When you have the prince of fishing in your class, he’s definitely the one to learn from.
What They Say:
The misunderstandings between Haru, Yuki, and Natsuki continue. But when Yuki decides to quit helping Haru, he awakens on top of a building staring down the barrel of a new water gun.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
If there was a show that hit a home run with its visual style if even only by color design alone, it was Tsuritama. The series had a very distinct look to it that felt rather theatrical in a way that really drew you in with its boldness and to me was reminiscent of a number of Studio Ghibli works in that approach. What helped to make it work was that it also had a slightly surreal feel with its cast of characters going through changes, from the newcomer to the area in Yuki to the self proclaimed alien that is Haru. Add in the potential quirkiness of the prince of the sea with Ntasuki and his excellent fishing skills and you have a show that’s going to skew to a certain crowd to good effect.
With Yuki really surprised by how everything played out, he’s still uncertain about how Haru ended up living in his house and all that it entails. With Haru being weird no matter what, Yuki is surprised when Natuski’s sister Sakura is in the room and Natuski acts perfectly normal. It says a lot about how the two will handle situations when they’re with other people compared to when they’re together. Natsuki’s seemingly the one who swings the most in social situations but he also takes the lead really well too, such as when he gets to instructing the other two how to fish and get their poles ready. Haru’s all over the map – with hooks in mouth no less – while Yuki tries to take it in so that he can do it right. And in the middle of it all, Natuski is just intense in his instruction. Watching this trio of young men together is just, for lack of a better word, surreal.
With the way the three go back and forth, though it’s really just more of Yuki being uncertain about it all and reacting, With the pressures of coming to a new place and dealing with the unusual people that are now in his life, he’s handling it poorly and in a very human way. So when things go badly with Natuski when it comes to setting up their rods, he ends up trying to do it himself later on and struggle with it to prove to himself he can do it. It’s a good look at who he is because we do see the frustration, we see the struggle but we also see that he can learn and that the others may be there for him in the end, even if not in person. While we do get plenty of quirks when it comes to Natuski and Haru, the show definitely puts its main focus on Yuki here.
In Summary:
While a bit more traditional overall, even with the quirk that is Haru, Tsuritama has a certain quality to it that I find to be almost hypnotic. It’s characters may be a little boilerplate in their oddness at the moment, though they are fun to watch, the structure of the show and its approach to a boys slice of life piece is thoroughly engaging. With Yuki, and Natsuki to some effect, we do see relatively normal young men grappling with coming of age and how they deal with each other socially. Yuki’s coping with learning about fishing from Natsuki really is shown well here because it’s so illustrative of their personalities and how they all awkwardly interact with each other. Which also means the very end is the perfect time to introduce somebody new to throw the dynamic off in a different direction…
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
