Tamako Market is a KyoAni work from the winter 2013 season. The show outlines the life of the Bunny Mountain Market of which Tamako Kitashirakawa, her friends, and family are a part, upon the arrival of a flamboyant talking bird named Dera Mochimazzui (
this is funny because Tamako's family runs a mochi shop) who belongs to a foreign royal family and is searching for their prince's bride to be.
...though he really just ends up staying there eating the Kitashirakawa family's homemade mochi.
As I'm sure you've all learned by now, KyoAni may as well be synonymous with moe, and this is no exception, but Tamako Market has a far more humbling and fun way of going about it. The focus here is being fun, lovable, and entertaining, not just stuffing cuteness into an animation budget. Since this show is an anime original, the characters (there are a lot) all interact very naturally and the writing and pacing are perfectly executed for a 12-episode series.
Not to mention between Dera's ridiculous boasting, Kanna's deadpan humor and the record store guy's expert timing, this show has some of the best comedy characters and voice acting in a while...and I've enjoyed more than my fair share of above-average comedy recently.
I don't think there's a whole lot to say about Tamako Market other than KyoAni have carried over their streak of fantastic storywriting from 2012. It's weird, I'm sitting here thinking "we don't have a Tamako thread yet" and started this all enthusiastically but I can't find a summary online that does this show justice and I know I'm not really doing a convincing job of writing one, and that's because on the surface, this show seems vapid and run-of-the-mill. I want to reassure everyone though that Tamako Market is most definitely worth a watch, especially if you enjoy 22 minutes of pure cheeriness. All episodes are available with English subs on YouTube.
An underdog for sure but probably my favorite of 2013 so far. Words just don't even. Check it out, guys.
