Tari Tari is the story of five Shirahamazaka High, seniors who come together to form the Choir and sometimes Badminton Club .
The story begins with Konatsu Miyamoto, who is in the Choral club, but because of a case of stage freight last year, which caused her to ruin the group’s recital. This leads to the vice principle and choral club sponsor, Naoko Takakura, to refuse to let Konastsu sing in the group.
Konastsu, frustrated with not getting a second chance turns to her best friend, Sawa Okita, to start a separate choir club. In order to form this new club, however, they need at least five members.
Their first choice is Wakana Sakai. Waksman is a former music major but since her mother’s death. She has put music out of her life. However, she does agree to play the piano for the group.
Still short of two members Kobastu, discovers that Taichi Tanaka, is in the same boat. He is in the Badminton club, but other than himself and his new recruit, transfer student, Atsuhiro “Wien” Maeda; their short three members.
Kobastu convinces Taichi that they should work together in order to keep their clubs, by forming the Choir and sometimes Badminton Club .
From the overall synopsis above you might think that the main protagonist is Konatsu, after all, she’s the one who instigated the club and brought this motley crew together.
However, the real protagonist is Wakana. We are introduced to her first and her situation. Throughout the series, she begins to open up and rediscover her love for music that she tried to bury after the loss of her mother.
While Wakana, might be the main protagonist, each of the 5 members of the group has their own back story, and eventually get an episode or two that further shows their problems and resolves.
The main antagonist of the series is the Vice Principle Naoko Takakura, who is instant on making activities for the choir club difficult. While Ms. Takakura, might seem cold-hearted, it later revealed that she was former best friends with Wakana’s late mother. As opposed to Wakana who put music out of her life after her mother’s death, Ms. Takakura has made music an unachievable goal to anyone and feels that the choir club is just playing around with music.
If all this wasn’t enough of a story then there is news that Shirahamazaka High will be closing down. Thus, for the choir club, this year will really be their last chance to perform in front of people and show their new-found and rediscovered love for music.
Overall the series was pretty good. I felt that Konatsu, although was the person who put the choir club together, was still really just a flake, and not really as an interesting character as some of the others.
Also, some of the other characters own stories were kind of weak and sometimes kind of lame compared to the main story of Wakana, and her resolve over her mother’s death.
I also feel like they could have done more with Vice Principle Takakura. At the end, there was some light to her coldness, but she still never really explained why she was so cold, and why her friendship with Wakana’s mother had sort of diminished even before her death.
Still, the series wasn’t bad, and despite being the choir club there wasn’t as much singing as I would have liked. Let’s put it this way it wasn’t K-ON. Tari Tari is more of a drama with some humorous bits. While music is more or less the element that helps these individuals overcome some of their problems.
