(L) Tari Tari

[Pocari_Sweat]

Originally Posted by totoum

What you just said reminded me of this scene which pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter

Lol I remember that scene too.

In that case slice of life/drama generally won't score very high on the "Importance" scale then .

Oh wait...

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Pocari_Sweat

Azumanga Daioh did that 3-4 years before Lucky star did. And before that there was most likely something else.

That's why I talked about reawakening. For a while after Lucky Star ended, every season saw attempts to jump on that same gravy train. (I remember Kei-On, Hyakko, and A-channel, but I'm fairly sure there were others.)

Do you think in fall or winter, there'll be anime about... Well, there's another problem: Tari Tari doesn't really have anything that really characterizes it beyond "slice of life in a school setting". Even if someone wanted to jump on its coattails and do something similar, what would they do?

[~Yami~]

regarding the OST,
I found 'going my way' is funny

the first one with Konatsu "EHH?!"
and the second one with Konatsu "YAH!!!"

hahaha....

[totoum]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

Well, there's another problem: Tari Tari doesn't really have anything that really characterize it beyond "slice of life in a school setting". Even if someone wanted to jump on its coattails and do something similar, what would they do?

The fact that it's nothing more than "slice of life in a school setting" is what characterizes it.

"slice of life in a school setting" sounds like it's a very common thing,and in a way it is,however pure "slice of life in a school setting" isn't,shows normally try to appeal by adding something else,be it fantasy,sci fi,romance,mystery,moeblobs or a big focus on comedy etc. (or some combination of all those) and if they don't then the setting tends to not be a highschool.

Tari tari didn't,sure there's a hint of romance and comedy but nothing more than that.Not saying it's the first or anything but "slice of life in a school setting" with nothing else added isn't common so that's what we can look out for in the future.

[Qikz]

What a great ending, although I was a bit confused at the very end scene, was it supposed to portray that in a way Sakai became like her mother and it was almost as if it was her mother coming home?

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by totoum

What you just said reminded me of this scene which pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter

You Sr. have won the internet.

Now, personally I think Tari Tari does bring something new to the table when it comes to the slice of life genre, and that is realism on the characterization department. I think some people out there don't realize how different these characters are to your usual anime character, but to me these characters feel a bit more like live-action than anime, a bit more like, you know, people.

This is something new, specially for this genre which, ironically considering its name, usually display the most stereotypical anime characters out there. I really hope more writers and directors involved with this genre will get influenced by Tari Tari and start to write more true to life characters instead of the usual (and safe) thing. Tari Tari is doing around 9k on sales, which proves you can make a winner with this kind of cast too, that you don't need to try appeal to every anime fetish to succeed.

Originally Posted by Qikz

I was a bit confused at the very end scene, was it supposed to portray that in a way Sakai became like her mother and it was almost as if it was her mother coming home?

Yes, something like that. Besides, Wakana was the central character and the series began with a scene of her, so it had to end with her too.

[Archon_Wing]

Originally Posted by Pocari_Sweat

It's a popular thing to say that "Tari Tari is well-executed at what it does, but I don't think it will be remembered" atm. Imo, I call bollocks on that. In terms of slice of life/drama TV series (not including movies, I consider them a different medium altogether really partly due to budget differences), I can think of two that were of comparable quality in recent times and that was Hyouka that also recently ended and Usagi Drop of last year.

Everything else despite "ambition" as many people seem to look for in series, either fell on its face on more than one occasion, had some supernatural gimmick or two, artificial melodrama and/or pacing problems. Personally, "ambition" or "plot" is not a trait I look for in slice of life/drama (that's more so in fantasy, sci-fi or intended "epic" series) but rather how relatable it is. Subtleness, Genuinity, Understatement, Sentiment and how much heart it has in general are all virtues I look for. Tari Tari had ton of this, albeit it wasn't absolutely perfect - it was very close.

Plot devices for drama, excessive "moeblobs", exaggerated melodrama, Obnoxiousness, pretending to be something when it isn't and generally trying too hard to evoke an reaction are elements that put me off. Don't think I need to repeat myself on examples

EDIT: Forgot Wandering Son. My bad.

