From the second episode of Tamako Market, first brought to my attention by Calaggie on Twitter, who runs the almost-as-odd-as-this-feature Anime Tokei tumblr. Not that it’s particularly hard to miss it in this particular case, but credit where credit is due and all that.

I’d been expecting a Mikan Box to show up in the show at some point given it’s setting – I mean, a shopping district is inevitably going to have a produce store of some kind – but this isn’t really the context that I’d been expecting it to turn up in, used as a perch for an overweight talking bird. Now that one has turned up, though, I can stop paying way too much attention to what’s going on in the background.

I really like Tamako Market, by the way. It’s legitimately funny quite frequently, but at the same time it manages to be an astonishing understated show, certainly more-so that you’d expect from something where one of the primary characters is a talking bird with video-projectors for eyes. A large part of that, I guess, is the fact that it’s a show that understands that being funny in anime doesn’t necessarily require the show to point out it’s trying to be funny by HAVING PEOPLE SHOUT WHILST POINTING OUT THE JOKE every time you’re supposed to be laughing. I understand Japan’s rich history of manzai humour and all that, but I’d really wish more shows would follow Tamako’s example.

That said, I’m docking points for the show choosing to push the nefarious Contact Lens Agenda. I appreciate that glasses are a pain in the backside to draw, and they can actually be a hindrance in trying to successfully put across facial expressions, but I do like a good meganekko now and again.