Anime Thoughts: Tsuritama Episodes 4-8

Now that that's all out of the way (well, minus the 'final thoughts' on Pirates, but I'm thinking of rewatching it to do that) and my motivation is improving, it's time to get back to some of the things I've neglected for too long.

Summary

Haru often gets on Yuki’s nerves and seems to pass a tipping point when he uses his water gun to make Natsuki and his dad fish together. However, Natsuki believes that he’s caused Yuki to loosen him up a bit, and the latter’s able to admit that he does care about Haru in spite of his goofball antics.

Yuki wants to get his own fishing rod but has no money, so once summer vacation begins the trio start working for Ayumi, the captain of a recreational fishing boat. Yuki proves to seriously lack sea legs at first and is ready to give up after he fails to help a customer catch a fish, but again he perseveres and begins to change now that he has friends and something he’s genuinely interested in.

When Kate* informs the boys she’ll be getting out of the hospital soon, Yuki decides to try and catch a tuna for her as a present. When they can’t find an available fishing boat after work Akira offers to let them use his. They end up fishing near an artificial reef called Akemi, which the locals avoid because another boat disappeared near it years ago, and despite Ayumi expressly forbidding it. They spot a gigantic bait ball – a cluster of small fish driven to the surface by larger prey fish underneath – and successfully catch a tuna, but then it’s abruptly several hours later and they’re further out than before. Haru suddenly goes crazy and squirts Natsuki and Yuki with his water gun. Something rises out of the sea, and when the other boys come to they’re on the shore, Akira waving a flare to get the search party’s attention. Kate is released from the hospital and the ‘welcome home’ party, at which Yuki’s tuna is served, is a big success, but Haru now insists he won’t fish again.

Everyone goes out fishing for Natsuki’s birthday, but things turn sour when he gets into an argument with his dad over the latter’s heretofore unannounced (to Natsuki) plans to diversify the family business. Another boat suddenly comes towards them – its occupants obliviously doing the Enoshima Dance – and though it narrowly misses them it causes Natsuki’s little sister Sakura to drop the bracelet she’d made for their late mother into the sea, for which she blames Natsuki and his fights with their dad. She goes missing later, but Natsuki manages to find her outside an ice cream shop they once went to with their mom, and she forgives him. Yuki, who’d tried to get Natsuki to apologize earlier, apologizes himself and admits he can’t understand how Natsuki feels since he never knew his own parents. After getting some advice from Kate, Haru decides to start fishing again, and Akira has now become part of the group.

Meanwhile, Akira has identified himself to Haru and his sister, Coco*, as a member of the alien-monitoring organization Duck and asked them what they’re doing on Earth. They explain that the five-headed dragon is a powerful member of their own species. Their kind can communicate through water, but somehow it also allows them to control humans, and the dragon is strong enough that he can even use air moisture, which could have disastrous results during rain or a storm (and there’s a typhoon headed for Japan…). They’ve come to take him back, but Akira wants them to leave him to Duck. However, when he tries to tell his superiors the siblings aren’t a threat they tell him they’re sending a combat squad to occupy the town, and take his hanging out with the other boys as proof he’s been compromised.

Thoughts

I missed watching this show, it’s fun.

The stuff about fishing is still interesting but not enough to carry the show by itself, and the story itself is evolving rather predictably (not that my track record with predictions on this blog is all that outstanding…). Between Haru and Coco’s motive, the foreshadowed crisis, and the people with power resorting to extreme measures that’ll probably just make things worse, it doesn’t offer much in the way of surprises.

Of much more interest are the characters themselves, whose arcs and development so far revolve around themes of family, friends, and personal passions, and all of the boys have to make decisions about what’s important to them. Natsuki’s estrangement from his dad finally comes to a head when the latter’s announcement that he’s changing things up in the family business gets turned into an argument about Natsuki’s future – he wanted to take over the family business, but his dad seemed to assume that was only out of a sense of obligation and was changing it in part as a way to encourage Natsuki to follow his own path. Predictably, arguing gets them nowhere and ends up hurting Sakura, but when Yuki apologizes for butting in he admits to being jealous that Natsuki has people he can argue with. It’s what helps the latter change his tack and try to be more open with his dad. It’s even implied that he may have only wanted to take over the store because it was a more predictable, safer option. When he’s fishing with the guys later on he tells them he’s decided to become a bass fishing pro, which they say will be hard, but he says the important thing is to try, which was his dad’s response when he said the latter was trying to diversify too much. Yuki in turn realizes that it’s great to have parents and siblings, but so long as you have someone who’s there for you that’s what’s really important – he decides he hasn’t told his grandmother ‘I love you’ in a while. He also learned the importance of doing things that matter to you and not giving up – he may screw up at fishing from time to time, but it’s helped him make friends, and that’s what matters. Haru, meanwhile, is shown to have a more serious side when he tries to stop fishing out of concern for what might happen to his friends if he keeps getting them involved in his mission, but once he realizes that family and friends share things and look out for each other he decides he can’t let his fears weigh him down when others have his back. Out of all of them, though, I think Akira ends up being the most interesting since his own concerns are slightly different, being related to the compatibility between doing his job and his desire to fit in with the other boys. Rather, what’s interesting is that, once he’s gotten to know them and managed to find out what’s going on at the same time, he decides there isn’t any conflict between the two, only to discover his superiors don’t feel the same way. It looks like he still has some decisions to make, especially once the others find out what he’s been doing the whole time…

So yeah, it’s still a fun show, somewhat silly (all those fishing boats and friggin’ commercial liners grounding onto the beach while everyone on board does the Enoshima Dance. I guess the dragon has nothing better to do with his time) but with likeable characters who give it a little more meat.

