It’s time once again for me to review the seasonal anime I’ve watched that have finished airing…
Tamako Market
When I reviewed the first three episodes of Tamako Market, I felt that it was shaping up to be typical of KyoAni’s style of a cute, moe, slice-of-life series whose main focus is creating a soothing, likable setting rather than being extremely funny or dramatic. And now that I’ve finished the series, I feel that’s still an accurate description. While there is a loose continuing plot of Dera trying to find his prince’s bride, the majority of episodes are stand-alone stories that provide character-driven humor and sweet, feels-filled moments that make you feel relaxed and nostalgic, something KyoAni is quite good at. I think by now we should all know whether this kind of anime is something we go for or not, and while it generally is the type I like, I unfortunately can’t say that I particularly liked Tamako Market.
My initial issue with the show that I discussed in my first impressions review is that I couldn’t understand why none of the shop residents seemed the least bit freaked out about a talking bird, even when he turned into a projector! Actually, I got over that issue quickly and barely gave it any thought in the later episodes. But now that I’ve finished the series, the main overall problem I had is that most of the characters were either too underdeveloped or just plain not interesting. They’re not bad exactly, I just can’t help but see anime archetypes in them that I’ve seen over and over in other series, with nothing that makes the ones in this series stand out. Tamako is the typical overly nice but dense main girl, much like Yui and Eru in KyoAni’s other works, Shiori is the typical soft-spoken girl who’s not good at socializing, Anko is the typical little sister who’s slightly strong-headed but also still childish inside…and the majority of other characters, mostly the various shop owners, seemed like they could have been interesting if they got adequate screentime. I feel like Tamako Market suffered the same fate as anime like Angel Beats! and Moretsu Pirates that provide a large cast of characters right from the get-go but only give decent development to a few. Out of Tamako Market’s 20+ reoccurring characters, the only ones I felt I knew better by the end of the series were Tamako’s friends and family, and Dera…and even some of them were short-changed. I mean, I felt like the only defining trait for Mochizou’s character is the fact that he likes Tamako but can’t admit it…there was really nothing else of note about him besides that. And as for the many residents of Usagiyama shopping district, I thought at least a few episodes would be dedicated to some of them. But it was always Tamako and the characters closest to her who got all the screentime, so characters like the record shop guy and the florist (voiced by Daisuke One – what the hey?) got nothing more than a handful of minor scenes. I kept seeing the various Usagiyama residents over and over and I was like “I want to see more of you” but then it would always go back to Tamako’s group before too long.
So, while the characters being either too archetypical or too underdeveloped hurt my overall rating of Tamako Market, I can’t say it was all bad. Like I said in my first impressions, Dera is what made the show somewhat enjoyable to watch every week as he was always good for laughs and there was nothing archetypical about him. I also really enjoyed episode 9, and a bunch of scenes in other episodes. But generally speaking, the show was just okay to me. As always, I enjoy looking at KyoAni’s high-quality animation no matter what the content, but I can’t say the content was very strong in this case. It seems strange that the writers would create a series with so many characters but insist on focusing only on the same few over and over. But maybe there was really only one important character in the series and that was the shopping district itself, and the point of the series was for the audience to experience that “character” as a whole rather than its individual pieces. Looking at it that way, maybe the show did do a good job of developing its “character?” Some food for thought there ;)
Shinsekai Yori
Being a two-cour series, it was hard to judge Shinsekai Yori initially, but I did think it had potential. And now that I’ve finished it, I’m happy to say that I ended up liking it more than I thought I would. When I watched and reviewed the first three episodes, I thought it would be a decent dystopia-themed series where the main characters would discover the hidden evils of their world and have to put a stop to it. But it ended up being much less standard and more complex than that, which I quite liked. I liked how we got to follow the characters through different stages of their lives and how they steadily unraveled things about their world, which gave the show good overall pacing and you felt like you were discovering things over a long period of time right along with them. I would have liked a bit more background info about the exact current state of the world and what’s going on outside the main village, but for what it offered, I got a good enough idea. Everything about the psychic powers was really interesting too. But probably what most impressed me about watching the show was the fact that almost every episode had me in suspense. The many scenes were Saki and company had to sneak around and avoid being detected by queerats or other enemies always had me at the edge of my seat. Maybe those scenes were just directed well, but I could rarely predict how things would turn out from scene to scene and that was very enjoyable. I liked just about all of the mini and major story arcs the show had…except for around episodes 8-9 when all the kids were briefly becoming homosexual for some reason. I never could figure out what that part was about (if someone can explain it to me, please do).
