Hyakko

You could call this series "The Melancholy of Torako Kageyama" and not be far off. If you like Kyon, Mikuru, Yuki and Haruhi you'll probably enjoy Tatsuki, Ayumi, Suzume and Torako almost equally. Normally, Torako would be the the character in charge of slapstick comedy - loud, boisterous, and embarassing like Tomo, Himeko or Kana but here she shines. But Hyakko revolves around Torako no less than MoHS is centered on Haruhi, as a matter of fact if Haruhi were a "normal" human she'd probably be Torako Kageyama. In Torako's world there's too much to do and too many chances for fun and entertainment tospend your time worrying about the sadder aspects of your life. Torako hates sitting still, grasping both life and her classmates with both hands she pulls both along in her wake blithely ignoring complaints and criticisms. There are other "slice of life" school girl comedies that are "funnier", Azumanga for instance, but I doubt if you'll find one with more fully developed characters in both the lead and supporting roles; particularly Torako Kageyama.

FOR YOUR SAKE, watch in this order: Episode 13 then Episodes 1-12. Why? Because Episode 13 occurs chronologically before all the other episodes, and is a whole lot more enlightening if viewed first, and, I'm sure, will make your viewing experience much more enjoyable. It's a waste of time to see the "first" episode at the very end, because, by that point, you can pretty much fill in all the blanks yourself. As for the show on the whole, it elicited a lukewarm response from me. At first, it deceivingly markets itself as a comedy, when it truly follows more of the drama/slice-of-life genre, although the dramais mild and far-between. The only thing driving this show is the characters, comprised of a diverse cast of different personalities. Hyakko's characters are certainly the only thing that saves it from its less-than-lackluster plot. On the whole, Hyakko is decent. It wasn't for me, but if you're into this kind of genre (and the characters especially), it's certainly worth a run-through.

High school slice-of-life comedies are possibly the most common of anime. Dozens of them come out every year, and with a frequency that has only increased over time. Sometimes one of these school life shows does something special that makes them memorable and standout from their ilk, but usually they fade into obscurity, lost among a sea of similar shows. Such is the case with Hyakko, a generally enjoyable high school romp from 2008, that ultimately provides nothing outside the usual anime high school shenanigans. The shenanigans are those of teenage trouble-child Torako Kageyama and the many odd friends she makes at Kamizono Academy. And whata eclectic group of friends she has; including the cute and shy Ayumi, snobbish Tatsuki, physically fit and gluttonous Suzume, yankee Ushio, Sadako look-a-like Inori, bisexual class president Nene, and so many other peculiar personalities. With such a wide variety quirky characters bouncing off each, the show is undoubtedly fun. The show has dozens of character gags from Torako and Tatsuki's conflicting personalities, to Suzume's oddly nonchalant personality and excessive eating, to Nene's drooling over the rest of the female cast. The gags and jokes are quite simple but the animated personalities of the girls make them work enough. Of course this is essentially just another 'cute girls doing cute things' anime, as evident by the fact most of the characters are girls even though Kamizono is a co-ed school; there are only 4 reoccurring male characters, one of them being a teacher. The overall tone of the show is largely zany. This is unmistakably a comedy show, and it rarely takes itself seriously. Most of the show's run time is spent on Torako's hair-brained antics and slowly introducing more characters into Torako's ever expanding group of friends. The usual episode is light and breezy, easy to watch and completely comfortable; devoid of any actual tension. While this makes the show enjoyable, it is also why the show ultimately doesn't accomplish anything of consequence, it is a good time but there is nothing more grasp onto. With no real plot and minimal conflict, the events of every episode blend together into a fuzzy glob of jokes. The comedy itself isn't particularly original or exceedingly crafty, it is more or less the usual anime humor of silly situations and overreactions, albeit done fairly well. What makes this particularly frustrating is that Hyakko does have the potential to be more than the average school life comedy, the show just never capitalizes on it. The potential lies in two characters, Tatsuki and our lead, Torako. Tatsuki is a rich heiress with a complicated family life, she's used to being alone and despite attending Kamizono Academy since elementary she hasn't made any real long lasting friendships. In one of the show's rare slightly more serious episodes, Tatsuki ponders the solidarity of her school life til high school and the value of her new friends, only to realize she actually treasures them when they drop by her house in a surprise visit. This is a nice bit of development, which makes it too bad that it is confined to a single episode; pushed aside for high goofy shenanigans. Likewise, Torako also has a complicated relationship with her family, probably even more so. She doesn't get alone well with the other members of her family, and often runs away from home. This could have been the foundation for some potent, maybe even mature family drama; perhaps even delving into why Torako behaves the way she does. However, this is only elaborated in a single admittedly good episode near the end of the series. There isn't really anything wrong with a show focusing on comedy, but Hyakko has clear potential for meaningful drama that it passes up, content with showing cute girls doing cute things. As a consequence, the show feels like a real under-achiever. On a technical standpoint, Hyakko isn't all that impressive either. It is by no means a bad looking show; the character designs are quite adequate, certainly cute enough. They are more or less what is expected from an anime with a high school setting, and that is kind of the problem with them. Kamizono Academy is laid out well enough to feel like an actual place, but the backgrounds settle for passable; adequate enough to properly establish the setting, but never exceedingly well detailed. The animation is full of shortcuts and fully animated movement is rare. Such shortcuts are commonplace in slice-of-life comedies such as Hyakko, however this is a show that was made after The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Clannad, and other much better animated slice-of-life series, so it is hardly the best looking show of its kind or of its time. The music is largely light and wacky, adhering to the show's dominantly comedic tone. However, there are times when it achieves more emotional richness, which works well when the show aims to be slightly more serious or melancholy. Hyakko certainly isn't an unpleasant show, quite the contrary. It has likeable characters and plenty of funny moments. The zany antics and personalities are easy enough to enjoy; the show is an easy and comfortable watch. In fact, it is probably too easy of a watch. There is essentially no plot, little tension or conflict, and sparse character development. The potential for such things is there, but the show is so preoccupied with being cute and funny that it neglects to be anything more. Fun though the show might be, it is ultimately unremarkable and unmemorable.

