Tamon's B-Side

Episode 12

The penultimate episode of Tamon is so juicy, I don't even know where to start. I just want to stand on a roof and yell about what a great episode we got this week. The cultural festival episode is an anime staple, so admittedly, I had pretty high expectations for this one—even so, it still surpassed those expectations to be one of the best episodes yet.

The episode starts off well, of course, with the F/ACE boys—none of whom have been to a cultural festival, incidentally—descending upon the school in their cartoonish so-called “disguises” which are just… well, calling them “masks” feels pretty generous in all but Ouri's case. Tamon is wearing his paper bag (of course), Keito taped together some milk cartons, and Natsuki is sporting the ol' VLC media player look—which is to say, he's wearing a traffic cone. We get a cute moment of Utage and Tamon being forced close together on a teacup ride—adorable.

Then there's the concert scene in the middle of the episode. Admittedly, I wasn't too impressed. Don't get me wrong: As far as concert scenes go, it's perfectly fine. I've seen better, but I've seen way worse, too. I've watched more than enough CGI anime concert scenes to know what constitutes good and bad CGI, and this is definitely one of the better ones, even if it still has room for improvement. It's gone a bit understated in these reviews, admittedly, but the production value of this anime has consistently been pretty good. Still, if I may be candid: The music just isn't my cup of tea. Arceus help me, I'm a metalhead through and through, and while it's not to say I don't have J-pop-y songs that I like (in fact, I like the opening theme of this anime!), I'm pretty particular, and this just isn't it. Still, I can appreciate that it's pretty solid, and I'm sure others will like it.

Speaking of, watching the concert scene made me realize something I thought might be worth mentioning: Earlier in this series run, when it became clear there were no plans for an English dub, I suggested the music was probably why. When I said that, I thought we'd have way more concerts integrated into the show. We've had a few, of course—but not nearly as many as I thought we were going to end up with. I can't help but wonder if that's news to Crunchyroll as well, and whether we might get a dub for this series sometime after it wraps up. I hope so—and I further hope that the songs get dubbed as well. Especially with the right cast (and there's a lot of great voice actors you could put in these roles!), that could make for quite a treat.

After the concert, though, that's when things really start to get going. In particular, we got two main things going on: Utage finally admitting to herself that she's actually fallen for Tamon, and Natsuki and Asuka's moment together. Starting with the first, this has long been bubbling on the back burner and was bound to spill out sooner or later. But Utage is finally willing to admit to herself that she loves Tamon. Or more specifically: She knows she loves Tamon the popstar—Hottiehara—as a performer. But it's the real Tamon—Gloomyhara—that she's developed feelings for. Still, she's finally reached a point where she can't deny it any longer, and it feels so satisfying to see her realize what we've known for weeks now. And what's more, Tamon isn't being terribly secretive about the fact that he likes her, too.

A confession scene feels imminent, and I say that even though the episode ended with Utage quitting her housekeeping job. She's obviously trying to keep herself as removed from Tamon as possible, meaning we're probably about to learn why she's so steadfast in keeping herself removed from him. Although, to be clear, it's not exactly something that's hard to believe. To reiterate something I've brought up a few times in these reviews now: Remember, early on in the series, when her friends were saying they'd kill Tamon's girlfriend? We know this series will occasionally take some darker steps, and I don't think it would be afraid to say something along the lines of, “Utage wants to prioritize her own safety and privacy, and realizes that if she's dating a mega popstar, she'll instantly lose both of those things and so much more.”

And then there's Natsuki and Asuka. I hesitate to call it a fully adult romance, but it's certainly a more mature romance than what Tamon and Utage got going, and it's made for an interesting contrast, which, in turn, I think has added a lot of flavor to this series. Despite having only known about his real self for just a few episodes, Natsuki has very quickly become by far one of the most fascinating characters in the whole show, and his relationship with Asuka—in all its messy glory—is testament as to why that is. I hope that even now that they've said what they wanted to each other, we don't see any less of them.

But alas, next week's episode is the last one. I'm going to miss my weekly dose of this equal parts hilarious and adorable rom-com. I'm curious to see how it ends, of course, but I'm also curious if we're going to get a season 2 announcement—which is, I think, the best thing we can hope for. Surely, this series can't end at just one season, right? …R-RIGHT?

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