Kanon (visual novel)
Kanon is a Japanese adult visual novel developed by Key released on June 4, 1999 for Windows PCs. Key released versions of Kanon without the erotic content, the game was ported to the Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable; the story follows the life of Yuichi Aizawa, a high school student who returns to a city he last visited seven years prior, he has little recollection of the events from back then. He meets several girls and regains his lost memories; the gameplay in Kanon follows a branching plot line which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction, focuses on the appeal of the five female main characters by the player character. The game once ranked as the second best-selling PC game sold in Japan, charted in the national top 50 several more times afterwards. Kanon has sold over 300,000 units across several platforms. Following the game's release, Kanon made several transitions into other media. Two manga series were serialized in Dragon Age Pure. Comic anthologies, light novels and art books were published, as were audio dramas and several music albums.
Toei Animation produced a 13-episode anime television series in 2002 and an original video animation episode in 2003. Kyoto Animation produced a 24-episode anime series in 2006; the 2006 anime was licensed and dubbed in English by ADV Films in 2008, but the license was given to Funimation after ADV's closure. The 2006 anime plays on the association between Kanon and the musical term canon by using Pachelbel's Kanon D-dur, or Canon in D major, as a background piece at certain instances throughout the series. Kanon is a romance visual novel. Much of its gameplay is spent on reading the story's dialogue. Kanon follows a branching plot line with multiple endings, depending on the decisions that the player makes during the game, the plot will progress in a specific direction. There are five main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each of the heroines in the story. Throughout gameplay, the player is given multiple options to choose from, text progression pauses at these points until a choice is made.
To view all plot lines in their entirety, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and choose different choices to further the plot to an alternate direction. After Mai's scenario is completed, a replay of her route will offer an additional choice to play through Sayuri's back-story. Jun Maeda, who worked on the scenario for Kanon, commented in March 2001 that the Japanese public may have fallen under the impression that Key makes soothing games because of Kanon's influence, but Maeda affirmed that there was not one person who worked on Kanon who thought that. In the adult versions of the game, there are scenes with sexual CGs depicting Yuichi and a given heroine having sex. Key released versions of Kanon without the erotic content; the versions that include the adult content have one explicit sex scene in each of the five main story routes, in addition to one fantasy scene. Outside of these, there are two scenes with nudity. Yūichi Suzumoto, a scenario writer who worked on Key titles, commented that the sex scenes in Kanon are self-contained, can be removed without altering the story.
Maeda remarked. There are several important locations featured in the Kanon story, though the location names are mentioned explicitly in Key's works; the events of the story occur during winter, since it snows periodically over the course of the entire story, the city is always presented covered in a layer of snow. The shopping district is featured throughout the story when the characters go into town, whenever Ayu appears in the early story; the high school where Yuichi and the other main characters attend, including the school grounds, is shown predominantly in Shiori's and Mai's stories, is otherwise a general setting where Yuichi interacts with other characters. There are recurring themes. A music theme is present, as the episode titles from the 2006–2007 anime have parts in their titles related to music, such as overture and introit. Miracles play a large part in the story; the act of promising and keeping promises is found throughout the story. Yuichi makes important promises to the five main girls while at the same time fulfilling past promises he had made with four of them when he used to visit the city as a kid.
