Before the Fall Anime Season begins, I decided to take a look at Tamayura, which is a four episode long OVA involving four girls. Of course, I always tend to like these shows because the nostalgia, lighthearted story and of course, friendship.
The story is primarily set around a young girl named Fu Sawatari who has recently moved to a new town. She enjoys taking pictures using her vintage camera that her father given her. Influenced by her father’s work, she became enthusiastic about photography that it became part of her life. Despite her timid personality, she eventually made friends with two other girls rather quickly through the help of her childhood friend, Kaoru.
From the get go, we get to see Fu’s love for photography and her father before he passed away. By looking at her personality, she has a cute personality underneath the shyness. Additionally, she is pretty risky when she tries to take shots while lying on the rail. Even though there is little development in the first episode, the fact that she still takes photographs using film was nostalgic. When I was in grade school during summer camp, I remember taking pictures and developing them in a dark room. It was interesting to see how the film and the photographs develop. With the popularity of digital cameras and smartphones, it kind of diminishes the fun out of photography since you can see the shot after taking it and be able to delete if it didn’t come out right. The fun with film is that you can see shots that aren’t done right and the photographs just feel genuine. On the other hand, digital photographs simply don’t have that luxury considering that you can alter them in Photoshop to deceive people. Besides this, some of Fu’s pictures were pretty and inspiring, especially the picture of her brother, Kou. All her friends pretty much misinterpreted him as a girl because of his cute looks.
In the second episode, she introduces them to her mother and grandmother. Also, Norie gets a chance to see Fu’s brother, which is fun. They had some cake and Fu getting excited about receiving a ticket from her favorite photographer, Riho Shihomi. When she went to the exhibit to meet her, I liked how she felt inspired by Fu’s shots. It simply reminded her the first time taking a picture. Even though it doesn’t look the best at first, it tells a story of how you improved. When you look back, it will give a feeling of reminiscence and appreciation. At the end of their visit, it’s heartwarming to see the girls taking a photo of each other to share their experiences with each other. It was a nice touch to end the episode.
Although the first two episodes of Tamayura were short and her friends didn’t get much development, it was pleasing. Through the beautiful scenery and pictures, it gave a very lighthearted experience full of happiness. Seeing that this is the same studio that also animated Aria, the facial expressions some of the girls gave, especially Fu was very noticeable. Either way, I can’t wait to see the last two episodes and see more of their friendship.
I liked this OVA, and am definitely interested in watching the series when it airs this Fall. I agree about the sense of nostalgia. The setting, Takehara, is used to good effect; we get to see some of the real historical buildings, and the Seto Inland Sea, as the girls wander about.
While Takehara is no Neo-Venezia, I agree that the setting was a great touch for the story. I hope that they develop further in the TV series as they were only touching the surface and it would be interesting how it will play out.
It’s kind of sad some people were pretty harsh with the first two episodes, particularly psgels with the first episode… Of course, if the viewer didn’t like Aria, the chances of liking this show is slim.