***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Tari Tari. Reader discretion is advised.***
Series Synopsis
There are things in our lives which cling to our hearts. They fill us with sadness. They fill us with regret. They stifle us. They hold us back because of the pain. That’s why they are often the very things which can push us forward.
Such is the case for five high school students.
Wakana Saki (voiced by Ayahi Takagaki) has given up singing since the death of her mother. The thought of music is nothing but a painful reminder of un-kept promises.
Konatsu Miyamoto (voiced by Asami Seto) would give anything for one last chance to sing on stage. An opportunity which is becoming less and less likely every passing day.
Sawa Okita (voiced by Saori Hayami) is a girl of many talents. But only has a passion for horse riding. Too bad her dreams may be out of reach.
Taichi Tanaka (voiced by Nobunaga Shimazaki) is the sole member of the badminton club. Despite this, he never stops trying to achieve his goals. Yet that doesn't make things easy.
Atsuhiro “Wien” Maeda (voiced by Natsuki Hanae) has spent the last twelve years in Austria. While exctited to return to his home country, he can never forget the time he spent abroad.
Their backgrounds couldn't be any more different. Yet they found solidarity in the choir group of their own creation.
Alone, these five would be stuck going nowhere. Together, though, there's nothing that can stop them.
Series Positives
Behind the scenes story, I’ve been meaning to watch Tari Tari for a while. For one reason or another, it just never happened. Either a different show would peak my interest. Or, more often than not, I wasn't thinking about it when picking a series.
This type of occurrence happens all the time. Something about a show grabs my attention. I queued it up. There it sits. I forget what it was which caught my eye. And I'm left with an anime waiting in the back of my head. Plus, you should see how many series are on my “To Watch” list.
Some instances of this happening were with Cowboy Bebop and Another. Strange that some of the best I’ve watched were the ones I kept putting off. A fascinating track record to say the least. Thus, I wondered if Tari Tari would continue as such. That’s why I was determined to watch this one at last. Would the streak continue?
Well sure enough, if you can believe it, it didn’t.
I believe I’m in the vast minority here and I’m not sure why. Tari Tari was littered with problems. Distracting problems. I couldn’t get into it.
Odyssey. That was a roundabout way of telling us you didn’t like this one, wasn’t it?
Good point. I wonder where I got the idea to do that?
Would I call this series awful? No, not even close. There were good things in it. It did plenty which was all right.
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| Wakana |
Except, whenever this series did do something well, it did so in exchange for several things which weren’t. Or several things which didn’t make sense. Or were annoying. Or were both annoying and didn’t make sense. Tari Tari was all over the place.
There were a few plots happening in this story. I hesitate to say "at the same time" since that was kind of the case. Then again, sometimes it wasn’t. A few storylines were sort of brushed to the side. That or they came out of nowhere. Leaving in its wake, a show without much focus.
Disappointing since Tari Tari did have something which could’ve been the focus. Or more the point, should’ve been the sole focus. Instead of one of many side plots. Granted the most important, most developed side plot. But that's irrelevant.
Wakana’s Story
If you want to watch a show about rediscovering lost passion, watch Your Lie in April. For now, though, we’re stuck with Tari Tari. With that, this is the best part of the entire show.
That sounds more cynical than I’d like it to be. Despite me having a lot of issues with this series, this isn’t one of them.
Wakana’s journey to come back to music was well done. It was, without question, the only thing I found myself caring about. That had everything to do with there being good reasons for her actions.
Since the death of her mother, Wakana didn’t want anything to do with music. Although I mentioned Your Lie in April, that series was a bit more hostile in its setup. Tari Tari didn’t rely on an extreme. Music didn’t grip Wakana with fear. Instead, it filled her with guilt and regret.
The source of that guilt and the source that regret made a lot of sense. What happened to Wakana’s mother was, of course, out of her hands. There was nothing anyone could’ve done to prevent it. But since Wakana didn’t have all the information to work with, her actions weren't that of an awful person. They were that of a teenager.
We’ve all gotten angry at a parent. We’ve all shouted and said some nasty things we didn’t mean. Often over petty stuff too. And we would stay upset for a while. It happens. Sooner or later, it’s water under the bridge. We find the chance to say sorry tomorrow.
What happens if tomorrow never came? I know I would feel as if I played a hand in an unavoidable tragedy. Because of that, I wanted Wakana to find her passion again. This was a legitimate connection created by this show.
And it’s not the only reason why I liked this story.
Tari Tari did a great job of justifying why Wakana’s mother did what she did. She made a choice between two options which both sucked. The one she went with was the lesser of two evil. Not to mention it would result in a more positive outcome in the long run. Until that happened though, it was going to hurt.
This should have been the series. Wakana should've been the main focus. Everything should've tied into this story. From what I’ve said, however, it seems like that was what happened. So then why do I call it a side plot?
