Hanayamata is an Anime I hold dear to my heart. It is a slice of Life Anime, which aired in the summer of 2014. You have probably never heard of his Anime before probably because 1, it aired in 2014 and 2, it’s not known to a lot of people. In fact, according to MyAnimeList, just over 63k people actually know of the Anime. Today, we’ll be answering the question of, whether or not Hanayamata is worth watching.
Episode Count: 12
MyAnimeList Synopsis
“Naru Sekiya is an average 14-year-old girl with average intelligence, average athleticism, and average talents. She once had hopes that starting high school would change all that. Unfortunately, the reality could not be further from the truth and she remains a wallflower. Why can’t real life be like fairy tales where a handsome prince lifts a poor girl from obscurity and transforms her into a dazzling princess?
Her average student life changes when she meets a blonde girl dancing on top of a gate to a shrine. Naru assumes the girl is a fairy, but it turns out she’s just a regular girl, too. But it also just so happens that she’s a transfer student named Hana from America who fell in love with yosakoi, a type of dance, and came to Japan with the intention to start her own club! Excited that she’s classmates with the girl she met the night before, Hana tries to recruit Naru to become the first member of the brand new yosakoi club. Too bad the thought of dancing in front of everyone terrifies her! Can Hana convince Naru to join the club? Will Naru fall in love with yosakoi? Find out in Hanayamata!”
Art
Hanayamata is a really colourful and vibrant Anime. It has this kind of shine when you look at it, it’s very uplifting and bright – certainly can brighten someone’s day. Another thing that stuck out at me while I watched this Anime were the eyes. The eye style used for the main characters is really unique and oddly shaped, different from the normal eye design typically seen in other Anime. Another subtle thing you may or may not have noticed is that the focal point to the Anime, the characters are ‘gentle’ and what I mean is that each character are drawn in to reflect the playful and happy nature of the Anime.
They are not drawn in with sharp, black lines rather the outline of each character is light and smooth. Rating: 7.5/10
Soundtrack
The intro is something to be adored, it is a really good intro. Like the art style, the intro is very playful and happy. The intro is very upbeat and is a song that will get you moving, I think what makes it really cool and something special is that the intro is sung by the main characters – something that is rarely seen today. Moving onto the outro, it does the same effect as the intro and the art. It’s uplifting and also sung by one of the main characters. It provides a beautiful end to each 23-minute episode, absolutely fun to listen to. Rating: 8.5/10
Character Design
Like any Anime, there is a varience of personalities in the Anime. Never during the Anime was there a clash of personalities. Well, kind of? But not really at the same time. For the storyline, there had to be a little clash but even then the two clashing personalities just worked and complemented each other. Each character is easily relatable and lovable in their own way, I never disliked any character in the Anime, I loved each one of them and I thought each character shown in the Anime overall helped the feel of the show. Rating: 7/10
Story
The storyline is one of the more simple stories out there. It’s about Nana an American transfer student who comes to the Japan. On her first day of school, she immediately starts a yosakoi club. Why you might ask? It’s because Hana has this dream of not only performing yosakoi, but also having the opportunity to share it with her friends. This club is the focal point of the whole Anime, all the struggles and triumphs are centered around the club. Finally, you find out that the ambitions of the characters for the club are to eventually perform at a yosakoi festival/tournament. That is the story which is given to you. I thought it was a good story, rather simple one, but overall really good. Rating: 7/10
Is this Anime worth watching?
Yes, I think it is worth watching. I personally enjoyed the Anime. I loved the art, characters, story, and soundtrack. I completely wanted to bias this whole article with extremely high ratings but I went against it and tried my best to give it realistic ratings.
In all honesty, though, it’ll depend on you the reader/viewer. But I would recommend it to people wanting to see a ‘new’ Anime. The Anime of 2010 – 2014 are slowly being forgotten and I think it’s good that we re-live Anime from those years because I believe that was when Anime started to turn into something really good.
Stamp of Approval Earned,
– OOCentral