Hah, for whatever reason I somehow view a lot of ambition as just merely gimmicks. The other thing is the future is hard to predict, so it's really hard to say what gets remembered, though I guess this is never going to be a show that's going to be placed on a "must see" list for first timer anime viewers.

Personally, I'm going to remember this, simply because it hails from a genre that frequently puts me to sleep. In fact, you might have remembered my initial jokes of it being generic, a hanairo clone, and PA not being able to pace an anime to save their lives. But apparently they managed to defy all of that fairly soundly. So it must have done something especially special. It also helped that there were a lot of meta going on for me, and this show seemed to put together a lot of the strengths I've seen from PA (mostly from True Tears but also from Hanairo and Angel Beats).

Still, the simplicity remains a double edge sword, and it certainly the plot could have helped the drama a bit more.

[Guardian Enzo]

Just FTR, I don't consider Tari Tari in any way analogous to Usagi Drop or Wandering Son - and only tangentially to Hyouka. I have compared TT to Hyouka of course, and Kokoro Connect, but largely because they're school settings airing simultaneously and it makes for interesting consideration. I think the difference in ambition and complexity between TT and Hyouka becomes apparent as you go deeper into both series, especially Hyouka. It's filet mignon vs. a good hamburger.

As for Usagi Drop and Wandering Son, I've seen both categorized as "slice of life" - without a doubt the most incorrectly overused term in anime - and I don't think it applies to either. Hourou Musuko and Usagi Drop are both intense character dramas, both (especially Hourou Musuko) also examining deeper societal issues. The fact that they don't have giant robots or mahou shoujou doesn't make them slice of life - they just happen to be realistic settings.

I like Tari Tari, and I don't see asserting that it's relatively unambitious as a slander. If I don't think it's going to be especially memorable it's because, to me, it didn't really try to do anything that hasn't been done many times before. It does those things well for the most part, but they've all been done better. There's absolutely nothing wrong with keeping things simple and executing them well, and that's what I think Tari Tari did - and I applaud it for resisting the impulse to spice things up with overt romance or excessive melodrama. I consider it a success - I just don't consider it historically important.

[Aqua Knight]

I keep listening to Ganba Rangers song , the part when Tanaka joins Wien is just too awesome - his VA has such a great voice. Also in last episode in Sawa x Tanaka scene his voice is just so sweet

I think TT is a bit underrated tbh. Yes, there's nothing very remembering about the series like Guren Lagan, but the overall impressions from TT is worth 9/10.

I think it was near perfect slice of life/song genre. Maybe a bit more romantic development b/w Sawa and Tanaka could be good, but the script writers did even a better thing - leave Tanaka's speech to your imagination.

Also I wished they showed more of everyone's future, maybe in a movie

Now I understand that Tanaka is really great character, but he kinda lacked development together with Wien. And I also think that if TT was all-female cast it wouldn't be as great, not by much but still.

PS
Sorry for my fanboyism about Tanaka.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Aqua Knight

And I also think that if TT was all-female cast it wouldn't be as great, not by much but still.

If it was an all-female cast I'd probably hate the series. Anyway, I just loved how awkward it was for the guys to be around a bunch of girls like this, specially for Taichi who was the most serious of the two. I also loved how the girls kept teasing Taichi till the very end. The poor guy can't catch a break.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

As for Usagi Drop and Wandering Son, I've seen both categorized as "slice of life" - without a doubt the most incorrectly overused term in anime - and I don't think it applies to either. Hourou Musuko and Usagi Drop are both intense character dramas, both (especially Hourou Musuko) also examining deeper societal issues. The fact that they don't have giant robots or mahou shoujou doesn't make them slice of life - they just happen to be realistic settings.

