First Impression – Tamayura ~hitotose~

Cute girls doing cute things…BUT WITH CAMERAS!

Momoneko! Time to join Potte back with her moe-moe buddies and revel at small things in life. Let’s go~

Well, this is nostalgic. The Tamayura OVAs were the first tag team post I ever did. Who would have thought that unsuspecting little 4 part OVA would get an anime?

Fu is a sweet but clumsy girl who enjoys taking photos of her friends while cats may or may not fall on her head. It depends on the circumstances, but today is a cat-flop type of day. After being introduced to her current friends, the series backtracks to how she got to this place and decided to become a photographer like her deceased father. Before moving, she was friends with a girl named Chihiro who is more upset about the death of Fu’s father than Fu herself.

2 minutes in and my heart has healed already

Chihiro spends most of her time sobbing and trying to avoid anything that would remind Fu of her father’s death, and overall being a horrible friend incapable of supporting anyone. On the bright side, she makes cool plushies! Fu recalls that she used to go through her dad’s photo album with Chihiro when her dad was still alive, but the album has since then been stuffed in a closet. She parts ways with Chihiro and returns home, only to find her little brother Kou leafing through aforementioned photo album.

Maybe she just has chronic allergies…

At first, Fu is a bit sad at the memories surging to brain. Actually, no, she is completely fine and has always been completely fine, so I don’t know why the hell she has to go through some healing process. She joins Kou in looking through the album, and this inspires her to dig up her father’s old camera too. With newfound determination, she decides to start taking photos and become an amateur photographer.

Chihiro is mightily impressed by Fu’s courage, and congratulates her by bursting into tears. I don’t why, but Fu deems Chihiro a special enough friend to have her be the first thing she takes a photo of. Those tamayura don’t know jack shit for appearing in that photo. Geez. MOVING ON, Fu takes things a step further and asks to go to a high school near the Seto Inland Sea – where her father used to go on photography outings. On the whim of a loli, the whole family decides to move.

Can you guess how Chihiro handles this by now? Can you? She bawls like a baby into her pile of plushies, gives Fu a nonsensical pep talk about being aggressive, and then shoves a bag of deformed plushies into her arms. In between all of this, Fu sends a few of her photos to a professional photographer she admires and actually gets a response letter with a blank ticket inside as well.

Let’s see…the script says the ticket represents your uncertain future. Woah, deep.

Just before Fu finally moves, Chihiro does one good thing and gives her a supah kawaii camera case with a matching album. They say goodbye, and Fu leaves on a train all by herself. She reminisces on the way about going there with her father and Kou, and starts getting nervous. All that stress is instantly relieved when she steps off the train and sees her childhood friend Kaoru welcoming her back casually. It’s like she had never left.

Extra Healing For Good measure:

Ahh, you must be the one who designed all those new Pokemon.

“Ni hao!” “Oh crap, I rode the train too far!”

I pray for at least more than a short cameo in the first episode…

Let’s send this professional photographer a bunch of pictures of shotas and hope she likes it!

End Thoughts:

Oh man, I’m going soft. Like srsly. Along with it, my taste in anime too; I remember scoffing at Working!! and Angel Beats! first episodes and dropping them. Sure, I picked them back later and came to love them but if I compare my early anime days to now, I’ve come to like a lot of things I wouldn’t have paid much heed to in the first place. Tamayura is one of those titles that didn’t look interesting at all but I ended up liking it. The OVAs were pretty cute so when the series was announced, I was all ready to follow it.

Sakamoto Maaya, who is missing from this season altogether gives her voice for the OP so I have some consolation. The twin-tailled Fuu surprised me but I soon realized it was a flashback (I ended up missing the on screen announcement as I was mutli-tasking). Chihiro’s crying face… LOL; I’m glad I don’t have any friends like her because I would’ve ended up smacking them and telling them, stop showing your emotions all the time because it’s never good. Still, she was adorable in taking caring of Fuu when she was down and nursing her grief. Losing a parent is never easy and this is such a loss that is very much irreplaceable.

  

This is going to be pretty slow-paced like Kimi to Boku. So, if slice of life/school life is not your thing, I would tell you to move on and watch Fate/Zero, Persona 4, etc. With the flashback in place, I guess we are all ready to unravel more about Potte and her new found friends at Seto Island. Would Chihiro join this bunch? Who knows but there must be a reason to show her. Also, maybe we’ll get another visit from the famous Photographer Potte so admires. So, I’ve warned you enough but if this genre is what you like, stick around, this is going to be a slow yet pleasant ride with momonekos and kawaiii characters.

The first episode is like a nice little prequel to the OVAs, explaining Fuu’s past before she moved. It’s also a lot more focused on the healing aspects and how Fuu copes. By a lot more, I mean instead of completely not at all she kind of looks a bit nonchalent before looking absolutely fine. It seems like at the start of the series she’s already over her dad’s death, and is now on a quest to become a great photographer and eat cake with her friends. I don’t foresee a lot of actual drama, tension or any sort of confrontation on Fuu’s behalf later on in the series. It’s all light-hearted, soft and fluffy. It’s nice if you want to relax, but not if you’re in it for a complex tale of a girl getting over bereavement. Haha, no, now watch a fluffy pink cat fall on her face.

It doesn’t succeed in being deep, but does it succeed in being cute and fluffy? Yes. Yes, it does. It’s got that sweet, slice of life feel to it and simply drifts along at its own pace. Fuu is cute, the animation is cute, and the photography element is a nice touch to keep things from being too banal. If it’s enough to keep an action-loving nut like me amused, it’s got at least some substance. Let’s hope it can keep it up for the entire season though – the OVA really started to make stuff up by the end. I really do wish all the best for Tamayura, because it’s doing slice of life right without too much pandering or boring scenes.

Fuu is adorable, and watching her and her brother is a joy. It’s her friends that are a bit kooky. If you couldn’t tell by Chihiro, they’re all one-note characters. They have a trait and a hobby, and that’s it. Chihiro is a crybaby and she makes dolls. Maon is quiet and she likes to whistle. Norie is hyper and a shotacon. They’re all pretty boring, and even annoying after a while. I can only hope that they mellow out a bit in the anime instead of sticking to their trademark trait such as sniffing everything or whistling every minute. But seeing as Chihiro cried at everything, well, let’s not expect too much.

Preview: More healing shizz happens.