I love Tamako Market

That title is one of the truest statements you can ever read. Tamako Market is an anime series originally released in 2013. It's a fun, giddy romcom following the everday life of Tamako Kitashirakawa. Now, I'm not here to give you a play-by-play of every single scene. I'm sure you can find a synopsis of it online. I want to talk specifically why I absolutely adore this show. I will be discussing spoilers so either click away or better yet, go watch it! (& the sequel movie, Tamako Love Story)

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

I just finished rewatching the series & there is one particular item that stands out. It helps define & show who Tamako is. To give a brief summary of the show, one day Tamako encounters a talking bird who is in search of a princess candidate for his home country. Tamako allows the bird to rest at her home in a marketplace mochi shop where she unintentionally fattens him up & his is unable to leave. After multiple attempts to communicate, the home country is not able to talk with the bird, Dela, & sends his handler, Choi, to find him. She arrives & is greeted with open arms. While untrusting & suspicious at first, she quickly realizes that the market is full of warm, good-hearted people.

While Choi is staying with Tamako & her family to whip Dela back into shape, Choi has a revelation. Due to a combination of scent & a particular mole on her neck, Tamako could be a potential candidate for the prince. Of course, everyone in the market begins to freak out. There is one person who doesn't seem to care, Tamako. In fact, she has something more important on her mind. It's an object that not only symbolizes Tamako's priority but its importance summarizes who Tamako is at the heart. That object is a simple, gold medallion you get for filling 100 point cards in the market.

Everyone is so focused on Tamako becoming a princess & leaving the market for a grand life that they forget to ask about her opinion on the matter. And her answer, she doesn't care & she doesn't want to. That simple, pointless medallion is worth ten times more to her than being royalty could ever be. Tamako spent years of her life getting her point cards stamped. She spent so much time with the people of the market. She doesn't ever want to leave. To her, being a mochi shop's daughter is being royalty.

I bring this up because the end of Tamako Market makes Tamako Love Story even more impactful. Throughout the show, there has been a boy living across the road from Tamako named Mochizou. He's naturally developed feelings for the nice & cute girl across the street. In Tamako Love Story, he finally mans up & decides to confess his feelings to her. I cannot quite express how it moves me because that small moment completely breaks Tamako. For most of the remaining movie, she is not the same girl we've grown to love in the show.

Mochizou this & Mochizou that, she doesn't fully understand what happened or how she is supposed to respond to it. It's almost a reverse Cinderella. Rather than some lowly mochi shop worker getting swept up by a prince, she rejects it for someone that's been around all of her life.

No matter what people say, Tamako Market & Tamako Love Story will always have a place in my heart. It's just a blob of sweet, wholesome goodness that I can sink my teeth into.