Back to thomtinuviel's Profile thomtinuviel's Profile

It's a bit early yet to say anything definitive about Tsuritama. And yet I think that it's not too early to describe the series as rather unique. Having said that, I'll edit this review as the season progresses.

Tsuritama was created by the same director who did Mononoke and Trapeze - two series memorable for distinctive visual style and approach to storytelling. I think in some ways Tsuritama is a younger sibling to those series - while it is certainly as interesting to look at and only mildly less thought-provoking, it has a sense of humor about it that is somehow invigorating - there's fun ... to be had here, in a fishing village called Enoshima. The setting is certainly colorful, and it's got nothing on the characters.

Our lead, Yuki Sanada, is an anxious young man who has the unfortunate tendency to make a hideous facial expression whenever something makes him uncomfortable. His foil is a self-proclaimed alien invader named Haru who thus far seems to be capable of controlling people with a single squirt of his water gun. If it sounds like Haru is in any way sinister, you've been misled - so far, the only thing he enjoys using this power for is forcing unwilling high schoolers to dance a folk-dance. Haru is irrepressibly upbeat and smiley, and his character is more charming than anything else. Soon we meet a few other boys with social issues - there's Natsuki Usami, the "fishing Prince," who seems rather friendless and resentful of his father. And perhaps best of all is an Indian boy with a duck accomplice - yes, a duck - who seems to be investigating Haru. The duck's name is Tapioca; the boy's name is Akira.

So far, these kids aren't exactly all that friendly with each other. But we should give them time.

This show pretends to be about fishing, but it's not. It pretends to be about an alien invasion, but that's not quite it either. It sometimes seems to be about social anxiety, and that's closer to the mark. As of now, Tsuritama is sprouting into a show about friendship among misfits. Our protagonists are as goofy a bunch of oddballs as any that anime proffers, but it is already apparent that the best friendships may be grown from mutual weirdness.

If all of this seems rather vague and plotless when laid before you, I think in some senses that's the point. This show is deliberately casual and nearly introspective in the way it develops its characters. There's something beautiful i how not a great deal of fuss is made about the fact that one of the lead protagonists is probably from a foreign planet. The show manages to be leisurely and captivating, and most importantly - it doesn't seem to take itself too seriously. This is disarming, of course - because I think the show itself should be looked at with a serious eye.


This should appeal to fans of Kuragehime and Welcome to the NHK. Artistically and tonally, it has been noted that this is similar to Mawaru Penguindrum. I hope that Tsuritama earns a following like Penguindrum did, because it's just quirky enough to merit it.

TL;DR: Tapioca is a duck; Akira feeds him duck curry. Ponder this.