Tari Tari

At Shirahamazaka High School, a special recital is held every year in which music students are able to showcase their talents in front of professionals and other prestigious guests. Third-year Konatsu Miyamoto desperately wants to sing in her last high school recital, but because she screwed up the year before, the vice principal has barred her from participating.

That's when Konatsu comes up with a new plan to get involved; instead of joining the official choir, she'll form her own singing club with her friends! Unfortunately this proves to be harder than she imagined. Her friend Wakana Sakai has given up on singing, for one, and Konatsu needs more than just two members. With only a month left until the recital, will Konatsu be able to find enough members for her club and actually be ready to sing at one of the most important events of the school year and graduate without regrets?

Sakai, Wakana Main

Takagaki, Ayahi Japanese

Okita, Sawa Main

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Miyamoto, Konatsu Main

Seto, Asami Japanese

Maeda, Atsuhiro Main

Hanae, Natsuki Japanese

Tanaka, Taichi Main

Shimazaki, Nobunaga Japanese

Sakai, Mahiru Supporting

Ohara, Sayaka Japanese

Takakura, Naoko Supporting

Tanaka, Atsuko Japanese

Okuto, Akiko Supporting

Nanjou, Yoshino Japanese

Sakai, Keisuke Supporting

Hamada, Kenji Japanese

Condor Queens, Gaikoku Supporting

Diaz, Jorge Japanese

Horikawa, Kenji Producer

Saitou, Shigeru Producer

Nagatani, Takayuki Producer

Tsuji, Mitsuhito Producer

Reviews

Oct 15, 2012

Veronin

Recommended

For a long time, people have argued whether originality truly plays a role into the quality of a title. In any media where there is an audience and a profit to be made, it's natural for many writers and artists to take inspiration from a tried and true formula. Though they may take steps to break from the circle of homogeneity and establish their own identity, deriving elements from other successful titles is inevitable.

Being a part of the conventional genre of high school drama, Tari Tari is certainly no stranger to this pattern.

The story takes place during the final year of high school for Wakana ... and her friends Sawa and Konatsu. Immediately after receiving a scolding from the strict vice principal, Konatsu decides to quit the choir club and start a new one by herself with the aid of her friends, as well as the later addition of two male characters: Taichi, a diligent badminton player, and "Wien", a peculiar transfer student from Austria. Of course, things don't go as smoothly for Konatsu as she was hoping they would, receiving an initially hostile reaction from Wakana who accuses her of fooling around and treating music as a game. In an attempt to show overcome her stress, Konatsu sings outdoors in public and gathers the attention of her aforementioned friends - finally assembling enough members to establish the club and push forward with her ambitions.

On the surface, Tari Tari seems like a standard coming of age story with a musical focus. Though the music remains a principal aspect of the anime, it primarily serves as the catalyst to bring the characters together and force them to overcome their own individual issues. For Wakana, these issues involve the regret surrounding her deceased mother, an accomplished musician who taught her how to sing and play piano. For Sawa, it involves her equestrian passions and love for horseback riding, much to the disagreement and discord with her parents. For Taichi it follows his ambition for badminton, while for Wien it is about his desire to preserve justice.

While the series is focused on teenage drama, what it excels at is making each character's issue relevant and believable by using the strengths and weaknesses of the characters to evoke emotion from the viewer, instead of relying on the tired routine of melodrama. Much of the episodes focus on Wakana's previous passion for music, with her past and the relationship between her mother being explored as her story arc progresses. Her avoidance of music is given explanation and reason, while the revival of her passion feels meaningful as she comes to terms with the past and begins to see things in a new, positive light. Each question is answered and each issue is resolved, while new ones are carefully set to take their place and give reason for the viewer to be interested in subsequent episodes. A frequent problem with teenage drama in fiction has always been the reliance on trite dialogue and melodrama instead of a coherent narrative, but Tari Tari manages to feel realistic while capturing the important stage in one's life between adolescence and adulthood. The 13 episodes here have been used in a highly productive fashion which succeeds in giving each character substance.

Sadly, the same amount of detail and depth isn't given to all of the characters. Taichi in particular receives very little growth over the course of the series, resulting in his own passions and issues being seldom explored. Aside from filling the necessary role as the fifth member of the club, Taichi ultimately adds very little to the story aside from developing a romantic interest in Sawa that is only vaguely hinted towards. Other issues in the characterization come from Wien's backstory and story arc, and while he's given sufficient character development in the later episodes, the resolution is surprisingly trivial given the amount of foreshadowing earlier in the series. His childish desire to defend justice is sympathetic but the lack of consistency obstructs his story arc from wrapping up in a satisfying manner. It's fortunate that Wien himself is a unique and exciting character, being an amusing transfer student that frequently misuses and exaggerates Japanese gestures, often with comedic results. It's hard not to grow attached to him over the course of the series.

