Originally written on January 8th 2022.

I recently checked out Tamako Market by the request of many K-On fans, and to be completely honest, I was quite disappointed with it. It definitely wasn't bad, and I did get some enjoyment out of it, but it felt far too underdeveloped for me to fully appreciate it. You can check out my review of the anime here for more clarification. anilist.co/review/14960

With that out of the way, what do I think of Tamako Love Story? Well, outside of 2 weird ass jokes that weren't funny in the slightest, I feel it's a big step up, and a really solid watch. The biggest improvement this movie made was basically sidelining Dera completely. I never liked that annoying fat cunt, or how he stole the spotlight from so many characters, including Tamako. So it's great to see that he only appears for the first 4 minutes, because it allows for more establishment on the characters, the community and the connections they have with each other, on top of touching on some themes that personally stuck with me.

I certainly found the warm and comfy that I was looking for in the anime here with how laid back everything is. The environments are so chill and they're filled with such cute and lovable characters. So this movie definitely succeeded in that regard. On top of that, the overall themes of the world changing around you and the worries of not having a big future planned that Tamako has really resonated with me. This element of the movie leads to a lot of relatability and I felt an emotional connection to Tamako because of this. And the movie never loses focus of this as it also tries to showcase Tamako's interactions with the other characters, particularly Midori and Mochizou. Almost all of them are meaningful and add to the movie's themes, alongside being sweet and somewhat relaxing, with a few of them actually redeeming some characters I initially hated, like Mamedai.

But the most note worthy interactions in the movie are the ones between Tamako and Mochizou. Their relationship certainly helps enhance the themes of the movie, on top of being both a combination of sweet and heartbreaking, with the former being during the scene where Mochizou confesses to Tamako, and the latter being how the two end up becoming more distant throughout the rest of the film and Mochizou's plans to move far away. It doesn't ever become a case of the two acting out of character either. Mochizou has always had a crush on Tamako, and didn't have the courage to fully confess his feelings until now, so the thought of potentially scaring her off like that would certainly make him feel guilty to the point of ignorance. And Tamako's struggles of trying to accept the changes around her was already sad enough, but the thought of one of her childhood friends suddenly moving far away from her makes this acceptance even harder for her, plus the fact that her initial reaction during the confession scene must have embarrassed her greatly.

Although with this in mind, I wasn't really too fond of how abrupt the ending was. Tamako finally realises how she feels both Mochizou and confesses to him, and then it just cuts to the credits. With how great everything else about the movie was, especially compared to the series, it was kinda disappointing and left me feeling slightly empty. On a side note, is it just me or is this movie a lot funnier than the show? I legit laughed a lot when Tamako kept saying Mochizou when she was referring to mochi whenever the topic was brought up after Mochizou's confession, or pretty much any line of dialogue from Kanna. The humour felt a lot less reliant on dumb slapstick and more focused on funny cuteness, and it heavily benefited the tone and feel of the anime.

Overall, Tamako Love Story is a great movie that is sweet, warm, emotionaally moving and sometimes hilariously funny. It could've benefitted from a better ending and those two weird jokes being cut out, but they don't effect the overall experience too much, and all in all, just feels like everything I wanted to see in the show. This is certainly a high recommendation, whether you're a fan of Tamako Market or not.