Tamako Market & Love Story (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray) Unboxing

Tamako Market is a 2013 original television anime series directed by Naoko Yamada, written by Reiko Yoshida and animated by studio Kyoto Animation. TBS Animation published the series and was first broadcast in Japan on January 2013 as part of the Winter season.

The sequel Tamako Love Story is a 2014 original theatrical film animated and worked on by the same studio, staff and publisher. It was theatrically released in April 2014 for Japan.

Background:

“Tamako knows just about everything there is to know about mochi, the traditional Japanese dessert treats. When she’s not attending her first year of high school, she even invents new flavors and varieties for Tama- ya, her family’s mochi shop. School and growing up, on the other hand, are things that she’s still trying to find the right recipe for. But with the help of her best friends Kanna and Midori, Tamako’s determined to make the best of things.

It’s complicated though, especially when it comes to emotions and her relationship with her best BOY friend Mochizo, whose family runs a rival mochi shop. And lately, Kanna’s been feeling a little odd about her feelings towards Tamako as well. And what’s with up with that strange bird fluttering around, the one that speaks fluent Japanese? It’s all very mysterious and overwhelming, but at least Tamako always has one thing she can count on: No matter if your day’s been good or bad, there’s certain to be something sugary and delicious waiting at the end of every adventure whenever you take a walk through TAMAKO MARKET!”

Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, October 2020

Kyoto Animation has worked on a number of popular anime shows over the past two decades, with CLANNAD, Free!, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Violet Evergarden as examples. There was one show that they have animated in-between that is not as known but liked by their fans which is Tamako Market.

Naoko Yamada has worked with Kyoto Animation as both an animator and director. Her first directorial work was with the K-On! franchise and afterwards came Tamako Market. She also directed the sequel film Tamako Love Story not long after before going to work on A Silent Voice years later.

Tamako Market isn’t very well-known in the United Kingdom due to lack of proper accessibility. Not only did the series never receive an official UK home video release until recently, the UK stream was shoved on the now defunct service Anime on Demand as part of a TBS Animation package deal which was then carried over onto another now defunct service Animax UK. This was essentially the worst case scenario for anime in general for the UK audience, as neither of these services have a good reputation.

Eventually Anime Limited managed to get their hands on both Tamako Market and Tamako Love Story for one complete collection release, which is likely due to their interest in picking up works from the director since she worked on A Silent Voice. Sentai acquired the United States & Canada rights as early as simulcast so they were able to release the series and film for a couple of years (though their Blu-ray release took a lot longer because of reverse importation).

Collector’s Edition Contents:

Anime Limited loves providing collector’s edition releases for their catalogue and Tamako Market & Love Story gets a rather interesting treatment.

From what the distributor has said, this release is basically two collector’s editions merged into one. Packaged like the Mobile Suit Gundam and Plastic Memories sets but without any slipcover or split up completely. Basically we have a rigid box with clean artwork, housing two amaray cases (one for Tamako Market, one for Tamako Love Story) and two booklets which have a ton of neat content for the fans.

For those curious about the booklets, the 68-page booklet for Tamako Market covers character artwork, key gallery and more while the 68-page storyboard booklet for Tamako Love Story focuses more on a specific scene from the film as well as the opening and ending sequences.

The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The collector’s edition Blu-ray has 1000 units printed for an SRP of £89.99.

Now I hate to brag but I actually acquired this set during a pricing mishap with Amazon. So rather than the set going for about £50-60, it was £16. I had no intention on getting the set this early because the asking price was high but for a mishap which I didn’t know would actually go through, it was worth it. It did get amended very early on but those who ordered it at that price were honoured.

Physical Contents:

• Rigid Box with digipack packaging and clean artwork
• Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
• 68-page Booklet for Tamako Market
• 68-page Storyboard Booklet for Tamako Love Story

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 19th October 2020

Tamako Market & Love Story covers episodes 1 to 12 across two Blu-ray discs and the film on one Blu-ray disc. The encode and authoring were done by Sentai. The audio options available for the series include Japanese with English subtitles and the Sentai English dub.

As these were authored by Sentai, this does mean that the discs themselves are also compatible with Region A territories due to the geolock system. The yellow subtitles are locked during playback.

In terms of the authoring, I had to double check this after I published the unboxing post – and it seems Tamako Market is using the 2016 complete series version (under Sentai Filmworks) rather than the 2020 complete collection version (under Sentai). That being said, Tamako Love Story is using the 2020 complete collection version (under Sentai).

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	English, Japanese
Audio	English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Video	1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio
Region	A B
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	Yes
Discs	3

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

Disc 2:

• Web Previews
• Clean Opening Animation “Dramatic Market Ride”
• Clean Closing Animation “Neguse”

Disc 3:

• Clean Closing Animation “Principle”
• Extra Clean Opening Animation “Koi no Uta”
• Short Clean Closing Animation
• Japanese Promotional Video
• OVA/Special: Dera-chan of the Southern Islands

Unboxing Photos:

Final Notes:

Tamako Market & Love Story is available to order through multiple retailers across the United Kingdom. You can order the collector’s edition Blu-ray over on Amazon UK.