やくならマグカップも

YAKUNARA MUG CUP MO

TV_SHORT

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
12
RELEASE
June 21, 2021
LENGTH
15 min

DESCRIPTION

Together with her father, who had quit his salaryman job, Toyokawa Himeno moves to Gifu prefecture's Tajimi city. That's the city where her mother is from, whom she had lost when she was still young. Himeno is now attending her mother's alma mater, where her classmate Kukuri Mika invites her to tag along to a special place. That place turns out to be the pottery club! There, she learns for the first time that her mother was a legendary potter, and is consequently pulled into the world of pottery.

(Source: Crunchyroll)

CAST

Mika Kukuri
Yuu Serizawa
Himeno Toyokawa
Minami Tanaka
Tooko Aoki
Rina Honizumi
Naoko Naruse
Yuuki Wakai
Tokishirou Toyokawa
Kaito Ishikawa
Mami Koizumi
Mana Ogawa
Kami-sama
Tomoya Kusano
Yuuichirou Umehara
Juubee Aoki
Katsumi Suzuki
Yukari Oosawa
Ayaka Suwa
Sachie Tokikawa
Ako Mayama
Mad Demon
Aya Uchida

EPISODES

Dubbed

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REVIEWS

loutece
95/100
Pursuing an art degree and don't know why? Then, this one's for you.
___Yakunara Mug Cup Mo_ aired at the tail end of my undergraduate degree, and I could not be happier for it.__ The road to earning my fine arts degree has been everything aside from easy, and I fully thank this anime for getting me through it. If _Yakumo_ is meant to heal the audience, it sure as heck did its job for this lost and burnt-out art student. If you're looking for a more-than-slightly biased and emotionally-driven review written by an artist, you have come to the right place! My rating for _Yakumo_ was based upon two things: personal relatability, as well as dedication to detail (in the art of ceramics, of course). As long as you aren't going into this one expecting too much, I believe that most people will be able to say they enjoyed it in the end. It is an easy watch that will hopefully inspire and encourage you, and I think that's honestly the point. --- > (Please note that I consider this review to be spoiler-free, as it does not contain specific information pertaining to the main storyline! Some may consider the following to be light spoilers, however. Please proceed, keeping this in mind.) --- _Yakumo_ follows protagonist Himeno Toyokawa's journey to create ceramic pieces she and her loved ones can enjoy. At the end of the day, we find pride in the things we make, and we are uplifted by the joy and inspiration it brings to others. We might even find some self-fulfilling aspects to the work we do, which is always an added bonus! Throughout the episodes, we see our protagonist traverse the ups and downs of being a young artist. This anime does not shy away from the darker moments in an artist's journey, either. We see our protagonist fail a few times and hit some rough spots, in which she has to find ways to overcome and/or bounce back. Hime-chan's ability to see possibility and promise was something that got me through many weeks of deadlines. I found her mindset endlessly inspiring, and it reminded me of myself when I was younger and first beginning to kindle my interest in the arts._Yakumo_ made me think extensively about what my own values as an artist were at a time where I was asked over and over again to bleed for institutions in order to be recognized and appreciated. In _Yakumo_, having fun is always at the dead center, and I saw my own shortcomings through the lens of this anime. Making art is supposed to bring out the best in humanity. After all, the human ability to create something is incredibly beautiful and should be met with celebration! And that is exactly what _Yakumo_ conveys to its viewers. When I say that the whole team behind Yakumo was dedicated, I say it with my chest. This anime had the voice actors immersing themselves in the world of ceramics between episodes, for crying out loud. Love for the art of ceramics was fully put on display throughout all 12 episodes, and it reminded me of why I chose to pursue art as a degree and life path. I also may have completely lost my shit when I saw the above-pictured wall of test tiles. If you've ever been in a ceramics building, you have likely seen one of those babies, and they are glorious!! There were a number of scenes that resonated with me. For instance, when the members of the ceramics club pulled their pieces out of the kiln after the glaze firing, I felt their levels of excitement and anticipation with my whole soul. It reminded me of the first time I raku fired a piece and laid eyes on the final product of my efforts. I was reminded of all of the simple moments of happiness that come along with being an artist and make this profession worthwhile. Watching the characters go through similar moments was like pulling a warm piece out of the kiln after the bisque firing. Cozy and comforting as hell. While this anime is not exactly a tutorial for aspiring ceramicists, it does accurately capture the emotions artists feel while moving along in their process, as well as provide some basic insight for techniques and terminology. The environments are incredibly detailed, showing a dedication for understanding the tools and materials ceramicists use while in their studios. Though, I do wish to know how they managed to keep their studio floors and surfaces so clean and dust-free. This anime hits home for me, as I hope it does for other artisans out there. Who knows, maybe a few of you decide to take up ceramics because of this anime. cuz what the hell, let's make a mug, too!
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Juliko25
85/100
Surprisingly nuanced and substantial for an anime about girls making ceramics and pottery.
Not gonna lie, the only reason I even learned that Yakunara Mug Cup mo, or Let's Make a Mug Too, is that I lurk on the website Anime News Network like a madwoman. This is yet another "cute girls doing cute things" anime which surprisingly flew under the radar this past season. There is one thing that made me decide to watch it though: The fact that Nippon Animation animated the series. Nippon is primarily responsible for producing all the anime for the World Masterpiece Theater back in the day, along with shows like Future Boy Conan, Fantastic Children, the 1999 Hunter X Hunter anime, and the Haikara-san ga Tooru remake movies. But they hadn't done much in the way of TV series since 2008, coming back with...this. Yeah. It's easy to think that Nippon Animation has fallen from grace from their glory days, but...after having watched this, I don't think they've lost their touch. For the sake of convenience, I'm shortening the title to Yakumo.

