I wasn’t prepared for this. Kyoto Animation, you have thrown me a curve ball from straight out of left field. But from what I saw from the first episode, I think KyoAni has themselves another homerun.

Enough with the baseball metaphor. Tamako Market‘s first episode was completely different than what I anticipated it would be. A show being done by the K-ON! team left a preconceived notion in my mind that this would be nothing more than another moeblob anime. While that is still partially true, Kyoto Animation has turned moe into a cash cow. For KyoAni to step away from moe would be like SHAFT removing broken necks in their shows; it’s their distinctive style. What I wasn’t expecting was this bizarre twist of having a talking bird. I think the first five minutes put me in the most jarring state of confusion that I’ve ever been in with a first episode. At the very least the characters acknowledge that this is not some everyday occurrence in the world of Tamako Market. But at the same time they aren’t exactly shocked by the matter. It’s more of “A talking bird? How fascinating ” rather than “A talking bird? WHAT IS THIS WITCHCRAFT????”. KyoAni makes a smooth transition of creating Mochiyucky into one of the main characters of the show. And making him the most interesting character of the entire cast.

The writers have a lot to play around with in Tamako Market. Comedy, romance, feels… talking birds, top hats… I feel there is more to the whole deceased mother/”I’m the daughter of a mochi maker so I have to make mochi for the shop and be a good daughter and help out” ordeal than meets the eye. Does this song that Tamako is trying to remember have some sort of deeper meaning than some children’s lullaby? Did her mother just die or was it something more tragic like some freak mochi accident? Whose to say. All I can say is that this will play a significant factor to the show later on. I guarantee it. As for the “romance”, I think that the show has established itself too much of a comedy for this whole unrequited love between Tamako and Mochizou to sprout wings and develop into anything. In fact my first thought about this show was that it was K-ON! with a splash of Nichijou. I bring up Nichijou because there are some small elements to this first episode that make me think of that show, such as the way the characters react to certain events, a talking bird, or how Mochiyucky’s eyes turn into projectors at the end of the episode and display some sort of past life he used to have (which is another aspect to the show that I think will have some sort of significance). So because of all of that,  I can’t say I can take the romance in the show that seriously. At least not right away. But what I can say with absolute certainty is that Tamako Market has grabbed my attention. This show was nothing that I expected it to be. And I look at that in a positive light. If this had just been another generic moeblob show from KyoAni, my thoughts on it would have been “Ok, another generic moeblob from KyoAni. Just as I expected.” and I wouldn’t be writing this post. I have high hopes for Tamako Market and hope that it keeps up with what it has presented so far. This show has given me hope that the  rest of the Winter season won’t be as bad as half of the aniblogsphere is making it out to be. Also,

Mochizou confirmed for tsundere