I totally agree with this, but to support this I just wanted to add that Tari Tari is also not a "slice of life" show either -- it's a drama. It has an on-going linear plot that centers around the conflicts faced by the characters, and develops towards a conclusion and a denouement. That's a drama. If we want to be more specific, we could call this a "coming-of-age drama" since the plot revolves around the transition from adolescence into adulthood. I think people call this a "slice of life" show only because they think it centers around a small cast of characters going about their high school lives, but as you say it's not the setting that determines the genre. I generally agree that this is one of the most incorrectly-used and overused term in anime fandom today (though I think "moe" gives it a run for its money, along with possibly terms like "tsundere" ).

[Reckoner]

The thing I found funny about Tari Tari overall is that it isn't just conventional in an anime sense, but in a cross-medium conventional way. You could find this same sort of conventional storytelling in any type of book or live action show in the west, and in that sense it's a bit different from your regular otaku geared shows.

[Arya]

Well, I don't know much about slice of life anime, but I'd agree that Tari Tari is surely a coming-of-age series, if Tari Tari si not, it I don't know what series could be.
Anyways, FWIW, carrying on with the gastronomy analogies, to me Hyouka is more like molecular gastronomy, Tari Tari more like your mum gastronomy.

[Haak]

Spoiler for space:

Tari Tari makes for a nice feel good anime but I think it definitely has its flaws, partly with it’s characters and partly with the plot focus. Imo the only character I thought was truly developed well was Sakai (which I thought was great). Konatsu had two points of conflict: the first was rushed as hell and the second seemed shoved in there purely for the sake of drama. Taichi’s issues were either barely there (Badminton) or subtly implied (Romance) so he was always teetering on the edge of development but was never quite there and so was lacking real depth. Wien’s was just way too bizarre for me to truly get into. I mean I felt it was pushing it a bit when he was somehow able to chase that guy in the bike but when he started making those kinda scary noises that I only later identified as singing then I was pretty committed to enjoying it only as an interesting comedy rather than any sort of real emotionally invested character analysis. Sawa’s was decent and probably the most grounded but kinda ended abruptly and disappointingly only to be finished at the end again. And there was a slight problem with how it came about but it’s only noticeable when we compare it to how everything else was set up: A minor problem with the foreshadowing. Tari Tari excelled at making characters act in interesting ways that were explained later. For example, Wien’s Sentai fetish was foreshadowed constantly in the way he acted. Other than Sawa being on her horse all the time (which didn’t truly foreshadow her conflict), we didn’t get that same thing. It’s extremely minor though, and really it only served to make the whole “everyone’s singular issues that seemingly define their personalities revealed in a completely linear fashion one after another” (that lots of anime do anyway) slightly more egregious.

I think Tari Tari’s main problem is that it didn’t truly get me into the concept of singing and (other than Sakai) why the characters cared about it so much. I mean at first I thought Konatsu wanted to find her stage just to spite the Vice Principle but it seems she really liked singing. The problem though is that it doesn’t really go into why she likes singing so much and what it means to her so I couldn’t really feel for her. It’s the same with the other characters. It didn’t seem like they had much reason to be there other than because they were friends, and that’s not exactly impressive. Compare this to something like Chihayafuru. Not only were we constantly hammered at just how much and why karuta meant so much for these characters, but they weren’t skimpy on detailing almost every aspect of karuta such as strategy, mindset, clothing, the specific recitation of the poems and even the freaking temperature and how that would affect players. Tari Tari was lacking that sort of real insight into singing. That’s the kind of ambition that it lacked and from a strictly storytelling point of view, I don’t see why it should lack that, especially when they already went halfway towards that with Sakai (I can from a Doylist POV though: 13 episode time constraints). Ambition isn’t always about doing things differently, at least not in my opinion. Ambition can refer to type of direction a story can go but I think it can also refer to the level of depth a show is willing to go about a particular plot element. One of the best ones are those that go into such depth into the seemingly smallest of things and show the worlds within worlds you’ve never seen and give an added sincerity to its storytelling (Anyone seen the recent HxH episode?) As it stands I couldn’t really get into their drive for singing because, simply put, it’s not one I felt myself. Of course, I’ve never particularly been interested in signing anyway but that shouldn’t matter. If a story can make me care about a freaking card game with silly poems, then the story can make me care about singing. But it seems as if the primary idea behind Tari Tari was to make us care about the characters and their charm enough to wish them well at the end. I guess that’s probably what worked for some but as I already explained in the first paragraph, it definitely didn’t work for me (to same extent as everyone else anyway. It did work to a degree).