One of the motifs in the story is memory loss. Another motif deals with the favorite foods of the five main heroines. Newtype USA stated in an article on Kanon that "it's when the characters are eating something tasty that they seem most beautiful and alive", despite the somber setting and overall tone of the series; these five foods of choice are: taiyaki, nikuman, ice cream, gyudon. The player assumes the role of the protagonist of Kanon, he is a cynical 17-year-old high school student, is known to play jokes on the girls his age he knows and interacts with throughout the story. Despite this, Yuichi is loyal and will go to great lengths to please others at the expense of his own time and money, he has a selfless personality and does not ask much from others in return for what he does for them. Ayu Tsukimiya, the main heroine of Kanon, is a short and mysterious girl recognizable by her winged backp
Haruhi Suzumiya
Haruhi Suzumiya is a series of light novels written by Nagaru Tanigawa and illustrated by Noizi Ito. Released in Japan in 2003 with the novel The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, it was followed by ten additional volumes, an anime television series adaptation, four manga series, an animated film, two original net animation series and several video games. After the anime adaptation airing in 2006, publishing company Kadokawa Shoten received offers for licensing the novels and their adaptations; the novels are licensed for English language release in the United States by Little and Company, for young readers by Yen Press and the anime adaptation was licensed for North American distribution by Kadokawa Pictures USA division which sub-licensed production and distribution to Bandai Entertainment. The anime is licensed by Funimation. Kyon is a student at North High School in Nishinomiya, he is dragged along by his classmate, the titular Haruhi Suzumiya, an eccentric schoolgirl who seeks supernatural phenomena and figures such as aliens, time travelers, espers.
With Kyon's reluctant help, Haruhi establishes a club called the "SOS Brigade", short for "Spreading excitement all Over the world with Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade" to investigate mysterious events. Haruhi soon recruits three additional members: the laconic bibliophile Yuki Nagato, the shy and timid Mikuru Asahina, the unflappable transfer student Itsuki Koizumi; these members soon reveal themselves to Kyon to be the types of extraordinary characters that Haruhi seeks. They have been sent by their respective secret organizations to observe Haruhi—who is unaware that she possesses destructive reality warping powers—and to prevent these powers from being unleashed; each of the three believe. Together with Kyon, they work to keep life interesting for Haruhi and to prevent her from becoming bored enough to imagine a new world, as they and their organizations fear that this would destroy the current world. Written by Nagaru Tanigawa and illustrated by Noizi Ito, the light novels alternate between full-length novels and collections of short stories that appeared in The Sneaker, a seinen novel magazine published by the Japanese publishing company Kadokawa Shoten.
Kadokawa Shoten published 11 volumes from June 6, 2003 to May 25, 2011. A short story was published in a special one-time revival issue of The Sneaker on October 31, 2018; the novels are licensed for release in Hong Kong and mainland China by Kadokawa Media. Kadokawa Shoten published two manga adaptations of the Haruhi Suzumiya light novel series in Shōnen Ace; the first one, by Makoto Mizuno, ran from May to December 2004 and was different from the light novels in its one published volume, having little input from the original author. The second series, illustrated by Gaku Tsugano, started in November 2005 and ended on December 26, 2013, having been published in 20 volumes, with a younger target audience than the original novels. On April 17, 2008 Yen Press announced that they had acquired the license for the North American release of the first four volumes of the second manga series, promising the manga would not be censored. An official parody four-panel comic strip titled The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan by Puyo started serialization in Shōnen Ace on July 26, 2007 and in The Sneaker on August 30, 2007.
The first bound volume was released on May 26, 2008. Yen Press licensed the Haruhi-chan manga series for an English release in North America and released the first volume on October 26, 2010. Another four-panel parody manga, Nyorōn Churuya-san by Eretto, was a dōjinshi starring a smoked cheese-loving, super deformed version of Tsuruya, published in three volumes before beginning serialization in the magazine Comp Ace in November 2008. Another manga, The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan by Puyo, started serialization in Kadokawa Shoten's Young Ace in July 2009, it is set in the alternate timeline established in the fourth light novel, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, where Yuki Nagato is a shy schoolgirl as opposed to an alien. Yuki-chan has been licensed in North America by Yen Press. Another spin-off manga by Puyo, titled The Intrigue of Itsuki Koizumi, launched in the May 2012 issue of Kadokawa Shoten's Altima Ace magazine on April 18, 2012; the anime adaptation of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, produced by the Japanese animation studio Kyoto Animation and directed by Tatsuya Ishihara, contained 14 episodes which aired in Japan between April 2 and July 2, 2006.
