Specifically, three words: Hidamari Sketch su***.
Miyako MAKES the entire series. Period.
That’s the thing: Hidamari Sketch was never meant to be criticized.
Hey! That’s just like how school was back then in Hong Kong!
When one creates a story, one is essentially romanticizing a plot device. A good story possesses dynamic characters, an intricate story with depth, wit, and some worldly reflection on human nature. It is laden with tactful plot twists, humor where it is needed and solemnity where it is effective. This is the definition of a good story, and it is through comparison to this standard that we determine whether a plot is ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
Hidamari Sketch has none of these things.
Yuno recites the ingredients in engrish. Nutbladders shoot through the roof.
It’s slice of life, but you can’t even compare it to other series such as Lucky Star or Seitokai no Ichizon. Those parody well-known anime of the past. You’ll have to squint to realize if something in Hidamari Sketch is meant to be funny, and even then you probably wouldn’t laugh.
Miyako answers ‘InTernetto!’. Nutbladders exploded immediately and streaked the walls with blood.
Azumanga Daioh maybe, but that show is often too psychotic to compare to.
This girl. THIS GIRL! /Ningyopredatormode
Because Hidamari Sketch has none of these things, it can’t ever be considered bad – just as how one cannot point at a scooter and say ‘that’s a horrible bike’. The producers never gave the show a directive for viewers to criticize. Hidamari Sketch is one huge unknown. It hasn’t even had a beach scene yet.
I’m SURE Sae kept her notes just in case one of her beloved kouhai may need them in the future.
Mainly though, it’s because the show is so chokingly saturated with the milk of human kindness. The characters that at first seem normal enough are actually much, much larger than life. There exists not a shred of evil in Hidamari Sketch, not a single bad thought. Even the resident yuri coupling is unsure of their feelings and would never come onto one another in a million years. Hidamari Sketch is probably what heaven is like. At least I certainly hope so, for I much rather be smothered by the Hidamari residents than man-angels. Not that I’ll end up there, but one can always hope.
Yuno and co. are the type that make a worldly big deal out of one of their friends failing an exam, and will immediately, 100% earnestly say ‘We’ll support you all the way’. They will then proceed to cook for the friend, help her study, shower her with encouragement and wait in unison and baited breath for the friend to return from the re-exam. The moment the door opens they shoot out of their seats and yell exasperatedly ‘how did it go?!’.
These people are veritable saints, I tell you. If I breathe one word that criticizes it, one word, I’m plummeting straight to hell.
/Ningyopredatormo- *gets shot*
This show is 100% to scale with actual Japanese children.
I’m still debating to myself whether Hanamaru Yochien falls into the same category. So far, signs point to ‘no’. Yes, it certainly is suffocatingly cute, and it certainly is all smiles.
Yet there’s still something sinister about having a male protagonist. He claims he’s a natural love for women and breasts. Regardlessly of how natural that is, it still gives off the stench of impurity, and it certainly isn’t the right thing to say in this show. Any form of sexuality detracts from innocence – it’s how societal norms have been built as of today.
In contrast, Hidamari Sketch’s characters are genderless. Gender is superficial in how they show their love for all of humanity. That, and the four (now six) of them give signals that suggest they’re near prison-gay, in a buffetingly innocent way.
This leaves me mulling over one question I’m finding infinitely more difficult to answer than most I’ve posited in the past. Where does the purity lie in Hanamaru Yochien? On one hand we have the crushing cuteness of the bundles of softness that is the three main toddlers, yet on the other, our heroine is born of an immoral marriage between a high school student and her art teacher, and (luckily in childish hastiness) wishes to marry the male kindergarten teacher who ‘came onto’ her. What are you trying to prove, Hanamaru Yochien?
Whoa whoa whoa, that’s a little too exciting a statement there, give me some time to calm down
…*runs to bathroom*
That teenage pregnancies resulting from teacher-student relationships produce ridiculously disproportionately cute baby girls?
