next one made me tear up a bit… I’m ready for this.

Sakai’s mother was a very energetic person, to a point where I kinda wonder why Sakai is so serious and depressing. Of course, her mother’s death was a tough blow, but she was still a very serious kid even before her mother’s death… I guess it’s all from the dad side of the family.

But anyways. Quite a good build up in emotions during this episode, it was nice to see a lot more of Sakai’s mother, and in the end I loved all those short flashbacks since they added a lot of sentimentality to Sakai’s personality, which wasn’t developed enough as of yet. It seems like this girl is going through the denial phase, as she tries to forget about everything concerning her mother. Selling the piano, giving the keychain away, not going to the choir club… everything is gonna hit her back in the face soon enough for sure. Next episode should prove to be a good one in terms of drama and substance, and I’ll be looking forward to it with my tissue box and my sobbing mind ready for action.

The badminton tournament was a bit of a disapppointment. I thought we’d get to witness more of Taichi’s dreams, but I guess that’ll have to wait a bit later in the show, at least until Sakai’s troubles are over. I was also a bit intrigued by what Sawa had to say, since she seemed very intent on becoming a good jockey, something which we hadn’t heard a thing about before this week.

It seems like all the characters slowly develop their own personalities and background. Character substance sometimes is very hard to do without it looking like it’s completely out of the blue, however P.A. Works arranges it to build up bit by bit every episode, and from the old works of this company I can only guess that it’ll end with an explosion at the end, where tears and smiles are at every corner. So far, I can’t say this is the best thing I’ve watched, but if done well it could turn up there very easily, since the build up is there and the drama points are available anywhere.

Another thing which I believe should be given a special attention to is the animation quality of this episode. Now, of course Tari Tari is a show which doesn’t lack screencap moments due to it being so freakin’ pretty, however this episode was even more stunning, as the rain fell and the storm raged. To go so far as to see the tiny droplets through the window with the fog and everything was incredible… I’m amazed.

P.S.: Am I the only one seeing Taichi and Sawa slowly get closer? 😀 *romance radar starts off*