It was aired in a nonlinear order, with the prologue and first seven chapters of the first novel intermixed with chapters from some of the novels. The "next episode" previews feature two different episode numberings: one number from Haruhi, who numbers the episodes in chronological order, one number from Kyon, who numbers them in broadcast order; the DVD releases start with "Episode 00" and are shown in chronological order. The anime was licensed and distributed by Bandai Entertainment over four DVDs released between May and November 2007. A complete box s
Air (visual novel)
Air is a Japanese adult visual novel developed by Key released on September 8, 2000, for Windows PCs. Key released versions of Air without the erotic content, the game was ported to the Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita; the story follows the life of Yukito Kunisaki, a traveling showman searching for the "girl in the sky". He arrives in a quiet, seaside town where he meets three girls, one of whom is the key to the end of his journey; the gameplay in Air follows a branching plot line which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction, focuses on the appeal of the three female main characters by the player character. The game is divided into three segments—Dream and Air—which serve as different phases in the overall story; the title of the game reflects the prominent themes of the air and use of wings throughout gameplay. The game ranked as the best-selling PC game sold in Japan for the time of its release, charted in the national top 50 several more times afterwards.
Air has sold over 300,000 units across several platforms. Following the game's release, Air made several transitions into other media. A manga by Yukimaru Katsura was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Comptiq, published into two volumes. Comic anthologies and art books were published, as were audio dramas and several albums of music. Kyoto Animation produced a 13-episode anime television series and a two-episode anime mini-series in 2005, Toei Animation produced an anime film in 2005; the anime adaptations are licensed by Funimation. Air is a romance visual novel. Much of its gameplay is spent on reading the story's dialogue. Air follows a branching plot line with multiple endings, depending on the decisions that the player makes during the game, the plot will progress in a specific direction. With the consumer ports, if an undesired choice was selected, there would be an option to rewind the story to correct the mistake. However, if the player reaches a bad end to a storyline, the player does not have this option and must reload the game at the last saved point.
There are five main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, three which are available and two more which can become available. Throughout gameplay, the player is given multiple options to choose from, text progression pauses at these points until a choice is made. To view all plot lines in their entirety, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and choose different choices to further the plot to an alternate direction; when first playing the game, the player assumes the role of Yukito Kunisaki and the scenarios for the three heroines are available in what is called the Dream story arc. After the plot lines for these three heroines have been completed, an additional scenario called Summer is made available where the player assumes the role of Ryūya. Summer is a linear novel arc. Upon the completion of the Summer route, another scenario called Air is made available, which serves as the true ending to the story. In Air, the player assumes the role of a crow named Sora.
In the adult versions of the game, there are scenes with sexual CGs depicting Yukito and a given heroine having sex. Key released versions of Air without the erotic content. There are important locations featured in Air that are based on places in the city Kami in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Air is set in the Kasumi district of Kami. Many of the locales in Air, such as the seawall, the train station, the shrine, the school are based on real places; as Air is set in the middle of summer, the season offers bright, sunny skies for the town during the day. In the manga adaptation, the town is described as a "quiet town with few people...with nothing but beaches and countryside." Scenario assistant Yūichi Suzumoto has commented that his impression of Air is similar to that of a folk song due to the rural setting and heartwarming story progression. As indicated by the title, air and wings are important themes: Yukito is searching for the "girl in the sky", Misuzu believes that her other self is flying in the sky above her.
Other characters show a similar relationship to the sky, such as Minagi, a member of the astronomy club, Michiru who has a fondness for bubbles that float in the air. Kano wants wings to fly, Kanna has them. Misuzu names a crow she finds Sora —Japanese for "sky". Another major theme is the maternal bond, as the four heroines' stories, as well as Yukito's, revolve around their mothers, either biological or adoptive. Main scenario writer Jun Maeda commented that he prefers to include mothers in games if given the choice between only including a mother or a father, as is what happened with Air, though he backs this up by noting that in bishōjo games, women are the main focus anyway. Complicated relationships involving family members and friends play a key part throughout the story. One of the sub-themes in the story is magic. Uraha, Yukito's mother, Yukito himself have the ability to use magic, though Yukito is the least skilled among them. Kano was told by her sister that when she grows up and takes off her yellow ribbon, she will gain the power to do magic.
