Hanayamata

There are various rules when one talks about a series related to “Cute Girls Doing Cute Things”. (CGDCT) First, the show must consists of a main female characters cast for at least the core characters. And throughout that series, there are hardly or if any male characters at all. Second, the girls must be doing something cute. This could be anything considered cute whether it’s having a tea party, playing at the beach, singing a song, or planning for a vacation. In the case of Hanayamata, the cute girls performs yosakoi, an unique form of dancing stylized in Japan. And finally, these activities are usuallyrandom in no precise order. In other words, there usually isn’t a complex or ongoing plot with the girls that connects the story together. However, this doesn’t always apply as a major theme can convey the overall premise of a CGDCT series. Cute might seem an overrated word but Hanayamata brings that out so much more. Based off the manga of the same name, Hanayamata (or sometimes known as HaNaYaMaTa) is also a portmanteau blending the main character’s names together. Honestly though, the series is about unity as the girls grows close with bonding. That unity is inspired to craft what CGDCT typify for: dancing. Because let’s face it, dancing is an activity and cute girls makes it look like a brilliant piece of art. Art requires development, skill, and perfection to make it become something worth praise though. Thankfully, this show characterizes that at a level that is inspiring. Meet Naru Sekiya, a young girl with a lack of self-confidence. From her initial introduction, one could easily speculate that she has insecurities about her talents as a person. Throughout the show, she tries to build and climb out of her shell. What Hanaymata does well is show exactly how she develops with her own character. When compared to her best friend Yaya, there’s a big gap to fill with their characteristics. Yaya is the popular girl with talent in music with the intelligence that puts Naru to shame. However, Naru and Yaya gets along quite well that personifies a unique friendship between the duo. Speaking of unique, Hana is perhaps the epitome of this show. Transferring from America, Hana is a girl that I would describe as eccentric. There is no doubt she has skills especially when it comes to yosakoi. It’s just that she takes it to a level that isn’t just hyperactive but also dangerous on occasions with her dancing spotlights of choice. As with most school settings, there’s also a student council. Two prominent characters from the council also plays intriguing roles. Tami Nishimikado and Machi Tokiwa enters the story that may evoke the viewer’s curiosity. This is fueled by their back stories that is not only realistic but also characterizes their persona as who they became today. But past events aside, the series focuses on what’s happening the present and that’s the yosakoi club. Essentially, the first episode has an illuminating start. Captured in a spellbound moment, Naru sees a young girl dancing under the blooming skies. The lavishly dancing style almost looks like a fairy tale by Naru’s impressions. In essence, it correlates with the main concept of the show – dancing. The background also shows spring which symbolizes a spiritual sense of growth. There’s also a motif relating to the characters’ choice of flowers. As flowers, they grow and bloom during the Spring. This concept applies to almost all the characters but the most prominently for Naru. She wants a place in life and her destined meeting with Hana is like taking the first steps towards that journey. It’s also implied that Hana grows as a person as she makes friends based on her experiences there. Although not entirely categorized as personal growth, the friends she makes brings out a different side from her. Collectively, the journey focuses on all the girls. We see the best and worst of themselves as they try to put their talents into a unity and show the world what they can do. Although lacking a complex story, a main focus revolves around Hana’s attempts to form the yakoishi club. The series presents this in an almost experimental format with our characters getting hands-on experience with the context. Even the teacher of the show has a little gag with this. Not directly related to dancing but she is a woman that is a fresh graduate, eager to explore life and her profession at fullest. But for what’s worth, the subplot is merely simple with predictable plot devices. It’s not just predicable though but lacks depth with the way the characters tries to achieve. Sure, we want them to succeed despite the obstacles they face but at the same time, not all of them puts their effort 100% into it. This is what it’s like anyways in the beginning and hard to take serious to heart. Don’t me wrong though. Hanayamata isn’t attempting to craft some CGDCT series out of some basic premise here. Rather, it dives into and characterizes the cast, or in this case the cute girls. In retrospect, the show has the ability to get viewers to appreciate the characters for who they are, what they want, and what they do. Madhouse is a big name figure. Although they aren’t too well known for producing series with the CGDCT concept, I’d say that they nailed the spot here with