First off, this wasn't properly introduced until episode three. By this point in the show, a lot had already taken place. Which is a much bigger issue in itself. Trust me, I’ll get into that in a second.
Also, by the time all this started, the choir group had established itself as the centerpiece. That was annoying because of more issues.
The other characters had their own problems. Now saying “other characters” is me being generous. I should be saying the girl characters. The guys were useless. Sawa’s plot was fine. It could’ve been taken out in its entirety, but what are you going to do? Then there was Konatsu who’s kind of at the core of why I couldn’t get into this show.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
I can see why people would like this show. Except that’s only if Wakana’s story is the only thing a person is remembering. That and the animation. Yet surrounding both of these high points was a minefield of irrelevance.
Series Negatives
The ending of Tari Tari was fine. It did what it set out to do. It fulfilled the choir group’s reason for existing.
Konatsu didn’t want her last onstage appearance in high school to be a failure. The choir group was a chance to rectify that. And despite an endless supply of obstacles, Konatsu did it. She gave a performance she could be proud of.
Nice and tidy. No, lose ends. I could move on to another show. Except I couldn’t. For you see, this was episode two. There were still eleven episodes to go.
Why? You did it. You did everything you wanted to do. Konatsu got her re-do. All we knew about Wakana not wanting to sing were for "personal reasons". But she overcame them enough to get on stage to help anyway. Sawa hadn’t done anything up to this point. And the guys weren’t important at all.
So, after the performance, why would the choir group need to continue? The series even said there wouldn’t be any more major performances like this. There wasn’t any reason to go on. But go it did.
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| Konatsu |
There was a beach festival. The team didn’t need to be a club to do that. They could’ve just been a group of friends that like to sing together.
There was also another opportunity at the seires' actual end. I’m going to save that for its own section because I find it that stupid.
There was also another opportunity at the seires' actual end. I’m going to save that for its own section because I find it that stupid.
This show’s major plot arc, Wakana’s story, started after the show’s initial purpose ended. So yeah, I stopped seeing the point. Anything good that happened afterward was rendered moot. And anything that wasn’t good was that much harder to sit through.
Konatsu
Much like Tari Tari, Konatsu wasn’t all bad. She did have her moments. She knew how to knock people off their high horse. But this was the exception, not the rule.
Konatsu was a brat. She failed to realize that some rules existed for a reason. That and the world doesn’t bend to her will on a whim. She had a habit of being surprised whenever she didn’t get her way. It didn’t matter if what she was doing would cause one or two or a ton problems.
Let's go back to how this series ended way in the beginning. Konatsu was astonished when the entirety of her club left after the big performance. Never mind the fact she used underhanded tactics to get that far. As well as offer temporary incentives which were achieved. She didn’t have enough people in her club, so of course it was going to get shut down.
Let's go back to how this series ended way in the beginning. Konatsu was astonished when the entirety of her club left after the big performance. Never mind the fact she used underhanded tactics to get that far. As well as offer temporary incentives which were achieved. She didn’t have enough people in her club, so of course it was going to get shut down.
Yet the thing that bugged me the most was Konatsu's tendency to say awful things without thinking. One of her worst was when she mocked Taichi’s dream of becoming a pro badminton player. It was made even more insensitive knowing she cheated to get her way. You could argue she had a plan the whole time. Except, the ends in no way justified the means.
I was real happy when the series shifted focus to Wakana.
The Ending
The true ending of Tari Tari was stupid and dumb and I hated it.
Maybe it’s because I've seen this setup so many times, but this wasn’t a twist ending for me. If that wasn’t the point, then that’s better than what I’m assuming it was. It doesn’t make it any more good.
I don’t want to spoil the ending on the off it does catch you by surprise. I wouldn't want to ruin that. So, I’m only going to say two things about it.
One, it was one hundred percent avoidable. There was no reason to have this ending. And there was even less reason for it to happen the way it did. If everything was delayed a week then there would’ve been no issues. That wouldn’t have been that outrageous request either. Especially since the show mentioned it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.
Two, evil businessman doing the evil business of evil business. This guy was a cartoon. I realize how that's weird to say since this was an animation. But oh wow, this was the stereotypical CEO with no heart. His mere existence ruined any chance of me taking this ending seriously.
Final Thoughts
So you have a beginning that shot itself in the foot. And an end that didn't make any sense. Between those extremes was something that was decent.
To be honest, I thought I'd enjoy this one. It had nothing to do with that positive streak I mentioned earlier. Tari Tari seemed like the kind of show I would enjoy.
To be honest, I thought I'd enjoy this one. It had nothing to do with that positive streak I mentioned earlier. Tari Tari seemed like the kind of show I would enjoy.
I didn’t.
If there’s something I’m missing, please tell. Yes, there are good things in this show. But they do not out weight what’s wrong with it.
Think back when you were a kid. It’s your birthday and you’re handed a beautifully wrapped present. You can’t wait to open it. Then when you do, you realize it’s just a new pair of socks. Underwhelming.
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