Handa-kun

Mine will be shorter than 90% of the reviews here.

I believe what threw most people off with this series was its genre.
Barakamon 80% slice of life; 20% Comedy
Handa Kun: 80% Comedy; 20% Slice of life

Of course, the above percentage I provided was solely based on my opinion. I believe most people hoped for a slice of life feel which exactly what Barakamon was but this series didn't deliver this. Instead, comedy moments took over despite the repetitiveness. Essentially, we all have a different opinion but this series took a different path from its predecessor; therefore, please try to watch this without comparing to Barakamon.

Handa kun has a very simple but reasonable setting that purposefully made for the sake of the comedy rather than its story or moving the plot forward. And dont judge this anime based off from its sequel (barakamon that came out first), because, you know, both of them is a slice a pretty typical slice of life anime with comedy as a mix to it. Since slice of life's essential facet is to add the comedy into them. All slice of life are like that, even if the greatest slice of life anime in the UNIVERSE like Barakamon that delivers its theme, character development, relationship, ... and philosophy for success in life and shit.


Handa-kun's comedy is a pretty unique and peculiar one to me as an anime "watcher", or as a fucking Otaku. Like really, just call me an otaku coz you all are one as fucking well. But why is it peculiar? That style of comedy though, through the excessive uses of miscommunication, misunderstanding, and characterization or ascription of godly, so fucking pro and badass characteristics to the MC. This anime may seem like an identical fucking anime to the Sakamoto Desu Ka series but it's really not. Just some of the theme, character's position and other facet are, but not its entirety. The side character or minor and the support character are alot more "good looking", or suitable for the role that they have in the anime. With some addition role that hasn't been introduced to Sakamoto Desu ka ofc. Like the horny ass otaku who draws shit loans of ecchi shit, or reverse gender of someone.

The earliest part of the anime is pretty funny in my perspective, but as the anime progresses, i just find its forced comedy, repetitive uses, and the lack of character development abit too much now. This is not fucking Re:zero for christ sake, it doesn't makes it ok to spend the 16+ (in this case it's 12 episodes) for a character development or realization to happen. Barakamon has done a fine job in that, but to see the prequel to fail to do so, this is just sad to me as a hardcore (presumably) Barakamon fan. Coz that shit gotta be one of the fucking best slice of life anime in the fucking universe no doubt. Plus they also took a real local kids to voiced each kids character, it's fucking nice. You could definitely feel the bond between the voice actors and the character simultaneously as you watch the anime, and that's what makes this anime so great. You should definitely check that one out. I wouldn't recommend you to compare or watch Handa-kun first, then go to Barakamon. Just pretend that this anime has really nothing to do with Handa Sei in Barakamon. But this is just a comedy with no real contribution to his character (aside from being a loner, unsociable, but wanting to interact with others kinda person). In the later episode or halfway to the end of the series, comedy may not even be funny to you anymore. You know why? Just fucking watch it if this kind of comedy is within your alley of interests. While people have different idea of humor when it comes to these kind of anime. Just so you know, our sense of humor can never be the exact same and you gotta respect that. Some might rate this a 1/10, or a fucking 10/10 for crying out loud. But tbh, this anime isn't quite bad. Sure the quality of the comedy drop in the half way through the existing episodes (just like Sakamoto Desu Ga). But for real, it was a funny show lmao. Give it a go.

Its kind of sad a lot of reviewers hating this series because it is repetitive and boring but I'll do my best to give a positive reviews and try to make you watch it.

Handa-kun is the prequel of Bakaramon, and this anime covers Handa Sei's High School life. The story each episode has a common sequence new character - hate handa - handa makes a move - misunderstoods - likes handa. Although it has that formula I still found it entertaining because it has some moment where you can smile, giggle, and cringe. Also the characters are pretty funny(for me) and each of them have ... different ways of interpretation of Handa like someone sees him as god, respects as powerful man, wants to be him, rival and etc.


Handa-kun vs Bakaramon

There is a huge difference in both series because it has different story and how it is presented. In bakaramon it is focused on Handa Sei's improvement as a person while in Handa-kun it is focused on his struggle on how can he maintain his persona(that is wall joke i guess).

So to be precise these two series should be viewed as an art(since this anime is focused on calligraphy) Handa-kun represents appreciation while Bakaramon represents motivation or inspiration.

How can I say it that way?
You have to understand the people around Handa Sei. In Bakaramon, people around him always tries to make him different stuffs and they interact with Handa in a different way and it is the not the usual way Handa was treated. How can it be inspiration/motivation, inspiration usually fires when new things is being experience and motivation because of the words that townsfolk says to him like "People always look up, the key is a breathe look down and you will see opportunities" not the actual quote but i hope i get the context from the mochi episode. While in Handa-kun, people around him always misunderstood his actions but this kind of interpretation always lead to positive rather than negative so that's why I call it appreciation.

