Yuki has a hard time making friends. Always moving from place to place, there's little time for him to get to know anyone, and his social anxiety doesn't help. More than anything, he's afraid of being considered weird. But while living with his grandmother on the island of Enoshima, Yuki meets a self-proclaimed 'alien' transfer student named Haru. To make matters worse, his grandmother is allowing Haru to stay with them, and he's asked their classmate to teach them to fish. Some may find this to be a bit of a boring premise, and they'd be right – it's just done very reasonably. When the rag-tag group begins to learn to cast their lines, choose their bait, and have fun, the series is at its best; even though the drama presented isn't anything groundbreaking, there's more than enough to keep the viewer entertained and smiling through these episodes... Until the direction of the series shifts drastically.
Disorienting would be an understatement. The events that follow this change feel like two completely different shows quickly mashed together. Plot elements that were previously completely ignored or played off as jokes were then brought to the forefront, and the elements I was beginning to grow fond of became totally irrelevant. As Tsuritama makes its way down a long checklist of sci-fi and coming-of-age clichés, we learn more about the history and goals of our characters as they work their way towards an unexciting climax. Given that the characters are nearly impossible to care about, the drama goes nowhere; the only effort put into writing them is regarding how weird or unique they are. It's enough for a simple slice of life, but becomes intolerable once any relatively serious element comes into play.
The only real consistency viewers should note is within the art and sound. If anything, the latter is too consistent. While the music is fun and compositionally playful, there's little risk or direction taken with it. The soundtrack is seemingly only made up of woodwind instruments and the occasional percussion, and that's the problem. While it may compliment the occasional scene, it usually sticks out like a sore thumb. The cheerfulness of it all doesn't refrain from playing in the middle of more dramatic or tense moments, so why not make use of silence? Character designs are also notable, but not in a positive fashion. The visuals are incredibly close to being considered good; you're shown scene after scene of bold, watercolour-inspired scenery and characters, yet something as simple as their hair doesn't match up with the rest of the artstyle. Thankfully, it's probably the only thing in the show that looks outright ugly, but it was more than enough to bother me a few times every episode.
With the first half of Tsuritama serving only as a setup for the second, it feels like a playful accident in which character development was an afterthought. As a whole, it could probably be described as an all-too-sweet desert stuffed into you after you're already full. The extra course proved to be a bit too much for me, but the less picky may find it welcome or even superior to the main dish. Taste is a strange beast to tackle.