Another common element in Tari Tari is the presence of an antagonist: the vice principal, who strongly opposes the club for what she perceives as them simply fooling around. As with most stories, she's initially portrayed as being cold and unlikeable to build up conflict, though remarkably her character is given just as much growth and backstory as any of the main cast. By the end of the story, her cold behavior makes full sense and she herself learns to overcome her past issues as a result of another character's own growth. Rather than simply serving as a plot device, the vice principal develops into a realistic and believable as well, which makes her cooperation with the main characters during the final episode all the more significant and meaningful.

Being that Tari Tari is an anime focused on music, it's a bit disappointing that the quality of the music itself is nothing outstanding or noteworthy. The background music is rarely noticeable and the songs that the characters perform are all fairly juvenile and amateur, though the emotionally-driven "Kokoro no Senritsu" is a great addition to the soundtrack. The climactic song performed in the final episode is also well-executed, having full instrumentation to back it up and give it a more professional approach. A clever trick is also used during the ending track, with Wakana pensively sitting apart from the rest of the main cast until her passion for music is revived in the later episodes.

Though not visually superb, Tari Tari benefits from its complex and detailed scenery which is based and modeled upon real locations. The school and the area in which the characters all live in feels very much authentic and distinctive, with impressive lighting and many dynamic camera tricks used to further accentuate the scenery. Many titles involve a high school setting but Tari Tari is one of the few that effectively build the school environment. For an anime that focuses on realistic characters, a realistic depiction of the setting is paramount, and luckily this important detail is not forgotten. The end result is an anime that looks and feels polished, with very few off-model scenes.

Tari Tari is a title that stands out not for its setting, nor its story, or even its well-developed characters. What sets it apart from the multitude of other similar titles is how it manages to synthesize all of these elements and convey a story with eloquence and reason. It exemplifies exactly how teenage drama should be conducted in a story. When so many series subscribe to the notion of "the more crying and yelling, the better", a title such as this is a breath of fresh air and proof of how effective this genre can be when executed efficiently. It certainly has its share of mis-steps and doesn't achieve excellence in any one aspect, but it would be hard not to recommend Tari Tari as a solid title and one of the more noteworthy in recent times. Why not cast aside the preconceptions and enjoy the ride?

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Oct 14, 2012

OdysseusUlysses

Mixed Feelings

2 + 2 = 4
This is a simple equation and a hard fact of maths. If you add 2 and 2 you will have four, its a tried and true fact of life. So why am I bringing this up in an anime review up, well because Tari Tari also religiously follows a tried and true equation, High school girls + slice of life = Money

In fact it follows so close that it actually didn't bother to bring anything original or interesting to the table, and because the writers believed so deeply in this formula they thought that it wouldn’t matter ... what they fed us, as long as they stuck to this equation people would watch it. (And the sad fact is, if you look at the blue-ray sales, they where actually right, sigh.)

So what is Tari Tari, well here`s a quick summary of what its about.

Tari Tari follows 5 high school kids with High school problems who form their own choir club due to the main character, Konatsu, being unable to "Shine" in the original music club. The main plot revolves around each of the main characters providing a look into each ones goals and life ambitions and the problems they face in achieving these goals.

It all sounds simple enough but here`s where the problems come in, the main plot, that of the group led by Miyamoto Konatsu trying to perform at the cultural festival, while a simple enough idea is so poorly written and executed that it ruins the whole series, confused, let me explain...

the idea of a group of teenagers, all with their own problems, being brought together by music and then working to put on a big show is a pretty good idea, Sakamichi no Apollon (kids on the slope) did this idea too but they did it so much better because it was much better written. These characters had their problems too but they where more relatable and, most important of all their problems weren’t solved in two episodes so the story could move onto another character with problems.

Also the music played a much bigger part in Sakamichi no Apollon, you really get a feel that these characters are being brought together despite their differences because of there love of jazz, with Tari Tari no one really seemed to care about the music club for much of the series and it certainly never seemed to bring them together or help them with their problems, in fact they all solved their problems on their own so what was the point of this series.


Not only that but there where some really stupid scenes in this series as well. Like with the sub plot about the school being closed down because some rich guy wants to build a hotel, I mean what is this a 90s Disney channel tv movie, come on how lame is this. Theres even a scene where the rich guy is sitting in a big chair looking over an expensive wine bottle while telling the principle hes going to close the school, oh I get it, hes a bad guy isnt he. they should have just had him counting dollar bills while stroking an evil cat and spitting on orphan puppies, if your going to do a stupid scene like that you might as well go the whole way don’t ya think.


