AnimeSuki Forum - Tamako Love Story (movie)

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Quote:

Originally Posted by darkchibi07 (Post 5314443)

So I get this movie hasn't betrayed the original premise of the TV series about love or needing love?

Tamako's love for mochi does get tested in this movie: will she choose mochi or Mochizou?

Quote:

Originally Posted by prototype_sky (Post 5314485)

Also poor dude probably gonna miss/fail his entrance exam now :heh:

I'm sure he's cool with it. :P

Hmm...just finished it and am pondering some things here still.

Well, to begin with I will mention that I did enjoy the Tamako Market series itself. It was not great but it was fluffy and enjoyable enough. If there had been a clearer and more consistently present story to it all it would have worked better, but it was okay for what it was. I think I gave it a 7/10.

The movie, however, gives the series much more of what it was lacking, and the result was quite good, I thought. It was not earth shattering, but I thought it was quite solid and very well done. KyoAni almost always consistently delivers in the multimedia aspects of their anime, maybe more effectively than any other studio out there for me personally, so it is the story and related things that make or break it every...single...time. For me the movie is a happy example of KyoAni still being able to deliver that type of their goods that I have come to like best from them.

I would give the movie somewhere between an 8.0 and an 8.5 rating (does that mean an 8.25 rating :confused: ). Consistently good, even handed story telling and VA work combined with absolutely lovely visuals and quite appropriate audio that fit the story quite well.

Would love to see KyoAni hold to this standard a bit more in their tv series, if possible. Heh, they even showed they could outstrip it with the brilliant Hyouka series a few years ago. More of these kinds of things please! ^^

Bloody brilliant movie, adored it to death. The character I found boring grew some balls, the characters I loved were given glorious amounts of screentime, and the bird I didn't remember stayed that way.

And how about that, an actual resolution, ended in a brilliant spot. I loved every moment of it.

Looks like I'm the only person who enjoyed this movie less than the TV series. It didn't have what I liked the most about Tamako Market: the fun and carefree atmosphere almost entirely devoid of drama, Tamako's deep love for mochi and the shopping district that overshadows any kind of other feelings she may have, Choi and Anko. Instead, we got left with a run of the mill romance drama with a betamax guy confessing to the girl he loves after 10+ years of indecisiveness and the girl not knowing how to react until the very end of the movie. I don't call this a love story, it's merely a prelude to a love story. Why do so many people think a love story should end at the confession? It's only the beginning!

It most certainly didn't help that I never liked Mochizou, the worst character in the series. Even Dera was better, at least he was funny sometimes (honestly, I kind of missed him...). I would have been happier with literally anybody else winning Tamako over. The prince, Midori, or mochi. The scene revealing it was Mochizou who cheered up young Tamako after her mother died made me feel better about her choice though. He definitely isn't a bad guy, he's just dull as hell for a bright girl like Tamako.

The only thing that reminded me of the series was Kanna being Kanna. She hasn't lost any of her awesomeness.

To me, this movie feels like it was made for the people who were disappointed in the series rather than for the people who loved it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kanon (Post 5315203)

To me, this movie feels like it was made for the people who were disappointed in the series rather than for the people who loved it.

Bingo! I think you hit the nail in the head. Personally I was slightly disappointed in the show mostly because of what I thought was excessive comedy with Dera and all the related antics. The movie stripped all the away and actually changed the status quo so it worked much better for me. I also felt like the quality was right were it was meant to be: plot, pacing, characters, sound, scene direction... It wasn't brilliant but it was very good compared to what I've seen in most anime movies lately. It never felt neither too fast nor too slow and it actually caught me surprise when it ended. Of course that, by that point, I was jumping saying yes.

First I was:
http://media.ign.com/games/image/art...1200684654.jpg

Then I was:
http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...jpg?1307579749

Then it ended and I still want a small epilogue :heh:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kanon (Post 5315203)

Instead, we got left with a run of the mill romance drama with a betamax guy confessing to the girl he loves after 10+ years of indecisiveness and the girl not knowing how to react until the very end of the movie.

Even though I more than welcomed the change in tone, there's no denying that this is pretty much what the entire film was. It was okayish but definitely nothing stellar. I was actually hoping the romance would be a little bit more than this but turned out to be as run of the mill as you could get.

