Tamako Market - Episode 12 (Completed)

It's decision time for Tamako - but is she even going to be allowed to make a decision of her own with everybody fussing over her and telling her to "follow her heart" and other such nonsense?

Of course, the appearance of the prince in the flesh has only exacerbated this problem, as everyone in the marketplace is now alternating between cooing over Tamako and cooing over the new arrival while skirting around the big question.  It's not surprising that even Tamako herself is distracted, all things considered.

Eventually it's up to Dera to force the issue and be blunt in terms of asking Tamako what she's going to do about the situation, and there's no real surprise about what her final decision proves to be, to the ultimate relief of many around her.  Not that any of this matters anyway, because it turns out that the entire thing about Tamako being a prospective bride was just a misunderstanding anyway, so effectively the entire series was a pointless waste of time.  Hurrah!

Although those words might seem harsh, they pretty much do justice to my big problem with Tamako Market - it introduced a curiously interesting premise and some potentially juicy character hooks, and then did absolutely nothing with them for twelve long, laborious and often painfully trite episodes.  If it wasn't for one good episode (set around, of all people, Tamako's dad), the entire thing would have been a complete disaster, but it seems like this series couldn't even get being utterly mediocre right.  But hey, at least it isn't all bad news - I can now safely say that Nichijou is no longer Kyoto Animation's worst series.