The setting and story of Shinsekai Yori were good, but I felt the characters were a bit on the bland side. Like I said in my first impressions, I found Satoru insufferably obnoxious in the early episode, but thankfully he got much better once the first time-skip happened and he got older. Other than that, most of the other characters were alright but not that interesting. Actually, the main queerats like Squealer and Kiroumaru were much more dynamic and interesting characters than the humans in my opinion =P But Shinsekai Yori seems to be the kind of plot-driven anime rather than character-driven anime where the characters are made to function as parts of the plot rather than to be appealing, defined individuals on their own, which is fine I suppose for the kind of show it is.
And of course, when you have a plot-driven anime, a big part of your opinion about it has to do with the ending. While the big revelation about the queerats being genetically altered humans was kind of too huge a plot point to be mentioned only in the show’s last few minutes, it was still a good way to end the story anyway. The outcome of the Fiend having death feedback for queerats rather than humans, and how we were actually made to sympathize with Squealer and his kind despite everything he did, was all very well done. Rather than Saki and Satoru being successful in vanquishing the evil for their world, it ends in a very conflicting gray-area as to what exactly is the evil – does it lie with the humans or with the queerats? Was Squealer right in doing what he did? Were the humans right in how they dealt with queerats? Was Saki right in relieving Squealer of his punishment and sympathizing with him? The show gives us a lot to think about in terms of who’s right and who’s wrong, and whether there even is a correct answer to that. I personally like it when shows give you a big picture to think about, but don’t make it clear where the correct morality is.
To summarize, I thought Shinsekai Yori was a very good horror/suspense/supernatural anime. Besides the characters being a bit bland and the plot and setting needing some development in certain areas, it was an overall well paced and exciting fantasy story with thought-provoking themes and revelations. I’m glad I decided to watch it and I may even watch it again sometime.
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Just a heads up, I plan to review Kotoura-san and Sasami-san next week. Little Busters! may or may not get a review depending on when I can finish it.
See you soon~
Tamako Market was an odd show, wasn’t it? It certainly refused to focus too much on anything.
Hopefully I’ll find the time to watch SSY sometime soon.
Yeah, it didn’t have much focus…it wasn’t all laughs but it wasn’t drama either, and most of the characters never got too much attention in any one episode. It was odd =P The only thing that had a lot of focus was mochi, LOL.
Hope you enjoy SSY~
I can’t believe I liked a KyoAni show more than you, haha.
Yeah, how about that XD
Oh, I agree 100% with Tamako Market. It was ok, but not great, it was just missing a lot of character development. We got 1 episode to introduce Shiori, and then she was relegated to a secondary character. We did not get episodes for the other 2 girls. Anko got a couple of episodes, but that was about it. So it was ok, just not great. I know it’s an original production, not based on any previous written work, so they may just be lacking a bit of experience. So for a first original work, I think it’s ok. Just not great…
Shinsekai Yori was really good. The plot was very solid, and the execution was good. Even if there were many arcs, and some of them had few episodes, it was still done well. They explained that needed to be explained, left it to our imagination what could be left safely, and went along. As you said, the direction work on it was really, really good. Good show.
I actually didn’t mind that characters like Shiori and Anko got just one starring episode…what I would have liked is if more characters, like the various shop owners, had similar staring episodes. Even if it’s just one time to shine and then they’re later pushed back into secondary characters again, it would have been nice anyway. Most likely the writers weren’t planning to focus on the supporting characters though. Or maybe the show just needed more episodes.
Glad you agree that Shinsekai Yori was good =D
After letting it settle for a while, I think Tamako Market while not better than Cyuunibyou, is an okay attempt at an original production. The main problem is that it didn’t really focused on character development as much as mentioned in your review and focused on short stories, which most of them have a time jump of at least a month. Still, I think it would have done better if it had more episodes since it has no source material to fall back on, but oh well.
Yeah, like Cytrus said above, Tamako Market just didn’t have focus. It told short stories without really focusing on the characters, which was kind of weird for the type of show it is. I didn’t think it was bad, just wasn’t that great. I think having more episodes would have helped if they used the episodes to focus on something, like developing the characters.
“except for around episodes 8-9 when all the kids were briefly becoming homosexual for some reason. I never could figure out what that part was about (if someone can explain it to me, please do).”
Like they explained, an element of the society that had been constructed was modelled after that of the bonobos: one where sexuality was loose and free, and thus conflict was less. It’s a hardwired instinct (in about episode 6 or something, when Saki and Shun were on the run from queerats, they almost gave into their instincts to relieve their stress sexually, but decided they weren’t monkeys). The sudden onset of this was a relatively unsubtle way of pointing out that the kids are growing up and experimenting with their sexuality. In that same episode, Saki was interested in Shun and vice versa, too.
(I was actually kind of expecting the homosexual attraction to be part of the “instinctual, meaningless phase” thing, and was pleasantly surprised when Saki and Maria’s relationship received continual focus and development – apparently they played the titillation aspect up more in the anime than in the original novel, but whatever.)
