Anime: Hinamatsuri (2018)

While I didn’t watch everything I would have liked from any year in the history of the medium, 2018 is easily the worst year in anime history that I remember, based on everything that I watched so far that came out in it. I still have to watch some other titles to see if I’m wrong or not, but until the moment I write this, there’s only one show in it which I gave an above average rating, this one, and even then I only consider it to be just decent.

Initially I didn’t care about it much because I tend to dislike anime comedies, but this one had certain good reputation, and I watched so many awful to meh titles from that year so one more wouldn’t hurt.

To my pleasant surprise, a story that begins with an esper (alien?) girl falling over the head of a yakuza didn’t go for the usual over exaggerated humour of the genre, with people screaming all the time and telling you what the joke is supposed to be. It also didn’t include any lazy referential comedy, it let the absurd situations, the properly drawn reaction faces, and the character interactions do their thing, and that is all that it needed.

But what really makes the show appealing and worth watching is not really the comedy, but instead the slice of life part of it. Eventually another girl appears to fight against the main one, and the series also partially focuses on an actual human girl dealing without wanting with parts of the, let’s say, adult world (no, it’s nothing nasty or anything like that). There are some bits about the main yakuza guy as well, and they are funny because how good and silly every mafia guy is, but for the most part, the lives of the other girls are the main point of the series.

There is a fourth girl shown at some points that is training all the time while having a comical “Cast Away” type of situation going on, but it wasn’t expanded much. The ending of the show is nonexistent, it’s completely open for more stuff to come, and it has been six years, and the source material was already finished, yet nothing seems to be on the horizon, man…

The main girl is Hina, who can’t really control her psychic powers and thus lives off the yakuza guy threatening him to make a mess out of his life if he opposes (though she doesn’t really uses them much). Her whole thing is about learning to, well…not do and don’t be like that, though the show is not that successful with her “character arc”, as she doesn’t really change all that much by the end of the series. She gets friends and there’s an evolution of her relationship with the co-protagonist, at least.

Anzu, tasked with defeating Hina, is by far the most interesting and best character in the show, as she becomes a homeless person and learns about working and being part of a community and having a place to consider her home and stuff. It could be said that through her the series explores the situation of homeless people in Japan. But although it is the most serious and best part of the series, the theme is not explored that deep, detailed and well, it just adds the slight drama bits and the little bits of substance that ends up making the show worth watching and not much more.

Finally, there’s Hitomi, who ends up getting swayed around by all the ridiculousness around her, but also ends up getting a job and there is some funny developments around her and somewhat of an evolution of her relationship with her mother, but is played out more for laughs than anything else.

Visually, the series is surprisingly good, especially coming from studio feel., that produces nothing but crappy ecchi shows or average slice of life dramedies with so-so visuals. Here everything from artwork to backgrounds to special effects are very solid, with the simple and generic character designs being the only weak aspects. The actual animation is very good at times, as the series has surprisingly good motions during its short action scenes, that puts lots of fighting shounen to shame, especially the ones from that year. The thing is though, that most of the time the series isn’t like that and is more normal and standard, with the characters being mostly still and stuff.

The audio is decent in every aspect from sound effects, to voice acting, and music, but nothing to write home about.

There isn’t much else to say about it, well scripted and directed comedy, good visuals, serviceable sound, decent characters, and some slice of life bits on the back of everything to give it a little substance and make the series slightly worth watching. That was enough for the terrible year for the medium that was 2018, and I hope the continuation comes out at some point.

Review
There are many ways to make someone laugh. For some a simple fart is reason enough to burst in tears, for others it requires some morbid comment that demonize some people or group of people, there are even those who can only laugh in the face of ridiculously exaggerated things. I could say there is, however, the best kind of comedy: those with a meaning. That's where Hinamatsuri lies.

It's hard to give an intro about this show, but perhaps the best way to tell is that this is the tale about three bizarre situations, each led by a young girl with a different personality. One of those girls is Hina, a super-powerful psychic with the intellect of a wooden plank. She ends up adopted by a modern-day yakuza, Nitta, who is a much nicer guy than any could imagine. The second girl is Anzu, an angry girl thrown away by her cause and left to live with the homeless old men of the city. The third is Hitomi, an exemplar student who ends up taking the responsibilities of an adult's life.

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1. And they are all crazy
   Hina and Nitta's situation is the major point of the show, starting from how the yakuza could abuse the immense power of Hina and going to how dumb and useless she is. Her powers become secondary as she and Nitta get into a father-and-daughter life, her dumbness giving problems to a man who wishes to be the tough, responsible, rich guy demanded by the japanese tradition.
   
   The other situation is perhaps the most dramatic of the three, throwing Anzu into the garbage of society. There she struggles to survive, to earn money by collecting trash, to learning from the old homeless men the values of life and the honor of being someone with nothing to their name. It's an interesting mixture of moments where you could both laugh with Anzu's innocence and cry for the shitty situation she is in.
   
   The last girl finds herself jumped many years in her social responsibilities as she ends up becoming a genius bartender at a night's pub. She gets a lot of money for someone her age but also must hide what she does if she wants to keep up appearances as the perfect student.
   
   And they teach a lot
   These three situations intertwine with each other at many points, not only providing crazy moments with Hina and Hitomi, or making you sad with Anzu's poverty, but also giving a lot of thought to the situation they find themselves in. Hina is oblivious to the confortable place she is in. Her adoptive father has money, she goes to school, she gets to eat a lot, and she does nothing but daze and play all day around. Her life is a contrast to Anzu's and Hitomi's, the former working too hard to earn too little and the later being so dedicated and capable she has no time to be truly happy.
   
   And there's a good support for them
   The girls could not be charming or funny on their own. In order to make their situations something you can laugh or cry about, they got a lot of support from the rest of the cast. Some are major players, such as Nitta and his life as a yakuza thug, while others only appear at short scenes to provide aid and teaching such as Utako, the homeless elders, and so on. The show even gets a peek into a fourth girl to explore near its end, Mao. Regardless of the character, they offer a sweet deal of fun and seriousness to make the events of Hinamatsuri something more than plain dumb comedy.
   
   It got style too
   Yeah. Hinamatsuri may offer a few lolis and even get into the dere department a bit, but these three kids are backed by a decent visual identity with rough-drawn contours, dazzling eyes, expressive faces, and a somewhat metallic color palette. It doesn't break anny new grounds, but for a comedy show this is certainly much more than what was needed. It also means a lot for the show when the girls are not as loud as they could be, offering a voice-acting with a deal of funny and mature tones to give life to either the exaggerated comical parts and the sad ones.
   

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Comments
Hinamatsuri is a major show. Comedies such as this doesn't come along often, mixing crazy situations with a drop of realism to make them truly stick. In a way, it reminds me a lot of Great Teacher Onizuka, where it gives room to a story of a guy not fit into the role he is thrown into. In Hinamatsuri, however, we get three points of view, aided by a decently explored Nitta as well. These additional eyes not only give us a few more situations to see, laugh, and cry, but also provide an interesting crossover when their paths overlap each other.

I haven't had much fun watching a show in years, and the best moments happen when Hina, Anzu, and Hitomi interact with each other, a clash of realities, of social standings, and financial power that is not only funny, but deep enough to make us ponder if the girls are getting what they deserve.

Anyway. If you want a comedy, watch it. If you want a comedy with a meaning, you found one of the best in years.