Barakamon

Seishuu Handa is an up-and-coming calligrapher: young, handsome, talented, and unfortunately, a narcissist to boot. When a veteran labels his award-winning piece as "unoriginal," Seishuu quickly loses his cool with severe repercussions.

As punishment, and also in order to aid him in self-reflection, Seishuu's father exiles him to the Goto Islands, far from the comfortable Tokyo lifestyle the temperamental artist is used to. Now thrown into a rural setting, Seishuu must attempt to find new inspiration and develop his own unique art style—that is, if boisterous children (headed by the frisky Naru Kotoishi), fujoshi middle schoolers, and energetic old men stop barging into his house! The newest addition to the intimate and quirky Goto community only wants to get some work done, but the islands are far from the peaceful countryside he signed up for. Thanks to his wacky neighbors who are entirely incapable of minding their own business, the arrogant calligrapher learns so much more than he ever hoped to.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kotoishi, Naru Main

Hara, Suzuko Japanese

Handa, Sei Main

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Arai, Tamako Supporting

Ookubo, Rumi Japanese

Yamamura, Miwa Supporting

Furuki, Nozomi Japanese

Kubota, Hina Supporting

Endou, Rina Japanese

Handa, Emi Supporting

Takamori, Yoshino Japanese

Kido, Hiroshi Supporting

Uchiyama, Kouki Japanese

Kawafuji, Takao Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Sakamoto, Kazuyuki Supporting

Tachiki, Fumihiko Japanese

Oohama, Kentarou Supporting

Kimura, Seiya Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Nakatani, Toshio Producer

Ogasawara, Muneki Producer

Sasaki, Marina Producer

Reviews

Aug 11, 2025

elumizu

Recommended

Sometimes, all it takes to reboot your life is a public meltdown and a one-way ticket to a remote island. Barakamon proves it with admirable grace and just the right amount of existential humour. Following a hot-headed calligrapher who punches his way into countryside exile, the series doesn’t scream for attention, it simply earns it. The story unfolds with quiet charm, blending fish-out-of-water comedy, slice-of-life warmth, and the occasional deep-cut philosophy disguised as a conversation with a child. The structure is refreshingly simple, free from convoluted twists or artificial cliffhangers. Each episode builds gently on the last, forming a natural rhythm that mirrors the slower ... island lifestyle. Characters are the heart here. Each villager, from mischievous kids to eccentric elders, leaves an impression. Even minor characters feel lived-in, giving the worldbuilding a grounded, breathable quality that makes the island feel like a real place you could visit. Visually, the art style favours warmth over flashiness. The backgrounds capture rural beauty without over-romanticising it, while the animation keeps movements loose and expressive enough to suit the comedic beats. The music, light and acoustic, quietly carries the show’s emotional undertones, while the voice acting, especially for the children, feels organic rather than performative. There’s no great emotional crescendo, no jaw-dropping plot twist, but that’s the point. Barakamon thrives in its stillness, making calligraphy a metaphor for self-worth and letting clumsy friendships slowly ink over old perfectionism. Its moral value lies in the acceptance that growth doesn’t have to be loud to be meaningful. For you who are tired of the noise, Barakamon offers a rare kind of peace, the kind you don’t realise you need until it’s already softened your edges. It may not demand rewatch after rewatch, but when you do return, it’s like visiting old friends in a place where the air still smells like the sea and fresh ink.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Apr 6, 2025

Sakura131

Recommended

In my MAL bio, I describe how I recently gave up a high-paying position with many hours of overworking to get back in touch with myself and what I love. Before college and my career I watched anime. I thought it was fitting that one of the first anime my spouse suggested we watch in my new life with free time was Barakamon.

The anime explores the theme of breaking away from caring too much about one’s career to instead focus on one’s life and what brings happiness. People have careers often to make ever more money to spend ever more money and get ... sucked into a never-ending cycle. They have careers to be proud of creating something they can be proud of yet it consumes them as they constantly have to manage and maintain it.

In this “leaving the city for the country” anime… friends, family, food, and enjoyment of nature are shown to be more important than career advancement.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Feb 11, 2025

Serkan_kun

Mixed Feelings

The Goto Islands are an archipelago of 140 islands in southern Japan. Administratively, they are part of Nagasaki Prefecture, and the largest island is Fukue. The Goto Islands are considered one of the cradles of Christianity in Japan: Portuguese missionaries began to spread Christianity on these islands in the 16th century. For this reason, there are many Catholic churches on these islands. The local inhabitants of these sparsely populated islands speak the Goto dialect of Japanese, which is considered part of the Hichiku dialect spoken in western Kyushu. A notable feature of the Goto dialect is its simplified structure and lack of long words. The ... word "Barakamon" is a Goto word that means "energetic/cheerful".

The anime "Barakamon" is based on the manga of the same name by Satsuki Yoshio, a manga artist born on the Goto Islands. Since I am not a fan of the slice of life genre and the theme of childcare, I didn't watch it because I thought I wouldn't like the anime, even though I heard the name of this anime a lot. It's true, it's a biased judgment, but as a result, after watching the anime, I saw that my doubts were justified.