Also, I’m no bleeding-heart LGBT activist guy, but calling the cast “homosexual” makes very little sense. No character shows exclusively same-sex attraction: the only character who doesn’t have and emotional and physical attraction to characters of both sexes is Mamoru, who appears to be straight. The word is clearly bisexual (or possibly pansexual). Just as a point of accuracy.
Anyway, I largely agree with the rest of the post, though I think I liked Tamako Market a bit less and Shinsekai Yori a bit more, but I think that’s just personal taste. Shinsekai Yori varied throughout its run but its second cour I found very impressive, especially the first two episodes with the “fiend” and the last episode. The scene with Maria’s letter was probably my favourite moment in the series. The characterisation in the show was very strong (it totally showed that it was adapted from a real novel and not a light novel – a generalisation, but an apt one) and that scene I felt showed that very well, as well as being nicely directed and emotionally-charged.
Tamako Market overall just felt empty to me. Once I turned an episode off because I had no idea why I was watching it. It was all very attractive and well-done, but there’s only so little conflict and story you can have before it goes from being relaxing to meaningless. It was a good show that for me missed every mark and made no impact.
Thanks for the explanation about that part in Shinsekai Yori. I sort of remembered it but I wasn’t totally sure. Now that you mentioned it, I also liked the fact that Maria and Saki’s relationship was treated as a continuing point of their character and wasn’t just tossed away once the homosexual attraction thing was over. And yeah, you’re right that most of the characters are bisexual, I just said they “became homosexual” to emphasize what was going on at that point in the story (not that they stayed that way).
Also agree with your other points about the show, and about Tamako Market. I can see how TM is a good show on some levels, it just didn’t do much for me.
Yeah, I guess it’s catchier than “began to express same-sex attraction”.
What’s more, the bonobos-like behavior was probably for control. You see how the village (and the scientists who altered the PKers) wanted to maintain stability by going through all these methods? This is just an extension of that; by maintaining stress at low levels and promoting same-sex relationships during their tween years is a way of preventing Fiends from forming. But in retrospect, it’s possibly used to make sure the kids aren’t procreating and having secret or off-the-record kids that could fall into the wrong hands (like Maria/Mamoru’s child did).
What amazes me about this series is that, despite some seemingly inane stuff happening, it’s all logically connected to the circumstances presented, albeit sometimes in super subtle ways. There’s a lot of imagery relating to Japan’s history as well, from shinto to the atomic bombs, etc.
Shinsekai Yori –
The beginning of the series was lackluster. The middle of the story with the drama with the group of friends was where the better part of the series began. The attack on the village was by far the best part. The final climax was weak and riddled with plot holes and all to convenient scenarios.
A lot of people wanted to chide people for ditching the series at the “sexual liberation” arc. But the truth was the story wasn’t going anywhere until Shun left the village. It was only after that that the series really started taking off. I don’t blame people for dropping the show. I was losing interest myself.
Even the writers and animators knew that the story drags a bit at the beginning. It’s why they introduced the foreboding older Saki narration and random flashback gory history scenes. It’s like they’re trying to sell you that there is more to it than the first 10 “Setup” episodes. And there was.
It was really interesting when the shit hit the fan. Seeing who would live or die. It really left you on the edge of your seat with the intense scenes, especially the Hospital scene.
However, Saki’s decisions in the final arc were dumb and the people around her were dumb for going along with it. I think the final climax really was somewhat of a letdown. The final scenes and revelations did seem bring the story back a bit and leave us with a good closure to the story.
Tamako Market –
blah. this was such a dumb story.
The story seemed like it was nothing more than a “2-d waifu” showcase for Moe loving otaku. The sad part is they never developed any of the characters enough to give you a sense of personality that would warrant cuddling with your officially licensed Tamako dakimakura.
What is with all the leg fetish moments in the show? It was needless and just plain distracting. The ED song is nice but the scenes made me want to barf. But hey, At least they sexualized a body part other than boobs or butts.
I didn’t even watch the series after the “your are the princess bride” moment. Really lost all interest in it. At least with an ambiguous show like “Working!” there’s an element of comedy to amuse you. This show only seemed to want to sell “moe”. That alone doesn’t do it for me.
This is by far the worst Kyoani show I’ve watched.
Thanks as always for sharing your thoughts =) You’re right that Shinsekai Yori had its share of flaws, but had enough good stuff to make up for it. I also thought the hospital scene and the attack on the village had great suspense. Like I said in the post, a lot of the scenes had me at the edge of my seat. The sexual liberation part was a bit strange, but not enough to turn me off from the show…if anything, Satoru’s obnoxious personality in the beginning episodes was worse, but thankfully he got better later on.
Looks like you really didn’t like Tamako Market. I didn’t think it was that bad, but certainly not among my favorites. I mostly just enjoyed Dera and the gorgeous animation. Everything else was just kind of okay.