Ending remarks:
I like Handa-kun and I wish it has a second season its either his 3rd year highschool or his college life because I still don't see the people on the picture in bakaramon. And lastly its hard to watch bakaramon without imagining ERASER is around the bush watching him xD

It's hilarious as f*** on how they treat Handa-kun as a God here. But, this is most certainly ain't Barakamon though as most of the characters here are not present and instead we focus more on about Handa-kun's High School life 6 years before the actual scenes.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give to you, the prequel of Barakamon, Handa-kun.

Long story, short, Handa-kun is all about Handa's quirky High School days. His classmate's and other students' perspective, he's the most popular guy in school and everyone likes him. From his good looks, to his coolness and over-the-top seriousness. But in Handa's perpective, however, he taught that this ... is an opposite matter, he's anti-social, he's uncomfortable to someone before him, he's frightened so much it's like someone is watching him menacingly, and he thinks that everyone hate him it's like he was a small fish in a big ocean filled with sharks and a large chainsaws installed in their fins. Handa-kun is, when it comes to comedic approach, is actually funny... Kinda a slapstick manner with 5% sex jokes. And most of this jokes, we're all about Handa's misconception and misleading approach towards someone.

To explain the concept, imagine you we're jumping at the roof of the top of the building because you learned that your crush has a girlfriend. But, as you we're about to jump, suddenly someone came, and it was your crush, talking about how important for you to live. But instead he was taking an eye contact towards you, he was actually talking about a mistreated table with a lot of markings. And due to misleading approach, you cried because he's right. But then again, he was just about the table and he doesn't even know what was going on that particular day. One day later, you saw his girlfriend, and as you're surprised that you saw her GF, she asked where's the Parent meeting assembly. As you repeat the word "parent" coming from her. You mistakenly identified her as GF. And you learned that his "GF" was actually his mom.

That's what Handa-kun's plot is. The whole theme is all about misconception towards someone and what kind of mistakes that the characters do, Handa is right there to correct it without knowing what was actually going on around him. And because of that, they treat Handa as their messiah because of what he'd done over the past episodes. Even though, Handa has no idea and his self-esteem amongst peers is very low due to his introverted state after what Kawafuji did to him in middle school, which is I'm not going to spoil as this is how Handa get his major character development.

The characters, on the other hand, is 1% Barakamon, 99% Handa-kun. On the side of Barakamon, they've retrieve only three; Handa Seihuu, his mom, and Kawafuji. The rest we're his classmates, the others were students of their school, a professor, the boyish president of the student council and her "girlish" assistant, and their 2 rival schools. There are few character development here though as this anime is focused more on humor. Some of which we're came from their character backgrounds, and most of them was the cause of Handa's "helpful hands". Which leads them to get over-obsessive towards him, idolizes him, or in worst cases, stalking him.

The sound, well, the OP is the big issue here. It's really surprising that my expectations here on the OP is, actually, over the radar. Comparing to Barakamon's melodic soundtrack. The OP makes me laugh though as I really can't take it why they've choose the rock song than what they've done in Barakamon. It's like they put Maximum the Hermone's Death Note theme to the another comedic gold anime "Nichijou" and then put a 1 minute video on how hardcore the anime is. For the seiryuus, well, I don't really tell what's the difference between the original Handa's seiryuu to the new seiryuu as I was just focusing more on the storyline of the anime itself. But, I guess it was good nonetheless. However, if you compare the OP and ED song of this anime, the ED is the only theme that fits the concept of this anime. This is how I depict how the OP is before. But now I've seen the OP, well... That really escalates my expectation because of that...

Overall, this anime will certainly not going to fail you smile or laugh. It's really cool to see the prequel of Barakamon and what Handa's High School life looks like. It's a fun anime series that you might wanna check it out. It maybe low on the MAL's anime list, but still, the anime is still fresh and the theme is kinda unique to this anime. It's really good to be honest, and again, try this one out. You'll not going to regret it.

Hey folks, this will be a review for Handa-kun. This show seems to have a few people upset with how it was handled. This show is not Barakamon. However this show is an excellent comedy, and highlights how Handa came into his personality.

There really isn't much of a story. Handa thinks the entire school hates him. In reality everyone loves him. How they tell the story is what made it fun to watch imo. Handa is the main character but the handa force (Kondou, Nikaidou, Tsutsui, and Aizawa) are the tellers and focus of the story. The misconceptions surrounding Handa bring these characters together to ... create the "Handa force" in which they spread false truths around as they misunderstand Handa's actions.

