Watashitachi no Tamura-kun (わたしたちの田村くん, lit. Our Tamura-kun, officially translated as either Tamura-kun of Ours or Our Dear Tamura-kun) is a two-volume Japanese light novel series by Yuyuko Takemiya, with illustrations by Yasu. The first volume was released on June 10, 2005, and the second followed on September 10, 2005, both published by MediaWorks under their Dengeki Bunko label. A manga adaptation by Sachi Kurafuji started serialization in the shōnen manga magazine Dengeki Comic Gao! on May 27, 2006, also published by MediaWorks. As of January 26, 2008, three bound volumes of the manga have been released, and the manga ended serialization on February 27, 2008. A radio drama was also produced based on the series, and a two-disc compilation of the drama was released on April 30, 2007.
Plot
[edit] Story
- Main story
Watashitachi no Tamura-kun's main story revolves around the title character Yukisada Tamura, who is in his third year of junior-high school when the story begins. Yukisada has become captivated by a strange girl named Komaki Matsuzawa who says that her birthplace was on another planet and she is trying to go back.[1] One day, Yukisada confesses his affections to Komaki, but immediately following this, Komaki's grandmother dies and she has to move away. They both manage to keep in contact for a while by writing letters, though Komaki stops writing around the time of the high school entrance exams. When Yukisada enters high school, he becomes concerned with one of his female classmates named Hiroka Sōma.[1] In junior-high, Hiroka was constantly bullied, which would cause her to stay home, eventually causing her to become isolated and helpless. Yukisada chooses not to ignore her like most of his other classmates, and instead starts encouraging her and helps her to build her self-esteem. Before long, Hiroka falls for Yukisada, and one day confesses her love to him. During this time, Yukisada has kept in contact with Komaki and has mentioned Hiroka in his letters. Thereupon, one day after a long time, a letter arrives from Komaki to Yukisada asking who exactly is Hiroka. Yukisada later faces a complicated situation involving his old love Komaki and his new love Hiroka.
- Side story
The two-chapter side story entitled Takaura-sanchi no Kazokukeikaku (高浦さんちの家族計画) concerns Yukisada Tamura's good friend, Shinichi Takaura and his younger half-sister, Io Tamai. Io detests anything related to matters of love or affection and is very anti-social. Seeing this, Shinichi attempts to rehabilitate his half-sister in the matter of love.
[edit] Characters
- Yukisada Tamura (田村 雪貞 Tamura Yukisada)
- Voiced by: Sōichirō Hoshi
- Yukisada is the protagonist of the story. At one point, he loved learning about bugs, but has since moved on to the manners and customs during the Kamakura period in Japan.[1] The story begins with him in his third year of junior-high school. He falls in love with his classmate and friend Komaki Matsuzawa, and manages to confess to her one day. However, she moves away almost immediately after due to her grandmother's death. Yukisada lives in a five-person household with his two parents, and an older and younger brother. Basically, he is a frivolous person who easily gets carried away. His favorite meals are eel and home-made jiaozi. He finds inspiration from Hōjō Tokimune, though his dream is to be someone as great as Emperor Jimmu.
- Komaki Matsuzawa (松澤 小巻 Matsuzawa Komaki)
- Voiced by: Ryō Hirohashi
- Komaki is Yukisada's classmate during their third year of junior-high school. During an accident when she was twelve, she lost both her parents and her older brother. Due to this, she turned very reserved and quiet. When she entered her third year of junior-high, she met Yukisada and little by little opened her heart to him. However, during summer vacation shortly after that school year began, her grandmother dies and she has to move away to a far distant relative's house. She is a very strange girl who says she was born on another planet and wants to go back.[1] In school, she always gets top grades, and is on the track team at her school under the 200 meter dash event. Her favorite food is curry.
- Hiroka Sōma (相馬 広香 Sōma Hiroka)
- Voiced by: Ami Koshimizu
- Hiroka is Yukisada's classmate during their first year of high school. While thought to be very beautiful, she acts cold towards others so most people leave her alone;[1] she was given the nickname "Tundra Queen" due to her standoffish personality. During her junior-high school life, she was bullied constantly and even did not go to school for a year because of it. In high school during exam time, she gets help from Yukisada's older brother Nao as a tutor to go over things she learned in school. Some of her classmates from her junior-high still attempt to tease her, though Yukisada does his best to encourage her and help to build back her self-esteem. Due to this, Hiroka becomes quite attached to Yukisada and even one day confesses her love to him; eventually, Hiroka shares her first kiss with Yukisada. Hiroka is also very good at cooking.
- Hachiya (蜂谷)
- Voiced by: Eriko Fujimaki
- Hachiya is the school nurse at Yukisada's high school. She likes to encourage Hiroka as well and indoctrinates Hiroka and Yukisada about various things. Her nickname in school is "unripe fruit" (青い果実 Aoikajitsu).
