Summer season didn’t look so appealing, with only a couple good shows on the chart.

Maybe it will surprise me like it did last year with No. 6 and Penguindrum.

Let’s take a look at Tari Tari.

At first I was like “Man, I’ll probably not blog this show if the first episode is bad.”

But now I’m forced to blog this show, because damn. That first episode surpassed my expectations. I thought it was gonna be “Cute Girls Doing Cute Things” but it seems more dramatic than anything. You’d think I’d be done with drama by now, but I guess not.

From the first episode, I can tell the show has somewhat of a high budget. The scenery is well detailed, especially in the school. It looks like these kids go to some sort of private school. At least I assume so. I don’t know how the school system works there.

But god damn, look at this place. My high school didn’t look like this and it cost more money than it was worth!

Even the bathrooms look better than the one I have in my apartment!

But before I go on about the scenery, let’s take a look at the characters.

For characters, we have Wakana Sakai, a girl who lives with her father. In the first part of the show we see a flashback of her as a child playing with her mother, whom I assume is no longer living. Her father seems to be somewhat of a bum, getting up later than his daughter, but seeing as he runs his own shop, I guess he can come in whenever he wants, despite not having any customers around noon. I’m sure he still makes a decent living. How else can she afford to go to such a nice school? Scholarship?  Not to mention the house looks nice too.

Next, we have Sawa Okita, a girl who loves horseback riding and is part of the archery club. It would not be wrong of me to assume she’s rich. Horses cost a lot of money. She also seems pretty stylish when she’s not in school.

Now we have Konatsu Miyamoto. She’s very earnest and loves to sing and dance. She was a part of the choir club in school, but only as a page turner, since the vice principal seems to think she sucks at singing. Despite this, Konatsu continues to sing on her own, even in public. However, she seems to get embarrassed if someone she knows sees her doing this.

Then we have Taichi Tanaka, The Prince of Badminton. He is the only member of the Badminton club, which seems pretty sad. Apparently he lives alone with his sister, who might be a university student. He seems like a fun guy at least.

Last but not least, we have Atsuhiro Maeda, or as the class likes to call him “Wien”, who is a transfer student from Austria, where he lived for 12 years. Despite being born in Japan, he is unfamiliar with Japanese customs and consults books to help him out, only to make him look like a fool when introducing himself.

The homeroom teacher seems pretty sweet and close to her students. She is mega pregnant right now and her students have gone through the trouble to surprise her with gifts and flowers as a going away party for maternity leave. She promises to be back to see them graduate, so I assume these kids are in their 3rd year of high school.

She also wants to make yuris with Wakana.

The other adult we see is the Vice Principal who is in charge of the choir club. She may seem like a real bitch, not letting Konatsu perform in the concert, but she does seem serious about the whole ordeal. Konatsu had apparently choked during last year’s recital and that is probably why she won’t let her participate. Angry with the Vice Principal, Konatsu quits the club and tries to start her own vocal club, even going as far to drag her little brother into it.

Sawa is supportive of Konatsu, even going as far to threaten to have a talk with the Vice Principal Konatsu not being able to sing.

Konatsu decides to start a new club and take Sawa on board with her. She attempts to get Sakai to join her as well, but she is rejected immediately. Sakai has to take supplementary lessons to keep up with the curriculum, but that may not be the only reason why she refused to join.

We end the episode with Wien writing to someone from Austria about his first day back in Japan. We also see Konatsu sing in public, making a fool of herself in front of the cast of character. Supposedly, the song the choir was singing earlier is the OP to True Tears. I’ve never seen the anime, but here’s the opening.

 

[pro-player width='530' height='253' type='video']http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9_enSauFuk[/pro-player]

 

The ED has a cute song, but the animation is mostly character shots and Konatsu kicking her legs back and forth while Sawa sways a bit.

Next time will probably be about Konatsu getting people to join the club, as well as trying to persuade Sakai to join too. Hope that goes well.

Overall, I enjoyed the first episode a lot more than I thought I would. I’m excited to see what will happen next. This show seems like a short one. I can see it ending when they all graduate.

But there could be room for a second season. I think it’s too early to say that though.