However, the problems of parents leaving their offspring and poverty are displayed realistically. The player assumes the role of the protagonist of Air, he lives a poor life going from town to town with little money, trying to make a living off his show with a puppet. By being an adolescent or young adult, Yukito sometimes acts chi
Clannad (visual novel)
Clannad is a Japanese visual novel developed by Key and released on April 28, 2004 for Windows PCs. While both of Key's first two previous works and Air, had been released first as adult games and censored for the younger market, Clannad was released with a rating for all ages, it was ported to the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch consoles. An English version for Windows was released on Steam by Sekai Project in 2015; the story follows the life of Tomoya Okazaki, an average high school student who meets many people in his last year at school, including five girls, helps resolve their individual problems. The gameplay of Clannad follows a branching plot line which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction, focuses on the appeal of the five female main characters by the player character; the game was ranked as the best-selling PC game sold in Japan for the time of its release, charted in the national top 50 several more times afterwards.
Key went on to produce an adult spin-off titled Tomoyo After: It's a Wonderful Life in November 2005, which expanded on the scenario of Tomoyo Sakagami, one of the five heroines from Clannad. Clannad has made several transitions to other media. There have been four manga adaptations published by ASCII Media Works, Flex Comix, Fujimi Shobo and Jive. Comic anthologies, light novels and art books have been published, as have audio dramas and several albums of music. An animated film by Toei Animation was released in September 2007, followed by two anime series including two original video animation episodes by Kyoto Animation produced between 2007 and 2009. Both anime series and their accompanying OVAs are licensed by Sentai Filmworks and were released in North America in 2009; the animated adaptations have received high sales figures in Japan as well as critical acclaim abroad. Clannad is a romance visual novel in which the player assumes the role of Tomoya Okazaki. Much of its gameplay is spent on reading the story's dialogue.
Clannad follows a branching plot line with multiple endings. There are six main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, five which are available. Throughout gameplay, the player is given multiple options to choose from, text progression pauses at these points until a choice is made. To view all plot lines in their entirety, the player must replay the game multiple times and make different choices to change the plot progression; when first playing the game, the scenarios for all five heroines and additional smaller scenarios are available in what is called the School Life story arc. When the player completes a character's scenario, he or she receives an orb of light; when eight of these lights are obtained, the game's second story arc, called After Story, is made available. One of the lights reappears in After Story. To view the true ending of Clannad, all 13 lights must be obtained; the lights were meant to be items that players could use in the game, but since this increased the game's complexity, detracted from the storyline, the function of the lights was simplified and made less intrusive.
The first half of the story takes place at Hikarizaka Private High School, a fictional school located in Japan. Outside of the school, frequented locations include the bakery run by Nagisa's parents, the dormitory where Youhei Sunohara lives. Throughout the story, glimpses into an Illusionary World are shown; this world is devoid of all life except for a young girl, though she makes a body out of junk pieces through which the player can interact with her. The remaining half of the story takes place in the same city, after the conclusion of the first half. While the town's name was never directly mentioned, one can infer that the town's name is Hikarizaka based on the many companies and establishments that share this name. There are recurring themes; the main theme is the value of having a family, as the title of the series implies because the main scenario writer Jun Maeda mistakenly thought the name of the Irish band Clannad meant "clan" or "family" in Irish. Of the six main characters, Tomoya and Kotomi have no siblings, though their parents are major factors in their stories.