But to be honest this show isn’t really about the plot, its more about the characters and how they fight against their problems and obstacles in order to achieve there dreams. And while all five protagonists have believable problems, mostly typical of your average teenager, the show again suffers from bad writing and clichéd ideas. You see again they followed a formula with the characters, introduce them and their goals + add problems + shake well = leave to cool for 1 episode then move onto another character. Then there’s the characters themselves, despite this being a character driven story we find out very little about some characters and too much about others, very little time is devoted to the male characters, they are developed shocking little in this series and given very little screen time and attention compared to the female characters. I mean I suppose there was some attempt to give them depth like with the sup plot about Wien and some childhood friend back in Austria (which again is horribly written to the point where its almost comical) but its very small in comparison to the female cast.

The main problem with the characters is again the belief of the writers that by adding a few scenes of people crying and some sad back story’s this would count as character development, it does not. Character development is when we the audience can relate to characters who feel like real people and we watch and learn how they grow and change throughout the course of the story, its not devoting two episodes to a character crying because she cant do what she wants then ignoring them for the rest of the story.

Now to be fair some of the back-storys where quite sad and moving such as Wakana`s with the story of her dead mother, but again it could nave been done much better with some decent writing and some good direction.


So anyway the problems with this series aren’t particularly complicated or mysterious, its just a simple case of a series that tried to be quirky and whimsical with characters that warmed your heart, but instead it fell its face face due to bad writing, lack of imagination and using every cliché in the book. Overall not a bad series but there’s so many other that do this idea much, much better such as Sakamichi no Apollon, watch that instead.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Sep 25, 2012

Kuchenlight

Not Recommended

At the end of June I was pretty sad. With the end of Kimi To Boku. 2 came an uneasy feeling. Like something was missing. This certain heartwarming feeling I get from watching a sweet, authentic and clever told slice of life-anime.

In an act of.....desperation I guess, I browse through the summer anime line-up once more to stop at Tari Tari saying "You'll be my new Kimi To Boku., ok? Be nice to me!". The addition of music was promising, too.

After watching the first two episodes, I wasn't sure if my choice to watch Tari Tari was a mistake or not. The pace seemed ... akwardly rushed. But staying optimistic, I just hoped it would slow down after that and give the characters some time, to develope and shine.
It slowed down indeed and focused on the characters, but not in a way it should've. At least I don't think so.
The characters basically took their turns getting depressed, so they could cheer up at the end of each episode (or after two episodes) through the power of friendship and music.
That itself is an ok idea, but just not executed well. Instead of dealing with the circumstances the characters are confronted in a subtle way, the show throws it right in the face of the people watching like it's yelling "HEY, I'M DRAMATIC NOW! Feel sorry for the characters!" just to demand "awww"s and tears of joy later.
The opening is a perfect example for this. There the female main-characters are shown one after the other all sad and crying, just to pluck up courage then and be happy while singing and laughing with the others, eww.

Speaking about the characters. There isn't really much for me to say about them.
They suffered from the shallow presentation and thus could never grow on me, let alone be taken seriously.
This is not to say that they never had their moments to shine. Every now and then they really succeeded in being charismatic and appealing. Especially in comical scenes. Unlike the drama, those weren't as overly exaggerated. Instead they were done in a more likable and subtle way.

But the same goes for the whole show itself, I think.
If it just would've contained the drama (quite) a bit and put more effort in making the characters and their situations more authentic it could've been way better.
Of course it's only natural for a show to specifically trigger emotions, but Tari Tari is just trying WAY to hard.
With that happening throughout the whole series there was no way I could take it serious as a slice of life-series. It felt like an overdramatized and too theatrical show, that was just there to sneak in some tearjerkers and pretend to be smart and profound.

The music being one of the main themes I expected a bit more from it.
The songs and bgm-tracks were nice, sure. But there were very few of them and not really much of variety. Meaning the two "main"-songs (from Wakana's mother and her own) sounded too much alike.

I'm not going into detail regarding the animations because they don't really matter in this kind of anime.
I didn't like the character design, but that's just my opinion. No criticism because of that.

And the word "opinion" is perfect to conclude this review.
I didn't like the way the show forced it's uncreative, linear drama on me. At times I even hated it.
But I'm not saying that because of that, the show is undeniably bad. There are people who like this kind of presentation and that's fine (more or less). Nothing wrong with that.
All I wanna say is that people who like smart and well-thought-out slice of life, that is authentic and not too naive at the same time, should stay away from this show. Watch Kimi To Boku. or Usagi Drop instead.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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