artwork. It’s the strength of the performance that highlights the characters extravagantly on the artistic front. Every main character has a feminine appearance supplemented by a flower bundled on their head. It symbolizes not only growth but beauty. This is further enhanced by their school uniforms and yukata that fits with traditional Japanese themes. Additionally, every characters stands out in some way whether it’s Yaya’s mature figure, Machi’s glasses, or Hana’s pettiness. However, what makes the show stands out the most artistically is the backgrounds. The naturalness of the background gives an impression of elegance while the dancing movements evokes sense of freedom. Every movement is captured with cleverly positioned camera angles to bring out the best of the yakoishi style. On a comedic note, the show also likes to make the characters’ eyes go ‘O_O’ during certain circumstances. It highlights the silliness of the show while bringing lighthearted laughter. And no, there isn’t asinine fan service. You will instead be serviced by a typhoon of cuteness. Soundtrack also has its own way that speaks for itself. The simple lyrics and traditional-like Japanese tones of the soundtrack clearly gets its message across. Fiercely engrossed with the style of the show, soundtrack is coordinated with delicacy to make the dancing moves come to life. The impression it gives off will almost feel dreamlike with the girls doing what they love to do. Otherwise, character voice mannerism can be spawn some mixed feelings. In particular, Hana’s voice often can get irritating with her persistence with others. Naru’s soft voice also hardly stands out; a sharp contrast to her friend Yaya. But speaking of Yaya, she also exhibits a tsundere-like mannerism during certain situations. To make up for this though, the songs in the show are performed by the voice actresses themselves. Talent is the first word that comes to mind when you put those headphones on. Epitomized with CGDCT context, Hanayamata hinges onto easy ideas but presents them in a way that will allure the audience with memorable moments. It focuses on the girls and how they came together while characterizing them each to make them appreciable. This focus extends to characters both individually and collectively with some even on a persona level. It’s nothing personal though as the show also has business when it comes to performance. The business indeed picks up when the girl steps on the stage and shows the world the fruits of their hard work. You don’t need to embrace the art of yosakoi to enjoy this show though. But watching this show may take you back and evoke that memorable quote of "How about you dance along with me?"

Hanayamata is a slice of life, comedy anime based of the manga Manga Time Kirara Forward by Sou Hamayumiba and was created by Madhouse studio. The anime aired from July to September 2014 and lasted 12 episodes long. Plot Hanayamata’s Plot revolves around 14 years old girl, Naru Sekiya, who has a lack of interests except for fairy tales, until she meets Hana N. Fountainstand, one night and watches her dancing Yosakoi. Together, they create a Yosakoi club at school so they can enter the upcoming Yosakoi, but getting new members is not so easy. The story of Hanayamata may sound like some other anime involving musicand dancing, do not let you think Hanayamata is the nothing new. While the main focus is on Yosakoi, the show doesn't fail in the development of the main characters over the course of the show and how each of the characters support each other with their troubles they find themselves in. While being a sol, the comedy in Hanayamata has been well done as not a lot of jokes get too over used and some of the quirks of each character adding to its enjoyment. Now on to the main characters of Hanayamata: Naru Sekiya voiced by Reina Ueda(Mikan Akemi from Jitsu wa Watashi wa and Juri Makina from Harmonie) – is a 14 years old girl who lacks interests and confidence to try new things. She dreams to be dazzling like the princesses from the fairy tales she loves reading. That is until one night while walking home, she encounter Hana, who was doing yosakoi and joins in only to run away because she believes she can’t be dazzling as Hana. After being asked and saying no to Hana to create the yosakoi club, she finally agrees to help Hana after telling Naru about her dream of become a professional Yosakoi dancer. While Naru is very clumsy and gets scared preforming in front of people, she is very understanding person and caring of others. Hana N. Fountainstand voiced by Minami Tanaka (Minami Katayama from Wake Up,Girls! and Game Gear from Hi☆sCoool! SeHa Girls) – is a transfer student from the US who is in Naru’s class. She transfers to Japan after falling in love with Yosakoi while on a trip to Japan a few years ago. While dancing one night, she meets Naru and offers her to dance with her. She decides to make the Yosakoi club at school so she could dance with others. She is bit of a tomboy and is over excited about many things. Yaya Sasame voiced by Kaya Okuno (Hacka Doll No. 2 from Hacka Doll and Kaya kikuma from Wake Up,Girls!) – is a 14 years old girl and Naru’s best friend. She is part of a band at school and at the start very against doing Yosakoi with Naru