I found myself getting excited about Tari Tari after I learned that it was also produced by animation company P.A. Works. I had greatly enjoyed their previous original work Hanasaku Iroha and I was looking forward to a slice of life anime in a midst of the summer anime season filled with harem/ecchi titles.
Tari Tari is the story of five students who are on their last year in high school. Miyamoto Konatsu quits the school music club after vice principal Takakura Naoko refused to let her sing with the rest of the club. She convinces her friend Okita Sawa, an archery club member and aspiring jockey, to start a new choir club with her. The two work hard to find at least three other members to join, in order to gain an official status as a school club. They try to recruit former music student Sakai Wakana, unknowing that she is suffering from a tragic loss that prompted her to quit learning music, and she joins them only in name to help fill the numbers. The group of five is completed when badminton player Tanaka Taichi and transfer student Maeda "Wien" Atsuhiro join, giving birth to the Choir and Sometimes Badminton Club. The five set their sights on performing at the school's cultural festival, which is their one and only chance to sing together before graduation, unknowing that the school board has other plans in mind.
Drawing on the strengths that made Hanasaku Iroha great, Tari Tari tells a story about growing up and making positive connections with others. Yet, unlike the idyllic flow of storytelling of the former, Tari Tari has a sense of urgency in its storytelling, which is probably aided by the fact that there are only thirteen episodes to the series. The short run of the anime series is matched by the feeling that the characters are on the verge of running out of time to accomplish things, whether it's to stage their planned musical, to decide about their future or to finish writing that special song. It's safe to say that there's no such thing as a storytelling lull when it comes to Tari Tari.
Don't be mistaken, however, into thinking that a sense of urgency means that Tari Tari was rushed. They were able to do a more than decent job in defining every major character and detailing every important event in those last few months of their high school life. The series encompasses not just the collective struggles of the Choir and Sometimes Badminton Club members, but also tells individual stories that explain why each character is the way he or she is. The stories about Wakana's past, Sawa's brush with rejection and Konatsu's determination to sing with her friends are effectively interspersed with the group's struggles to overcome prejudice and blockades, both figurative and literal. Even Wien, who I originally thought was just a comic relief, has his own inner struggles to deal with. While it's true that I felt that Taichi was shortchanged when it came to character
exploration, it was somehow balanced by the fact that Taichi always came off as the least conflicted about what he wants to accomplish in his future. Some of the adults are also given focus, especially Naoko whose unlikely connection with Wakana helped show her in a more sympathetic light compared to her original role as the one who crushed Konatsu's dreams of singing.
If you're starting to get the impression that Tari Tari is all high school melodrama, I should point out that it's not a sobfest. The series actually features great humor when the situation calls for it, and a hilarious chase scene involving a man who I thought was Italian (he might be Mexican, but I'm still not sure) with a pig reminded me that even a relatively serious anime series can still pull off physical comedy. And the episode featuring the main characters dressed in super sentai costumes for work and a scene involving the capture of a thief while singing a sentai show theme song are all kinds of hilarious.
While the music might not be as impressive as the ones featured in spring's Sakamichi no Apollon, it does well in fulfilling its role as a narrative tool in Tari Tari. The songs, especially when sung by the lead characters, are showcased in scenes that are uplifting and when the group triumphs over adversity, highlighting the importance of music in their lives, even if their chosen futures might deviate from it.
Overall, Tari Tari is a great anime, especially when you reach the last episode, which sends off the Choir and Sometimes Badminton Club to a rousing finale. I do think it could benefit from a longer run, which could have been used for more character exploration and for setting up the ultimate conflict that the group had to face. Yet, even with just thirteen episodes, I would still count Tari Tari as a must-watch.
I do have to wonder, though, if things would have turned out the same had they ended up becoming the Badminton and Sometimes Choir Club.
Happy viewing!!Labels: Anime, Drama, Music, Must-Watch, Slice of Life, Tari Tari, TV
