Spring of 2018: Hinamatsuri is the most funny, genuine and heartfelt show of the season so far!

Wow, so while I was browsing through some shows this season just this week, I decided to give Hinamatsuri a try. The plot, which involved a telekinetic little girl in a weird space capsule suddenly dropping into the apartment of a high-level Yakuza officer and being adopted by him, is so ridiculous that I had to give it a try. I watched all six episodes released so far over the course of the week.

The intro with the smooth and slick kung fu choreography and animation, as well as the infamously over-the-top “WATASHI NO SMARTHPHONE GAAAAAAH” basically cemented this as something special in the comedy department, and it helps that the entirety of the first episode is a riot from start to finish.

Hina is a wonderful kuudere, with even her most excited outbursts being met with a slightly more determined or dreamy expression. An interesting side to her character is that the concepts of monetary value, good manners and fairness are foreign to her because of her former function as a human weapon. However, while she may be kind of an airhead, she does eventually recognize when her actions were wrong, and tries to make up for it in her own way.

Nitta is an adult character who is clearly not yet ready for having a child, but as with Japan’s quest to get their population to start breeding, he eventually warms up to having Hina as a surrogate daughter. He may be a high-class criminal, with a penchant for women, parties and buying luxurious vases, but he does take the responsibility of raising a child seriously.

The other side stories are also all hilarious. Everything that happens to the characters from the bar is a great source of humor.

However, the breakout character arc of the show, in my opinion, is the one that belongs to my article’s featured image, Anzu!

Anzu is another telekinetic from wherever it is they come from, who is sent to check on Hina and eliminate her, but Hina and Nitta instead befriend her after she loses a game of rock-paper-scissors. However, since the other side is apparently full of bad engineers, her transport capsule is ruined by a little bit of water, and now she’s stuck, and is too proud to ask Hina for help since she already refused the offer to live with them. Anzu is forced to steal food from resturants, bars and convenience stores, before she is eventually rescued by a homeless person by the name of Yassan.

Anzu quickly became my favorite character because of her obvious parallels to Hina’s character and situation. Where Hina is an emotionless soft-spoken slacker who was born into a lavish lifestyle, Anzu is a very talkative and street-smart girl who ends up learning the value of hard work after being taken in by kind, homeless people. Her entire arc up to this point makes up the brunt of the emotional and heartwarming side to this otherwise comedic series. She doesn’t know a lot about this new world, but unlike Hina who learned everything through TV, Anzu has the benefit of learning about the world from regular hard-working people, which honestly makes her a lot more likeable and relatable.

I won’t spoil too much about her story here, but let me just say, it is pretty rare for a comedy series to make me tear up from how funny AND heartwarming it is.

Right now, I HIGHLY recommend this show if you haven’t picked it up yet. It might be my favorite show of the season so far, and has a lot of potential to follow in Gintama’s footsteps.

Advertisement