First Impressions: Tamako Market8

Tamako market is my second favorite anime of the 2013 season. It is already 8 episodes in and so far it has been great. They said that Tamako market was supposed to be the next K-ON! but in my opinion it has surpassed K-ON! by miles. The character designs are excellent and they were done by Yukiko Horiguchi. She does an excellent job at creating cute yet casual looking characters which suits the characters personalities very nicely. The overall style of the show does bare some similarities to K-ON! but due to the setting of the show it separates itself from K-ON! in that aspect.

Plot:

The story is centered around the main character Tamako Kitashirakawa or in the show she is simply known as Tamako. She is part of a family that owns a mochi store and that store is located in there local shopping district. With her birthday drawing ever so closer she encounters a bird who just so happens to talk. The birds name is Dera mochiyucky and he says he is a royal court attendant and he has been sent on a mission to find a bride for his beloved master. Tamako takes Dera in and as you can guess his name does not fly Tamako’s father who is extremely proud of his mochi. Dera meets the rest of Tamako’s family and he meets her friends as well as the other shop owners in the district. Together with Dera we witness an insanely harmonious shopping district where everyone’s business is booming yet they happily give things away because they are extremely generous.

My thoughts:

I love Tamako market. It combines comedy and slice of life with a hint of romance, that’s a good recipe in my book. The show is very colorful and very cheerful, just watching it puts me in a better mood. All the characters are very unique and all have their own quirks. When say every character, i mean every character. In anime, you commonly find characters with the same personality and style which can be very boring to watch. But with Tamako market every time a new character enters a scene the mood changes and you are watching a rainbow of personalities interacting, its quite spectacular. There are times when i am watching anime and i see a character enter the scene and i ask myself “Why are they even here?”. But in Tamako market I’m always excited to see any character at any time. The characters i enjoy seeing most is Tamako, Dera and my favorite Anko, Tamako’s little sister.

Tamako is very kind, friendly and overly enthusiastic. Unfortunately she is somewhat of an air head. But i believe that emphasizes the innocence of her character. I feel bad for even calling her an air head even though its true.

Dera is very arrogant, deluded and very proud. Unfortunately his love for mochi has effected his body making him look very round, kind of like a ball. He is always confident and is very talkative but he is spineless. He loves to give speeches about how high and mighty he is, but once someone even raises their voice he is quick to obey. He is hilarious when he tries to impress Shiori (Tamako’s friend) who he is infatuated with.

Anko is my favorite character. She is very moe. Very cute and very rebelious, don’t get me wrong, she is not rude and not annoying in anyway. She just wants to grow up and experience life but being part of a mochi making family requires her to help out a lot. But when i see her pout my heart goes out to her. She’s is without a doubt the cutest character I’ve ever seen. Her cuteness compliments her personality very well.