That this little girl trying to marry a man six, seven times older than her and her mother giving the consent for it would be the most adorable thing ever? Who in the world is your target audience?
For example, what in the name is this scene getting to?
Is this something you would show your kids? Most probably not, considering all these sensitive themes. Yet isn’t there something wrong with not being able to show children this series? Look at how cute it is, how colorful it is; it doesn’t feel right to watch this as an adult, but for some reason we can still feel something amiss about the purity of the show. Oh Japan, what are you doing? Maybe when I plummet straight to hell I’ll need to drag a few people down with me.
Oh yeah, white shirts are the savviest, most deviant thing a man could ever wear.
And yes, at this point, I’m still wondering if this entire post was a joke or not.
Hoho, that’s exactly what my dinner looks like! The man knows how to live!
Ningyo
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January 13th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
lol this post is so confusing but I feel you about Hanamaru Youchien… >_>
January 14th, 2010 at 6:27 am
“This show is 100% to scale with actual Japanese children.”
Lol…
Oh my… I’ve never read so much hate in a post of yours before. Lol.. Funny post!
“Not that I’ll end up there, but one can always hope.”
I think about this all the time… :)
Always wondered if there are any loopholes a.k.a. redemption.
January 14th, 2010 at 7:04 am
rofl! it does look like the classes in HK and thats what our teacher said as well on our last test! :P
January 14th, 2010 at 9:39 am
Is this post about Hidamari Sketch or Hanamaru Yochien? =P
I haven’t seen any of Hanamaru Yochien but I’m not ashamed to admit I absolutely love Hidamari Sketch. Yeah, maybe it is *too* perfect but every time I watch an episode, it makes me smile. If an anime can do that, it must be good xD
January 14th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Ah ah ah i laughed, hard !
For a obscure reason i feel a bit … weird. The rightness you put on to describe this is scarily sick.
This anime is definitively wrong !
And we all need some evil in our life, we all need a person to hate or it just get boring as … hell ha ha ^^ That don’t necessarily mean you’ll be dump in hell.
So what ? I wonder which hell is better considering this huge amount of sweetness …
In any case i you want some buddy to join you wherever you go, i’m in ^^
January 14th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
hmmm, wow-_-*
thats heaven?….well i wouldve expected something more than that, but meeh, everyone has their own guesses on what heaven is i suppose. I would actually give props to this anime, since you have no clue where its getting at and what not, thats pretty hard to do, compared to easily making up a story line good or bad. But god, marrying someone that big of an age difference is pretty gross, EVEN IF ITS FOR MONEY (like the guy of the playboy mansion). But then who am i to judge, love rules over age, sex, appearance and etc-_-. And the fact that my dad is 12 years ahead of my mom, so yeah =_+
January 15th, 2010 at 6:47 am
Hilarius post!
The heaven full of disproportionate children…I would choose hell without a doubt. See you there, then :)
January 15th, 2010 at 7:47 am
On a peripherally related note, have you ever seen the Wikipedia entry on NAMBLA? Specifically the organization’s logo? I think, as far as “design effort to impact” ratios go, it has to be the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen.
January 17th, 2010 at 12:37 am
I’m sorry all, I spent the night away from home. Will diligently get to replying now.
@kluxorious
I’m quite confused about it too. Oh well.
@blur
Oh no, I didn’t intend for there to be any hate at all. I personally love Hidamari Sketch, and I watched Hanamaru Yochien amused. My captions may seem like hate because of the buffeting sarcasm and nitpicky-ness, but that’s really just my Lily Glass Cradle personality seeping out. Or something. If I didn’t alleviate my urge to criticize I’d probably implode.
I just hope I’m not bad enough to land deeper than purgatory. I still prefer doing nothing over getting burned for the rest of eternity.
@imouto
Exactly. High school here is unmatched in comfort. Now if only this place would just develop past its backwater transportations and developments then I might actually start liking living here.
@anonymous_object
Both.