Tamako Market TV Series: 5.7/10
Tamako Market Film: 6.9/10

Still a better Love Story than Twilight though. :heh:

Kanna's description of the baton is actually a pretty good symbolization of Tamako and her issues.

The series comes to a satisfying close. In and of itself, Tamako Love Story was quite enjoyable.

Typical Open-End.jp

Seriously, that's what I hate from Japan, why the fuck not give a proper closure?

Is it that hard?

Still a silly movie despite it got "better".

It's been a while since I watched the show so it took some time to refresh my memory of the characters, and overall I thought at least here they did what the series should have done had it not wasted so much time with Dera, Choi and this tropical island prince stuff.

Had this storyline been part of the series itself, I think the show may have done well and been better remembered.

I think it's very much a failure of KyoAni that they just don't seem to be able to do romantic stories well. They hint, they pick around the edges, but never actually commit.
And so the characters never develop, and that aspect of the story never goes anywhere.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dop (Post 5322298)

I think this movie was aimed squarely at the "haters," who complained about the bird, the pointless island prince/Mochizou/Midori romance red herring (since they telegraphed from episode one that there was no goddamned way that Tamako was really in love with anything other than the market district.)

Spoiler for This review is full of them:

The movie did open with a short featuring the bird. It lasted five minutes, was appropriately zany for anything involving the bird, and then he was equally appropriately put on a bus and we never really see him again.

For ninety minutes of fluff, this movie is surprisingly deep. Tamako's ridiculously childish nature is portrayed as a direct result of the trauma of her mother's death ... where she spends the rest of her childhood and teenage years in constant pursuit of embodying her perceived ideal image of her mother's love through her perception that mochi, too, brings people happiness. (And, very telling, is the fact that it's hearing her mother's recorded response to her father's ridiculously ear-wormy love song that settles the issue for Tamako late in the film.)

The relationship between Tamako and Mochizou is well thought-out and portrayed. They've been best friends since childhood and Tamako assumes that everything would stay just the way it was ... it's not like she's unaware of her childhood bestie's feelings for her (she's unsurprised at his confession of love for her,) it's just that he confesses to her at the same time that he's announcing that he's going to school in Tokyo (thus shattering Tamako's entire world view of the status quo.)

The real standout, however, is Midori. Poor, poor, Midori. With her, KyoAni demonstrates their well-deserved reputation for top-notch animation ... as her expressions and body postures speak volumes about how she really feels about the situation she's in (that, and a few choice words on her part.) Her presence is palpable throughout the entire movie. She pushes Tamako into Mochizou's arms, but she hates herself for it. She hates that she can't do what Mochizou could ... grow a spine and put his heart on the line. Her reactions are heartbreaking to watch ... and it underscores the fact that everybody loves somebody ... but sometimes that means that someone has to lose.

But, sometimes, in losing, an option that you never really considered before presents itself ... as Midori ultimately gets a (backhanded sort of) proposition by the Engineer from TF2 Kanna (the cabinet thing was a blatant excuse, as one isn't going to build a cabinet from deck nails ... that, and she just happens to turn up when Midori is at her lowest point, compliments her on her expression and suggests that she help Kanna climb a tree ... by pushing her from below.)

So, by the end of the film, the status quo is very obviously changed (in case you couldn't tell from ending #1 ... where shots of the supporting cast are interspersed between scenes from a date between Tamako and Mochizou, as mostly seen from Mochizou's eyes, all set to Tamako's rendition of her father's love song.)

It's a solid film that succeeds in doing something that many have (rightly) criticized Tamako Market for not doing ... having an actual sense of direction. Tamako Market stumbled through its single cour without any clear idea of what it wanted to be. Tamako Love Story clearly sets itself out as a coming-of-age story, and in that, it succeeds. I'm not sure it's quite as solid a film as the two other KyoAni movies I have (The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, or the K-On! Movie) ... though I admit that this feeling may be prejudiced by the show it was based on, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...s-award/.81542

18th Japan Media Arts Festival Awards winners are out, and Naoko Yamada wins the New Face Award for her work on Tamako Love Story.

