Tsuritama - 8

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Doing a "Duck!" on your own seems a little sad. And with this episode, Tsuritama has officially become my favourite anime of the Spring season.

I don't know how, but Tsuritama has been THE series for me this season, rivalling the obvious front runners such as Sakamichi no Apollon and Jormungand but somehow it has managed to prevail over these two outstanding series to make it to the top, well at least for me.

This episode's mix of all the genres that we had seen in Tsuritama, made this episode by far the best episode of Tsuritama yet. Carrying on with the drama that started towards the end of last episode, I couldn't help but be engaged by all the emotional confrontations; between Natsuki and Yuki, Natsuki and his sister and best of all Yuki and his grandmother. The talk between Yuki and his grandmother was probably one of the best moments of anime in this season for the simple fact that it was an instance where a main character admitted his faults and at the height of his development, proceeded to accept himself and his life for what it was while at the same time telling an important person in his life how much he cared for them. The drama didn't end with Natsuki and Yuki but was also there for Akira and Haru as they both struggled with their own demons (for Akira it was the painful choice between his organization and his first ever friends and for Haru it was his struggle to think about how to protect his friends), bringing together all of these 4 characters who at the beginning of the series were lonely, friendless and not to mention underdeveloped and doing so right before a big plot development occurs gives the impression that from the next episode until the last, the supernatural plot will be explored a little more.

Other than the great drama scenes, we were given the usual dose of Tsuritama comedy which never fails to disappoint whether it be Akira's lone rendition of the Duck! stance or the scene with all four of the characters fishing as friends for the first time (before that Akira was a customer on the boat) which ends up in Natsuki getting a hair cut to make him resemble Mikado from Durarara!! but with glasses and then the episode ends on somewhat of a cliffhanger. I was a little sad to see that this was kind of like the gang's last "happy times" moment before the incident that could destroy earth but I also thought that the placement of this scene right before the fantasy plot reaches it's climax went along very well with the dramatic tone of the episode - I say dramatic but I really mean dramatic for Tsuritama. All of this eventually lead to a rather emotional end of the episode where Akira was thought to be a traitor, which could have been a moment of comedy or drama but for some great reason ended up being one of both.

Now that the stage has been set for this fantasy conclusion, I'm getting more and more anxious to see how the series ends. Since the fantasy story has been put in the background for the majority of the series, all the while the focus was on each of the characters, I don't really have a clue what to expect but if I had to guess, I'd bet on the each of the 4 boys having to accomplish something and of course our good friend the dragon will be making an appearance at some point.

It saddens me that Tsuritama is coming to an end, however I do want it to end on a very high note just because the series has been great thus far and deserves to end in the same way.