I wish I could write good things about all the shows I review, but I suppose there must be an exception to the rule, and Hyakko would appear to be it. I think the problem with Hyakko is that its underlying concept is not original. Having a bunch of disparate personalities come together as friends within the school environment has been done countless times (although none come close to the brilliance of Azumanga Daioh). Even the class full of dysfunctional (or maybe just odd, in this case) has been beaten to death in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. That said, it doesn’t start badly. Our four protagonists – thetimid and shy Ayumi; haughty and abrasive Tatsuki; impulsive Torako and the quiet Suzume actually form a pretty decent team. Then again, it’s the kind of pairing (or quadrupling if you like) that’s been seen in everything from Manabi Straight to Hidamari Sketch to Sketchbook and so forth. It’s a formula that works, so it gets trundled out again and for the first four episodes it works well and there are some genuinely funny moments, most of which involve Tatsuki having to deal with the human typhoon that is Torako. Foremost amongst these has to be and the antics of the openly bi and predatory class president – who has her eye on the student council presidency, as well as Torako. Suzume’s complete unawareness of the havoc her performing an Y-balance pose (with one leg in the air) would cause on her co-ed art class is also worth a mention. Sadly, the class president doesn’t get the screen time, or the development, her character needed to add some serious comedy to the whole affair. Likewise, the long-suffering homeroom teacher, Sengoku-sensei, has a couple of classic on-screen moments, usually involving Torako but these are, sadly, too few and far between. However, his portrayal of a world-weary teacher, who’s just realised his karma has caught up with him in the form of this flaxen-haired demon, is nicely done. After the first four episodes, however, it all starts to fall apart. We are introduced to more of the oddball classmates, which is all well and fine, if you left them to do oddball things. The problem is, they all have issues, which Torako & Co try to resolve. It’s a bit like Clannad’s “introduce-a-broken-chick-and-then-fix-her” motif, but at least Clannad has the decency to put some flesh on the character’s bones, so we know who they are and what makes them tick, before breaking them. In Hyakko, the viewer just isn’t made to care enough about the superficial characters to introduce that kind of drama and make it work. It gets even worse, when additional characters are suddenly out of the blue, in order to resolve Torako’s arc. It ends up messy and feeling very contrived. The soundtrack is also forgettable with a poor OP and an even worse ED. Aya Hirano, who I like as a seiyuu and who voices Ayumi, would appear have a pretty good deal, as she sings at least one song on whatever series she’s in. The problem is she obviously can’t choose what she sings and they tend to be generally bad and not at all suited for her voice. Maybe she should just stick to voice acting. On the whole, Hyakko was a disappointment. It never really set out to do anything that hadn’t been done before. It suffers from what I call “not knowing what to do” syndrome – if it wanted to be a comedy, then it shouldn’t have introduced drama and if it wanted to be a drama then it needed to flesh out the characters far more than they were. There are far better comedies in this genre out there and you won’t really have missed anything if you don’t watch Hyakko.

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