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

Sasaki, Marina Producer

Ogasawara, Muneki Producer

Reviews

Jul 19, 2025

Naufalalaziziyo

Recommended

I watched this and... I was silent. Truly silent. Not because I didn't like it, but because my soul was being reset.
At first, I thought, "What's so interesting about following a city guy moving to a village just to learn calligraphy?"
Turns out the answer is: everything.

Seishuu Handa, our MC, was initially a cocky, sensitive, and easily emotional city boy—typical of a perfectionist artist who, with a slight criticism, immediately goes "Ugh, I'm not appreciated! 😡"
But when he's thrown into a remote village for self-reflection...
BOOM.
Enter the true main character: Naru.

Naru isn't just an ordinary kid, bro. She's a symbol of life. I don't understand why a ... child so small could make me laugh, smile, and then suddenly think, "Geez, have I forgotten how to play without thinking about likes and deadlines?" Naru is random, noisy, chatty, but every time she appears, you feel like a warm hug from the universe.

And the other village characters are also weird but wholesome. None of them are perfect, but that's the point—they're real. There's a nagging grandma, an awkward middle schooler, gossipy mothers. But they all complement each other, like ink layering to form a living canvas.

Then the calligraphy, bro... Every stroke has meaning. And not just the writing, but also Handa's journey from a 'perfectionist mama's boy' to an 'artist who feels life is more than just his finished work.' Sometimes he writes, and the result is messy, but because his heart is sincere, it becomes beautiful. It's like our lives, isn't it? Sometimes messy, but if lived with heart, it becomes memorable.

Watching Barakamon was like listening to the rain while eating instant noodles on a relaxed afternoon. Not luxurious, but incredibly enjoyable. And most importantly: stress-free. No overpowered characters, no torturous time loops, no abhorrent CGI creatures—just a person finding the meaning of life through a child's voice and black ink.

Barakamon is a healing anime. If your life is feeling heavy, watching this is like drinking warm tea while hugging a pillow and saying,

"I don't have to be perfect, the important thing is I keep going."

My rating: 8,3/10

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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Feb 26, 2020

vief

Not Recommended

Preliminary (5/12 eps)

Contains spoilers:

I tend to stay away from anime with little kids as main characters, because let's face it; it can get pretty weird. Before watching this anime I read the reviews, and most of them mentioned how the little girl isn't sexualised and acts like a child so it's fine.

Well... That's true until about episode 5, which is where I dropped it. Until then Naru is just a cheery kid and very funny. In episode 5 she seems to have developed a crush for the MC (a 23 year old), and it's suggested how in about 10 years she could bunny drop him and that ... he should date her. In the same episode there's also an inappropriate visual gag involving this little girl. I like crude humour, Gintama is my favourite anime. But unlike Gintama which always made a point of treating little kids with respect, Barakamon exploits the whole loli aspect in an uncomfortable way. I honestly don't know how people in the other reviews missed it and wish someone had mentioned it.

I hope this review can help those thinking of watching it, as I wish someone had warned me.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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	Poll: Barakamon Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Jul 5, 2014	405 replies	by Daniel_Vazquez »» Jul 11, 2:57 PM
	Poll: Barakamon Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Sep 20, 2014	177 replies	by bakakisima »» Apr 24, 12:44 PM
	Poll: Barakamon Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Sep 13, 2014	160 replies	by bakakisima »» Apr 24, 12:22 PM
	Poll: Barakamon Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Sep 27, 2014	339 replies	by Sun_Chan »» Mar 12, 12:26 AM
	Poll: Barakamon Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Sep 6, 2014	148 replies	by Sun_Chan »» Mar 11, 11:12 PM

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