I'm not sure what people wanted to be honest. Each review brings up that they had wanted a legitimate prequel to Barakamon, but what would that be? To me the warmth of the characters and the enjoyment of discovery of new things and oneself was something you cant just transfer to another show without it seeming forced or lackluster. This show chooses focus more on the comedy. What people are calling strange or bad is also an interesting way of tackling the show in general. Overall I'm happy they didn't go for a "Barakamon 2 lost in high school" type show.

The art was pretty standard, and so was the soundtrack.

The characters as eluded to make this really enjoyable. They each had a corrosive or main character centered personality(the intelligent class president, the handsome model, the brutish delinquent, the normal Joe). Handa however is nothing really special, he is great at calligraphy and he is well known. This makes the misunderstandings really enjoyable to watch and not follow in the footsteps of a show mentioned in others reviews a lot(Sakamoto desu ga?). Where as Sakamoto uses the main character to drive change directly and rather boringly this show uses misunderstanding and side characters to drive change.

I enjoyed this show a lot. It was a simple comedy show which so happened to be happening around Handa. I think the hate received is a bit to broad and muddled. This show wasn't as "brilliant" or heartwarming perhaps as Barakamon. However it follows in the same light. Handa is this man who has a strange and odd view on things. The world around him shifts and changes do to his actions, but more importantly, the actions of the people around him change who he is.

The comedy was rather straight forward, and though the underlying theme of misunderstanding was present it felt like each situation was new and fun. As comedy is subjective its hard to make this the focal point of an argument. The reason its the focal point of mine is that this show was doomed to fail from the start. You will never have a Barakamon clone. So they have to decide how to handle the material. They decided to bank everything on this strange perspective comedy and imo they nailed it on the head.

TLDR: Don't go into this with Barakamon 2 in mind. Relax and enjoy what the show presents.

Barakamon is one of my favourite slice of life anime of all time and I was disappointed that it only has 12 episodes. After hearing about the prequel, I got a bit too excited because I get to see more of Handa but I also told myself that the prequel exists just to capitalize on Barakamon's success. And.....After finishing the show, I guess I was right.


[Story]
There's a lot of reasons why I love Barakamon. From its relaxing settings to Naru being one of the cutest and most fun anime characters to watch to Handa’s amazing growth and him coming to terms with his career ... anxieties by living in a rural countryside, it was a great piece of quality show that I really enjoyed. The comedy was also one of the best I've seen in anime. I'm all for more Barakamon content so that's why I was a bit excited for Handa-kun. After watching the first few episodes, I was honestly a little bit disappointed.

So what happens when you take out all the core strengths of Barakamon and turn Handa into a teenager and put him in a high school setting? Well, you get this. Although, just because I'm a big fan of Barakamon doesn't mean I hate Handa-kun. Handa-kun actually turned out to be a decent series. I also admit that Handa-kun's comedic aspect was good at times but decent for the most part and it made me laugh at some parts of the episode. Except the first 10 minutes of the first episode breaking the 4th wall, that scene didn't make me laugh at all. Though, I still think Barakamon's comedy was 2 times better.

The show, as a whole, is built on misunderstandings. Unlike Barakamon, which impressively portrayed Handa's amazing character development, this show only focuses on Handa's school life and the things that he has to face every day because of this "misunderstanding". He thinks that everyone hates him but in reality, almost everyone loves him. Now, why does he think like that? It's all thanks to Kawafuji (Remember him from Barakamon?) trolling the shit out of him and Handa actually believing his joke. Since Kawafuji finds the situation funny, he's letting all the events happen. That's the whole joke of Handa-kun. "The misunderstandings between him and the students". Though, it never gets tiring because the jokes has its twists every episode that keeps the joke fresh for the show's entire run. Plus, there's about 2-3 different segments per episode so it isn't just 24 minutes of Handa and that same student for a whole 24 minutes. Each segments focuses on different characters with a different situation and I, admittedly, was laughing my guts out on some of the episodes (mostly in the second half of the series). I just find it hilarious that Handa and the students, especially those on the Handa Force, are never on the same subject and they see things differently.

