Tamako Love Story JP BD review

The television anime series Tamako Market aired from January until March 2013. Though it was a pleasantly charming series, the director of the show, Naoko Yamada, felt she wasn’t done with the franchise once the final episode was finished. One of the interesting points of the TV show was that it focused around the main character, Tamako Kitashirakawa, but it never focused on her as a character; rather it detailed about the shopping market as a whole instead. Director Yamada wanted to delve into Tamako herself, and given that the theme of the franchise is “love”, what better medium than an adolescent love story? Thus, Tamako Love Story was brought to life. The film opened on April 26, 2014 and was released on video disc October 10, 2014 (mochi day and Mochizo Ooji’s birthday). This is a review for the Japanese Blu-ray release of the film. My thoughts on the film itself can be found elsewhere.

Front cover

Tamako Love Story: Yamada Excite Interview

Tamako Kitashirakawa: the daughter of the “Tamaya” mochi shopkeeper.
Mochizou Ooji: the son of the “Ricecake Oh! Zee” mochi shopkeeper.
The movie Tamako Love Story depicts the love between these two teenagers who grew up across from each other in the overly warm Bunny Mountain Shopping District.

The film, a sequel to the TV series Tamako Market which aired from January to March 2013, has had a long run in theatres due to the support of both Tamako fans and anime fans. Even over a month following its opening weekend, the film is still increasing the amount of theatres its screening at.

Thus we’ve come to interview the director of the film, Naoko Yamada, in order to thoroughly investigate Kyoto Animation’s newest masterpiece from when it was first planned until the ending.

(UMX warning: SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE FILM!)

Tamako Love Story: Yamada TAN Interview

In order to hype the upcoming release of Tamako Love Story on Blu-ray/DVD this week in Japan, I’ve taken the liberty to translate a couple of interviews with the director, Naoko Yamada. Here’s the first of them!

Tamako Kitashirakawa is the daughter of a mochi shopkeeper in the Bunny Mountain Shopping District. Tamako Market, the TV series which aired in 2013, begins when Tamako meets a talking bird from a southern island. The heartful comedy depicts people’s connections and love between Tamako’s friends as well as the shopkeepers in the shopping district. Coupled with the thorough work Kyoto Animation is known for with a warm story, the series was valued quite highly.

And so the sequel work, Tamako Love Story opened on April 26th. The orthodox adolescent love story is a new tale that shows a slightly different mood than the TV series. In order to find the highlights of the film as well as discuss production secrets, we went to speak with the director, Naoko Yamada.

Tamako Love Story Director Yamada Newtype March ’14 Interview translated

This month’s edition of the magazine Newtype had an interview with the director of the upcoming film Tamako Love Story, Naoko Yamada, this month. This is a translation of said article. Thanks to violaxcore for editing assistance.

Tamako Love Story Special: Director Yamada Interview translated

The Tamako Love Story official website posted the first part of an interview with the director of the film, Naoko Yamada, on 2014/03/07. This is a translation of that part. I’ll add the second part to this post whenever it is posted on the website. Thanks to violaxcore for editing assistance.