- Shinichi Takaura (高浦 真一 Takaura Shinichi)
- Voiced by: Atsushi Kisaichi
- Shinichi is a good friend of Yukisada and they have known each other at least since junior-high school when Shinichi was the class representative of their class. One way or another, he is constantly worrying about his younger half-sister Io.
- Io Tamai (玉井 伊欧 Tamai Io)
- Io is Shinichi's half-sister born from Shinichi's father and his mistress. Her mother enjoys trifling with the Takaura family's assets, which makes Io disdain her. Since her familial life is rather complicated, she has gone through different interests from reading books, to researching black magic, and even ran a website dedicated to aesthetics. She is extremely disgusted by anything pertaining to love or attraction. She has a pet Shiba Inu named Potato.
- Reiko Tamai (玉井 麗子 Tamai Reiko)
- Reiko is Io's mother. Since she is Shinichi's father's mistress, she lives in their house. She constantly has fights with members of the Takaura family or her daughter but has a surprisingly good relationship with Shinichi as she sees him as a good role model for Io.
- Nao Tamura (田村 直 Tamura Nao)
- Voiced by: Ryōhei Nakao
- Nao is Yukisada's three-year-older brother. He has a sharp mind and spends much of his time attending university. He also helps tutor Hiroka with her school work. In short, he is a very dependable older brother. He also constantly concerns himself with matters of Japanese lexicon.
- Takayuki Tamura (田村 孝之 Tamura Takayuki)
- Takayuki is Yukisada's three-year-younger brother. He enjoys playing sports and is popular with girls. During his sixth year of elementary school, he devotes much of his time to playing soccer.
- Ritsuka Kurokawa (黒川 立夏 Kurokawa Ritsuka)
- Ritsuka is Komaki's classmate during their first year of high school. Like Komaki, she also has someone she likes and misses due to distance between each other. She is the main character from the short side story "Himitsu Melancholy".
- Yōko Shikata (鹿多 瑤子 Shikata Yōko)
- Yōko is the class representative of Yukisada's class during their first year of high school. She also appears in the short side story "Ohige Girls".
[edit] Media
[edit] Light novels
Watashitachi no Tamura-kun began as two-volume series of light novels written by Yuyuko Takemiya and drawn by Yasu. The novels are published by MediaWorks under their Dengeki Bunko publishing label. The first novel was released on June 10, 2005, and the second followed on September 10, 2005. The series comprises three main chapters and two extra side story chapters; the first volume contains the first two main chapters and the first side story chapter, while the second volume contains the third main chapter and the second side story chapter. The first main chapter was serialized in the autumn 2004 edition of Dengeki hp Special, a special edition version MediaWorks' now-defunct light novel magazine Dengeki hp. The second main chapter was serialized in Dengeki hp between thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth volumes.
There were also a series of stories not collected into bound volumes. The first was a short story called "Watashitashi no Chō! Tamura-kun" which appeared in the November 2005 issue of the light novel anthology magazine Dengeki hPa. Another called "Himitsu Melancholy" appeared in the Watashitashi no Tamura-kun First Fan Book which came bundled with the July 2006 issue of Dengeki Comic Gao!.[2] The last was an additional story added to the drama CD named "Ohige Girls".[3]
[edit] Manga
A manga adaptation was serialized in the Japanese shōnen manga magazine Dengeki Comic Gao! between May 27, 2006 and February 27, 2008, published by MediaWorks.[2][4] The manga takes its story from the light novels that preceded it, and is illustrated by Sachi Kurafuji. The chapters were collected into four bound volumes published under MediaWorks' Dengeki Comics label released between December 16, 2006 and June 27, 2008.
[edit] Radio drama
A radio drama based on the main story from the light novels aired on MediaWorks' radio program Dengeki Taishō between December 23, 2006 and January 13, 2007 containing four episodes. The radio drama aired on three Japanese radio stations: Nippon Cultural Broadcasting, Radio Osaka, and Tokai Radio Broadcasting. The drama was later released as a two-disc drama CD set on April 30, 2007; the drama is approximately ninety-five minutes in length.[3] The CD package also contained an original short story written by the author of the novels named "Ohige Girls", two cell phone straps and charms each, and a computer desktop wallpaper accessible via the second CD.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e "Review: Watashitachi no Tamura-kun". Lightnovel.org. August 20, 2007. http://lightnovel.org/2007/08/20/review-watashitachi-no-tamura-kun. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- ^ a b "Dengeki Comic Gao! September 2007 issue" (in Japanese). MediaWorks. http://www.mediaworks.co.jp/magazine/backno/gao_200607.php. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
- ^ a b c "Watashitachi no Tamura-kun drama CD listing at Dengekiya.com" (in Japanese). MediaWorks. http://www.dengekiya.com/ditails.asp?prdid=T0624820. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- ^ "Inukami, Honoka, Baccano 1931 Manga to End in Japan". Anime News Network. January 25, 2008. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-01-25/inukami-honoka-baccano-1931-manga-to-end-in-japan. Retrieved 2008-01-30.
[edit] External links
- Dengeki Bunko's official website (Japanese)
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