Anime Hajime Review: Takunomi.

***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Takunomi. Reader discretion is advised.***

Series Synopsis

Michiru Amatsuki (voiced by Ayaka Imamura) is ready to start her new life in Tokyo. She has always dreamed of moving to the big city and is in awe of how intimidating it turns out to be. Fortunately for her, she managed to find a place to come home to every night. A place where she learns the joy of opening a refreshing cold one at the end of a long day.

As the newest resident of the share house, Stella House, Michiru receives a warm and friendly welcome. Her three new share mates appear to have Tokyo down to a science. Or at the very least, they know a good cocktail that will help combat the stress.

Nao Kiriyama, her younger sister Makoto, and Kae Midorikawa (voiced by Chika Anzai, Maaya Uchida, and Mikako Komatsu) have a vast array of knowledge concerning the metropolis and all things alcohol-related.

It doesn’t matter where you are from. Drinks always taste the best when you have people to share them with.

Series Positives

To all my readers, I ask you to adhere to the legal drinking age of whatever country you are reading this review in. If you are of age, please drink responsibly. If you are not, understand there may be severe consequences should you get caught.

 

I think that covers my bases.

Takunomi had two advantages at the start.

First, Michiru was the youngest tenant of Stella House at the age of 20. That meant this would be a series outside of high school. I’m not sure how much weight that holds with you, but that was the single reason why I queued up this show. This is a personal preference of mine because this small change allowed for the opportunity to add different things to the, for the lack of a better word, story.

For example, alcohol.

And speaking of alcohol, that was part of the second initial advantage Takunomi had.

I’m not sure what it says about me when I admit a series focused on drinking had my immediate attention. But regardless, that was what happened. I went into Takunomi thinking there was a chance of this being a fun time.

Too bad what “could have been” doesn’t matter much when in the face of what actually was. Takunomi wasn’t terrible; not by a long shot. Except in many ways, that made it much worse. Takunomi was forgettable.

This show’s unremarkable nature wasn’t the result of its short format. Just a few reviews ago, Pop Team Epic once again proved a series doesn’t need a lot of time to leave a significant impact.

That said, Takunomi’s length did exacerbate its biggest problem. This show’s version of what it tried to pass off as an identity was bland. It presented itself in such a way that made this series feel dragged out.

Or to put it another way, even at fifteen minutes an episode, Takunomi was too long.

That was a massive shame since this show, from a technical standpoint, was fine. The animation was nice. The series remained focused and on point. The voice cast did a great job despite not having much to work with. Takunomi wasn’t void of interesting things.

The Characters

When they had the chance, Michiru, Nao, Makoto, and Kae brought the best out of this show. While I doubt I will ever get around to reading this series’ source material, there is something I would like to find out.

In the manga, I’m curious to learn what drove Takunomi more, the booze or the characters?

If it’s the former, the anime would actually be a faithful adaptation. And assuming that is the case, it would be even less likely I will ever pick up this series’ source. But should the latter be true, and the characters were the focus, that would add a bit more credence to what this show’s greatest burden was.

We will discuss that later.

Whatever the reality may be, what the anime version of Takunomi had were hints of a much more engaging show.

The tenants of Stella House allowed this series to have moments that were worth paying attention to. In these four women, I saw elements that reminded me of the characters from Hidamari Sketch.

Although the two shows aren’t one to one comparisons, Takanomi’s main four, Michiru, Nao, Makoto, Kae, and their interactions with each other were like the adult versions of the residents of the Hidamari apartments.

And to make it clear, I’m using this as a compliment towards Takunomi.

Similarities aside, this show’s cast of characters managed to carve out four distinct personalities for themselves.

As its center, Takunomi couldn’t have asked for a better lead than Michiru. The show giving her have a strong tolerance for alcohol, but still having her be inexperienced with the vast variety of drinks out there worked in its favor.

I could bring up how farfetched it was to have someone who had never gone out drinking before coming of age, which in Japan is 20, be able to hold their own against seasoned drinkers. But I will gladly take that over a character who can get sloshed just by the smell of liquor.

Pick your battles is what I’m saying.

Beyond her tolerance level, watching Michiru get used to working life and living in Tokyo was always interesting. Her tackling her troubles and her worrying about her share mates demonstrated there was more to this character than a person who drank every night.

The best scene of Takunomi involved Michiru, and it came in episode six. And on top of that, alcohol had nothing to do with this moment. Or least that last part was accurate when compared to how the show usually handled its drink of the week.

As for the other residents of Stella House, there was a lot more to them besides their drug of choice.

For both Nao and Kae, they had several years of career life under their belts. Compared to Michiru and Makoto who were just starting out, the two older women had grown accustomed to their daily grind. Them spending time with their share mates drinking the night away was their way to relax and wind down. More than that though, this show illustrated how much stress the two were under.

This was less the case with Kae, but it was Nao who had a rather grounding moment when Michiru, being the country girl she was, asked for fashion advise. While on the surface this was Nao enjoying her herself like always, this small gesture helped remind Nao why she got into her line of work. There was an actual person behind the walking alcohol encyclopedia.

To go along with this, Nao was also always trying to be a supportive big sister for Makoto; an act that didn’t go unnoticed.

And with the mention of the little sister, Takunomi set Makoto up to be a particular character type. She appeared to be stoic and collected. Had the series followed through with this, Makoto would have stood out in a negative way. Instead, she became my favorite character of the show.

Too bad, in addition to that, Makoto was the best aspect Takunomi never used.