Nagisa's story was written to incorporate what Maeda described as a "perfect family" with a focus on mental consciousness. In Nagisa's story, there is a recurring appearance of "The Big Dango Family". Tomoya's and Nagisa's characters were written in a style to exemplify a "growth to adulthood" by the end of the story. Fuko's and Kyou's stories have their sisters playing an integral part, Tomoyo's story is influenced by her entire family. A minor motif of Irish words continues with the opening theme of the game, "Mag Mell", which means "plain of joy" and is connected with Irish mythology; the arrange album, a short music CD that contained remixed versions of songs in the game, bundled with the original game release was titled Mabinogi, a collection of prose stories from medieval Welsh manuscripts. The player assumes the role of the protagonist of Clannad. Tomoya has been labeled a delinquent, he is straightforward in his comments to others and will not hesitate to speak his mind if he comes off as rude during such times.
Despite this, Tomoya is loyal to his friends, and
Tenchi the Movie: Tenchi Muyo in Love
Tenchi the Movie: Tenchi in Love! known in Japan as Tenchi Muyo in Love!, is a 1996 Japanese animated film and the first of three films set in the Tenchi Muyo! multi-verse. The film takes place after the conclusion of Tenchi Universe, so varies from the original OVAs at several points. Most noticeable of these is the inclusion of Achika as Tenchi's mother instead of Kiyone Masaki, it was followed by Tenchi Forever!, released in 1999. After being defeated by the Jurai Emperor and the Galaxy Police centuries ago, the monstrously powerful Super A-1 class criminal Kain was imprisoned in the subspace room of the GP's headquarters, never to be released. In the present, Kain escapes his bonds, destroys the GP space station, travels back in time to take his revenge on Jurai's royal family; the Galaxy Police only has time to send a short warning, which Kiyone intercept. The Masaki house, the shrine, Tenchi himself all begin to fade out of existence. Washu theorizes that someone is tampering with the established timeline, uses a shield to keep Tenchi from vanishing.
The shield is only a temporary solution, so Washu sends the rest of the group back to 1970 to prevent Kain from killing Tenchi's mother Achika. Tenchi's friends assume roles at Tenchi's father Nobuyuki and Achika's high school, while Tenchi himself stays hidden to prevent causing a paradox. Tenchi and his friends must deal with a rogue GP operative bent on seizing glory by killing Kain. After determining the exact time that Kain strikes in 1970, the group tries to defend Achika, only to see the villain escape into subspace with her and Nobuyuki. Tenchi and Ryoko follow and challenge Kain, but with their powers boosted by Washu they are no match for him. Washu sends a powerful "dimensional cannon" from the present, Kiyone mans the weapon to destroy Kain. Tenchi is wounded, Achika unlocks her latent Jurai powers to fuel his sword and deal a crippling blow to Kain; the group escapes in time before the dimensional cannon is fired into their pocket of subspace destroying Kain. Before her memory is wiped along with Nobuyuki's, Achika asks Ryoko and Ayeka to take care of Tenchi, since she will not be there for him in their present.
Masami Kikuchi as Tenchi Masaki Ai Orikasa as Ryoko Megumi Hayashibara as Achika Yumi Takada as Ayeka Chisa Yokoyama as Sasami Etsuko Kozakura as Ryo-Ohki Ryūzaburō Ōtomo as Kain Toshiyuki Morikawa as young Nobuyuki Masaki Yuko Kobayashi as Washu Yuko Mizutani as Mihoshi Yuri Amano as Kiyone Takeshi Aono as Nobuyuki Masaki The music for Tenchi in Love was composed by Christopher Franke. The end theme song is Alchemy of Love, written by Franke and performed by Nina Hagen, with Rick Jude on backing vocals. There is an Achika version of the song, with new Japanese lyrics, is performed by Megumi Hayashibara; the Achika version is available on a single mini-CD and on the Japanese LaserDisc version of the movie, as a music video, which features the original English version. Tenchi in Love! had its US television premiere during Sci-Fi Channel's Anime theme week on August 26, 1996. In North America, it was released on home video in the'90s by Pioneer Entertainment USA before they released it independently on DVD in 2003.
