Tamayura

While trolling around on Sankaku Complex, a place I'm beginning to despise as time goes on, I was looking at the "Top 10 AT-X Anime of 2010". Whilst being completely unimpressed by the horrible anime choices, I found one I was unfamiliar with, and that was Tamayura.

So, to my curiosity, I looked it up. First impression was, "this looks like crap", "moe-trash", "stupid ova filled with cute girls making stupid faces with cute noises". Then I watched...

The opening scene in *anything* is the most important. Sets the tone, ignites the story, etc. etc. I was expecting the good ol' lazy-girl-wakes-up-late-and-runs-out-the-door opening. To your surprise you're ... given a monologue about a mundane thing we all look at in our lives, and set in a peaceful tone, that explains photography in a beautiful way. Now I know that it's common knowledge about the beauty of photography, but being a person, I like to hear those kinds of things over and over, worded differently, or said in a different matter from a different perspective.

Looking at the score, it's pretty apparent that I like this OVA.

The characters are right where they should be. Nothing is "hyper-charged" about character traits, they're all pretty average. Which isn't a bad thing, sometimes. But their development all comes from one person, Sawatari Fu. All the girls are in a similar place in their lives that we've all been at.

By watching Fu go through life, develop her interests in photography, you learn something that's kind of beautiful. I also think that there's a good message for anyone that's thinking "What should I do in my life?" or "Where will I be in ten years?", or if those questions are forced upon and are causing stress in one's life. Some might say that I'm looking to deeply into this anime, and it's pretty easy to do with the central idea of the OVA.

The art is what you'd expect. Cute, gentle, and pretty, it has those moe elements. Music is "you know". It's there, it enhances scenes. Voice Actors sound as they should at the correct times.

There is one animation mistake. But it's easily forgiven.

As for story, don't be expected to have your mind blown. The story revolves around photography, and a photo and a drawing ignite a laid-back adventure in the last episodes. A adventure that has meaning, at least, and it means a lot to the characters that we're given. There's also a nice emotional connection to actually care for the story. Well, to the amount of a four episode OVA.

The show feels sort of nostalgic. It makes you want to look back on all the photo albums you might have. Or look around on your "photo albums" on Facebook.

If you're thinking about watching this show, or if you're at a similar point in your life. I'd really recommend this short and relaxing OVA. Good shows don't need to be over elaborate or something that makes your blood pressure rise. Just an emotional connection and some reassurance.

Tamayura is a short OVA series by Studio Hal Film Maker. The studio adapted the manga into four 18-minute long episodes in 2010. HFM does not receive a lot of attention lately, but Tamayura is mainly a Slice of Life and since this studio blessed the SoL fans of this world with the famous Aria series, I thought I look into Tamayura as well and see what´s going on.

The Anime is about a clumsy and shy girl named Fuu Sawatori who recently moved to her late father´s hometown where she makes new friends and memories together with her new friends and her little brother. As ... she is into photography like her dad who passed away five years ago, she captures the memories she makes with her camera and tries to get closer to her father through this hobby.

Now this anime does not keep you in the dark of what it´s all about for very long. Right from the start, director Satou Junichi makes clear he wanted to produce a little feel good anime. Indeed, it is a perfect show to watch after a stressy day. It´s calm, slightly melancholic and cute…a little too cute to be honest. While overreacting to whatever is going on is very common in anime, Tamayura goes a bit over the top in this regard, turning the girls into annoying human beings at times (Beware of the Cake eating scenes!) Anyway, I did not mind once the story developed. This takes a while I have to say as nothing is going on at all in the first episode. Things get more enjoyable as the series progresses though.

As for the characters, I wished the other girls would get more important roles, but they are treated as supporting cast only and their only job is to help out and accompany Fuu. This is a shame as at first sight they seem to be at least as interesting as our main girl.

Better parts of this anime are definitely the beautiful sceneries. While the animation itself is average, a lot of love for details can be found in the nature and the places the group goes. Those are always accompanied by the most laid back and quiet music playing in the background, creating a very relaxing atmosphere all the way through.

But the best part of Tamayura is that there are many sequels with full length episodes! The whole series consists of much more material then just those four OVAs. They basically just serve as a teaser while still managing to conclude the story of these OVAs at the same time, giving you a chance to spend an hour to see if Tamayura is for you or not.

While it is not the greatest Slice of Life ever, it has its highlights and it is definitely not bad. Just go watch it and then decide if you want or need more!

I must say I'm a fan of slice-of-life series, since I can appreciate the slow pacing of the show and simply enjoy of atmosphere created by the series. I loved Hidamari Sketch and Aria. I even liked series like Sketchbook and Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, though they was never my favourites. But I cannot seem to enjoy what Tamayura has to offer.

First of all, the setting never really got to me. I have a bit of interest in photography, but I've never got the least interested while the cast is on the subject. Secondly, the cast is really, really boring. Fu and Kou are the only ... names I recall. I can only remember the rest of the cast as the whistling girl, the twin-tail who's always on high, and the nondescript ponytail. They do not seem to have any other traits I can remember.

So in the end, I can hardly remember anything about the series, even though I've only just finished watching it. I could hardly pay attention to what little the series has to offer. I had expected more from Hal Films...

The art quality is average and the music is forgettable. I feel that the seiyuus, even Kana Asumi, isn't doing a very good job with the characters even though she's more familiar with the genre.

I really cannot recommend this to anyone since I cannot seem to find any parts of the series interesting enough to talk about.

Plot/Concept: Fair
Story Style: Meh
Audio/Visual: Unimpressive
Value: 3