and Hana until her dream of being part of a band falls apart and Naru shows her that she has a place in the group, making her join. She is very protective about Naru and becomes jealous when Naru starts to make new friends. While she is very smart and beautiful, she doesn't like people helping her and has very bad handwriting. Tami Nishimikado voiced by Yuka Ootsubo (Ai from Ai Mai Mii and Kanako Mimura from The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls) – Is the vice-president of the student council and childhood friend of Naru, with Naru calling her big sister. She tries to please her father by trying to be a proper Japanese woman. After she realize that trying to please her father wasn’t making her happy and stopping from doing the things she really want to do, she becomes overcome by worries until Naru helps her other come them and joins the Yosakoi club. Machi Tokiwa voiced by Manami Numakura (Hibiki Ganaha from The iDOLM@STER and Yurika Toudou from Aikatsu!) – Is the President of the student council and close friend of Tami. She not interest in Yosakoi at first but after sorting a personal problem, she joins the club. She is strict about a lot of things, apart from sweet things and Tami’s requests. Presentation Hanayamata uses a beautiful blend of bright colors to bring to show to life to the viewer and to show the beauty of the Yosakoi to them. Each character has been unique look to them to help the viewer recognize and to flesh out their personalities. The Animation of the characters is amazing as it really shine when the girls are dancing. The voice acting is very impressive as every character feels alive and the voice actresses of the main characters also sing the opening song and the final episode ending song. My Opinion Hanayamata is an anime that has really surprised me , it has one of the most beautiful art styles I have ever seen In anime the story has been brilliant well written and the dancing is one of the most interesting I ever seen. Hanayamata has a number of messages it give to the viewer, from we should do the things we love doing in our lives to having someone who we can care for, laugh and cry with is nice. Finally, each character really brings Hanayamata to life for me as each have their faults but they help each other to overcome them. Verdict Hanayamata is one of those hidden gems of 2014, over looked by bigger named shows, a real treat to watch. From the art to the characters, Hanayamata impresses the viewer with it take on the Sol idea. If you wanted to watch a good story, then if you haven’t already, you should give Hanayamata a go and you find a really anime.

(This has been adapted from my reddit thread) Dancing is usually seen as something different to many people. For some, it is an art form for the human body. And yet for others it is an expression of the soul. When it comes down to it, dancing is what the dancer makes of it. In Hanayamata, Hana, Naru, Yaya, Machi, and Tami come to learn that yosakoi, to them, is a bond of everlasting friendship and love. STORY Hanayamata starts by introducing Naru, a young girl looking to become more "dazzling." One night, she witnesses a young girl, Hana, dancing beautifully in the moonlight. After becoming friends, Hanamakes it her mission to recruit Naru and a few others into her yosakoi club so they can all have fun together. When going into this show, it's important to understand that this is a "cute girls doing cute things" type of anime. There is no grandiose plot, intricate characters, or incredible world-building. Instead, much of what goes on is the girls interacting with one another in adorable ways. Whether this be visiting a sauna to practice and relax or them going to a festival to see other teams compete, everything they do is for fun. This being said, the show does try to inject some drama into the story. Every character has their own arc that follows the same pattern: character gets some back-story, drama unfolds, a solution is found, and then the girl joins the club. This becomes the apparent method of doing things by the second girl, but for the show's purpose, it worked fine. Having a somewhat large main cast and only a particular number of episodes to work with, I felt that the drama wasn't necessarily forced each time. They had proper explanations for the girls apprehensiveness or overall issues they were dealing with, and they were more or less taken care of at a steady pace. It never makes you feel overly emotional, but it never feels melodramatic. Part of the problem with the show is its handling of yosakoi. It's one of the main portions of the show, but I personally felt as if there wasn't enough behind the subject to get me invested in it. I didn't much care for what yosakoi brought or even what it entailed because I felt that the show didn't really articulate well enough how powerful it can be. Maybe this is a problem with yosakoi itself not being complex or deep, but I think there should have been more focus on it besides just the girls practicing. ANIMATION Hanayamata is quite gorgeous. Directed by Atsuko Ishizuka, her style of extremely vibrant colors, beautiful backdrops, and excessive use of purple makes Hanayamata a feast for the eyes. The nighttime portions are captivating in the moonlight and