And I don’t know if it’s just me nitpicking or not but I seriously didn’t like the way that Principle got to crap end of the stick in the last episode, probably because despite his sacrifice the show still ends on a happy “everything’s hunky doory” feel good ending when it really shouldn’t be. I mean if I were to find out that my successful attempt at a single club festival resulted in the Principle losing his retirement plan, then I’d totally feel like shit and would want to know how much damage was caused. But I guess it’s pointless to apply that sort of logic. We don’t really know how much a problem losing a comfy retirement plan would be for a former Principle because the writers left it purposefully vague so we wouldn’t care too much. I find that kinda irritating though.

Now I know I’ve gone into a lot of detail about its flaws but honestly most of them are just minor things. They do add up to something significant but definitely not something that would produce an overall negative impression. The reason why I can’t talk about its flaws so easily is because I never been good at talking about a show’s strengths and everyone on this forum has already gone into detail about it so it’s probably not worth the effort anyway, but considering I’m trying to justify and overall good impression, I might as well try.

Ultimately it’s an anime that one can enjoy for two main reasons: its charm and its narrative. Everyone can see the charm for themselves. The subtle comedy played about particularly by the characters is refreshingly devoid of slapstick and definitely unique. It’s like tasting a different kind of fruit for the first time. It might not necessarily be better than the others but it can be a refreshing change. And thanks to the narrative, there is a lot of expanse with the characters since they also include adults that play a vital role in the story (Sakai’s dad and the Vice Principle particularly stand out), and it definitely knows how to keep hold of the viewers attention when characterisation comes heavily in the form teasingly subtle hints and foreshadowing that always leave you wanting more (Sometimes it does it too well but I’ve already gone into that)

Overall: A solid 7/10

Now, I'm off to ignore this thread like the plague again.

[Blaat]

Am I the only one who's annoyed there's no normal full version of Konatsu singing 'going my way!!'?

[Sphire]

Two Things:

The call for a movie over a second season, to be honest, while I would still watch it, I feel it'll lack any semblance of what made Tari Tari really good. A comparison was made to the K-On!! movie, but K-On!! can get away with it because the main show was superficial in the first place. No one watched it for some great character development or drama, so a simple movie was fine (and fun).

But Tari Tari? That'll be like watching a Transformers movie without any action sequences or a 'World In Danger Plot'. Granted, that might make it a better movie, but my point is it won't deliver what people expect.

I'd much prefer a second season. And I mean that loosely. I don't mean it has to focus on Wakana or Music or having the 5 people re-unite. I don't really care about that. Just add to it. Even if they focused on one character, like Sawa and her butt-slapping global adventure, but gave it the same quality they gave to Tari Tari, I'd be more than happy with that. There's already a good foundation there.

The second thing is about the shows 'history'. I doubt it'll leave any significant impact on Anime in general. But having seen the kind of shows that do, it's not exactly some grand achievement. Is Lucky Star really all that great? K-On!!? Angel Beats? Heck, Clannad? Taste is subjective, but I've enjoyed quite a few shows more than those. I think anyone who wants more out of anime will always try to find gems like Tari Tari.

I'm reminded of True Tears in that regard too. More people remember Toradora! and that show has its place in 'history' now, but I'd rate True Tears' romance to be better than Toradora, especially when contrasting the MCs of the shows. But how many people have even watched True Tears? It might matter in a general sense, but I've shrugged off shows that have gotten high praise before, so it doesn't really matter to me, even if Tari Tari might deserve that recognition.

Even this summer/year, so many other lesser shows are being praised right, left and center. And in no way, shape or form do I find them even remotely good, let alone being able to contend with Tari Tari. Yet those shows will probably be remembered longer.

And to be honest, all Tari Tari did was a few things brilliantly. Most of the time it was just slice of life simplicity (which is fine), but there are those moments, especially with Wakana, that go above and beyond good, into brilliant. The whole year has been lackluster otherwise.

