Oh hey, another cute-girl-ensemble show! This time, it’s about a bunch of cute girls dancing yosakoi, which is a rather boisterous and energetic traditional Japanese festival dance… or something like that. I’ll be honest, most of the history and explanation given on yosakoi went over my head as I was too enthralled by all the cute girls being cute.
The impetus for Hanayamata is that Naru, the main character, has always wanted to be ‘dazzling’ – not only to stand out, but to be remarkable and do and be something meaningful. Unfortunately, even though her friends all qualify, she’s just unremarkable average and unexceptional. One night, however, she meets a small, fairy-like golden-haired girl in a kimono, who invites Naru to dance with her. Naru pushes her away, feeling guilty as she’s not ‘dazzling’ enough, but the enigmatic girl shouts after her saying that anyone can be amazing if they try hard enough.
Transfer student klaxon! Turns out she’s an American called Hana, and is joining Naru’s class – and on top of that, she wants to form a yosakoi club with her! Gasp.
Ain’t much to talk about here – it’s a cute-girls-doing-cute-things show with less emphasis on the slice-of-life side and more on the actual purpose of the club they’re in. Think K-On!, but with a fair bit more focus – it’s not just them messing around all the time, and there’s an actual overarching story to the show with a singular goal that they’re all always working towards.
Having that focus actually works wonders for Hanayamata, as it manages to keep things from getting side-tracked, vague or pointless. A common criticism of these types of shows is that usually nothing really happens in them, and that it’s boring or unengaging as a result. Not here, as there’s always some meaningful progress being made towards something, be it getting a new member, learning more about yosakoi, or deciding on the aesthetic of their unit. It was really able to build and maintain a solid sense of energy throughout, as the energy was actually going towards something and felt productive. You really get pulled along with the action in the show, which you’d hope would be the case given how energetic and intense yosakoi is depicted as!
The characters aren’t much in particular to talk about, either. For the most part, they’re all largely just nicely executed archetypes with enough flair to keep from being the same-old. We have: Hana, the genki foreigner who’s the primary instigator of the narrative and pulls the main character into it in the first place; Naru, our main character and resident quiet, shy, ‘average’ girl who’s no good at anything much but eventually grows into herself; Yaya, a high-achieving and musical tsundere with a touch of kuudere; Tami, the wealthy yamato nadeshiko who wants to escape the need for her father’s approval, and is a bit more outspoken and even vulgar than the usual; and Machi, the proud, stubborn school council president who eventually opens up a bit but is still quite stern – a tsundere variant, also with a touch of kuudere.
(Note that the first syllable of each of their names spells out the title of the show. It took me far too long to notice that).
Not much personality-wise to discuss about them – Naru gets a pleasant bit of character development but it’s all fairly minor – but what is worth mentioning is how gosh-darned cute they all are! It’s all constant, luminescent blushing and super-close friendship and jeez everything about this show is moe as hell. From the girls, to the teacher, to Naru’s dad and the shopkeeper of the yosakoi supplies store – even the riceballs are kawaii as fuck. It’s a sweetness-induced heart attack waiting to happen.
Helping this out are the excellent visuals. Hanayamata is astonishingly pretty, with really bright, flowery, vibrant colours and excellent visual direction capturing both the elegance and energetic sides to the dance and the dancers. And the animation during the dancing is top-notch, with a lot of detail and effort put in and with fantastic choreography. It’s no less than what I’d expect out of Madhouse, but it’s definitely appreciated nonetheless – if anything, it’s surprising they put this much effort into a show such as this! If you want a convenient comparison, think Chiyahafuru – the integration of the traditional sense of the subject matter into the aesthetics, along with the quality, is here as well, except this time with a more modern sensibility.
Without a doubt though my favourite part of Hanayamata is the strong emotional core to it. There’s a fair bit of drama and, yes, it’s pretty cheesy and a touch melodramatic – unsurprising, given they’re all middle-schoolers – but it’s so earnest that you can’t hate it. A sense of urgency and tension is present in all the drama, lending it importance and meaningfulness, and even delivering some genuinely heartfelt and emotional moments throughout. It strikes the right balance between having a good amount of seriousness to encourage engagement and being cheesy and low-stakes enough so that it feels realistic for their age group, while also never going full, implausible melodrama. As a result, Hanayamata is given a lot more substance, elevating it from being yet-another-cute-girls-doing-cute-things anime.
To be honest, this is probably the kind of show that you’ll know if you’re into or not just from the promotional art. But even then, there’s still a great amount of variance in these types of series, and I can safely say that Hanayamata is one of the better ones and comes easily recommended from me. Great art, wonderful dancing animation, stupidly catchy music, hella cute girls, engaging sense of pacing, energy and narrative, and a remarkable heartfelt emotional core all add up to Hanayamata being an absolute joy to watch.
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