Tari Tari Episode 5 Discussion

fullmetal_adam said:
Humans do stupid things sometimes when emotions are involved. It doesn't have to make sense. Logic can go completely out the window. You don't seem to have as much empathy for Wakana. Unless you've been in her situation, you don't know what you would have done. I'm imagining her actions as more of a coping mechanism than a conscious, rational choice. In which case, I don't see her as simply being a mean brat like many others here. Ultimately, I think it makes her character more interesting.

Post-Josh said:
That's not completely true and it is not just logic going out the window, it's emotion as well. In situations like this her response is abnormal, and thus her actions are unjustified. I have empathy for her losing her mother, but the thing is, there is nothing to suggest her parents would not have brought her up to be an extremely compassionate and empathetic person. You can always argue it's someone else's fault, but I'm inclined to think that, given every opportunity to do so, she couldn't even conjure a shred of empathy for her mother and that's on her.

Also, never really got the "you haven't been there" argument. Sure, I don't know what I would have done, but I think I can safely assume it would have been quite different.

KaitoDash said:

I don't think what you said applies to Wakana's situation. Of course, people don't do what they don't like even though their parents told them to. But do you really think Wakana hate music? I don't think so. Her mother tried to tell her not to take musics seriously and learn to enjoy it. It's not anything like study seriously.

And I think kids can understand what their parents tell them to do and what will happen if they don't do it. Do it or not, they can understand teachings. But Wakana does not seem to understand her mother's teachings. I don't blame Wakana though. Her mother wasn't straightforward enough to make her understand while she was just a kid. But now she is not a kid anymore. It should be time for her to understand her mother, not running like a coward.

fullmetal_adam said:
The people hating on Wakana don't understand anything with more depth than a teaspoon. Did you even consider the possible reasons behind her behaviour? We know Wakana was close to her mother when she was young. What changed? Well, her mother got sick, and her parents lied to her about how serious the illness really was. Perhaps without being told, she knew her mother was gravely ill, but couldn't deal with the thought of losing her. People deal with grief in different ways. She tried to push her mother away and distance herself emotionally using school and exams as an excuse. Was it a good thing to do? No, but it was a human thing to do, and she's filled with regrets now because of it.

OrochiPL said:
Oh boy, i always knew exams and school whatsoever was a serious business in Japan, but this episode just took it to the extreme. They didn't want to worry Wakana because she had entrance exams coming up, so they didn't tell her her mother was suffering from deadly sickness? That's... well, sick in itself. I really don't see how positive points of this decision could overcome negative ones. And as a result, Wakana quit music for good, that also proves how awesome of a decision it was.
Wakana was a cheeky brat then, you can't justify that, but look at her past made it easier to symphatize with her. Doesn't change the fact i still don't like how she is now, but she became just a bit more likeable.

Great episode anyway, loved Sawa, Konatsu and Wien cheering for Badminton-kun.

AlexGK said:
Otherwise I like the way relationships are growing among the main characters. Slow and steady. Taichi and Sawa will make an exellent couple, the more they learn about eachother the more they like eachother. So lets hope the anime gets out of its music only thematic, cose it has a lot of potential.

xMusicMohawk said:
Well I was looking for a reason for her to not like music, but I didn't see anything...it's like she didn't like it from the start and she was being so mean to her mother while she was still alive :S

Also WHO THE HELL dislikes music!! that made me so mad D: I would've love for a music loving mother (mine doesn't give a rat's ass, only my father) who could teach me how to play the piano.

Redfoxoffire said:
Although I highly doubt it will happen, it would be interesting to see the turn this show would take if Wakana commits suicide as the preview could be suggesting.

Eksta said:
She was such a bitch to her mom, like seriously, I got so pissed.

Day2Dream said:

I don't think understanding is the issue. The issue is music reminds her of her past self which she hates. Therefore she hates music. Accepting something isn't easy, especially if that something is the ugliness inside you. I'm pretty sure most of us hate something about ourselves.

zensunni said:
Wakana is finding out all kind of things that her mother, and father, who is still around, never told her. It is understandable that she would be horribly confused at this point. She never knew that her mother wrote music professionally, she thought it was just something she did for fun. She never knew that her mother's choir club had won a national competition, that she was close to the vice-witch, that Sawa's mother was also a friend of her mom's, etc... When her mother was still alive, they didn't tell Wakana about her illness. It seems that, while her parents are certainly loving, they were not particularly kind and very secretive. I'm sure they were trying to "protect her", but it is still a poor choice to hide something as important as a life threatening illness from your own child.

I have some experience with this, as my wife's grandmother hid her breast cancer from her entire family, including avoiding going to the doctor about it, in order to avoid upsetting people and by the time she went to a doctor it was too late to do anything about it. My wife's reaction to her grandmother's death had a good deal of anger mixed in with the sorrow.

-MgZ_ said:
Sad episode. Dora the explorer is lost >_>

OS_Christina706 said:
I teared up during the scene when Wakana was crying after finding about her mother's death :/ A very sad episode.

fullmetal_adam said:
The people hating on Wakana don't understand anything with more depth than a teaspoon. Did you even consider the possible reasons behind her behaviour? We know Wakana was close to her mother when she was young. What changed? Well, her mother got sick, and her parents lied to her about how serious the illness really was. Perhaps without being told, she knew her mother was gravely ill, but couldn't deal with the thought of losing her. People deal with grief in different ways. She tried to push her mother away and distance herself emotionally using school and exams as an excuse. Was it a good thing to do? No, but it was a human thing to do, and she's filled with regrets now because of it.