"Barakamon" actually has a very interesting and exciting theme. A young calligrapher who is hesitant about his style, unable to bear being called uninteresting by his work, punches a more experienced teacher and is sent to live on the Goto Islands as punishment. And on these islands, he must find his own style and gain a new perspective. In other words, "Barakamon" is actually an anime of self-discovery. Handa Seishu, who moves from a comfortable city life to a rural life, tries to get used to this new place and communicates with the new people he meets. In fact, Handa doesn't know what he will find and what he is looking for when he comes to these islands, so he arrives on the island with uncertainty and anxiety. What he knows for sure is that he must somehow find inspiration on these islands and prove himself in the world of art again. But Seishu begins to live a very different life on these islands than he expected. Instead of living the life of a reclusive artist looking for inspiration, he finds himself in an environment where he has fun among the elderly residents and children of Goto Island. Among these residents, he especially builds a close relationship with a girl named Naru, and a strong bond develops between them. A very energetic, playful and mischievous child, Naru is truly a character who lives up to the anime's name and becomes a key character in Handa's character development.

Although "Barakamon" has a very interesting theme, for some reason it failed to leave the impression I expected on me and there were many moments that I was dissatisfied with. Although the anime has a fairly large cast of characters, most of the characters are children, middle-aged and elderly. The anime did a great job with the children's characters, and I have nothing bad to say about it. While in most anime, children's characters are usually voiced by adults, in this anime, the children's characters are voiced by real children. This made the characters sound more natural. The children's characters in the anime act like real children, they like to have fun, play, joke, and don't take things too seriously. For this reason, "Barakamon" is one of the few works with children's characters that really make you feel like a child. However, the fact that the anime gives so much importance to the children's characters made me feel bored while watching the anime. This may be an issue from my personal life, but since I find this type of friendly interactions between adult characters and adults more realistic, the scenes where Seishun has fun with children felt strange and unnatural to me. I felt that I was bored a lot, especially in the first 5 episodes of the anime. After the 6th episode of the anime, the second half of the anime was more interesting to me because Seishun started interacting with his peers in Tokyo. In general, after watching “Barakamon”, I realized once again that anime about childcare cannot attract my attention. Before that, something similar happened with the anime “Kakushigoto” and I left the anime after the 4th episode. Of the works on this type of topic, I was only able to like the anime “Poco’s Udon World”, probably because the child there is actually a tanuki and the anime has fantasy elements.

Although the anime tries to balance humor with emotional depth, I didn't really like the anime's humor. Most of the humor in the anime is based on scenes of Seishun's difficulties and incompetence as he adjusts to village life, and is in the manzai style. "Barakamon" has humor based on facial expressions and momentary reactions. There were very few scenes where I laughed at the anime's jokes. Tamako and her BL jokes were too much for me, I didn't find them funny, and I didn't think they fit the atmosphere of the anime.

I must admit that “Barakamon” does a good job in terms of atmosphere and mood, and is able to reflect the transition from the city to the village life well. Although the anime is not visually spectacular, it is able to convey the suburban life of the Goto Islands to the viewer. Many places, such as Fukue Airport, are accurately depicted in the anime. The more you watch the anime, the more you want to leave the city and move to the village and live a quiet life. I liked this iyashikei aspect of the anime. The anime also pays special attention to the theme of community life in the village. Even though Seishu is a newcomer to the village, the villagers immediately accept him and do not treat him like a foreigner. The fact that the entire village life comes to his aid to place Seishu's belongings in the house, and the hospitality of the villagers has a great impact on his character development. This lifestyle of the villagers based on mutual assistance also serves as a source of inspiration for Seishu's final work. The biggest point that I am dissatisfied is the very poor development of the calligraphy theme. The anime doesn't delve into the subject of calligraphy because it spends a lot of time on slice-of-life and comedy. What is the difference between Seishun's old style and his new style? What makes a good calligraphy style? What are the differences between a good and a bad one? The anime doesn't answer any of these questions. I think that a viewer who has no knowledge of calligraphy will not be able to learn anything about calligraphy after watching this anime. The fact that the educational aspect of this type of anime is so weak is a missed opportunity in my opinion.

"Barakamon" is not a bad anime in my opinion, it's just an anime whose characters and comedy don't appeal to me. Viewers who like village life, children, and a quiet atmosphere will probably like this anime. The anime also has a prequel series called "Handa-kun". That anime tells the story of Seishun's high school years and is criticized for being an anime with a different style. But since I don't like "Barakamon," I have no plans to watch anything weaker than it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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	The anime with the least haters? guoc - Oct 26	9 replies	by blauwiiss »» Nov 25, 5:09 PM
	Poll: Barakamon Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Jul 12, 2014	228 replies	by mukiouu »» Nov 22, 1:57 PM
	Poll: Barakamon Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Jul 19, 2014	208 replies	by kcmyang »» Nov 15, 10:33 PM
	Poll: Barakamon Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Sep 20, 2014	178 replies	by Shikkakku »» Nov 1, 5:34 PM
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