Tari Tari starts as any high school slice-of-life drama does: A group of high school students-some friends, some just classmates-preparing and leaving for school. It’s an approach that I’ve seen may times before, but this time things felt slightly different. What I thought at first would be a decent enough thirteen episode series ended up affecting me way more than I thought it would, providing a thoroughly enjoyable and emotional experience for those who are willing to give it a chance. Also, it’s one of the funniest series that I’ve seen in this genre.
The story begins with lovable spitfire Konatsu, who wants nothing more than to sing in her school’s choir group despite an embarrassing, albeit comedic, accident at last year’s Big Competition. She attempts to complain to the club’s advisor, but ends up doing what anyone with a short temper and no filter does in this situation: She quits. However, she wants so bad to sing that she forms her own group. Eventually, through a few close calls and some ill-advised antics, Konatsu ends up with a club of five distinct characters.
While it would be easy to place Tari Tari’s central cast into anime character stereotypes, it’s the little things that these characters do to break out of these definitions that really endears them to the viewer. For example, Wien is the token foreign exchange student who, unlike most characters of this type, actually has a emotionally poignant story tying him back to the place he moved from. They all seem more natural and realistic than most anime characters. Their relationships develop quite naturally and there is no shallow romance thrown in just to have it there. Each character has his or her own conflict that is smartly woven into the overarching storyline. No one overshadows the others and they are consistently touching and detailed. Some character motivations seem shallow and out of sync with their story, but this is easy to overlook for the most part. For the most part, the characters grow simultaneously as friends and people as they each come to terms with their own problems.
What really sets these characters and Tari Tari apart is their sense of humor. Hands down, my favorite part of this series was the subtle comedy. The conversations of the characters all feel very natural. The voice actors each deserve some serious recommendation for pulling off the scenes where characters talk over each other, which is both refreshing and genius. The inclusion of this also leads to some hilarious conversations that need to be viewed twice to get the full humor. There are also some callbacks that provide an essence of nostalgia to the humor. I laughed out loud more than a few times, which is usually rare for anime comedy.
The art style is well suited to the subject matter and the character designs are very cute, if not a little generic. P.A. Works did a predictably beautiful job with the animation, as I have always experienced with series that they produce. Every character’s movements are fluid and their expressions accurately convey their emotions. The dances that the characters do while they sing are especially well done. There are no huge sweat drops or stress veins and it is all kept really tasteful. Tari Tari’s animation and art are very natural and an active pleasure to look at.
The parts that were really sad brought me to the verge of tears, sometimes farther. The jokes made me laugh more than they probably should have. My emotions went up and down with the characters and I was relieved and happy with the conclusion as it stood. There are some minor knots that weren’t tied up, but as with the motivations, they were negligible at worst. Tari Tari was more natural and realistic than most slice-of-life series and, as a result, is much easier to relate to. It’s not the best series I’ve seen in this genre, but I’d be hard-pressed to find someone who didn’t feel something at one point in the series. Overall, Tari Tari is a consistently entertaining and enjoyable story of friendship and music that I think fans of the genre realy need to see.
Best Episode: Episode 10
Overall Score: 4/5
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