This release was one of the few releases from Pioneer/Geneon to have THX-certified video, re-mastered for superior picture quality, with the audio, remixed in 5.1 Dolby Digital AC3 surround sound. After Pioneer's shut down in 2007, FUNimation Entertainment announced the license of the movie, along with a handful of other Geneon titles; the movie is distributed by Madman Entertainment in Australia and New Zealand and by MVM Films in the United Kingdom. It was released on Blu-ray Disc in North America in December 2012 by FUNimation in a box set with the other Tenchi movies. Tenchi Muyo Movie 1: Tenchi in Love at Anime News Network's encyclopedia https://web.archive.org/web/20071104123842/http://www.cjas.org/~echen/articles/fall96/10_26b.html
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the making of a film. A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay while guiding the technical crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision; the director has a key role in choosing the cast members, production design, the creative aspects of filmmaking. Under European Union law, the director is viewed as the author of the film; the film director gives direction to the cast and crew and creates an overall vision through which a film becomes realized, or noticed. Directors need to be able to mediate differences in creative visions and stay within the boundaries of the film's budget. There are many pathways to becoming a film director; some film directors started as screenwriters, producers, film editors or actors. Other film directors have attended a film school. Directors use different approaches; some outline a general plotline and let the actors improvise dialogue, while others control every aspect, demand that the actors and crew follow instructions precisely.
Some directors write their own screenplays or collaborate on screenplays with long-standing writing partners. Some directors appear in their films, or compose the music score for their films. A film director's task is to envisage a way to translate a screenplay into a formed film, to realize this vision. To do this, they oversee the technical elements of film production; this entails organizing the film crew in such a way to achieve their vision of the film. This requires skills of group leadership, as well as the ability to maintain a singular focus in the stressful, fast-paced environment of a film set. Moreover, it is necessary to have an artistic eye to frame shots and to give precise feedback to cast and crew, excellent communication skills are a must. Since the film director depends on the successful cooperation of many different creative individuals with strongly contradicting artistic ideals and visions, he or she needs to possess conflict resolution skills in order to mediate whenever necessary.
Thus the director ensures that all individuals involved in the film production are working towards an identical vision for the completed film. The set of varying challenges he or she has to tackle has been described as "a multi-dimensional jigsaw puzzle with egos and weather thrown in for good measure", it adds to the pressure that the success of a film can influence when and how they will work again, if at all. The sole superiors of the director are the producer and the studio, financing the film, although sometimes the director can be a producer of the same film; the role of a director differs from producers in that producers manage the logistics and business operations of the production, whereas the director is tasked with making creative decisions. The director must work within the restrictions of the film's budget and the demands of the producer and studio. Directors play an important role in post-production. While the film is still in production, the director sends "dailies" to the film editor and explains his or her overall vision for the film, allowing the editor to assemble an editor's cut.
In post-production, the director works with the editor to edit the material into the director's cut. Well-established directors have the "final cut privilege", meaning that they have the final say on which edit of the film is released. For other directors, the studio can order further edits without the director's permission; the director is one of the few positions that requires intimate involvement during every stage of film production. Thus, the position of film director is considered to be a stressful and demanding one, it has been said that "20-hour days are not unusual". Some directors take on additional roles, such as producing, writing or editing. Under European Union law, the film director is considered the "author" or one of the authors of a film as a result of the influence of auteur theory. Auteur theory is a film criticism concept that holds that a film director's film reflects the director's personal creative vision, as if they were the primary "auteur". In spite of—and sometimes because of—the production of the film as part of an industrial process, the auteur's creative voice is distinct enough to shine through studio interference and the collective process.
Some film directors started as screenwriters, film producers or actors. Several American cinematographers have become directors, including Barry Sonnenfeld the Coen brothers' DP. Other film directors have attended a film school to get a bachelors degree studying cinema. Film students study the basic skills used in making a film; this includes, for example, shot lists and storyboards, protocols of dealing with professional actors, reading scripts. Some film schools are equipped with post-production facilities. Besides basic technical and logistical skills, students receive education on the nature of professional relationships that occur during film production. A full degree course can be designed for up to five years of studying. Future directors complete short films during their enrollment; the National Film School of Denmark has the student's final projects presented on national TV. Some film schools retain the rights for their students' works. Many directors prepared for making feature films by working in television.
