「集ったりあがいたり」 (Atsumattari, Agaitari)
“Gathering, Struggling, and…”

I don’t say this very often, but I think I may have been completely wrong on my assumptions about TARI TARI. For some reason, I had this hope that P.A. Works would build off of the mistakes they made with Hanasaku Iroha. Which was far from a bad show — it was just one with a lot of inherit problems with things like its pacing and how it handled the buildup of really important scenes. And seeing how TARI TARI is only one-cour long, I never expected that the second episode would have such horrible pacing. And unless my download was corrupted, which it wasn’t since I decided to download two other copies just to triple check, everything felt like it was in fast forward as soon as we passed the middle of the episode.

I mean, I don’t mind when the writers try trying to plow through things when it’s warranted but we’re only on the second episode! And compared to the beginning, which I thought was really good since it gave the characters time to make their impressions, I didn’t understand why the latter half of the episode went as fast as it did. Besides the lack of emotional appeal since everything was literally just thrown at us, it felt like a cheap attempt to bring Konatsu and Wakana closer together. Essentially, what could have been a really great way to start the series ended up feeling like a complete let down.

However, the first half of the episode was probably one of the most easy-going and enjoyable starts I’ve seen in a slice-of-life. While my personal favorite moment definitely goes to Atsuhiro “Wien” Maeda for mistaking gyuu-don for sukiyaki, there was this strange synergy that I really enjoyed between the girls. Most likely coming from the lively Sawa who seems to be the most positive person in the entire group. And while we’re talking about her, I just want to point out that she’s quickly becoming my favorite character. She has a great sense of style, the height to rock it, and a really positive attitude that managed to charm the supposedly unfriendly Wakana. What more could you ask for?

At the end of the day, I’m still holding out hope for this show. Even though my attention was misdirected toward the thought that the performance would be the climax of the show, an interesting mystery has popped up in its place. Just why the hell is everyone so interested in Wakana? Besides having an affinity toward the piano, just what is she hiding? From the flashbacks to the attention she garners when no one is looking, I’m hoping that it gets fleshed out a bit better than the performance was.

P.S. Did anyone notice how Sawa knocked Konatsu’s ice cream out of its cone when she grabbed her and Wakana? That wasted ice cream…

 

Preview

35 Comments

  1. My favorite moment is konatsu hiting sawa with her pillow in moe-pouting mode.
    i just love her little gasp when sawa remove the pillow and she fell on the ground.

    the pacing was fast, but i wouldn’t categorize this as a bad idea yet. coul also be a “yeah how the group form, you know that, every anime does that, but we dont want to end it here and have time to tell the real story”.

    Zeross
  2. That’s a bit too harsh Takaii. I for one thought that PA Works was brave to do away with the somewhat cliched “form rag-tag motley crew (i.e. new choir club) against the odds and prevail” story format in the second episode, thus turning the focus more on the characters themselves.

    Sawa is growing on me, I particularly liked how she slapped Konatsu on the butt to put some sense back into the latter, when she thought everything was over. And a good slap it was.

    Kinny Riddle
    1. I suppose. But I honestly believe that they could have fleshed out the characters while still giving us an inspiring story by breaking things up a bit.

      I WANT A P.A. WORKS SERIES TO MAKE ME BAWL MY EYES OUT!

      1. I find P.A. to be a studio incapable of making me even tear up, but that’s just me. (Well, asides from True Tears. Hell, the name says it all!)

        I honestly didn’t seem to see the same problems you saw. How are they forcing Konatsu and Wakana together when there’s hardly any bad blood between them? And yes, maybe the recital rehearsal did come out of the left field when we expected it to be some sort of climax, but there certainly wasn’t any great gaps in exposition or characterizations from what was already established, which makes it perfectly fine in my books. In fact, I like that they are being slighty daring with the pacing of the developments, and I’m looking forward to what Tari Tari is going to pull out next. Concerning the fleshing out of the characters, we still got the entire season ahead of us, so I don’t quite see your point there as well. All things considered, this episode was actually a decent follow up to the introductory episode.

        Asobi
    2. I felt that slap way over here, too!

      I dunno, Takaii, did you watch the same episode as the rest of us? I thought it was
      nicely executed into the ending theme for this episode. That CD is a buy – beautiful duet,
      as Highway has mentioned.

      So, I don’t know what this series is about – unlike Natsuiro Kiseki, which I expected to
      really be musically based and had essentially no music in most of the episodes
      (observation, not a critique), is this series going to focus on a beautiful melody
      every (/other) episode (with the drama/comedy the support vehicle)?