its great use of sunset lighting during many scenes (combined with the aforementioned purple) makes them look stunning. The animation quality is also very high. The girls general movements are fluid but the animation shines best when the girls are dancing. The show also does its best to include different locations that the girls visit, allowing for other animation opportunities such as with rustling trees, a busy hotel, or the school grounds. The character designs are nothing amazing like the art style and animation, but I particularly liked Hana's design mostly due to her unique look when compared to the rest of the cast. Being "American" and having blonde hair made her design pretty nice. As a final note, the character's eyes actually have pretty interesting shapes. They're not really oval but more like diamonds. Just something I thought I should point out! CHARACTERS Hanayamata's characters each have their own personality traits, but for the most part, they are each quite adorable in their own respects. Machi is the school girl, valuing hard-work and dedication over play. She and Tami have both a friend relationship as well as a working one, with Tami always looking to break down Machi's shell just a little bit. I liked her the least among the girls simply because she wasn't as cute as the rest. Tami represents the doting mother; she is mature for her age and looks out for the other girls' well-being. She especially takes care of Naru since they have known one another for quite a while. I liked her character a lot because, despite her maturity, she loved to tease the others a lot. Yaya is your classic "tsundere." She is best friends with Naru and even has what appears to be some type of "yuri" feelings towards her. I actually like this trope in anime, so I found her to always be a blast on-screen. Plus, she loved to pick on Hana which never ceased to make me smile. Above all, the best two characters from the show are Naru and Hana. They define the cuteness that is prevalent throughout all of the series. Their reactions, blushing, smiling, and overall happiness gives you the biggest grin possible. It is extremely hard not to like them because of how freaking adorable they are. This is not an understatement; everything they do screams "moe." On top of each characters traits, as said before, they do get their own bit of back-story and drama that helps to let them develop. But once the drama subsides, it is mostly forgotten and replaced with their usual cuteness. The characters are not going to be remembered, but they all fit the "cute girls doing cute things" bill to a tee. SOUND The OP for Hanayamata is fantastic for two reasons. One, it is very catchy, upbeat, and wonderfully composed. Second, and as discussed elsewhere, it is an actual plot device. Unlike every other OP, it isn't just there to be listened to at the beginning of each episode (as it should), but rather it is incorporated into the girls' actual yosakoi. For this reason, the show gets big points for doing something pretty unique. The ED is good, and follows the same feeling of happiness that the OP, and for that matter the rest of the show, does. It also pretty catchy in its own way. The rest of the soundtrack is fine, but there wasn't anything I found to be standout like the OP and ED. However, shout-outs to Minami Tanaka for her voice acting of Hana and Reina Ueda for her voice acting of Naru. They did a spectacular job in their respective performances. Their voices not only were cute but fit wonderfully with the characters they were playing. ENJOYMENT I like cute. I find it fun to watch, smile at, and relax to. And this is something that Hanayamata does quite well. It is filled with cuteness in each episode. You will be hard pressed not to be smiling when you are watching the series. Watching Hana with blank eyes and worrying about her grades makes you laugh. Naru blushing hard over saying something embarrassing will make you smile like a doofus. Tami, Machi, and Yaya acting older yet teasing with one another will fill you with joy. Every episode goes out of its way to just make you happy. Again, this show is "cute girls doing cute things," and it's awesome. While it isn't a show that I absolutely loved, there is no doubt in my mind that you will walk away from the series having just had a wonderful experience. SUMMARY Story: Fine, cute girls with okay drama Animation: Great, beautiful and colorful Characters: Good, so cute it's almost a sin Sound: Great, OP is unique, ED is good, VAs are experts Enjoyment: Good, non-stop smiling the whole way through Final Score: 8/10