Redfoxoffire said:
Although I highly doubt it will happen, it would be interesting to see the turn this show would take if Wakana commits suicide as the preview could be suggesting.

KaitoDash said:

If you really think she honestly hates musics, then I have nothing else to say because I see it differently. But if she can't accept it, then that is obviously something that annoys me the most in this episode. Not easy, sure, but has to be done.



I have to disagree that Wakana's parents keeping silent about illness was a poor choice. Sure, she would be confused by the time her mother passed away, but now, she is about to graduate from high school and should be able to understand her parents being protective if she is mature enough.

My father also suddenly passed away by the time I was still a brat just like her and I had to get over it on my own because my mother was so busy working alone. And just when I got over it, my mother was hit by a serious breast cancer that she hid from me for years. I had to understand that she didn't want to trouble me when I was working on exams. So I'm spending great time with her now while she's still alive and kicking, living life to the full extent.

Life goes on. When you are hit by bad things, just cry and move on. Most likely what Wakana will do in the next episode.

plushkin said:


That was my main problem with this episode. I should have been in floods at the end, but they cut to credits. It takes a lot more to be emotionally invested in Wakana because she's such a detached character. Had they brought her character into sharper focus in the beginning I would have been loving this series.
Detachment is an understandable human response to death of a loved one, but unfortunately, it doesn't make for a great television character.

zensunni said:
First off - bummer, man! Sorry to hear about both your dad and your mom. As I mentioned earlier (I think... maybe it was another forum...) my mom died when I was in my early 30s. It was very sudden and there wasn't any aspect of them hiding it from the family either. Her illness crept up on her, and her doctors, just as much as it did on the rest of us. By the time they actually diagnosed what was wrong, there was nothing they could do to stop the progression of the disease. That was tough, but I can't imagine how tough it would have been if I was still in my teen years. (My dad just died last year, 15 years after my mom.)

The situation you describe is similar, but it lacks the aspect that I think was a mistake on the part of Wakana's fictional family: Time. It sounds like your dad deid suddenly with no warning, like my mom. Your mom, while she kept her condition hidden from you, told you about it with enough time for you to spend some quality time with her now, which is priceless. Wakana's parents knew she was ill with plenty of time to let a bright young girl like Wakana know what was happening and give her time to come to grips with it while her mother was alive, but chose to keep it secret in order to keep her focus on her exams. The school she was applying to is filled with people who loved Wakana's mother. I think a better approach would have been for the mother to talk to the principle and vice principle and let them know the situation so they could take the family circumstances into account in their admission decisions, perhaps allowing Wakana to take her exams later or discounting any poor scores she might have gotten due to spending more time with her dying mother. They had influence with these people, why not use that influence. Sure, if Wakana found out about it she would have been angry, but it would have been better than the type of self-accusatory depression she is suffering from now!

I think the key thing is that different people respond to things differently. The reaction that Wakana had to her mother's death, leading up to her withdrawal from the music program and her current depression, is very much in line with the way the character has been presented. Should she be able to handle things better now? Maybe, but it is in line with her character to be struggling with it. Even after her mother died, it doesn't seem that her father told her anything about the reasons he and her mother chose to keep the illness a secret or about her mother's past. She is just now finding out about how her mother really viewed the world and just coming to realize what her mother's desire to write music with her in her final weeks on earth actually signified. That was provided by the letter the Condor Queens gave her, not by her father. The knowledge that her mother's attempts to get her to write music were, essentially, her mother's attempts to show her how much she loved her, even though she still didn't tell her that she was going to die soon, is a perfect storm for a descent into the depths of depression. The fact that she is withdrawing from everything, music, her friends, etc... is a big, giant red flag. Luckily for her, Sawa, Konatsu, and Wien have all recognized it. Now they need to act upon it and come to the rescue!

zensunni said:

I was in tears when they cut to the credits. The break/sob in Wakana's voice when she said "I'm sorry... mom..." was heartbreaking. I personally think they developed the character perfectly. They presented the behavior that everyone else saw, the standoffishness, the withdrawal from activities with friends, the reticence to be engaged by friends, and the total refusal to be drawn into anything that involves singing. Then they showed us the why behind all of it. If they had shown the why first, it would have been boring. Instead it intrigued us. Why does Wakana not want to be involved in music? Why is she so insistent? Why is she withdrawing when her friends are obviously trying to get closer to her? Sure, we already knew her mom was dead, but if we knew all the details, there wouldn't have been any reason to tune in next week to find out what makes Wakana tick. If they had shown us all the details at the beginning, there wouldn't have been any dramatic tension.

Nabris said:
I think next episode, Konatsu will be THAT character that gets all the information about Wakana's past and gives her a speech about life, family, love and change her mind (edit: OR make her sing a song with her)...but I could be wrong. The preview shows only her running to something (Wakana I'm guessing) so it's pretty possible. Her dad could be involved somehow, but he's always under a heap of work so I doubt it.