Also, some of the jokes on Handa-kun were references to Barakamon and it was a nice touch. The reference that I loved the most was the episode about a student who is a fortune teller, with a very accurate fortune telling, and she predicted Handa's future and said "So many children despite not having a single sense of sex drive!" which then shows a background with the kid's silhouette from Barakamon. I love it and I'm glad they did that. God, I miss Barakamon
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[Art/Animation]: (7.5/10)
The Art and Visuals were pretty decent for the most part. The animation was ok, for a slice of life setting and the character designs are good but not the greatest I've seen. The background, on the other hand, looks really cheap. I mean, what the fuck? It looks like a shaded drawing but was horribly rushed. Is there supposed to be some meaning in the cheap background or is it cheap because they didn't have enough budget? Either way, I didn't like it.
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[Sound]: (7/10)
The soundtrack wasn't really anything special and nothing stood so none of the OSTs is worth mentioning. It's just your typical soundtrack for a slice of life anime. Now the OP and ED theme song(s)

The OP theme song is "The LiBERTY" by Fo'xTails. I did not like the OP theme song at all. I'm ok with songs that are rock but heavy rock is not my cup of tea. I ended up skipping the OP after hearing it on the 1st episode.
The ED theme song is "HIDE-AND-SEEK" by Kenichi Suzumura. Now this song, I like. I really love the song's upbeat tune, the melody and that amazing chorus. Plus, the singer's voice is amazing. Also, the ED Animation, while simplistic, was stunning to watch. I love how the amount of characters walking in the ED grows as more characters gets added throughout the series.
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[Characters]: (7/10)
There's really nothing much to say about the characters except that they're just there for the sake of comedy. A new character or a bunch of new characters gets introduced almost every episode and some of the characters will either be back in the future episode or they won't make an appearance again after getting introduced. For example, Mori Maiko, who has feelings for Handa, and her friend with a big-ass head Juri gets introduced in the 1st episode but they barely make any appearances in the future episodes. Like I said, they're just there for the sake of comedy and they get little to no character development (Except the Handa Force members. They get a decent amount of character development). The characters are enjoyable to watch though. The characters vary from a librarian girl who has deep feelings for Handa, a yandere girl, a "normal" boy, a "trap" student council president, the "pretty boy and etc. The show has a lot of variety in terms of characters' personalities that makes watching these characters very interesting and not boring at all.

Handa was a lovable character in Barakamon and watching him in the 1st episode was just.......I don't know. The way he acted in the 1st episode was not the character I fell in love with (No homo). He wasn't even THIS dense in Barakamon. Then I realized that Handa is a teenager in this series. I just couldn't believe that Handa is that dense to the situation around him. Even I'm not that dense and I can read the situation around me (Teenager here). Yea, don't remind me, it's all for comedy. Though, it took a while for me to get used to his teenager side and after that, I enjoyed watching him go through his high school life with full of misunderstandings.
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[Enjoyment]: (7/10)
For the most part, I enjoyed Handa-kun but it doesn't even hold a candle to one of the best slice of life series ever "Barakamon". Handa-kun was just a hilarious and fun mindless show, for me, and I enjoyed the comedic aspect of the series and also, most of the characters in the series.
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[VERDICT]
Handa-kun, a prequel to one of my most beloved slice of life anime series of all-time, turned out to be an alright series at the end. The characters were somewhat enjoyable to watch, especially the members of the Handa Force and while the comedic aspect of the series may not be perfectly executed, it still made me laugh at some parts of the show. Overall, I enjoyed this show but to a certain extent. Of course, if you were to ask me which show I enjoyed more then Barakamon will be an obvious answer from me. If you were to view Handa-kun as a standalone series (or you haven’t watch Barakamon at all) then you might enjoy this series even more. Now that I've finished Handa-kun, I'm really hoping for a sequel (sort of) or an extension to Barakamon that expands more on Handa's life on the island because it felt way too short.


[OVERALL]: (7/10)


Pros:
+Enjoyable series to watch
+Show turned out to be alright at the end
+Decent comedy, with some parts of the show that made me laugh
+Enjoyable characters with different varieties in their personalities
+Nice touch on the Barakamon references.

Cons:
-Cheap looking background
-Handa's dense level annoyed me on the first couple of episodes
-Handa-kun, being a prequel to Barakamon, doesn't exactly feel like a prequel to said series.

I do not understand the negative reviews. I really loved this anime. If you like slice of life stories that will make you not be able to drink a soda while you watch it because your laughing to much this is the anime for you. I have watched this anime and the one that came before it Barakamon and enjoyed both equally. Both anime eventually bring the main character out of his shell and realize how the people around him see him. Don't watch this anime as a continuation of Barakamon because though its got the same main character they ... are not the same anime and should be treated differently.

The story of Handa-kun is pretty simple line. Handa sei is a normal high school average guy who presumes that everyone around him hate him for no reason. There is a black telephone booth kind of aura wall around him most of the times he is at school. At home how he behaves shown very little. Story beautifully unfolds how his friends' group increases thanks to the misunderstandings of all the people around him. It reminded me of 'school rumble'.
Every one in his school chants his name and even student leaders of some notorious high schools in his vicinity, consider him with regard. It's a ... hilarious showcase of the misunderstandings of people who come in contact with him. Only the viewer, his friend kawafugi and the average guy in his class who becomes member (forcefully) by the others know that Handa is a simple minded shy person who is sensitive to the actions of others towards him.

