Tari Tari - Reviews

I liked it. My only complaint would be I was hoping it would finish with more of a bang. Like, usually in a good show, the last couple of episodes are blowing me hardcore on the emotional level. Regardless, I thought it was good.

I watched this anime at the exact right moment in my life and I appreciated it's honest approach to championing pursuing your dreams, never giving up, and making the best out of bad situations. I thought it handled the concept of grief really well, too, which was unexpected. The story might be tried and tested - and predictable - but that's by no means a bad thing when it's executed with an obvious care for its characters and concepts. I enjoyed the journey. Of course it's not a perfect anime, but it doesn't matter, I enjoyed it for what it was. 

Tari Tari is a beautiful story of five high schoolers on the cusp of their graduation, their dreams, and their battle against the forces which would alter or ruin these dreams.

Konatsu is a girl who loves to sing, but she has been banished from her high school’s Choral Club due to an ‘epic failure’ which occurred as a second-year.  She is opposed by the choir director who also is the vice-principal (double whammy!).  So Konatsu reforms the ‘Choir Club’ that had existed before it changed to the Choral Club.  This means all the worries of finding members and battling the entrenched school bureaucracy (aka, the vice principal).

Wakana would have been an ideal choice for Konatsu’s group, except for one thing.  She despises music.  This comes from an incident three years prior, when in a fury to do well in the entrance exams, Wakana neglects her mother (a wonderful songwriter and singer, and a dead-ringer for Wakana at that age).  Mother hid from her that she was suffering from a fatal disease and expires before mother could achieve her dream … write a song with Wakana.

Sawa loves horse-riding and dreams to be a jockey one day.  But the prestigious riding academy in Japan rejects her application because Sawa is tall and … no, no, no way is Sawa fat!  But those extra pounds on a horse.  Oy!  Sawa joins Konatsu Choir Club immediately, but she never cancels her dream of being an equestrian.

Taichi is a master of badminton (never mispronounce his sport as it drives him batty) but he is alone in the sport.  He can’t compete for his high school and advance in nationals.  Taichi only joins when Konatsu agrees to forming the Choir … and Sometimes Badminton … Club.

Wien is an Austrian transfer student, a friendly boy who is a touch on the gullible side (they release a white rhino to mark the celebration of the school’s White Festival?  … cool!).  But he is a super-hero fanatic who follows the five-color Gamba-Rangers.  His leadership helps the Choir Club raise funds and support the local business district, full throttle sentai style.

The pressures which work against the girls hopes for a newly reformed Choir Club comes from two directions.  First, there is the vice principal, who can’t forgive Konatsu ‘clinker’ in the previous choral competition and lives for the advancement of music, and the Choir Club would just ruin the school’s image.  But the greatest danger comes from the school’s chairman of the board who is plotting to tear down the school and develop an upper-level housing complex, a lucrative deal for himself and the reluctant principal who deep down is unwilling to demolish the school.  The chairman works to cancel every school festival and project as he tries to accelerate construction.  Including the White Festival, which is the Choir Club’s only opportunity to shine.

The resolutions come hot and heavy as we approach episode last.  Konatsu’s never say die spirit inspires the students to raise a mini-rebellion against the chairman and hold the White Festival despite chains and padlocks.  Wakana learns from her father that mother had left notes for the song she wished to write with daughter, and she gains help from mother’s dear high school friend, who happens to be the vice principal.  The song becomes the hit of the White Festival.  Sawa resolves to attend a riding academy oversea, and, as she boards the plane, Taichi offers his confession of love to her (muted by the choir’s singing, and only the facial expressions of Taichi, Wakana and the three others give you clues of what is going on).  Taichi will attend a college with a strong badminton program, but he wishes to explore more of life in his college experience.  Wien returns to Austria to share his adventures with the sickly Austrian boy his letters had failed to reach.

The anime technique was so-so.  There were high points as Konatsu's stumble in opening theme.  She was in the lead, and Taichi and Wien pass her to stunned to catch her, but Konatsu is saved by the taller Wakana and Sawa.  Likewise in the scene of the five members advancing forward in closing theme as Konatsu moves across Wien, a touch of complicated animation.  Still, there is the low point of the looping scene where the Choir Club is seated at the fountain with Konatsu's rhythmic swinging of legs and Taichi's sudden juggling of the shuttle cock with his badminton racket.  A touch of clumsy in a sea of intricate animation sets.

But, as Tari Tari is about the music we compose and sing, and the spirits that we raise in doing so ... the music was full-force catharsis.  That these students could overcome the schemes that would ruin their school experience in the name of progress a la condo ... it's the priceless reason Tari Tari stands out in the ranks of the ‘thirteen episode and done’ variety of anime.