[Archon_Wing]

Well, IMO, it's better to do a few things really well, than try and do a lot of things really badly.

Also, coming across random TT clips on Youtube I came across the one where Wakana is walking into the ocean and Konatsu thinks she's about to kill herself. Wonder if that's a VA reference-- the walking into the ocean part.

[frivolity]

Originally Posted by totoum

What you just said reminded me of this scene which pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter

That's certainly a funny scene, but I don't see how it's relevant to what I said. I was referring to a lack of something extra in the series, not advocating a formulaic approach to appreciating the show. In fact, the rest of my original post, which was conveniently left out, made references to the unique devices in other slice-of-life series or movies. Long story short, I was stating my personal opinion that good execution can only get you so far.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Sphire

Two Things:

The call for a movie over a second season, to be honest, while I would still watch it, I feel it'll lack any semblance of what made Tari Tari really good. A comparison was made to the K-On!! movie, but K-On!! can get away with it because the main show was superficial in the first place. No one watched it for some great character development or drama, so a simple movie was fine (and fun).

But Tari Tari? That'll be like watching a Transformers movie without any action sequences or a 'World In Danger Plot'. Granted, that might make it a better movie, but my point is it won't deliver what people expect.

I'd much prefer a second season. And I mean that loosely. I don't mean it has to focus on Wakana or Music or having the 5 people re-unite. I don't really care about that. Just add to it. Even if they focused on one character, like Sawa and her butt-slapping global adventure, but gave it the same quality they gave to Tari Tari, I'd be more than happy with that. There's already a good foundation there.

The second thing is about the shows 'history'. I doubt it'll leave any significant impact on Anime in general. But having seen the kind of shows that do, it's not exactly some grand achievement. Is Lucky Star really all that great? K-On!!? Angel Beats? Heck, Clannad? Taste is subjective, but I've enjoyed quite a few shows more than those. I think anyone who wants more out of anime will always try to find gems like Tari Tari.

I'm reminded of True Tears in that regard too. More people remember Toradora! and that show has its place in 'history' now, but I'd rate True Tears' romance to be better than Toradora, especially when contrasting the MCs of the shows. But how many people have even watched True Tears? It might matter in a general sense, but I've shrugged off shows that have gotten high praise before, so it doesn't really matter to me, even if Tari Tari might deserve that recognition.

Even this summer/year, so many other lesser shows are being praised right, left and center. And in no way, shape or form do I find them even remotely good, let alone being able to contend with Tari Tari. Yet those shows will probably be remembered longer.

And to be honest, all Tari Tari did was a few things brilliantly. Most of the time it was just slice of life simplicity (which is fine), but there are those moments, especially with Wakana, that go above and beyond good, into brilliant. The whole year has been lackluster otherwise.

Well, we were talking about memorability rather than how good or bad it was. (And of course, before wondering if something is good, you have to wonder what they were shooting for. Toradora wasn't a serious romance, for example.)

And to get back to the idea of seminality - it's about memory reinforcement. For several seasons after Lucky Star, I'd watch a show and think "it's this season's Lucky Star". (Much like I watched Lucky Star and thought "Azumanga Daioh, how I missed thee"...)

I watched True Tears, and it didn't leave much of a mark. But I can see it did on some people, who're forever looking for an excuse to bring it up. That, too, makes a show memorable.

But I don't think there'll be a series in the near future which we'll accuse of being a blatant ripoff of Tari Tari. There'll be other stuff from PA Works, and I suppose some people may care to compare them with Tari Tari, but if all they've got in common are a few names in the credits, personally I'm not going to give a damn.

[frivolity]

I'm actually surprised that no one brought up last season's Sakamichi no Apollon when making comparative statements with other slice-of-life shows. Out of curiosity, how would everyone compare it to Tari Tari? Both are slice-of-life shows based in school with a heavy music motif and a focus on the main characters' families. I personally prefer Sakamichi no Apollon because I have a preference towards jazz, but that's just on a personal level.