The most common pairing was Michiru and Nao. Or to be more exact, Michiru and Nao’s extensive alcohol knowledge. Whenever drinking didn’t come up with Nao, so this was almost never, that was when she became a far more fascinating character. As an extension of that, I can say the same thing regarding Kae as well.

Seeing the opposite of this was the reason why I liked Makoto as much as I did. There was more to her thinking than what her next drink was going to be. Similar to how it was with Michiru, Makoto was only starting out. In fact, despite being a year older than Michiru, Makoto had even less life experience.

Being in her final year of university, Makoto had begun job searching. A few of Takunomi’s more memorable moments came when the two youngest residence of Stella House were supporting each other as they adjusted to their new lives as adults.

Takunomi was one of those series where the more desirable route was sitting right there. If given a choice, I would much rather have a show that is consistently dull than one that shines on a few occasions. Knowing another option was possible resulted in a much more frustrating viewing.

The times when Takunomi found some stride in its efforts make it even more unfortunate that this series will ultimately become a missable footnote of 2018.

Series Negatives

In case I haven’t made it clear, I will be as blunt as possible.

Takunomi was boring.

Think of this show as a science class. Correct me if I’m the only person who sees it this way, but the experimentation part of science is objectively more interesting than listening to lectures on theories.

In this analogy, listening to people talk about why drinking is fun is way less exciting than actually doing it yourself.

Also, as a quick tangent, there was something about Takunomi that I personally found difficult to listen to. This is not a hit against the show since it didn’t do anything wrong.

I found Michiru’s idolization of Tokyo to be near insufferable.

I get how a lifelong resident of a much smaller town would fantasize about the glitz and glamor of the big city. However, two years of living in that city drained all of my energy. Tokyo is a fine place to visit, but I assure you, it is a beast unlike any other.

Plus, most Japanese beers taste like water to me.

Getting back to Takunomi, I could see there was talent behind this show. Like I said in the beginning, from the animation to the voice acting, this series was well made.

And that brings me to a question I had earlier. I was wondering what the primary focus of the Takunomi manga was. How much did the source material rely on alcohol?

 

Given how the literal translation of the word “takunomi” is “drinking at home” in Japanese, I imagine the characters cracked open a beer or two in the manga.

Thus, to question how much alcohol is in an adaptation of this series is the wrong thing to focus on. I know I would like to see what kind of funding went into this show.

A 15 Minute TV Ad

Takunomi was a twelve-episode ad campaign for various alcoholic drinks. And each ad was roughly fifteen minutes long.

I would not consider myself an expert on Japanese trademark law. But given how many knock-off brands I have come across in anime, I’m willing to bet someone needs to ask someone for permission somewhere.

There weren’t many parody products in Takunomi. This show had the real deal. Every drink that this series showcased you can find in almost every store in Japan. And don’t go thinking Takunomi was subtle in doing this. Every can, bottle, and label was loud and impossible to miss. The attention to detail was honestly astonishing.

If you think the issues with Takunomi concern the ethical nature of such blatant product placement, I would have to disagree. But if I can be real for a second, seeing this series go to this level, made me feel a little dirty. That said, if this show was trying to be a glorified TV commercial, it at least could have been smart about it.

Listening to Takunomi’s characters try to sell the featured drink in a given episode was what made this show hard to get through.

This was a two-fold problem.

First, the series would often go into great detail about little tidbits that were not interesting. For example, I now know the history behind the cans used for Hyoketsu.

For those who don’t know, Hyoketsu is a label of Chuhai, a cocktail of shochu, soda water, and fruit juice, sold by the Kirin Brewing Company. It is one of the most recognizable brands in Japan, and no convenience store would be caught dead without it. 

Also due to the wide variety of flavors and relatively high alcohol content, this stuff will get you smashed real quick if you’re not paying attention.

Thanks to the diamond cutting of its cans, Hyoketsu has a very distinctive feel to it when you’re holding one in your hand. This series could have just pointed this factoid out and moved on to something else. Instead, the show tried to make this sound like the greatest thing to ever exist. Come off it.

This leads to the second problem with Takunomi’s sales pitch. The characters, usually Nao, came on way too strong.

This series had a horrible habit of overblowing its descriptions. Pouring a beer, even a high class one, isn’t the most magical thing on the face of the Earth. Making a simple cocktail shouldn’t be akin to sorcery. Takunomi needed to calm down.

Although I will add this, the show did give me some mixes I would like to try. In that sense, I suppose the marketing nature of this series was effective to an extent.

But at the end of the day, Takunomi is going to be like that one flashy commercial you saw a year ago. If you’re having trouble coming up with an example, that’s precisely my point.

Final Thoughts

You would only be wasting your time on this one.

There were good elements in this show. This wasn’t a train wreck. The characters were fun, but they never had the chance to be anything more. The series had a point it wanted to focus on, and its execution in doing this went way too far.

If an anime can’t hold my attention for fifteen minutes, don’t expect it to be one I will remember in a week. At the top of this review, I said this show had some advantages going in its favor. And in the end, what promise there was, never came to fruition.

Takunomi is a show you can skip.

But these are just my thoughts. What are yours? Have you seen this show? What would be your advice concerning Takunomi? Leave a comment down below because I would love to hear what you have to say.

And if you liked what you read, be sure to follow me on my social media sites so that you never miss a post or update. Also, please share this review across the internet to help add to the discussion.

I’m LofZOdyssey, and I’ll see you next time.

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