Ranked #709

Hyakko

This show completely blew me away. Usually when Maceart suggests something to watch, it's some harem melodramatic crap or moe moe crap. But Hyakko is a different beast altogether.

Hyakko is about the lives of students in Kamizono Academy. The cast numbers around 20 well-fleshed out students, mostly high school students and two elementary school students. The series is fairly episodic, and goes into each of the characters one by one.

The characters make Hyakko golden. No other show in recent memory was this funny. The plot synopsis, a group of girls and guys hanging out in this high school, may sound like the most boring thing ever. But it is not. You get the classic hyper girl, the quiet girl, the glasses girl, the scary girl, the tall airheaded girl, the girl who never opens her eyes, the bisexual girl, and many others. To make the show even better, Hyakko introduces a few key guy characters at just the right moments. You get the angry homeroom teacher, the lovesick guy, the bully, and the photographer dude. By the end of 13 episodes, all the characters will be etched inside your head like jam on toast. That analogy was pretty bad, but you get my point. What I mean is that everyone will find at least one character that they like. For me, I loved the lovesick guy and Tatsuki. They are amazingly awesome.

Hyakko has situational comedy defined down to the atomic level. For example, when Torako and the gang visits the cafeteria, you get such classics as COMBO CARDS and BIG SERVINGS. Hyakko can create comedy out of the most mundane things. Thought dodgeball isn't funny? Well you haven't watched Hyakko. How about art class? Well, Hyakko has got that covered too. Hyakko also does not resort to tired conventions such as fanservice to get its comedy across. In that aspect, Hyakko rises above Toradora and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Looking for beach episode? Hot springs episode? Not in Hyakko, nope.

As if the characters and situational comedy aren't enough, Hyakko's music is also awesome, to boot. I'm a classical music buff, and when I heard Vivaldi's 4th Season used as effective background music, I couldn't help but stand up in shock. Shocked in a good way, I mean. All of Vivaldi's work is presented in Hyakko, from Spring to Winter, and it is used so perfectly.

People have asked what kind of animation you should expect in this show. Well, the show airs in HD. Expect orgasmic clouds and super sharp trees in the background. The character designs need some time to get used to, but I love them. Sometimes Hyakko uses the technique of speed lines to animate scenes very well that usually don't require awesome animation. For example, in episode 1, the scene when Ayumi chases Tatsuki and Tatsuki turns around. That must have cost bundles of yen to animate. Like all anime, the animation quality dips during the middle but not to the point of pure QUALITY. It got fine in the end though.

As for the voice acting, Hyakko is littered with an all star cast. Aya Hirano is here. So is Yui Horie. So is Keiji Fujiwara. All the voices were superb. Even the two existential brats were awesome.

Are there any bad things about this show? Well, only episode 2 was kind of on the weak side, as they stretched 18 pages of manga across 24 minutes. But even a weak episode had its golden parts. DREAM TEAM, anyone?

Don't miss this show, please. I implore you not to. If you are looking for references and parodies, there are plenty. Hyakko covers Tetsujin 28, the Ring, Slam Dunk, and the Stonehenge, all within 13 episodes. Looking for lesbian tendencies? Hyakko has also got that base covered. If you are a fan of comedy, watch this show. If you like to watch pretty girls do surrealistic things, watch this show. If you have siblings, watch this show with them. My sister loved this show too.

Hyakko is so good, that I spent the last two days translating the last three episodes. (Sorry Mayu-subs) That's six hours of my life right there, and rightfully spent.

PS: This is more of a final impression/rant/giddiness rather than an objective review. The very long review by tehnominator is more level headed. I hope you still enjoyed reading it, though.
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First impressions are always important.

Imagine wandering around your new school, wondering where you are (since you're more lost than a white sock in the laundry hamper) only to see a girl leap magnificently out of the window from the first floor of the school building. And you watch, with your breath hitched, as she soars through the air, lands, and nearly breaks her ankle. Then you hear her howling in pain with equal magnificence.

That's the first impression anyone has of Hyakko's very own Torako.

Hyakko leads you to believe that this is just going to be another school comedy. You know what? It is just another school comedy. There's nothing new in Hyakko. The story mostly follows the exploits of four girls, fresh into high school, and the friendship they consequentially form after they each get lost on the school grounds on the first day after orientation. Hyakko is mainly an episodic telling of this story with one or two plot twists interspersed throughout the anime. Each episode plays out like a situational comedy in which we see Ayumi, Torako, Suzume and Tatsuki getting into little adventures around school. There are a few instances in which the plotting of the anime truly shines, as seen in the much later episodes.