Art: Its good.

Anime designers taken lot of effort to show it in decent way though there are some minor show case of ecchi hints but are overtaken in a flash by Handa's simple minded comments.

ENJOYMENT: After reading some of the reviews (who gave 2 or 3 rating) for this anime, i skipped it but now i am happy that i saw it with my mom. It's refreshing and HILARIOUS story of a person who avoids people around him.

tl dr; A good anime to watch on a daily basis
Even though, this anime Handa-kun is full of funny, stupid moments that you can probably find in any other slice of life/comedy plot set in a high school, I believe it is better than a majority of those other similar anime JUST because of how good its ending was.

In general:
There's no fantasy element, no romance, no drama--none of those common themes we see in all sorts of films, books, and anime that is overdone to make it seem "unique" than others. All we have is our boy Handa-kun and the stupid events that end ... up happening because he thinks everyone at school hates him when its the opposite in actuality.

When you begin watching:
The first episode may feel a bit odd, like a 4th wall breaking moment almost, but just bear through it, and you'll get how things go from Episode 2 on. The reactions of Kawafuji, (who is still pretty much the only friend our guy has even in high school) and just him in general is the only "sane" person in this anime tbh lol
And I'm glad that he fit in so perfectly with all these fanatics around.

My thoughts after watching it without spoiling it:
I'm probably looking too deep into this, but when something sad or traumatic happens, we all tend to just focus on that one negative aspect of whatever it is, and completely ignore all the rest. And that really showed in Handa with his black, "mysterious", and "cool" wall of aura that he carries around throughout his school. I don't think it could have been illustrated in any other way that makes it suitable for a comedy setting like this.

Note: Before I get into this review, I will say earlier on that this IS NOT a prequel to Barakamon. It doesn't relate to Barakamon in any way storywise.

Now, avoiding the fact that this wasn't much of a prequel for Barakamon and more of a comedy of Handa's high school life, it was highly enjoyable. I would also say that his calligraphy wasn't a big part in it, although it is brought up many times.

There is no main story to follow throughout the series, but each episode has its own story to follow. Each episode usually revolves around everyone completely misunderstanding whatever Hand-kun is thinking/doing ... which leads to some funny scenarios. I even nicknamed this Misunderstandings-kun at one point haha.

Now to pick it apart.

Story: 6/10..... again, it doesn't really have a story to follow but more of a different story every episode with quite a lot of comedy.

Art: 7/10..... it was good but nothing particularly impressive (other than Handa's calligraphy haha)

Sound: 8/10..... the background music for the most part was good, but I really liked the OP and ED. The OP is not what you would expect for this anime but it fit surprising well for me. The ED was nice to listen to as well.

Character: 7/10..... Overall there were a lot of different character types which clashed together fairly well.

Enjoyment: 8/10..... I found many of the comedic scenes highly enjoyable. Especially when Yukio was involved. He always recognized what Handa-kun actually wanted when everyone "misunderstood" him and it was funny seeing his reactions to them haha.

Overall: 7.2/10..... If you are looking for a comedy with no real story to follow that is highly enjoyable, I would highly suggest Handa-kun.

As you've probably noticed, the reviews for Handa-kun are varied, ranging from excessive praise to blind hatred. This is largely caused by the show's setting as a prequel to Barakamon, a heart-warming comedy series which aired back in 2014.

Negative reviews seem to centre around the argument that Handa-kun wasn't worthy as a predecessor to such a well-reviewed anime, and despite having some returning characters, doesn't actually share much in theme with Barakamon, disappointing hardcore fans. Handa-kun's comedy is quite different to Barakamon's and is far more comparable as a series to Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou or Sakamoto desu ga?, than it is to the ... anime it is supposed to set the stage for. I can understand some disappointment, if you were hoping for more Barakamon content, but it really was quite clear from the start of episode 1 that this show wasn't really attempting that, at that point one ought to shift their expectations for the content rather than rile oneself up over the differences between the two anime. I think it's unfair to blast the series with a '2' or a '3' simply because you're annoyed that you might have to wait a while longer for an actual continuation of Barakamon's story. It's not worthy of a '10' or '9' either in my opinion, but I think that's just an attempt by some to boost the score to offset the overly-negative reviews, which is not what the scoring system is for.

In my opinion, Handa-kun is a fun and refreshing comedy, undeserving of the hatred it receives from some Barakamon fans. In a way, it isn't really a prequel at all, Handa goes through very little character development until the final episode, and it doesn't really tell us anything relevant to the story of Barakamon. You really could question why the series even bothers to use the same characters. Despite being a different type of show to Barakamon, it doesn't negatively impact on its sequel either. The characters, while not revolutionary or multidimensional, are entertaining and give the whole anime a carefree, relaxed vibe making it easy and pleasant to watch. The whole show is very easy on the eye and ear, the characters, the palette and the soundtrack all contribute to making the show something you can enjoy casually watching, not demanding your full concentration. It certainly had me refreshing my browser waiting for the next episode to come out.

