Catching up: Tamayura
Catching
up: Tamayura
Episodes: 4 OVAs, two seasons (12 + 12), 4 upcoming
movies (2015)
First
release date: 2010
Genre: Slice of life, comedy
Non-spoiler
plot summary:
Years after her father’s passing, Sawatari
Fu chooses to begin high school in his hometown of Takehara, Hiroshima (FYI, it’s
a real city). It’s a town she hasn’t visited since childhood, but she goes nonetheless,
carrying with her memories of her father, his old film camera, and inheriting
his love of photography. Though shy and easily-flustered, she immediately
reconnects with her childhood friend, Hanawa Kaoru, and finds companionship
with two other high school girls, Sakurada Maon and Okazaki Norie. Thus begins
her placid, ordinary adventures, in finding the joy in everyday life and
capturing them on camera.
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| Thanks to my Jap classes, I can read this now! |
Watch it if you like: A Channel, Aishiteruze
Baby, Anohana
Why you should watch it:
Tamayura is fluffy.
There’s no other word to describe it. Btw, Tamayura is Fu’s reference of motes
of light captured in photos. It’s mild and calm, like watching water flow
downstream, or puppies chasing after balls, or kittens mewing. You get the
drift. There’s no aliens, no transfer student drama, no animal
mascots…actually, there is one
mascot…and he’s fluffy too.
 |
| Momoneko-sama, the fluffy pink and far too intelligent cat of Takehara |
There are no
surprises or twists in the plot, it’s as straightforward as it comes: unhappy
daughter finds her late father’s photographs and camera, and remembers the
memories they’ve shared. When she looks through the lens of the camera, she
imagines what her father has seen (aww). Somehow, the drastic solution in
keeping that feeling alive is for her to move right back to his hometown and
snap some photos.
Usually in
anime and real-life situations, the child moves because of the parent. In this
case, Fu’s mother decides to accompany Fu back to Takehara, along with Fu’s
younger brother. It’s the first anime I can recall that has such a situation…and
I’m impressed.
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| Growth through haircuts: the secret to anime girls growing up |
Another impressive
bit is how the anime bravely approaches the separation of friends, particularly between Fu and her long-time school
friend, Chihiro. The bittersweet notion of growing up and growing apart is
lovingly illustrated. When Chihiro visits Fu a few months later, she’s both
happy that Fu seems happier, and wistfully sad that she’s losing her friend to
Takehara and her new quartet of friends. At times, I cried a few manly tears.
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| The many tears of Tamayura |
Tamayura is written
and directed by renowned shojo anime
director, Sato Junichi, who’s known for “healing” anime such as Princess
Tutu. In Tamayura, nothing ever seems to go really wrong. The city is
the quintessentially proud countryside that has withstood the eroding power of
modernisation, but is utterly pimped out with everything from statuesque
temples, to tourist-attracting bamboo lights festivals (also a real Takehara
tradition) and an internationally famous but highly inaccessible watch shop (that
I can’t believe). People are always nice, friends are made instantly and
everyone has the mysterious power of remembering names after only one meeting.
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| The camera captures everyday specialness |
Amongst the
issues I had with Tamayura, is that while Fu doesn’t intend to, she milks the fatherless
little girl act for all it’s worth. It always seems like she’s the mascot of
the quartet that makes up her, Kaoru, Norie and Maon, with them putting her
needs ahead of their own. It’s a real shame, as it could really have dug deeper
into the coming of age theme if it gave more than just a few superficial episodes
to the other girls. I don’t know what irritated me more: that the lack of her
father is used as her perpetual crutch, or that people walk around on eggshells
around her because of it. In the second season, Tamayura: More Aggressive,
this factor gets toned down slightly, with the emergence of Mitani Kanae, a
high school senior who’s only interested in Fu’s photography skills and
photography club (watch it to find out more!).
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| Get flustered, Fu! It entertains us. |
It’s also
blindingly slow. Even my sensei at my current Japanese classes (shameless plug here!) speaks faster than in this anime. I give props to the seiyu; it can’t possibly
be easy speaking as slowly as they did. Perhaps it’s to drive up the
melodramatic factor, but it’s just highly eye-rolling inducing at times. Dialogue
was still understandable when playback was at twice the speed.
Whatever it is, Tamayura is intoxicating. It doesn’t shy away from the fact
that it’s an anime about the ordinary. While anime like A Channel plays up the drama
in the mundane, Tamayura aims to show that there is beauty in everyday life. Add in a
soundtrack of tear-inducing gentle melodies mostly contributed by Nakajima Megumi
(famed for voicing Ranka Lee in Marcross Frontier) and you’re set up
an evening with the tissues.
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