The German Film and Television Academy Berlin cooperate
Tamako Market
Tamako Market is a Japanese anime television series produced by Kyoto Animation, directed by Naoko Yamada, written by Reiko Yoshida. The series aired in Japan between January 10 and March 28, 2013; the anime has been licensed in North America by Sentai Filmworks. A film sequel premiered in Japan in April 2014. Tamako Kitashirakawa is the eldest daughter of a family which runs the Tama-ya mochi shop in the Usagiyama Shopping District. One day, Tamako encounters a strange talking bird named Dera Mochimazzi who comes from a distant land searching for a bride for his country's prince. After becoming overweight from eating too much mochi, Dera ends up becoming a freeloader in Tamako's home; the series follows the everyday life of Tamako, her friends and neighbors, this peculiar bird. As well as keeping track to the main course of events, Tamako Market and the following Tamako Love Story film cover the emotional lives of the characters Tamako's childhood friend Mochizō's crush on her and both of them being too shy to open up to each other.
Tamako Kitashirakawa Voiced by: Aya Suzaki. She enjoys her high school life and the baton club with her friends Kanna and Midori, she helps her family invent new kinds of mochi. Her birthday is on New Year's Eve and is forgotten due to the busy schedule, but Tamako devotes herself to helping in the shop. Tamako is nervous about public speaking and has problems swimming in addition to being somehow clumsy. Tamako is shown to be rather slow in catching up with things regarding people's feelings, she is one of the few characters that does not know Mochizō has a crush on her, she fails to pick up on her sister's crush. Tamako feeds Dera mochi on a regular basis, she feeds him too much for his size, making him bloated and unable to fly properly. Mochizō Ōji Voiced by: Atsushi Tamaru. Zee, a mochi shop located across from Tama-ya. Though their fathers are not on good terms due to business competition, he and Tamako are good friends, he is in love with Tamako, has been in love with her for a few years. Since their bedroom windows face each other and Tamako talk via a "cup and string" system that he made when they were kids.
He is shown to be nervous with public speaking, despite telling Tamako to let him take over speaking in the shopping district meeting. His name comes from the fact. Dera Mochimazzi Voiced by: Takumi Yamazaki, he is a noble attendant for a royal court from a tropical island and was on journey to find a bride for its prince. However, after gaining an affinity for mochi, he has put on a lot of weight and thus cannot fly properly anymore, only being able to manage short distances before he runs out of breath, he is just referred to as "Bird" by Tamako's family, or "Dera-chan" by Tamako, as his surname sounds similar to mochi mazui. Dera maintains that he is rather versed in the ways of love, sometimes giving Mochizō and Midori love advice on their respective crushes on Tamako. Dera is rather full of himself as well, which stems from a series of misunderstandings, he believes anyone that sneezes in his direction is in love with him, he himself having a crush on Shiori. His body contains a communication system used by the prince to communicate with him, although it only works when Dera is unconscious, thus he has no memories of any time the prince attempts to contact him.
In his unconscious state, he can be hooked up to video devices and used like a projector. Midori Tokiwa Voiced by: Yūki Kaneko, her grandparents run a toy shop in the town's shopping district called Tokiwa-do. She struggles to accept her true feelings for her friend, Tamako. Kanna Makino Voiced by: Juri Nagatsuma, she is the daughter of a carpenter who works in the same shopping district as her family. A relaxed and laid back girl, Kanna does not care what anyone else thinks and is not swayed, however she does have a fear of heights and appears to have an allergy of birds. Kanna is portrayed as rather eccentric, wears a straight and expressionless face despite being fun and a good friend. Shiori Asagiri Voiced by: Yurie Yamashita, she is a resourceful girl, with a serious, cool personality. However, it is shown that while she is quiet and mistaken as distant, she is extremely shy and becomes good friends with Tamako. Dera has fallen for her. Anko Kitashirakawa Voiced by: Rina Hidaka.
