First Impressions – Hanayamata
Hello, and welcome to our latest first! This time around we explore the world of yosakoi, yousei, and…HWY? What’s another “Y” word? And don’t say yuchuujin, cause I was gonna go for that…
Maybe ‘yomenai’, as in kuuki yomenai. Do we have a girl here who just can’t read the atmosphere? Or is there a greater method to the madness of Hana N. Fontainestand?
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Join the Dance…
She promises she won’t bite…
I’ve had quite a few eager anticipations this season. So a lovely moe show about cute girls doing cute traditional dancing was right on my radar from the get go. The PV material were so enticing. In this case, Hanayamata very much met most of my expectations. From it’s cold open right into the infectious OP, Hanaha Odori Reya Iroha ni Ho, by Team Hanayamata I loved the energy, the pacing, the excitement and most of all the rich color palette that Madhouse has seemingly become infused with lately. All this springs forth from Watanabe Atsuko’s sweet character design, a storyline by Reiko Yoshida, and good direction from Ishizuki Atsuko…you’ve got a show with a rather fine moe pedigree. The show moves well, from the comedy to some of the brief little action scenes that Hana just loves to get up into.
Gah, just cheer up a bit!
But a show is nothing without some premiere characters to move the plot along and share something of themselves. This is one point where the show might not balance itself as well as one of it’s characters manages to do on many visible surfaces. I can only get behind a character like Naru so much. If you met her in real life, you would be exhausted trying to meet her more than half way most of the time. It’s lucky someone like Hana, with energy to spare, has met her, and is encouraging her to take a chance. It’s to early to say if this sort of thing will be a deal breaker, but I will say that I hope she come to display the happiness she shows in OP quickly. Because it looks like she has good company outside of Hana. I love Yaya’s enthusiasm and her willingness to do what she loves, and she looks like a willing friend. Now if only Yaya and Hana can get along….LOL that crash into hello!
Meanwhile on Highway’s Side
What is she going to do with herself?
I’ll actually take up the defense of Naru, because she was a character that resonated with me. I’d disagree that you’d find her tiring, because she’s the kind of person that seems to be more of the friendly wall that anyone can talk to. It’s not that she really needs to be drawn out: when she’s with the other characters in the show, she seems to interact just fine. It’s more that she just accepts the box that she’s put herself in, even while wishing that she could reach the sky she sees above her box. But even with that ordinary person and her ordinary person sighs, she does want to move out. And I think that what Hana says is really important: Anyone can sparkle if they work hard enough. There’s no free lunch, no fairy godmother, so even if Naru would wish for someone to come take her away, the best she’s going to get is someone like Hana showing her the path, the door for her to walk through on her own.
But I did still like the rest of the characters, although I kind of wondered about Yaya. She *seems* to not be too concerned with being the center of attention, and she doesn’t *seem* to be hanging around Naru as some sort of “I shine brighter when I’m around dimmer people” kind of thing. But there seems to be a bit of a visceral dislike of Hana on Yaya’s part, although some of that would certainly be due to their first meeting with Hana squashing Yaya. Yet, in the OP, they certainly seemed to be friends, not just in the same group.
Why yes, this show is from one of K-On’s writers…
Speaking of the same group, Yaya’s band did put on a good performance even if it was of a song that was a bit self-pitying. But I wonder what the future is with that band. It’s obvious that the show will have Yaya join Hana and Naru’s yosakoi group (she is the ‘Ya’ after all), but what does that mean for the rock band? Will she quit? Not to put too fine a point on it, but at least 1/2 of the appeal of that song was the great drum playing, and with Yaya gone, it’ll be hard to replace her as the drummer. Will that be an amicable break up? Or will the rest of the band, having lost their chance at getting more popular or famous without Yaya, hold a grudge against the Yosakoi group?
skylion: Even not fronting a band, the show backs up these characters with a quality corp of seiyuu,with relative newcomers Reina Ueda (Naru), Kaya Okuno (Yaya) and Minami Tanaka (Hana) leading this episode. By the way, those last two, along with Yuka Ootsubo (Tami) were all in Wake Up Girls! Add veteran VA Manami Numakura (iDOLM@STER‘s Hibiki and Rail Wars‘ Aoi Sakuri) as Machi and we can see some quality pipes singing that OP, and bringing up the drama and competitive spirit. I’m hoping they start to develop the dancing very soon.