TL;DR - If you haven't watched Barakamon, watch them both, the order doesn't matter, they're both good albeit in different ways. If you have watched Barakamon and DON'T feel a primal urge to protect the thematic integrity of its universe and lampoon anything which taints your holy anime, then watch Handa-kun, you'll have fun, it's not as good as Barakamon, but that doesn't mean it's an insult either.

After seeing so bad reviews about this anime here, I really have to defend it in some way. As different as this prequel is from Barakamon, it is originally based off a manga of the same name. As such, I would say read the manga instead of watching this anime as the comedic timing, the jokes and the different portrayals of the characters are masterful in the manga, but poorly delivered in the anime adaptations. Many gag insertions and unnecessarily timed extras resulted in the anime becoming confusing for viewers who might not have read the manga and understood who the characters were. I do ... think that this anime is ways off from Barakamon, but do give the manga a shot as the manga made me laugh and cry in many different ways and its one of the best comedy mangas that I have ever read, and that this anime adaptation did not do it justice.

GENERAL - In Handa-kun we dive into Handa's high school life. While we do nto receive anymore of Naru and the rest of the islanders form Barakamon, Handa-kun is sitll enjoyable to watch as an act of beign a prequel.

So the majority of the comedy comes from Handa endlessly thinking that his clas hates him. With Handa be a well known calligrapher he often gets stares and this leads to him thinking taht they hate him. (Along with other many situations).

While its comedy is nto as great as Barakamon it is still a fun series to watch I was surprised by it ... as I wasn't expecting to much out of a prequel.

CHARACTERS - So the characters are Handa and the Handa squad.

Handa seems a bit different here. In Barakamon he started off more rude and inconsiderate, here he seems more obliviou to what the people around him are thinking. Its somewhat odd to get use to this change in personality.

Handa squad - Overall I would say they aren't too memorable. They do have there comedic bits but aren't anything special as characters.

SOUND - The sound is nto really memorable either it is just your normal comedy slice of life music and does not have a stand out track.

ART / ANIMATION - For a slice of life the animation is fairly solid. Nothing insane but tis a nice art style and animation for thsi type of series.

OVERALL - While its not Barakamon it is sitll enjoyable to watch and worth a watch. If you want to see mroe of Handa then you will get that from here.

SCORE - 7.0
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT - 7.2

Handa-kun gets a lot of reasonable hate when you think about it because Handa-kun is a prequel to probably one of the best slice of life anime ever made which is Barakamon so of course people would want to compare them and see the same type of comedy and humor.

Now this anime is written under the comedy slice of life shounen genres but to me I think this falls under the Drama genre a lot more, I'm not sure if the mangaka intended for that to happen or not but this anime felt sad more than comedy, I couldn't help but feel sad for ... Handa almost every episode, there was one episode in particular where he finally had the courage to talk to someone and he was extremely happy then he told his mother that and she replied "oh that's good" and then he realized how all that hard work he did was almost nothing special compared to normal people so he just sat there doing nothing, man that was heart breaking.

Anyway now moving on to The characters: there were good characters in this anime and almost all of them had unique personalities like Eraser, Junichi, Reo and all the others but there were 2 characters that stood out in this anime other than Handa of course and those 2 are Yukio and Kawafuji.
Yukio was the normal character but he knew how bad Handa felt and tried to help him out as much as possible which I think was nice to see but Kawafuji on the other hand was probably the worst one in the anime, he was the reason handa's life was miserable just because he was rejected and yet he never really tried to help him get back to his normal good life that he had even after seeing him suffer.

The comedy in handa was good but sometimes gets way too repetitive which I think was the reason many people hated this show, I almost dropped it myself but I wanted to how it would all end at so I continued watching.

Overall I did enjoy this anime but would I recommend it? probably but I would tell anyone to watch this before Barakamon because Barakamon sets the bar way too high for an anime like handa to be able to catch up to it.

I remember how I accidentally discover the manga, it was fun that I stayed late just to keep myself updated. Anime adapted the manga goodly, but knowing how the episode going left the fun and excitement as I read the manga. It's not that bad overall. Good job!
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Character development got me suprised, I was expecting he will live inside his box. His surrounding were odd , it must have been rough staying sane around Handa and friends. haha. ED/ Ending Song and Visuals supported each episodes and how loving it is to add one character to another. Use of one subject as for overall comedy ... is brilliant.

It's hilarious.