      This has got me thinking about the next episode, and I’m definitely looking forward to it!

      mac65
  3. It was a bit jarring of a time skip, but the proper execution during the choir recital, something which I thought was going to be the show’s climax, was there. What matters to me most right now is consistency. P.A. Works has had consistency issues with their last three shows, and this episode could in fact be the turning point. What they do from now on and what they actually make the show about is going to determine how Tari Tari fares.

  4. That is 2 different series this season that has started off promising but is already suffering from pacing issues in just the second episode. The funny thing is that the other series, “La storia della Arcana Famiglia”, is the exact opposite! I felt that they wasted an episode in Famiglia while Taritari started off sprinting in a marathon.

    Maybe they should get both directors to collaborate. That’ll fix the pacing issue!

    However, still a bit too early to tell I think, though I agree that the pacing for this episode was way too fast. If both remains interesting to keep me watching until the end of the season, then I’ll look back to see if there really was a huge pacing issue (Saki Achiga…looking at you -.-)

    Taiakun
  5. I really don’t see mega flaws here, the plot may be a bit too fast (this is just 1-cour show after all, the anime creators need to hurry due to the time and budget they have, and in my opinion the pacing is still pretty okay, nothing is awkward, really. I guess the people behind this anime are focusing on something else.

    Overall, Tari Tari is a pretty good show, it has likeable and interesting characters, a lot funny moments, the art direction is awesomely done, just beautifully to watch to. As for the fleshing out, I thought the characters was already being out constantly in ep. 1 and 2 and that with some quick flash-backs, not optimally done, but they are there, and really, it’s just ep. 2, perhaps wait ’till ep. 6.

    TC
    1. At first I also thought that but second episode changed that. Sawa is very outgoing. And Wakana is much nicer than Minko was. Last episode Konatsu was just pushing Wakana too hard. Sawa didn’t push Wakana too hard and actually explained the situation. She seems to be the kind of person who can persuade others without problems.

  6. I personally didn’t mind the pacing of this episode. I was quite surprised by your review, but then again, people have their own opinions.
    What made this episode good for me was the execution of the song at the end, the timing of it was brilliant. The song itself was good too, very uplifting. I’m really looking forward to when the two guys come into play.
    I like Sawa. I like Hayami Saori. A two-in-one package 🙂

  7. I pretty much had the same feeling about this epiode. Things were going through the usual motions and I expected the next eps to be about them slowly training and bonding with each other…when BAM! the recital happens. I actually rewinded because I got the feeling I missed something. It was way too fast and though the recital itself wasn’t badly executed, it lacked a real emotional heart because we hardly know these characters and haven’t seen all that much from their struggles. Not to mention it makes me wonder where the show is going to go from this point (maybe yuri? I wish), considering it feels they just got their main conflict out of the way two episodes in (I do hope they aren’t going to be faffing about for a few eps before something else happens).

    Hanasaku Iroha this is not. Oh well, I’m sticking with it to see where it goes, but I do hope they at least attempt to fix some of the flaws I’ve seen so far.

    Dvalinn
  8. Am I the only one thinking that Wakana her mother and the vice principal were friends during their school time? When you look at the OP you see the two girls dancing through the hallway before the vice pricipal shows up and those girls look a lot like the vice principal and Wakana’s mother

    I think that Wakana, her mother and the vice principal all have to do something together with that song, so the mother from Wakana probably passed away and that is why the vice principal first forbid that song or something like that, it is just a guess.

    Anyway I am pretty much sure the vice principal and Wakana’s mother were friends.

    1. yeah i noticed it too =( prolly the mother died a really tragic death or accident that made the vice so dark now and even wakana is a bit dark about singing and stuff at first. im excited to see what actually happened in the past life as the vice was pretty cute in the OP when she was young compared to now haha.

      rainbowbutt
  9. I’m just going to say this: Thank god that performance WASN’T the climax of the show. However you want look at it, it would make episode 11-12 so disgustingly predictable and pink that I would’ve stopped watching now.

    I think you were just panicking Takaii because you had high hopes of experiencing that performance with some classic dramaturgical twists and clichées with sugar on top as the finale, and you saw all your rosy dreams come crashing down around you in 10 minutes. Nobody else thought the episode was rushed.

    Now we have a clean sheet, characters somewhat established and waiting to be explored, and hopefully some horrible fate in store for them all, if it’s horrible enough it might be the best anime of the summer. TRAGEDY FTW!

