I Want to Go Fishing

Since living in Okinawa, I often look out to the sea and think, "Man, I really want to go fishing, but its SO expensive for deep sea fishing gear!" So instead of going out and spending a few grand, I let this anime do it for me. If you hate fun, please leave this post now because this anime is full of it.

We first meet our main character, Yuki, as he is moving ti Enoshima, a bay area surrounded by the ocean.  Yuki moves fairly often due to his grandmother's works, so it is heavily implied he never has time to make friends. We follow his first day at his new school only to find out he suffers from sever anxiety attacks whenever he is confronted with unwanted attention. To make matters worse, he is completely unaware that he makes one of the scariest faces while freaking out. As a result, many other students shy away from him because they fear his is always angry.

After Yuki introduces himself to his new classmates trying desperately not to freeze up and being ultimately successful, another transfer student shows and begins his introduction.  Enter Haru, someone who absolutely comes out of left field. His introduction goes something like this, "I'm Haru! I'm an alien! Yuki!!!" Everyone in class immediately begins staring at Yuki, which prompts his incredibly weird anxiety face. Haru squirts him in the face with a water gun that can also control minds and both characters being to dance the "Enoshima Dance" which is shown in the opening credits.

Thus begins a show filled with laughs and additional knowledge on deep sea fishing. Yuki is forced to befriend Haru after grandma agrees to let him live in the same house and the two attempt to learn how to fish. with the help of their friends Natsuki, Akira, and his pet duck Tapioca. Haru is on a mission to fish out another of his kind that is messing up Enoshima's waters and citizens and so he enlists the help of Yuki.

The show was quite refreshing in an industry that enjoys regurgitating the same tropes over and over again which is why in recent years I find myself gravitating to series from the mid 90's or earlier. When I saw the first episode I got excited about the show. The characters seemed well though out and honest with real-world problems (except the alien thing) and the plot seemed well put together. There was an amazing balance between jokes that I actually laughed and and serious contemplative moments as well. The first half of the series serves almost as a beginner's tutorial to deep sea fishing and the second half gets more into the meat of the characters and what their goals are, but the show never broke that delicate balance despite the shift in plot.

Can we talk about the artwork because what initially brought me to this series was the gorgeous poster. This show makes me want to GO to Enoshima. The colors are vivid and the lines are fluid which makes HD a MUST. I watched this in 720p, but it was a direct TV rip so it wasn't true HD. I will definitely be purchasing the blu ray sometime in the future.

Final Thoughts:

Watch this. Tsuritama is light-hearted without resorting to cheap jokes and will leave you wondering whether you should go out at spend $1,500 on your own rod and reel. It is only thirteen episodes, so you aren't making a huge commitment time wise either.