Hamelin no Violin Hiki

Violinist of Hameln is a dark medieval-fantasy based drama focused on a pair of adventurers and childhood friends named Flute and Hamel who find themselves chosen to defend humanity from the threat of the demon race, who seek the means to resurrect their sealed ruler Chestra. The series is actually known to be a rather divided one among those fans who have been able to see this obscure and forgotten 1990s anime series for some major reasons related to its presentation and storytelling, that I will touch upon.

First, let me touch upon the biggest criticism of the series and one that would be hard to ... dispute in the form of its visuals. The series was animated by Studio Deen who, with a few exceptions, are known to often cut a number of corners with the animation to their titles. Violinist of Hameln is perhaps one of the worst instances of the studio's use of limited animation as there are a great number of still shots shown throughout the series at many points and becomes quite noticeable particularly during the title's action scenes. This is a rather glaring annoyance as the series otherwise sports decent scenery shots and character designs, especially with some of the designs of the demons that Hamel and others battle throughout the span of the series.

Another divided element of the series, and one where your mileage could vary, has to do with its choice of storytelling. From what I gather, the original manga source material for Violinist of Hameln was quite a bit more comical in its storytelling to the point where it was almost like a gag manga series and having a rather light mood throughout its run. But much as what was done for the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist anime, this anime adaptation of Violinist of Hameln is a reimagined take on the series that is more darker and serious in its mood and themes with themes of tragedy, revenge, and deception being found throughout the anime's run. Personally, I loved the reimagined take on the anime's storyline as it dug into the more traditional storytelling tropes of medieval-fantasy titles with the adventures of Hamel and his comrades, and created some pretty engaging and dramatic developments that made the stories of many characters, both human and demon alike, rather sympathetic and relatable thanks to the struggles they face with comprehending the tragic and shocking developments they come to learn of their pasts and even their very comrades. This especially hits Hamel's character hard throughout the span of the series as he struggles with understanding his origins and attempting to come to terms with them as he learns more about himself while on his adventure. The ending that results from the dark path that the series takes is bittersweet, yet very fitting for the tragedies faced by a number of its characters in spite of the much different mood that its source material offered.

Another highlight of Violinist of Hameln came in the form of its soundtrack. Consisting of a mix of classical musical pieces played from some of the magical music used within the series and hauntingly powerful tracks, they are very effective at complementing Hameln's dark storytelling and do their part to make up for the anime's underwhelming animation for me.

Overall, I can understand where Violinist of Hameln would not be for everybody thanks to its subpar animation and much different style of storytelling. Still while the visual quality is defensible to judge, I can't say the same things for its storytelling style as it helps create an engaging tragedy involving those caught up in the conflict between humans and demons throughout Violinist of Hameln's run. If you are able to look past the subpar visuals, you will find yourself quite engaged to this lost gem of 1990s anime since it has never received an American video release nor has it even been picked up on legal streaming sites like Crunchyroll or Hulu.

I think it's my first ever review on MAL. Consider it a reaction to Hameln's low rating. I don't understand the tendency with MAL users to badly rate anything released in the 20th century with subpar art direction. Back in the day, we cared about story and music, more than moe and tsundere stuff. Low budgets always gave more room to creativity.

Hameln's showrunner, if the word exists for Japanese productions (maybe script editor?), was Yasuhiro Imagawa. And it shows. In those days, he was popular with a handful of fans who saw what he was trying to do: take an existing, often bland IP, and ... adapt it into an anime show that would end up shocking everyone, not just for the shock value, but because it'll make them think about the ending for a long time.

He did it with Giant Robo (although quite tame, the intention was there), then with the Berserk TV show. The latter was more or less a straight adaptation of the manga, but it was quite ballsy to end it exactly there. Hameln was very different, but Imagawa still did it -- the last two episodes were incredibly disturbing and moving at the same time. I'm an old geezer, I've seen it all, nothing can surprise me anymore, but this one really impressed me. After 25 years or so, it's still in my anime top 10, and the only anime from the last 10 years that made the list was Ranking of Kings (once again, a show that puts it all on story, not art). JoJo doesn't count, its material dates back to the 90s/early naughties. But yes, JoJo should be in my top 10 as well. It's probably bigger on the inside, like a TARDIS.

At that point you start thinking, at least I did, "why did they have to hide the ending behind an endless string of boring episodes with terrible big eyes and repetitive scripts?" I felt the reward was worth it, but how about everyone else? I'd tend to say, just skip the show after the first episode, and watch the last few. It's okay. You probably won't miss anything important. You will, however, have a magical experience with those last two. Believe me!

If you can't fathom the terrible designs but still want good shows with surprising endings from that era, aside from Berserk and Giant Robo, I'd recommend Utena (although with even more repetitive scripts), and Princess Tutu. Interestingly, both are from two different directors of the Sailor Moon show.

*May Contain Minor Spoilers*

You know, when you have a burden on your back and want it to throw it away, this is how I felt when watching "Hamelin no Violin Hiki".

I love old-school Anime especially the 90's because of its distinctive style and overall mood and here I am, I was trying to find a series back in 1996 and got across this one, it looks interesting enough but throughout the whole thing, I was feeling bored and gave an Anime procrastination.

The major problem about this series is the animation. At first, it isn't too bad but then, at some point, it starts to get ... in your way. Understandably, the budget for this series didn't seem that great because of the still images thrown in at the worst possible way. Just imagine watching a Dragon Ball Z fight and in throughout the peak of the fight, you get still-images here and there in the most inconvenience places possible with sound effect and dialogue in the background. It gets very distracting and revoked any type of enjoyment from the series. If this series was just still-images with dialogue throughout, I think it would've been better but no, you've got animation there and stop that. It's frustrating.

The story becomes a bit overbearing to go through, quite frankly. It tries to be serious with the flip-flopping with the main character whether he's the good guy or the bad guy but never feels very genuine. For something like that and the show trying to be dramatic, there's no sense of tension. It doesn't make you feel with the characters, at all.

*Minor Spoiler here*

There's a scene in which the main character, Hamelin, kills the father of Trombone in demon form which supposed to be a dramatic moment and because of still/motion animation throughout the sequence, the emotion is gone. It doesn't make you feel anything.

Anyway, I tried to enjoy the show for what it is and I'd say, the second half of the series is a little bit better than the first part but yet, it didn't feel very satisfying overall. It's an average Anime with really good music (unfortunately) and by the way, all the characters' names are based of musical instruments. At first, it's cool but then it starts to feel a bit contrived.

For me, it really feels like a mixed bag and I'm glad the show was over because it was really dragging and was quite happy, it's done. However, I did watch the movie and I was thinking to myself, why can't the show be like the movie? The movies was more fun, had comedic moments and the animation *LE GASP!!!!* The animation moves!!!

That's my take on "Hamelin no Violin Hiki". If one thing I'd say, the art is nice throughout.