Reviews

Mar 23, 2016
So...P.A Work's version of ''Hibike Euphonium'' and ''Hyouka'' LA takes it?..with mixed results.

LA will say this about the plot, the plot follows a format of "mystery of the episode" with sprinkles of character development and "getting more members" for the band sub-plotline. The mysteries are extremely clever and some of the mysteries do go further than a "simple" mystery although due to Haruta being the all-knowing Sherlock with no equal, he usually solves all the mysteries. The mystery of the episode DO gives us some sort of clue to clue us in, however there are some mysteries that go into the realms of "prior knowledge only Haruta knew" to solve it, with that although many of the mysteries are indeed interesting and moves the plot forward the mystery is overall decent for this fusion genred anime.

Now time for the other half, time for the band sub-plotline, well this also gets the "decent" tag as well as the band development might as well be the character and band development for some of the more crucial characters within the band. With the "mystery of the episode" and the character being linked does bring us character development and works in its favour as they do become memorable but that only applies to the main cast, the episodes where it focuses on minor character NOT to do with the band get second billing and it's their mystery that gets more of the attention and again even that's not a bad thing either.

In terms of characters, well due to the fusion of genres, the main cast and heck even some of the minor cast members do get their time to shine and some are even unique and interesting with Haruta being the most interesting and unique. LA's favourite would actually have to be Chika however, LA doesn't know LA is drawn to quirky characters and even her "feminine yet not really feminine" schitck even holds out throughout the series. Oddly enough the two main characters Haruta and Chika the characters named after this anime have each side of the genres at hand, Haruta taking care of the mystery whilst Chika handles the characters and plot movement in gathering and getting to know the characters, the anime is self-aware of this.

The animation done by P.A Works is decent to baffling beautiful, what LA means is that this is one of P.A Works' least detailed animes LA has seen right down to the backgrounding in which P.A Works usually is great at, however with the decent character designs and "ok" backgrounding makes the animation "decent", where it becomes baffling beautiful is in two things for LA, the characters eye color and the instrument's. The animation on the eye color itself looks like a multi-colored rainbow at times (although they don't always just sometimes they go into extreme detail on JUST the eyes) and the instrument animation although not as great as ''Hibike Euphonium's'' animation overall, LA at least sees some sense of detail workmanship on making the instruments animated well.

The ending which is built up to both the competition and the odd love triangle that was brought up by the first episode and it leads to a "finishing episode" with the competition finishing but with the love triangle not even resolving, yes we get a "read the manga" ending, LA feels indifferent about this as at least one of the major plotlines finishes (in a rushed manner) but with the other plotline pretty much nagging LA to read the manga and see what happens next.

HaruChika: Haruta to Chika wa Seishun Suru does seem to cater between both it's mystery and music genre well, if your not in it for the mystery the music is backed up with it's characters and developing the plot along with it, the mystery in itself be it self-contained within it's own episode, it too leads to moving the plot forward and have that air of mysteriousness it needs to make it interesting all the way through the entire anime. Although this isn't P.A Work's best animated anime they have released, it seems this anime puts more care on it's characters, mysteries and plot more and LA enjoyed it all the way through from trying to solve the mysteries to seeing the band grow which by extension growing the cast. HaruChika: Haruta to Chika wa Seishun Suru isn't the best anime of Winter 2016, however it is CERTAINLY a unique one.

*Note - LA knows LA gave it an overall of 8, however if anything LA would really just give it a 7.5
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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