+Funny.
+Premise.
+Feel good.
-Niche humor.
-Art & Sound.

Handa-Kun is, in my opinion hilarious. It hit's a niche spot for japanese anime humor that many might not like very much.

... Handa is loved by all, he just doesn't get it.
Thats the joke. Series explained.

All that's left then is to witness 12 episodes of misunderstandings, missed connections, running gag's and inside jokes. The series doesn't actually get worse over time, it just dig's further into it's strange premise which may not be everyone's cup of tea. Despite the strange premise the story actually makes a lot of sense, sort of, relatively relatable/realistic character themes help lay a foundation to build the absurdity on top of.

Still, my overal lscore is "7", so whats the downside in my opinion?
This anime has barely passable cinematography, low-mid tier character design and sub-par sound. The visuals and sound round out at episode 3-4 (as if someone new to TV-anime was learning some much needed lessons during production).

Throughout my entire otaku career I’ve met tons of dense male MCs that have a lot of girls fall for them, it’s just the thing with anime.

Handa-Kun is different, Handa is not just dense, he’s overwhelmingly negative. A type of MC that is pretty rare, combined with the way the anime works, showing Handa’s thoughts make the anime extremely hilarious.

An example would be Handa thinking an obvious love letter is a letter of misfortune. And a cute girl asking him out is secretly trying to beat him up or bully him!

Handa is a handsome, smart and introverted individual that many people like because his introversion ... makes him a ‘mystery’ and girls seem to like it... He is Mr.Popular except that he assumes everyone hates him because he interprets what people say wrongly all the time and because he is dense and introverted, makes him think that he is hated throughout the school while on the contrary is loved by many girls and boys and even has his own mini fanclub (not that he notices)

He subconsciously makes himself seem cooler, kinder and overall a better person by doing stuff with a personal intention and others having the impression that he’s doing it for the other person.

For example (not taken from anime) Handa would push someone with an injured back and that person would think that Handa was trying to help his/her back

His mini fanclub are diehard fans and would be something like

Handa rubs his stomach because it was abit itchy and his friends (fans) would think he is hungry and cook a bunch of stuff or smth

The best part is Handa only has one Friend whom he tries to not let anyone know they are friends as Handa is afraid he might bring his loner-ness to his only Friend while on the contrary his only Friend is having a blast watching Handa’s introversion because it is extremely funny and although he feels guilty, plans to just let Handa be for awhile longer XD


The Seiyū were pretty decent, nothing particularly special and the art was fine too!



TL;DR

A dense calligraphist that draws no relation to Barakamon except for being the same person

Things always work out oppositely or at least people have the opposite impression to Handa’s negativity making them think he is great.







This review was written on 01-14-19 and may be outdated. I may have changed my rating due to various reasons.

This show is what you show other people when trying to invite them into anime. It isn't wild or crazy. It is a simple story. The characters is what makes this story great. The comedy will make you pause the show in order to catch your breath and the ending will leaving you smiling. This is a wholesome show with fun people. Handa is such a relatable person. the art is nothing impressive. but it works perfectly for this kind of anime. If you like this then I suggest you watch "Haven't you heard? I'm sakamoto." If you are looking to laugh or something to ... watch with the family. This is the show to put on. I like how every episode a side character learns a lesson and believes Handa wanted to teach them. This show not only has character arcs for the side characters. Handa's character slowly evolves as the people around him befriend him.

Loved it. Characters are hilarious in their own way. Handa is adorable. Not much going on story wise, but that doesnt take away the enjoyment. I got a few laughs out of it. It's a chill, funny anime.

Oh oH The ending song rocks! I could never skip it! Now it is in my favs anime song list.

Art is fine, average design, but good enough. Some of the characters were actually pretty peculiar.

Would've loved "Handa" to realise sooner that he was the star so he could enjoy having friends. It broke my heart sometime when he felt lonely. I'm heading to Barakamon again, to watch ... cute adult Handa.

Handa-kun is bizarre. I’ve watched plenty school setting anime with better characters, better jokes, better story, and Handa-kun mostly follows the same routine and stereotypes, yet, it is unique in the approach and concept. There is a lot of hate surrounding it, which I don’t think it fully deserves. There are so many things that just don’t make sense, so many crazy characters, so many weird and surreal scenario’s, that if you decide to not go along with its humor, it can be a completely different unique experience. For those unaware, this is a sort-off prequel to another anime with the same protagonist - “Barakamon”, ... which is a very different anime in tone and you won’t miss anything by starting with this one. Besides MC, it shares one or two supporting characters and even when it comes to minor references, I can think of maybe one scene you won’t get the full context for. So don’t make a mistake of expecting the same sort of story, or get confused by how the show begins, as the first scene is meta for the sake of meta and you’re supposed to be confused. And maybe a bit intrigued, but that didn’t work for me at first.

