Review of Tsugumomo

One of the major reasons LA even looked into Tsugumomo is because Naomi Oozora was voicing a character with a Satanichia Kurumizawa McDowell cadence.......no seriously. Tsugumomo is if anything a fanserviced-up harem anime with a dense main male protagonist with some sprinklings of Shinto and Japanese folklore to go along with, however it's VERY scattershot. Tsugumomo's characters are stock at best from our bland main male protagonist Kazuya Kagami voiced by Yuuko Sanpei being the owner of the obi tsukumogami Kiriha voiced by Naomi Ozoora, where she's the extremely abrasive type and that's saying it lightly. Kazuya also has an older sister who's has a crush onhim and is brazen about it, Chisato Chikaishi voiced by Noriko Shibasaki the tsundere childhood friend love interest who's extremely strict at anything pervy (so discount Yui Kotegawa from To Love Ru) as well as the local god of Kazuya's region Kukkuri voiced by Yurika Kubo being the butt monkey of the series along with her stacked disciple Kokuyou voiced by Eriko Matsui. Kazuya's friends also gets some screentime like the perverted womanizer best friend Shiro Shiramine voiced by Sachi Kokuryu and the always reliable otaku Osamu Osanai voiced by Shiho Sasaki. LA's favourite character easily goes to Kiriha however because Naomi Oozora ok. Tsugumomo's progressions mainly character development is largely stunted however due to it's plot format.

Tsugumomo's plot format mainly consists of episodic nature for the majority having Kazuya face off against the tsukumogami of the week kind of deal, but it's also spliced in with gratuitous out of nowhere fanservice as well as some slice of life moments that doesn't amount to much. Tsugumomo's plot is a mess is a compliment if anything but for LA, there are a rare few times when the plot was indeed interesting, mainly the Nanako mini arc as well as the rival Sunao Sumeragi finale. The very few characters that seemed to develop a bit of character development are Kazuya and Kiriha but KIRIHA the most mainly due to her backstory. Kazuya yes, does develop but ONLY properly for himself during the Sunao's final episodes. Kazuya does develop in terms of how he uses his powers (a la Kiriha) and he gains the typical "nice guy, protect everyone" kind of belief but in all honesty his development was rushed and rather typical of the main male protagonist position mainly due to what little screentime he gets (seriously we get more screentime of minor characters dilemma of the day and development than Kazuya's) that and LA liked Kiriha's backstory more. Some minor character do develop as well due to their focus of the some episodes like Tadataka Tadata voiced by Mikako Komatsu, Shiro and Chisato with Osamu being the helper to the situation at hand but they are left in default mode anyways by the end of it which was a shame as OSAMU was more of a competent character than the entire cast sometimes.

One of the other interesting things about Tsugumomo at the very least that grabbed LA's attention was with it's interesting actual lore on Shinto and Japanese folklore, mainly the tsukumogami/tsugumomo, objects that gains sentience, that along with the local god Kukkuri wanting Kazuya to be a malison cleanser to get rid of objects gone rogue and we pretty much got interesting folklore mixed into the plot itself that anybody would be interested in however...

Ok now to get the elephant out of the room. Tsugumomo has a tendency to cross the line at times, as in sexual harassment and incest as "comedy" and even for LA, LA had to squick at the prospects of what Tsugumomo is even doing. LA can understand the gratuitous fanservice, the material adapted from is a borderline-hentai manga but still when it crosses the line...it crosses the line.

In terms of animation by Zero-G, the animation was decent enough with the over exaggerated expressions being chibified to some decent character designs and the few times they go into fight scenes was "ok" at best. Backgrounding was decent though forgettable. Zero-G's best in animation for LA at least went to it's character designs though some are stock generic at times.

Now voice acting, if Tsugumomo has anything it's a melting pot of idol seiyuu's and great voice actors. Naomi Oozora voicing Chieri Ogata from the iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls series to Yurika Kubo voicing Hanayo from Love Live and Ayana Taketatsu voicing Sachiko Koshimizu from the iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls as well. *ahem* anyways LA did have ALOT of fun hearing these voice actors in Tsugumomo, the best and obvious being Naomi Oozora but some special mention also to Yurika Kubo, Rumi Ookubo, You Taichi, Yuuko Sanpei AND Mikako Komatsu crossdressing voices as Kazuya and Tadataka respectively and Noriko Shibasaki who only has two roles to her name (including this anime).

Tsugumomo is scattershot due to it's plot format and wanting to try EVERYTHING it can to see what sticks but the obvious consistency it has is it's fanservice harem elements, bland characters, episodic nature and it's modern folklore setting. The only two plot points LA will give praise to is the Nanako mini arc for giving us a rather heartwarming minor character development with CONSEQUENCES THAT STICKS and Sunao's finale arc where we see Kazuya develop, yes rushed to all hell but compensated with a rather awesome final bout.

But as much as Tsugumomo has it's tendencies to ALSO cross the line with it's comedy and fanservice, LA can't exactly hate on Tsugumomo all that much, it's not perfect and LA doesn't expect it too be neither does LA think this is the best fanservice battle supernatural harem. It's in the middle for LA...it's fine and as a bonus, LA got to hear a completely unchecked Naomi Oozora go all out in this anime and that's kinda what LA got from this anime so LA was satisfied with Tsugumomo, scattershot fanservice baggage and all.