Hanayamata is something we've all seen before whether you've seen it specifically or if you've seen any other random SoL with a similar plot, unfortunately it could have been greater. The subject is something known as Yosakoi. A Japanese style of dance you've most likely never heard of unless you're into that sort of thing or live in Japan. The show does next to nothing to bring you closer to the subject and barely informs you of anything that has to do with the style of the dance outside of the fact that they use naruko and its done in groups. I could almost forgivethis if there was actually more to the show though, because I can understand it was intended for a Japanese audience. Story: 4 Have seen K-On? Have you seen any show like it? If yes then you know the story already. A girl with no after school club somehow ends up in one they know next to nothing about and it is un/partially-formed so they have to get members to have it approved by the school. This time the club is about Yosakoi and only the leader/club founder has any idea what the hell it even is. That would be all fine and dandy IF they actually taught the viewer anything about the style of dance outside of some very minor basics. This is the traditional story of Kawaii School Girls doing school girl things cutely, and that's rather disappointing because this story has been done a hundred million times and done better. If you love that sort of thing then this might not be a problem, but I'm speaking as someone who is finally sick of it after about 50 shows doing the same. There's also one other thing I'd like to bring up. Just because your school doesn't recognize you as a club it's not the end of the world. If you have a group of people that enjoy doing something together there is absolutely nothing stopping you from doing it by not being in a club specifically for that thing. I never could understand the drama about these types of things. Especially in this case where you need next to no money to get started. These types of story devices annoy the piss out of me and that's something that's present here, constant worrying about whether or not the club is legit. Also don't forget the obligatory hot-springs training camp episode, we get some of that too. Art: 5 The art style is something I'm not fond of personally, but it's not bad just because I don;t like the way it looks. The back drops are Ok to good at best and the characters are very colorful. The designs are nothing impressive, and almost all of them have the same eyes drawn slightly different. Nothing really stands out, but it's not objectively bad so I can't really complain. However the animation is mediocre as fuck. Which is highly saddening because the scenes with dancing could have been great if nothing else. In itself there is nothing great about the art style I can see and it doesn't even look better then things that are coming out along with it. I was just overall unimpressed. Sound: 6 Sound is what you would expect from your usual moe SoL. High pitched girls because they are about 13-14 years old. Cute sound effects for their interactions. And honestly not much else. The voice work didn't really do it for me. During the "emotional" scenes of building friendship I did not feel grabbed by the voices in any way. Music is alright, I rather liked it for what it was. OP and ED are your usual fare of j-pop type songs and not breaking any ground in that regard. I personally enjoyed both though that is subjective to my taste in music and not a reflection of the show itself. The songs are not going to interest you at all unless you like most anime OPs. Character: 4 If there's one thing I can appreciate it's well written and thought out characters. Hanayamata has none of that. All characters fall into the generic anime tropes that you've seen 400 times over and does not tread new ground with any of them. We have the ditzy/shy girl, the rich girl, the stuck up girl, optimistic happy go-lucky girl, and the tsundere. All crucial parts of any middle school rag-tag club. The small amounts of character development that there is can be seen from about half a planet away and has been done with every trope already. Nothing impressive is to be found and most are completely forgettable if not all of them. Don't forget that one of the main characters is a native-English speaking transfer student that is supposed to be having trouble learning Japanese, but from what I can tell she speaks pretty damn fluently. There is even a episode about her failing at it and having to study harder for her to participate in the club. Yet not once is her accent (Doesn't have one) ever mentioned or anything. Yes I know the voice actor was Japanese, but just another thing that annoyed me a bit. I mean is it that hard to try for some realism? Enjoyment/Overview 6/5 This show if done in a more informative fashion could have at least been something a wee bit original that had something going for it. But they took the idea of using a lesser known type of dance (At least in other parts of the world, in the show they treat it as if it's something uncommon in Japan as well though.) as the main plot device and took it a whole five feet before dropping off into the usual moe SoL that we all know and love/hate. I was expecting more only to be let down quickly, but I always hoped for something to change, but guess what; it doesn't. For what it is I enjoyed it somewhat, but I'm getting sick of the same setting with the same story over and over with no show even trying to break new ground with it. I couldn't help but hope at least initially this would be something akin to Tari Tari. Where we got characters that actually grew over the course of the show and had at least some semblance of a story to tell. Don't be like me and get your hopes up. If you like moe, watch. If you want a good at least semi-original SoL don't, because it will take you nowhere fast.

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