“She’s the cute daughter of a mochi maker.”
Summary
The story follows Kitashirakawa Tamako, who lives her daily life having fun with her friends and family, while helping out on the side in her family’s mochi shop Tama-ya, with rival shop Ooji-ya in the same shopping district. One day, Tamako runs into a strange talking bird, who claims to be searching for a bride for his prince.
Vantage’s Impression
Tamako Market, KyoAni’s next work following on from Chuunibyou is an original slice-of-life show about the daughter of a mochi maker, Kitashirakawa Tamako and the daily life that she leads with her friends and family. Mochi is a sweet desert delicacy in Japan, and is certainly popular enough for an anime to be based around it. It’s also what the moon rabbits in Touhou Project are pounding xD Anyway, the show’s certainly…unique to say the least, and if there’s anything I’ve learnt from watching this episode, it’s to not underestimate the possibilities of what an original anime can produce, with no source material to work with. And the first of those surprises came with the bird (or chicken perhaps) who has apparently come from a faraway land to look for a bride for his prince, and just happens to speak fluent Japanese o.O Yeah, that kind of thing wasn’t really on my mind at all, though I’m glad KyoAni didn’t blatantly advertise it, which made it a real surprise to learn. I don’t know quite what to make about the whole bride issue, and it’d be something I’d be interested in learning more about if the bird is actually being fully serious. After witnessing the bird (whose name is Mochiyucky, by the way) somehow magically contact someone who’s probably on an island, I think I’m going to be widening my scope of what this show has to offer us xD Everyone’s reactions to it were hilarious, though I think the bird itself was pretty happy to be getting so much attention, particularly from Tamako, who seems to have taken a shine to it.
Tamako is quite a nice lead for the show, and fulfils that moe, fuwa fuwa personality that I really enjoyed in K-ON!. I wrote the majority of this post while listening to various pieces of K-ON media, anyway. Anyone that’s followed K-ON! in the past must have noticed the striking similarity between the shows in the opening scene where Tamako and her friends are walking home – I thought I was seeing Yui and the rest of the K-ON club, but only without their guitars xD Other characters were a pleasure to meet as well, from Tamako’s imouto Anko (or An, as she prefers) to the two rival mochi makers, one of which is Tamako’s dad with traditional values. Mochizou, Tamako’s childhood friend, is very clearly in love with her yet slightly unwilling to confess that fact for the moment – I’m more than happy to jump on the Tamako x Mochizou ship for now, with the possibility of romance budding next episode with Valentine’s Day! It’s funny to see how Mochizou actually had many years’ worth of wrapped presents that he had wanted to give Tamako, but either never plucked up the courage or didn’t have the chance to give her, as did the rest of the shopping district this year xD
As Tamako Market is done by KyoAni, rest assured it’s in excellent hands – right from the outset you can see high quality animation, to the point where even mochi making and pounding looks fluid. Overall, it’s definitely an amusing show that deserves checking out (if only for KyoAni, the moe, or both), and I’m hoping that there’ll be more entertainment and surprises from it in future episodes. Unfortunately, as I’m already due to be blogging too many a lot of shows airing on Thursday, Tamako Market on Wednesday is far too close for me to say that I’ll be able to commit to this for a season, as all it takes is one late post for schedules to go horribly wrong. I’m sure Eva and/or Tenderfoot will be more than happy to pick this up – this particular mochi will be too sweet for me to digest ^_^
Possibility of Watching: Guaranteed
Possibility of Blogging: Unlikely
Tenderfoot’s Impression:
What can I say? Despite my horribly bitter disposition and natural aversion to all things of an extremely cute and/or heartwarming nature, I actually liked this. I know, there’s probably something wrong with me. I think it was probably the bird. Yeah, it was definitely the bird. It added just enough silly weirdness for me to really enjoy this episode. He’s just so full of himself, from the way he stands, to telling Tamako not to fall for him when they first meet, that it won me over. It also doesn’t help that he looks very cute and squishy (yeah, screw cute girls, cute animals is the real way to get me to watch something.) The rest of the show was pretty standard for something done by KyoAni. Tamako and the rest of the cast all seem rather charming (although not anything new in terms of character design and personality), and I’m curious to know more about them. The little world of the shopping area where they live and work seems like a colorful and fun place. The ending, with the bird being able to connect somehow to the place where the Prince is, gives you a bit of a hook to want to watch the next episode and see where all this is going.
Of course since this is KyoAni the animation is gorgeous, making everything seem bright and inviting. The Opening and Ending are exactly the kind of songs and animation you’d imagine knowing the premise of the show. I’m more partial to the ending, which is the type of vaguely indie/pop music I find myself drawn to. As long as this doesn’t devolve into some Romeo and Juliet nonsense in the romance department (or become some silly “we have to save the shopping mall!” story), I think I’d be more than okay with putting aside my cynicism once a week to watch this show. But let me tell you, next week I’ll be sure to have some mochi on hand (I like the frozen kind with ice cream inside…Yum!), because if there’s one thing that I can guarantee it’s that you’ll be craving some by the end of the episode.
Possibility of Watching: Guaranteed
Possibility of Blogging: Yup!
Stay tuned for other bloggers’ impressions!