Which is well deserved since the movie is a cinematography tour de force, and is arguably Kyoani's most visually ambitious work yet alongside Nichijou. Almost every shot in the film is gorgeous, and with all the jump-cuts and stop-motions animated under a Polaroid filter, it's pretty much a photographer's wet dream. Definitely the most impressive Kyoani release of the year.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GMT (Post 5348377)

I was always under the impression that all of the haters were from outside of Japan :heh:

From the ashes of a fatass bird comes a phoenix that came back with a vengeance.

Tamako Love Story is a great example of what good film making can do. Being the continuation of sorts to the much maligned Tamako Market, it had the burden of trying to make something good from something that wasn't. While Tamako Market's characters weren't too different from the simplicity of its ilk, the frequent lack of cohesion or purpose to many scenes never allowed its characters to have even the illusion of development or nuance. It was also far too engrossed in its own antics in the few moments the show would seem to take itself seriously.

Thankfully, Love Story is not just another product on the Market. It has a simple goal in mind, and from there, the story naturally unfolds. While it still has its own antics, they now serve a purpose to the story. Tamako's Cute Girls Doing Cute Things baton practice reflects how she handles the incoming changes in her life, while brief flashbacks give meaning to her fondness of mochi and Mochizou in a few scenes that the Market couldn't sell in 12 episodes. But as the film is well aware of how jarring this new Tamako is, it's a good thing much of the focus also falls on Mochizou. It's the old story of a childhood friend being in love with the girl next door, and while still far from a fantastic character, a little more focus with a little less music goes more than a little ways in actually being interested in how it all turns out.

In fact, with all that this film establishes, with the neighborhood it still portrays before Tamako notices a few different things, and with the nuance it develops between its important characters, I almost get the sinking feeling this is what Tamako Market was meant to be. But honestly, a name like Tamako Market feels cynically packaged. Y'know, like it's saying 'we're putting Tamako on sale!' when I'd rather listen to her Love Story as I munch many mochi.

I decided to check out the show and this movie due to a combination of being really bored and seeing someone a while ago talking about how absolutely amazingly directed this movie supposedly was...

Seeing how the TV-series never went anywhere I'm just gonna say that I did not dislike it and leave it at that. There really isn't much else to say.

The movie though... You know, I feel like if one were to just describe this movie's plot to someone, it would come off as the most boring thing ever, seeing how it really feels like a romance that doesn't really have any sort of hook beyond just "There's these two childhood friends and one is madly in love with the other". Like, all the usual romantic drama and complications one tends to see in movies like these? Completely absent, the entire focus is just "Mochizou is hesitant to confess his feelings to Tamako, and when he eventually does Tamako is unsure how to respond". Which is actually kind of refreshing in a way given how annoying many of those romance clichés are. (No forced misunderstanding in the third act! No romantic rival who's first portrayed as a genuinely good person only to randomly be turned into a jerk at the end so that the two leads getting together will seem as the better option!) But yeah, story-wise, this was about as bland as it gets.
And yet... I really liked this movie. I've long held the opinion that the actual story you want to tell is far less important than the way in which you tell it, and the presentation in this movie is absolutely impeccable. Aside from the animation being stunningly beautiful, the framing, voice-acting, music and overall pacing of the movie just goes above and beyond in taking this exceedingly simple story and imbuing so much charm into it it's almost impossible not to get sucked in to it. I particularly enjoyed how Tamako's awkwardness around Mochizou following the latter's confession was handled. Though I do sort of wish we'd gotten a bit more out of the ending... even if that last line was admittedly adorable. But it's like... Really? That's where you choose to end it? We barely even got to see Mochizou's reaction. And then nothing about what happened next at all. Then again this is hardly the first time I've seen a Japanese movie that I felt ended way too abruptly. I have the same problem with most of Miyazaki's movies as well, so... maybe it's just a cultural thing.
In any case, lovely movie. Definitely put me in the camp that found this much better than the show. (And so loosely related to it that one could probably just watch the movie without even having seen the show and still be able to enjoy it...)

So the movie's twitter account just tweeted something about a 10th anniversary project. No further details yet.

https://twitter.com/tamakolovestory/...axN7AdHxL6aYww

A bit strange, considering the director left the studio.