Plot: C *The show follows a ditsy young girl named Tamako Kitashirakawa who is the daughter of the mochi shop Tama-ya's owner. She is very passionate about her work and is part of a close-knit community in a small shopping plaza in Japan. Things get a bit exciting when a flamboyant talking bird named Dera Mochimazzi shows up explaining that he is there looking for a bride for the prince he serves in a distant land. The show mainly follows what Tamako is up to in school with her friends and the goofy events the little shopping community performs for each season before finally introducing us to the prince by series end to get us ready for the たまこラブストーリー [Tamako Love Story] film where we'll find out if Tamako's childhood friend Mochizou will be able to win her over. There are some fun moments, but overall, the plot is super simplistic and is definitely not going to be for everyone.
Visuals: B *Is it just me or does Kyoto Animation do hair better than any other studio? The character designs of Midori and Kanna are both really good and I love how detailed their hair looks. Other than that, like most Kyo-Ani shows, the backgrounds are really pleasant to look at and the shopping plaza is vibrant and full of pretty colors and realistic looking settings.
Voice Acting: Other than Dera who is hilarious and somehow even more fantastic and flamboyant in the dub, stick with the sub for this one. But for the most part, the voices of the characters are cute with very little annoying voices. Kanna's voice is probably my favorite in the sub because her personality is already weird and then you you add her goofy deep voice to portray her quips and it makes her comments even funnier.
Film Score/Soundtrack: C *There are a few stand out tracks that play during the more "emotional" moments in the show and some fun upbeat ones too, but for the most part, this isn't a score you will be listening to outside of the show's context.
Characters: C *Tamako Market is a bizarre show. I didn't really feel like I connected with any of the characters, but I enjoyed the experience nonetheless.
Tamako is likable enough as your token ditsy friendly girl who obsesses over mochi. Her childhood friend Mochizou is a hardcore simp for her that is downright pathetic at times, yet he has a habit where he throws a string telephone to Tamako's window at night to talk to her which is super cute. Shiori was a super shy girl that had no friends and Tamako tried super hard to make her friend in an early episode... only for her to become a background character that we hardly see again. Kanna is there to throw sass at every character and to be super weird. But she is a good friend to Tamako and I enjoyed every second of her despite her being underutilized. Midori has my favorite character design of the bunch, but is bossy and does the whole "I can do everything myself" cliche where by episode's end she realizes she needs help and all's well ends well. I loathe morale lesson episodes of tv shows. Anko is Tamako's little sister who constantly complains about living in a family that makes mochi so she doesn't help them with anything. Yet she has a friend that she has a crush on who is moving away so she uses the mochi shop to give goodbye gifts to him and still doesn't help in making them. She is a whiny little brat and if she was my sister, I would whip her entitled little butt into shape real fast.
And as for the adults, they felt more like cliches of character types as opposed to actual characters. Especially the dude that owned the record shop. He mainly existed as a plot device for other characters to feel better or to learn something and to move on. Dera the talking bird has his moments of brilliance and his moments that will make you head palm. But I will say for the most part, he was a likable character and I thought it was funny how scared of Choi he was. (Who btw also has an adorable character design)
Cringeworthy Anime Moments: I get it that this is a moe anime and everything is meant to be cute about it, but I don't think Tamako losing her badge needed to have music that dramatic playing. In fact, just about every time sad music played in this anime, the reason a person was crying was so ridiculous that I couldn't take it seriously. At least in K-ON!, in most cases, the sad music is mainly for comedic effect because they know that the situation is goofy and should not be taken seriously. I also found Tamako's father to be extremely annoying as he screamed all the time every time people say anything negative about mochi, and when anything about his past would come up, he would just yell and be a huge tsundere to his daughter. I typically am not the biggest fan of tsundere's that are excessive in their outbursts and refuse to allow people to connect (and that are abusive) so if you think the idea of a tsundere dad is cute, I guess I apologize for placing it in my cringeworthy anime moment section, but I for one found it to be an annoying ongoing joke. Dera trying to peak on the girls in the bath and then getting a nosebleed when he saw them in their bathing suits was about as cringe as it gets. And when he does it a second and third time, it unsurprisingly got even less funny than it was the first time. I did find the part about girls sneezing on Dera as a sign of affection to be cute and funny, but the pervy lets add some fan service real quick scenes that plague anime drive me nuts.
Opening: *This song is everything I love about J-pop. It's got an assortment of instruments, upbeat and fun vocals, a memorable chorus, and is just cuteness overload with the beautiful visuals to accompany it.
Ending: *The beat and vocals both remind me of Kylie Minogue's Miss a Thing which is a super groovy disco-esque pop song. Absolutely love it!
Final Verdict: 5/10 *Tamako Market is a show to c h i l l to. I can't really say it excels in any way (other than it's BOP of an intro and it's super catchy ending track), but I did enjoy watching it even though just about every episode had it's moments to roll your eyes at or really was about nothing of interest. It's definitely the weakest of 山田尚子 [Naoko Yamada]'s works that I've seen thus far, but I am intrigued enough to watch the たまこラブストーリー [Tamako Love Story] to see how it all ends.
