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.

Hamelin no Violin Hiki isn't something I was really expecting to find in the world of Anime. I should know by now, with my ten plus years surfing the Anime ocean that there are some very unique series in a broad genre such as Shounen, Slice of Life or Comedy. This show definitely being one of them in the Shounen world.

This show begin more than 20 years old certainly shows its age. Most shounen these days don't get as "mythical" if I may as this one. That by itself is not necessarily a bad thing.

The story itself does take a few episodes to pick up ... in pace but was not done poorly overall for me. Centered around the mixed race Hamel and his quest, we see quite a bit of trials and tribulations during the journey. This is to be expected from the Shounen genre of course but the ending for me was a little unexpected.

It is actually put together pretty nicely and the touch of classical music added in the way they did it was pretty great in my opinion. How they went about naming all the characters that see more than 2 minutes of screen time around instruments in an orchestra was pretty neat too. There is also quite a bit of emotions going on which I think reflects well on the voice cast. They matched the energy that some of the compositions brought I think.

My biggest complaint about the show is actually the animation. I know the show has aged but seriously, there were plenty of times where you could see some obvious attempts at shrinking budget. Most common would be a still frame picture of the character who is taking on the screen with all their audio running. If it wasnt for that I would have definitely rated this show a little higher.

Hamelin no Violin Hiki is going to appeal to only a select group of people, especially with all the flash and style we see in current shows today. However if you are one who considers yourself adventurous I'd say give this one a go. If you can see passed the animation tragedy you might get to the end of the story and see the real one that was told.

P.S.

During the entirety of me writing this review its felt a little lackluster. I feel like I could have done better with it and part of me feels like I've managed to mirror what I feel about the animation job done in this show.

Hopefully this one is still an okay enough read and doesnt burn eyes out. Have a good night everyone. =D

*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.