So what's this anime about, anyway? The story centers on Himeno Toyokawa, a young girl who just moved to the town of Tajimi with her father and grandmother. She transfers to a new school and makes new friends. One of them, Mika Kukuri (the blonde girl), tries to recruit her into her school's pottery club. At first, Himeno isn't too sure about joining, but when she learns that her late mother, Himena Tokigawa, previously made a lot of famous ceramic pieces for Tajimi, Himeno decides to join the club and try her hand at it. Gradually, she learns more about the ins and outs of pottery, the impact her mother made on the city of Tajimi, and more about herself in the process.

For a show that's just about girls in a pottery club, Yakumo is surprisingly well animated. Character movement is smooth but not overly so, the backgrounds are detailed and full of life, and from what I can tell, the animators really tried their hardest to replicate the city of Tajimi in animated form. But I do have one quip with it: Why does Himeno have pink hair but purple bangs and shading? Other than her mother, none of the other characters have this, and I find it kind of jarring because it looks like she dyed parts of it. I've seen weirder, so normally I'm not put off by this design choice, and it is in the manga as well, but it feels jarring because none of the other characters have dual-colored hair and they look more realistic. The music is definitely one of the stand outs, as it makes use of a lot of unconventional instruments like ukuleles and acoustic guitars that give it a sort of country music feel to it at times. It's especially prevalent in the opening theme song, though the soundtrack is much more varied and versatile than other CGDCT shows similar to Yakumo.

One thing you'll notice about Yakumo is that all the episodes are 12-15 minutes long, including the opening and ending themes. This is because for some reason, the creators decided to shoehorn in live-action parts showing the voice actresses for the characters going to Tajimi, practicing pottery, and other shenanigans. I skip those, as I don't think they add anything to the story. That being said, I think the shorter episodes were to the show's benefit, as even though Yakumo is rather slow paced and low key, it never drags on longer than it needs to, and gets whatever it needs to get done without meandering or trying to bite off more than it can chew. This also forces the creators to really flesh out the characters in that short time frame, and I think it works here. All four of the main leads are fairly interesting and nice, even if they may seem like archetypal moe characters at first, and they do get fleshed out over the course of the series. A lot of the series focuses on Himeno learning more about her mother's legacy and trying to make something that her father will genuinely like on its own merits, and not simply like it out of superficial obligation as a father. I can definitely see Kukuri getting on people's nerves though, as she's the hyperactive genki girl with a screechy voice that you've seen in pretty much every moe anime at least once. I wish more had been done with Himeno's friend Nao, though. All we know about her is that she's Himeno's friend and that she likes Godzilla/Sentai movies, that's it. That'll probably change when the second season comes around.

In all honesty, the only real critique I have for this show is that episode 8 was kind of a weird episode. It's basically a dumb filler episode where Kukuri falls asleep in a restaurant and has a weird dream based on things people next to her are talking about. It did nothing to advance the story and seemed mostly just there to shoehorn in some pointless comedy. It wasn't a bad episode by any means, but it did feel very out of place in an otherwise grounded show. Plus, the title is rather misleading, because even though it implies the girls will make mugs, they never actually do so in the show. Again, this'll probably be rectified when the second season comes out, and yes, as of this writing, a second season has indeed been confirmed. And I'm super stoked, because I really like this show and I wish more people gave it a chance! The story, conflict, and characters may not seem like much on the surface, but there's just enough nuance, subtlety, and little details that make it stand out from all the other CGDCT anime out there. It's not ambitious like, say, A Place Further Than the Universe, nor overly sugary and saccharine like Kiniro Mosaic. It strikes a fun, heartwarming balance, and I think after this, I can say that Nippon Animation is still as good as it's always been.

Not something that's going to bring the house down, but Yakunara Mug Cup Mo is a nice, laid-back, heartwarming anime that deserves way more love and recognition than it gets.
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