Tari Tari - Episode 2

Tari Tari may have won the auspicious prize for "most unspectacular plot premise of the year" with its opening episode, but it was also prove that you can let the cliché's fly as long as you back it up with some fun and entertaining fare, and the series opener certainly managed to do that.

With Miyamoto's new choir club struggling to get off the ground, a chance meeting in town of all of the show's major characters at the end of the last episode proved to be an ideal opportunity to press-gang Wakana Sakai into joining the club - something which proves to be surprisingly easy between the pleas of Miyamoto herself and friend Sawa Okita.  All that's left now is to recruit the remaining members required for the club to become official, and failing that there's always the opportunity for Miyamoto to further blackmail her little brother...

Now that she has all of the signatures she needs, it's time for Miyamoto to get her new club signed off by the principle - something which looks likely to be dashed upon the rocks of disappointment until he spots Sakai's application form, which not only changes his mind but persuades him to take on the role of club advisor personally.  From here, it's on to selecting a song to sing at the recital, although even this meets some resistance from the advisor of the school's proper choir until she caves in and let's Miyamoto do what she wants.  This takes us at break-neck pace to the first proper rehearsal for the new club - an afternoon filled with mild drama, near-misses and chaos when it comes to assembling all of the required individuals in the right place at the right time.

Much like its first episode, this week's Tari Tari won't win any prizes for originality (or good pacing, the whole thing felt a little rushed in terms of story development), but it continues to display the kind of well-timed and placed humour that made Hanasaku Iroha so enjoyable to watch, and it's this which largely powers this second episode of P.A. Works' latest offering.  There is, of course, also the promise of some back story to the whole affair, and most importantly Sakai's history and why her part in the choir club is so important to everyone from the school principle upwards, but even this seems semi-apparent at this point.  As long as the laughs keep coming and I continue to have fun watching this series however, I'm willing to let the lack of imagination slide somewhat.