    Stöt
  10. I still think True Tears was the best PA Works show to date, but we’ll see. I very much enjoyed the performance anyway.

    As for Wakana, the piano is just a basic requirement for music students (like at any music school the world over). For whatever reason they have high expectations for her that she seem to want to get away from…

    rufe
  11. I’m on the side where I think this was a good way to handle the show. Now it can be about something besides this choir, which only 3 of the main cast were in anyway, and one of them was supposed to be in name only (Wakana). Plus, there were tons of extra people in the choir that the show obviously isn’t interested in, and now that the recital is done, we don’t have to worry about who they are. Now it feels like a whole lot of possibilities are in front of them, and the plot can go many ways, instead of being forced to revolve around this choir with a bunch of extras.

    And to finish the storyline off with such a tremendous song. I’d listen to Saori Hayami sing the phone book, she’s that good (one of the best singers in the world, imo), and Asami Seto is also a terrific singer. And they put so much feeling into a short song fragment, I’m really hoping that gets released as a full length single (and given the buzz about it I’ve seen, it should be).

    Highway
  12. I usually don’t comment much on RandomC, but I felt that you were a bit too harsh on the show. I really enjoyed the second episode, in fact I loved it. The pacing didn’t seem too fast and I was actually glad they got the performance over with. As for the emotional build up, I felt sad for Konatsu when the bus didn’t make it to the performance in time. Also Sawa’s slap on Konatsu’s butt was so out of the blue lol. Seriously though, I’m looking forward to more episodes.

    cowazaki
  13. PA Works already proved with HanaIro that they dare to turn the storyline in an expected direction. And while I agree with your remarks on the pacing issues in that show, there was little wrong with the story itself.
    So I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt for now. I want to see where this one is going and whether they’re not gonna screw it up…

    dustshadow
  14. Agreeing with you here Takaii. I did not expect the group recital to be THIS EP. Wat…. I can only guess they have OTHER places they want to take this anime, and the Recital was not the be-all end-all it was advertised to be in ep 1…

    no idea if this qualifies as spoiler or not, but as speculation it’s getting hidden : Show Spoiler ▼

    *sigh* our MC still doesnt interest me that much :/. Her Styling friend, and Mr Badminton catch my attention, but mr. Clueless-in-culture … *twitch twitch* can I hit him??.

    *sigh* I’ll keep watching, but I don’t know if I /like/ this series yet :/…

    kumakaori
  15. After reading these comments, I feel like Takaii and I probably watched a totally different show D: I remember feeling awkward during the time skip and it was all too quick for me to digest what happened. To be honest, I don’t feel like I know the characters good enough yet to feel emotional for the performance. It wasn’t THAT bad in terms of execution; I just thought it would be better if they spend more time on character development than pushing the recital.

    Kaka
    1. its not so much that you and Takaii watched a different show as much as you and Takaii are insisting that the recital was supposed to be the climax of the series.
      it feels rushed because you think they should have developed the characters before the climax.
      you’re insisting that performance was supposed to be THE PERFORMANCE of the series. the one that was supposed to deliver the big emotional pay-off.

      the counterpoint others are making essentially is, considering the recital was in episode 2, it’s a fairly safe assumption that the recital was not, and was never meant to be, the climax of the series.
      and so not having developed the characters fully yet isn’t faulty pacing (its not faulty pacing on the writers’ part if you went into it with misconceptions of the pacing).
      there’s still an entire season of character development before we get to the real conclusion of the series, whatever that may be.

      who is right?
      well, we have a whole season to find out.

      it could meander aimlessly from here, and we all find that you and Takaii were right.
      or you and Takaii may find you two are the ones who are completely jumping the gun at declaring what the ending was supposed to be.

      Joe
  16. THANK YOU!! for a minute there I thought I was the only one who thought this episode had severe pacing issues. People were complaining about Sword Art Online episode 2 being rushed. No, THIS is a rush job. Thanks Takii!!

    plushkin
  17. Huh, I don’t feel that was rushed. Well, in hidnsight I did. I just doesn’t feel there’s anything bad about it. Anyway, my favorite scene would be Sawa in hospital. Especially Takahashi-sensei’s (did I got her name right? Kinda forgot after a week) quip :D.

    Salbazier
  18. It was obvious that the second half of the episode was rushed. There is a reason why P.A. Works did it. I’m guessing they are trying to get to the point before going deeper into the storyline. It would have been a boring series if this was extended throughout the rest of the remaining episodes.

    elmaton04

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