Kyoani. I really respect… your animators. They are able to put in so much detail into their drawings and movements and your anime have much more dynamic movement in them than the competition. Now, would you start making interesting series again? Pretty please?
At this point I’ve already written off Shaft: these guys will just repeat their style over and over unless a really good writer like Urobuchi Gen or something makes them do otherwise. Tamako Market however was for me the final chance I’d give for Kyoani’s slice of life series: if I didn’t like this one, I’d just stop bothering with them. So yeah, at this time I have lost my patience for the as well: I’m not going to give them any more chances. If something like Hyouka appears again, it’ll be obvious that it’s different and interesting right from the start.
Tamako Market did have the best first episode of the new season. It showed a lot of different characters, ranging from high school girls, high school boys, shop owners, adults, families, an eccentric bird, young kids. It seemed so much more than the usual series that are just about a group of random high school girls.
In the end though, this potential never really got used. The shop owners never have any identity for themselves: they are all just lumped together into a collection of random stereotypes. The high school girls aside from Tamako also hardly have any personality aside from one trait. The talking bird got annoying right at the moment he gained weight. The high school boy’s only role in the series turned out to be having a crush on the lead female.
The family is the only part of the first episode that actually got any depth. The few moments the family was at the central focus, this series was at its best. The first half of the series spends most of its time on cultural references. That too was pretty interesting. In the second half though, the series gets overtaken by this really stupid marriage plot that really doesn’t go anywhere. It’s completely mindless, doesn’t really do anything, it’s not charming at all and was really annoying to get through to be honest.
So yeah, with this I’m done with Kyoani. Their series just aren’t for me. Wake me up when they start making something different.
One-Sentence Review: Really good and detailed animation for a slice of life series that doesn’t really go anywhere.
Suggestions:
– Aria the Animation
– Hyakko
– Rumiko Takahashi’s Rumic Theater
Yeah, I lost interest in this series at the very beginning, but my impression was the same. KyoAni are so talented, and yet their series come out as substance-less. I very much enjoyed Hyouka, and will keep an eye on their releases in case they ever put out something with a plot and cast of characters worthy of the incredible animation that KyoAni produces, but I don’t feel compelled to watch the whole series when there just isn’t anything there there.
I enjoyed this more than anything else they’ve done since Clannad After, save for the Disappearance movie.
…that doesn’t mean much though.
I had trouble watching Hyouka as it kept putting me to sleep. Maybe I’ll try watching the BDs again someday.
For Hyouka I would recommend the school festival arc (12-17) and the last episode(22). Everything else you can skip.
Eh, what a load of BS. Hyouka was fine from start to finish: if someone finds themselves falling asleep, I’d tell them to go watch a Steven Seagal movie or something and then resume at a later time. 😛
hyouka is like the best anime from kyoani, much better than the moe-shit trilogy.
lol
I thought the anime was really cute during episodes that had to do with one-sided love. The episodes about Anko and her crush were cute, as well as the episodes about Mochizou. I actually like this sort of dull slice of life show. I looked forward to watching it each week, and while the ending was very uninteresting with the dumb prince sub-plot, the 9-10 episodes prior to it were pretty good.
With that said, I more or less fully agree with this review. Development was given to the family (the dad, Anko, and Tamako), but not enough was done for the shopping district members, nor the other students. It would have been nice if they’d spent episodes focusing on some of those characters instead of doing that haunted house one, that baton club one, and that one dumb episode all about Dera losing weight.
Also, that ‘find a princess for the prince of my lands’ subplot should have never been addressed. The ending should have focused on the developing romances between Midori, Tamako, and Mochizou, or it could have just kept with its slice of life episodes. Choi and Dera should have just told everybody they need to leave to look for the princess or whatever near the end.
wow, i thought you lost interest in this completely and weren’t going to review it at all. well i found it to be a relatively decent first attempt for an original, not exactly impressive but not exactly complete crap either, it just lingers there. what are you going to review next? girls und panzer?
Slice-of-moe genre strikes again. Actually, I dropped it a while back.
As far as I can tell, Girls und Panzer was just a run-of-the-mill sports anime with a godawful title, where the sport is tank warfare and all the characters are girls? They throw in some training, some school life, a generic subplot or two, a bit of fanservice, and a tank battle tournament.
So I suppose your point is whether it’s worth reviewing something so formulaic and mediocre.
close, generic subplots, check, training one episode, check, characters are girls, check, school life… probably only the first episode. sport is indeed tank warfare.
oddly I was actually impressed with girls and panzer, dont get me wrong, the characters were still one dimensional, and the drama was still forced and generic. Plot was pretty damn bad as well. but i guess it was more of the aspect that i expected 90% of the show to be girls hanging around tanks at most, when in the end it was actually about 75% tank battles. Tank battles were pretty exciting and tactical in some cases, and probably the high point of the series. It’s like someone took a concept and made the most from its potential, but then did everything else wrong. fun times
No actual fanservice, minimal focus on the characters themselves, no training arcs (as far as I recall), and were there any subplots?
Girls und Panzer is about tanks and tank warfare, framed by a crap concept. The good part is that the staff focuses on the tactical side of the battles and pretends the characters aren’t actually 14 year old girls (save for using this for some comic relief, like painting bunnies on a tank).
I really enjoyed episode 9 and all the episodes that focused on Anko or Mochizou. Those were the only moments where the characters didn’t feel one dimensional. Every other episode felt like they were just playing out their stereotype.
It keeps infuriating me that a studio that can create so visually stunning series keeps producing anime without any actual depth or story to speak of. This series feels like a complete waste. I think their best work so far is Clannad and also their work with the Full Metal Panic franchise (full metal panic fumoffu and second raid). The Munto remake was also OK. To be honest though, lately they’ve only produced crap series. K-ON pissed me off so much and Nichiyou and Hyouka seems like more of the same, so I didn’t even bother with those. I had some hopes that there would actually be a story in Tamako Market but boy was I wrong.
The sad thing is… people in japan are probably enjoying this series, so I don’t expect these kind of cute-girl-does-nothing series to go away any time soon. Thank good we still have some studios that produce quality series.
I laughed a lot with Nichijou, but their other series have not appealed to me. Their animation style is one of the best, but they tend to lack appeal.
It’s funny that you say that you’ll give up on KyoAni if they don’t change, because they just announced that they’ll be doing a show based off of their LN line that looks completely different and is action oriented.
http://yaraon.blog109.fc2.com/blog-entry-15468.html
Before people tell me that it’s just a CM that they released for the light novel a while back, I thought that too. But this time it’s legit. Just watch the old commercial here http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uNti4Bf2t-c and tell me you aren’t interested.
On another note, I actually enjoyed this series a lot. It was just nice to come back from doing a bunch of stuff in the day and putting on an episode of Tamako Market to relax. As an iyashikei, I think it accomplished it’s goal. There is also the fact that Tamako herself greatly reminds me of my host “sister” who I stayed with for a little bit in Japan. Never did I think that one of my chinese cartoons would actually capture that kind of personality.
Or if you want an english confirmation:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-04-03/kyoto-animation/kyokai-no-kanata-anime-is-in-the-works