Some sweet moves
All in all, though I found some of my enthusiasm for the show a tad bit dampened. Honestly the show has a good deal going for it in terms of production, and I think that it can stand against any other show of the same sort, and even pull ahead. The character’s getting there is going to be all the fun, and I for one, cannot wait to see how they pull it all off. Do you think we may get a Yosakoi version of Love Live here? That would be really cool if so…
Meanwhile, for me, this show was one of the best of the season. Maybe it’s not at the level of Barakamon for skylion, but it resonated with me far more than that show did. In fact, the only thing I didn’t love about Hanayamata was the blue-purple-pink pastel color scheme. I didn’t care for it in No Game No Life, and I still don’t care for it, with the added annoyance of now I’m getting tired of it. I really prefer a more saturated look, a la Kawaisou, Sakurasou, or even Golden Time. But apart from that one thing, the show was just a lovely trip through the feelings of a girl who feels like she’s just the one left behind, but doesn’t know what she can do, especially compared to her superachiever friend.
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
So much bloom. Looks like another show full of bloom.
“It seems Gamer Siblings are sick of shows with excessive bloom.” 😛
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
I actually see a lot of myself in Naru. Trying to explain why would result in a post long enough to bring Spammy down on my head for sure, so I’ll just say that I wasn’t put off by her attitude at all. I understood it. I was glad that she was able to take the step she took at the end. Hana will be good for her.
PS: I thought the show itself looked beautiful. No pastel, no life! 😛
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I don’t really see myself, but I thought she was a good, authentic character, and that her feelings and actions were well in line with what should be expected of someone who is like that.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I’ve always had the quiet and the boisterous in me competing on all levels. But my complaint isn’t about personality, it’s about how it was written. It felt like it was there just for the sake of making the plot happen in as loud a way as possible. The plot didn’t need that, it was at the right volume all along.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I just can’t stop watching the chorus of this OP…
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 151 comments
Me too. It’s really refreshing to see well drawn 2D dancing again, it’s giving me flashback of the Haruhi days.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I actually wonder if it’s not 3D programming, just kept to 2D perspective. It would be interesting if they were able to do that. The other worry is that it’s the OP, where they can afford to spend a bunch more money, and the rest of the show just won’t live up to that.
I did notice that the band performance put every potential animation effort outside the frame: fretting hands, drum work was still-frame, except for the cymbal crash.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Well, they know how to conserve budget and potential trick the eye.
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 151 comments
That’s a good point,although I think the flow of hair proves otherwise. 3D programmed dancing in anime has a tendency to make hair flow look less natural, but I digress as the way the OP’s dancing is framed also makes it easier to trick the eye…
Oh boy, it’s a scary thought but it could very well be like K-ON in that all the singing/dancing you’ll ever see will be in the OP/ED and the rest of the series is just cute girls doing cute things….
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
You probably know I’m a huge Love Live! fan, and the biggest improvement I’ve seen in the 3DCG they used for the performances in that show, from the original song releases through the first season through the second season, was in the way they improved the hair flipping. For instance, if you watch Wonderful Rush, there’s a huge difference in the way the hair bounces and blows between the drawn and 3D part. But in the latest season, it was much less of a stark difference. That would be one of the last hurdles for CG.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Watching….listening…dancing..I’ll take all three.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
If you need a good example of the dance. It’s isn’t as moe/kawaii…
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 386 comments
Hmm I don’t think I have much to complain about with this series, The first episode was enough to get me hooked. The OP was great too I had to hurry and look for it on the youtubes to set it on replay over and over, its got a nice sound to it hehe.
The coloring was fine didn’t bother me much,I love the character designs and indeed all very cute, Go glasses Girl! i’m looking at you, Machi Tokiwa(who looks like Ako Shirabe) Next week!
But currently Hana N. Fontainestand is standing at the #1 spot, I love how hyper she is and how she wont give up! But whats with those double fangs? clearly she’s NOT a fairy? right? And we have Naru Sekiya coming in second Her personalty was a bit different but i liked it, I just wanted to be her friend hehe, finally Yaya Sasame, she just screams out “Cool character” talking with her pockets! Totally cool right.
So anyways the story is standard but I’m kinda looking foward to see how it continues, so I think i stick with this one till the end, it has a good mixture of drama at the end there, had me slightly emotional too.. Naru Cheer up now!
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Yeah, Hana is rather designed to be a runaway character. I hope they add a bit more depth to her.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
CUTE-OOOOOOOOOOOOO! I like Naru a lot and now we have two Naru’s this season?! MY MIND IS BLOWN! Both of them are damn cute…
DAT OP! I love it <3
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
It looks like love child of Little Busters and K-On.
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 29 comments
The first episode gave us a good introduction to what our three leads’ temperaments are like. I must admit that the premise of this series isn’t anything we haven’t seen before, but the element of Yosakoi being the transforming factor in their lives is what lends it some promise for me.
Looking forward to actually seeing more Yosakoi and what sort of a change it’s going to bring about! ^0^
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…and since I now have the post of episode two up, I confirm it’s down to good writing…