*It would appear that ‘Keito’ is actually supposed to be ‘Kate’ (she’s French, apparently), and ‘Koko’ is really ‘Coco’ (according to Wikipedia and the series’ Spell My Name with an S entry on TV Tropes) so I’ll be spelling them like that from now on.

Anime Thoughts: Tsuritama, Episodes 1-3

Summary

Long ago, a five-headed dragon lived in the sea and terrorized the coast around Enoshima Island, until a beautiful woman came down from the sky and saved the day.

In the present, Yuki Sanada lives with his grandmother Keito and moves around a lot because of her work, so he’s never had the chance to make friends in school. It doesn’t help that he tends to have panic attacks when put on the spot, giving him a snarling, red-faced expression that makes people assume he’s angry.

After they move to Enoshima, Yuki has a panic attack while introducing himself that earns him the nickname ‘demon face’ from his classmates. Right on his heels is a second transfer student named Haru, who cheerfully declares that he’s an alien and decides Yuki’s his new BFF. He has a water gun he can use to control people. And decides he’s going to live at Yuki’s house. Keito’s completely OK with this.

After school Haru drags Yuki to a fishing shop where their classmate Natsuki, a national-level fishing champion, works. Haru begs him to teach them to fish and he finally relents (with a little help from Haru’s water gun). Yuki is uninterested and clashes with Natsuki, but then he meets Haru’s sister, who insists the world will be destroyed if he doesn’t catch a particular fish for them. When she whips out her own water gun he relents and makes amends with Natsuki, who agrees to keep teaching them. After Keito is sent to the hospital Yuki seems to give up again, but his anxiety ends up spurring him to renewed efforts.

They’re being spied on by an Indian boy named Akira Agarkar Yamada, who transfers into their class. He’s actually 25, has a pet duck named Tapioca, and works for a Men in Black-type organization. It seems to have a duck motif.

Thoughts

I gotta admit, this seemed kinda ‘meh’ at first. I mean, it’s an anime about…fishing? Isn’t that right up there with golf and baseball in the list of sports that tend to get characterized as boring? Yuki even lampshades this quite succinctly when he thinks to himself “fishing’s for old guys; it seems so boring.” The characters didn’t start out that interesting either, and were mostly defined by a particular quirk. Yuki gets panic attacks when under stress, Haru’s obnoxiously cheerful and can control people with water, Natsuki’s uptight, and Akira, well…I get the ‘secret organization that monitors aliens’ part, but what’s with the duck?

After three episodes, however, it’s starting to grow on me. For one, the fishing stuff is actually pretty interesting. I know squat about fishing, so the exposition on things like tying a strong lure knot and doing a proper cast is proving to be very informative. At least, assuming it’s accurate; I assume the production team did their homework beforehand, but I wouldn’t know.

The characters are also a bit more understandable now that they’ve had a chance to become a bit better defined. It’s hard not to feel for Yuki after his grandmother his sent to the hospital – an irregular but ongoing occurrence. As far as we’ve seen she’s the only family he has, so he’d be in a pretty major bind if he lost her, and he’s clearly feeling that. It makes his embracing of fishing in episode 3 as a means of coping and connecting with others sympathetic and believable. His situation also gives something in common with Natsuki, who’s having family troubles of his own, in his case because his mom died two years ago and he disapproves of his dad dating again so soon (at least that seems to be the case). Neither seems to be good at dealing with others either (probably in some part due to their family issues) and both were dragged into fishing together unwillingly, so they clash because of it rather than because they actually dislike each other. Fortunately, Haru’s there to be the glue that binds everyone together. Sure, he’s manipulating them into doing what he wants, but it’s played for laughs and works because he’s never used it to make them do anything worse than a goofy dance, and there’s no worry about it being abused because he clearly doesn’t have a malicious bone in his body. His ditzy affability also has the effect of making him so charismatic and earnest that you can’t help but like him. Akira’s still mostly about his quirks, but they’re amusing enough to make him an enjoyable kind of weird.

Basically, it’s a show about a group of guys with disparate personalities who become closer through a common interest. Hardly an original premise, but it does throw in the (equally unoriginal) twist that they get to save the world too! It doesn’t take much guesswork to surmise that ‘five-headed dragon’ will turn out to be a reasonable description of the fish Haru and his sister want Yuki to catch, nor that they’re connected to the one who defeated the dragon in the past. Regardless, everything’s done in a light-hearted tone that fits the simple premise, and the use of bright colors for the animation complements it well. I’ll be keeping an eye on this one.