Hanayamata – Quick Look

Let’s Yosakoi!

Sidekick’s First Impressions

Since there are a couple of series that’ve been left out by the team and I’m not blogging anything weekly this season, I thought I’d at least give a quick look post to some of the series not yet checked out by anyone else on the team.

Hanayamata looked like a series about cute girls pretending to do something important but only sit around and drink tea (aka nothing), but it’s surprisingly more than that. The first 2 episodes introduces us to Naru, a 14 year-old girl who doesn’t stand out much and has a lack of self-confidence being drawn into the world of a form of tradtional Japanese dance, Yosakoi, by Hana, a transfer student from America that tries to get Naru to dance the Yosakoi with her.

There are a few things that separate Hanayamata from other series of its ilk. For one, the topic at hand is actually interesting – a form of traditional dance isn’t something you see anime cover often, and Yosakoi itself, from the footage in the OP and various parts of the first 2 episodes actually look great. The dance is intense but graceful, and is something I can actually envision these girls get into. Of course, personal preference plays a part here, since I do enjoy performance arts and am also a sucker for anything remotely traditional.

Another thing about Hanayamata is that the directing is actually pretty damn great, and everything about the series looks fantastic. I’m not the biggest fan of the director’s previous work (he did No Game No Life last season and god was that stuff painful on the eyes) but he toned the colours down a bit for Hanayamata and sticks to an emphasis of pretty purple hues that really give the series a very magical look. Close-up shots and many varying camera angles also help to keep things visually interesting, there is clearly a pretty big budget for the series so animation is very smooth and consistent, and I also quite like the sound direction for this one too. Everything comes together really nicely for a very competent and enjoyable first episode, at least on a technical level.

Lastly, the first 2 episodes clearly shows that the characters, while being quite stereotypical, actually have something /to/ them, and aren’t just babbling idiots. They have their own motivations, personal struggles and manage to stay quite charming without being overbearingly cute. Characterization has been well so far, and there is a certain nuance in the writing that I’m enjoying so far. Naru did get a little on my nerves in the first episode because she was a little too whiny in my opinion, but at least the story recognizes this and her personality has been justified enough for me to let it slide. The girls have pretty good chemistry together too, and their friendship never feels manufactured (at least, not yet).

Hanayamata is one of the surprises of the season for me, and I hope it keeps up this level of quality throughout its run. Even if you’re not the biggest fan of the ‘cute girls doing cute things’ genre I think the series warrants a try still (and if you like stuff like this and haven’t seen it yet what the heck are you doing?).