I love Hidamari Sketch as well; it’s hard not to. You’d have to be very malevolently cynical to not like it. It certainly makes me smile, and when I can’t criticize it, that’s good enough.
@Katsura-chan
There’s no standard for goodness without evil, huh…
Actually, I don’t believe in an afterlife at all. Until scientists discover some other wavelength that proves the existence of the human soul, I’ll continue not believing. Call it youthful skepticism. Maybe because old age is so far away from me that I can afford to spite afterlives. Ah, the flaws of self-reflection…
But then, in the likeliness that I do, I’d be glad to have you accompanying me. It reassures me to hear that ;v;
@mat
It’s not my heaven, but if heaven’s as benevolent as it’s sung to be, it’d be very close to that.
It certainly is very against our norms, but love domineering over everything is true too. I don’t know, I won’t condemn anyone for strange love. As long as the love is true and mutual, they have my blessings.
@Canne
I mean Hidamari Sketch is heaven, not that dubious kindergartner show. Not that I’d be admitted either way.
Yes, I’d love to have you along. You bring the food and drink, I’ll bring the boardgames.
@2DT
I have now, and oh dear.
I can’t even believe that there are enough of such cases that they can band together to form an organization in the first place. Well, there’s my naivete ringing again. At any rate, like I said to Mat, I really don’t know about deviant love anymore. I’m probably stooped knee deep into it myself. If the love is mutual and honest, it has my blessings.
January 18th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
Wow. If that wasn’t hate. I can’t even begin to imagine what a “hate” review would be like. Like maybe… a Koihime Musou review. Lol… -.-”
January 20th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Honestly…I stopped watching this God-forsaken show 10 minutes in. Like jeez…it felt like I was watching it for 20 minutes at the 7 minute mark. Just so fucking schizophrenic. Thank goodness for spell-checker :D
Anyways, I don’t know if I’ll finish it, but it’s whatever I suppose.
January 20th, 2010 at 11:10 pm
@blur
yes, I certainly need to do that at some point… Just go crazy over something that really ticks me off. I usually try to avoid that in fear that I burst a vein and crumble.
@FaS
Are you talking about Hanamaru Yochien? I didn’t feel it was particularly long, but it certainly had its questionable themes.
Yes, thank goodness for spell checker. But I’m generally reserved about Firefox’s, because it thinks ‘cocksucker’ is a legitimate word.
Well, if you stopped 10 minutes in, I don’t think you’ll finish it >.<
Don't watch something that increases blood pressure, there's plenty of alternatives.
January 21st, 2010 at 3:18 am
I don’t really know what to say about this series. I agree that this seems like one big unknown. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem too interesting to me. It just seems too… lacking in things.
January 23rd, 2010 at 1:07 am
I’m actually trying to keep Hanamaru Yochien innocent in my mind, no matter how creepy some of the situations are, lol. So one of the series that won’t ever have an ecchi pic collection in my hard drive, just like Angelic Layer.
As for Hidamari Sketch… I still can’t seem to watch the anime for some reason. I still prefer it in manga form. So your screens you posted is from this season, right? Volume 4 of the manga started off like this too!
January 23rd, 2010 at 7:53 pm
@Yi
To me it has a lot more than it lacks, with all these questionable themes ^^;…
But yes, it did seem like a big unknown. With the second episode though it’s cleared up a little. Anzu still wants to marry the guy, but that’s more of a running gag now. I suppose it’s harmless enough.
@rob
Yeah, I guess it is ultimately harmless…
I never store ecchi pics on the drive, actually. It’s download them temporarily, get the job done, remove the evidence >:D
A remnant habit of my parental unit possessing days, I’ve no idea why I still do it, being the only one in this Canadian flat.
So HS is actually canonical to the manga? Of all series? Bikkuri.
January 23rd, 2010 at 11:16 pm
Yep, Hidamari Sketch is canonical… but they do it out of order. Probably why it was jarring to me when I was watching them.