Tari Tari

If you love something or someone, you should have a right to express that love. For example, if you love music and singing, you should have a right to sing your heart out; no one should hold you back. The anime that has caused me to say such a thing is one that, along with another anime called Hanasaku Iroha, I discovered through a music video that kind of crossed over those two anime and True Tears. However, I held off on watching it for so long, but after listening to some songs from it enough times, I decided that I couldn't stop myself from watching it anymore. I swear, not watching this particular anime sooner has to be one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my review of Tari Tari.

Tari Tari follows the final year of high school for Konatsu Miyamoto, a former member of her school's choral group. She had quit the group because of the adviser and vice principal not allowing her to sing due to an incident from the previous year's recital. Despite this, she wants to sing at one more recital before she graduates, so what would she do other than form her own choir club? She recruits Sawa Okita (an archery club member who dreams of becoming an equestrian), Taichi Tanaka (a badminton player), and "Wien" (a boy who returned to Japan after living in Austria for 12 years) for her club; she also tries to recruit a friend of hers, Wakana Sakai, but she has given up music as a result of her mother's death. As the anime goes on, Wakana slowly but surely becomes able to love music again, and the choir club moves forward with their ambition to sing.

The story of Tari Tari is quite good; there are moments that got me laughing, and there are other moments that nearly got me to cry. Another reason for the story being great is the outstanding character development; although not all of the characters are necessarily likable, all of them have depth to them, going through real dilemmas. I especially liked Wakana's character development; I was originally annoyed at her for constantly running away from music, but as the anime went on and she started to come to terms with things, I came to like her, as well. If you want to know my favorite character, though, it was Wein; every time he was on screen, he just simply put a smile on my face. I also liked the bond between each of the members of the choir club; their friendship is perhaps the most genuine I've ever seen in anime.

P.A.Works is the animation studio behind beautifully-animated anime such as True Tears, Angel Beats, and Charlotte; luckily, I can say that they also did a good job with the animation for Tari Tari. It's not the most breathtaking animation I've ever seen, and I'm not sure if I can say that the character designs are anything special; however, it was very pleasant to watch. The voice acting was amazing, as well; with talented voice actors such as Saori Hayami (Sawa) and Nobunaga Shimazaki (Tanaka), there's no going wrong here. However, the best part about this anime, without a doubt, is the music; considering what this anime is about, this is definitely a good thing. The opening theme, "Dreamer" by Airi, is a song that I constantly found myself singing along to, and the ending theme, "Shiokaze no Harmony" by Ayahi Takagaki, Asami Seto, Saori Hayami, Nobunaga Shimazaki, and Natsuki Hanae, is also a very catchy song; all of the insert songs are charming in their own ways, with my favorite being "Radiant Melody".

Overall, Tari Tari is a great anime. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for an anime with a great story, lovable characters, and of course, music that you'll find yourself listening to again and again!