Recap: The Baton Club prepares for their school festival performance. Midori begins to feel the pressure of being captain of the club.

Jel’s Thoughts: Coming off what was arguably Tamako Market’s best episode last week, it was a little disappointing that the follow up was one of the worst. Much like Dera’s weight loss story, this just wasn’t enough content to fill an entire episode and felt painfully slow and stretched out. I thought it was particularly telling the director resorted to abusing single shot quick cuts to try and artificially breathe some life into certain scenes. There really was no way around it though – this episode was boring.

With the plot moving at a glacier’s pace it did give me a chance to appreciate how well Tamako handles the small details. I was particularly impressed with how they animated Midori, with lots of subtle facial expressions and awkward movements to convey how she was feeling. My favorite shot was when she was holding her teddy bear with her legs and the bear just stares back at her with cold, judgmental eyes, condemning her for lying to her friends. It was just a fantastic job overall reinforcing how uncomfortable Midori is with her perfect girl image, something we saw way back in the first episode. I guess my point is, did we really need to devote an entire episode to that?

Aside from Midori’s story, Mochizou and Tamako’s phone scene was adorable as usual and of course we have Choi’s bombshell at the end of the episode. While that may not have been much of a shock to audience, I am looking forward to seeing how any form of conflict, no matter how subtle, will pan out in this show. While I’m not expecting any major drama or anything, Choi doesn’t seem like the type of girl who takes no for an answer and there’s no way Tamako is leaving the market. I’m pretty sure it will at least be more interesting than this week’s episode.