Some things do remain unanswered throughout the anime. A clear example of this is a young girl named Hitsugi who the anime shifts attention to randomly. While nothing else truly makes Hyakko exceptional from other anime in this genre, it manages to present a decent story of high school teenagers and their exploits. Although, the later episodes become more emotionally-driven, so it isn't purely just an anime created for hilarity. The more "serious" (they're not overly melodramatic or anything, but they're not what you would call scenes to laugh during) scenes add a little something extra to this anime, making the story a little heavier but not too heavy--it is a comedy after all. The emotional content just adds a little weight to this very light series.

Hyakko has a very interesting art style. Although, I do ponder whether it is intentionally sloppy. Yes, the artwork isn't great. The backgrounds have very little detail save for the images of the sky whenever it is seen. The character design is rather good. Torako's design is a lot more unusual than some of the others I've seen (perhaps because she looks normal...), while other character designs seem recycled (case in point: Tatsuki). The animation isn't the best out there, but it isn't awful. This is a mostly average-looking anime.

Personally, the theme songs are not that great, but perhaps another person would be able to like it. The background music is good for the most part. There are scenes set to the backdrop of great violin music, but overall it cannot be said that Hyakko's score left any solid mind-blowing impressions for a listener. It's arguable that for a comedy anime, the only sound that's important are the sound effects for the gags and upbeat poppy compositions, but there have been comedies that have excellent background music. The sound however truly shines with some of the seiyuu work; Orikasa Fumiko's voice acting skills is rather commendable (she's also the voice behind another one of anime's most excellent comedians: Matsuoka Miu of Strawberry Marshmallow). Her acting can be considered part of the sound. She has excellent comic timing. Through her voice, she manages to add a great amount of energy and personality to the anime, and of course, to her character Torako, who is in fact the energy that drives this series.

Speaking of Torako, she is probably the most developed and most intriguing character in this entire anime. Her charm is far-reaching, and she is indeed one of the reasons I continued watching this anime. Her magnetism isn't only for the viewers, but for other characters as well. She is the glue of Hyakko, holding it together to make a good anime and holding the other characters together as well. She does come off rather strongly as the irritating loudmouth who is headstrong in what she wants, but Torako isn't limited only to that. She isn't a troublemaker--trouble just likes her. While she is oblivious half the time, she is not stupid, therefore her actions are not annoying as she is not purposefully problematic. In fact, her nature is rather endearing. Torako isn't limited to just being a goofy, lovable person who everyone in her class is attracted to in some way or the other. She has a deeper past. She cries, and it's heartfelt. When she laughs, it's real, and it makes you want to laugh as well. For Torako alone, it would make sense to call her a great character in comedy.

There's Suzume, who can be pegged as the eclectic oddity of the group (though, there isn't any weight to calling her 'odd' in the context of Hyakko, since there are quite a few weirdos in the cast), who eats a lot, says nothing most of the time, and who is Torako's best friend. I have to call Suzume another good character. While on the surface level you cannot call her complex, there are little actions she does that makes her a lot deeper than the other side characters. A gentle touch here, a mean look there, peaceful confrontations with people who have hurt Torako--little details that don't spit out to the viewer that she is indeed this person's truly best friend.

Unfortunately, the series is also bogged down with a lot of characters who never truly are developed and remain two-dimensional. I think that's a good thing, since they could have been one-dimensional and dreadful. Take Ayumi, for example. She remains nothing more than the shy girl who is very delicate. That's about it. Yet she's one of the protagonists. Tatsuki is nothing more than the series' voice of reason; the refined, rich, polite girl who gets easily bothered by rule-breaking. The supporting cast is made up of some archetypes with a twist: the exploitative photographer who documents people in compromising positions, the perverted bisexual class president, the tall bumbling girl, the intensely creepy chick nobody likes to hang around, the "yankee" who ditches school.

However, Hyakko is to be given credit for putting spins on these characters. Explanation? The photographer doesn't take people's pictures for the sheer purpose of being a pervert. She wants to make money. The perverted bisexual? She knows when to take a hint and cut it out (sometimes, anyway). And then the other characters actually find the bumbling girl annoying, which is quite a stretch, since most of the time it's just the audience who becomes irked at such characters. As for the intensely creepy girl, it does turn out, like most of them, that she is a hidden beauty behind the scary bangs. The twist? She prefers to be extremely creepy even if she does long for friendship. And then the delinquent actually likes things like pudding and strawberry jam. Not a very off-putting image of a troublemaker, is it?

Hyakko isn't the funniest anime out there. There aren't any rolling-on-the-floor funny jokes or gags either. It does also rely heavily on slapstick comedy to bring out the humour rather than its dialogue. In fact, some of the situations rather predictable, and on occasion, most folks would be able to figure out the jokes before the punchline hit. Yet, it does manage to be rather entertaining. Especially considering the characters (well, considering Torako), who make this anime worth watching. There are better school comedies out there, some that would manage to make you cry with laughter. But this anime is worth more than just a glossing over. It's certainly worth some of your time.

While it won't bust your gut making you laugh, Hyakko is a good comedy that will manage to make you crack at least a grin. read more