In short, the show is a classical gag school anime, nothing more, nothing less. It follows mostly the same troupes, so if you saw an anime of the same genre, this one will look familiar. I actually really enjoyed the visuals and the music, even though the OST itself is forgettable at best, but the real stars of the show are its scenarios and its humor. It’s pure comedy of errors, meaning that humor comes from characters misunderstanding each other, and that is the main plot as well. It’s silly, it makes zero sense even by anime standards, but I’d recommend seeing at least first few episodes to see if this type of humor (or something else) clicks with you. The anime is fully on YouTube, for now anyway, so you have even less of an excuse not to. I’ll try to sell it by saying that, I’ve never seen an ex-femboy punk or weebs genderbending the protagonist for their manga or so much unintentional gay energy or a lot of other, perhaps darker, stuff. One warning I can give, is that the show can be pretty tone-deaf at times, for a western viewer, but it only got really bad once. I’ll talk about that. Also, I’m gonna get a lot of hate for saying that, but I do recommend English dub. I watched both versions and I feel like most English voices are on point and just add to the absurdity. So, I’ll spoiler the rest of the review, because discussing characters is a spoiler in itself, as the show’s plot is 99% them. The show is short, go try it. You’re gonna love it.






-----------------------------------------SPOILERS (?) BELOW-------------------------------------





OR NOT. As I mentioned before, the first scene is not setting the stage, it gives you a glimpse of what kind of characters you’ll spend the next 4 hours with. It’s not bad, I kinda like the meta gag of them trying to create their own anime, just because they missed “this” one, but it works much better when you have the full context behind the characters. Even if they are stereotypes, the show fails to properly present them here in my opinion. But never mind that, the opening is even worse! The animation is atrocious, the lyrics make no sense and it only shows Handa singin… wait wrong one.

I don’t know how or why, but they really went all out on this opening. The animation is better than in the show itself, the screaming is full of energy and fits the tone, it just works. I’m not sure what’s up with fighting a monster on galactic scale, but after seeing it both here and in Saiki I feel like that’s just how it be sometimes. I appreciate the metaphor for how most people see him either way.

And people do see him pretty weirdly. Gag anime is often just a series of silly events taking place for silly reasons because of silly people, but in here it’s next level. The characters never get fully developed, and as a result the show changes them so often, that they feel more like situations surrounding Handa, for seemingly no reason at all. Besides his success as a calligraphy artist, he gets a lot of praise just by running away and having a “Handa-wall” blocking people from him. Whenever an outsider tries to approach him to find out what all the fuzz is about, they usually completely misunderstand him, adding another weirdo to the cult. Which I think is a right word to call it. Girls (and boys) worship him, there is a vigilante taking out anyone who dares to go near him, they even have the final school festival be in his honor. The anime is pretty wild, and sometimes even dark if you give it more thought than the anime wants you to. A girl was about to commit suicide over Handa making contact with another woman, but a chance stopped her. School council is super sexist and makes boys they don’t like into girls. The teacher is a maniac who wants kids to appreciate life through dissecting frogs. Handa’s dad is not there, so they put a creepy doll in his place. Identity theft is not a joke, HANADA, millions of families suffer every year. Tsutsui got fucking raped and the show just cuts him off. What the fuck was that about? Is he okay? Everyone else just moves on, but I just see him having a PTSD in the corner, and I don’t know what to say either. The characters are batshit. I swear that every school anime production has a dartboard filled with stereotypes to pick at random, but in this one half of the darts were thrown out the window. One must have landed on Satan’s buttcheeks, as he exists.

Meet Kawafuji (he is also the narrator of this anime). If you’ve watched Barakamon, he will be familiar to you, as he is actually a nice character there. In here, he’s a different person. He is actually the only one who Handa sees as a friend, as they met before Handa built his first Minecraft house. He is also the reason Handa is that way, as he got jealous over his crush liking Handa instead of him, and lied, claiming that she actually hates him. That broke a man, and he assumed everyone else at the school hates him as well. While Kawa tried to fix it at first, he then decided, that it’s way funnier to look at his friend losing his shit over passerby’s, afraid that they will be seen together, because Handa is actually a very nice person who values their friendship. Kawafuji, on the other hand, is an egoistic maniac who watched his friend going through hell on Earth. At the very end, when he finally decides to do something, his solution is to cause a scene and take a deserved trophy from Handa, in the process kinda implying that they are friends to the crowd booing at him. Even when Handa finally confronts him about all of it being Kawa’s fault, Kawafuji just plays dumb and shakes it off, so does the show. I don’t know if it’s genius or madness, but I did not expect to hate him so much. I guess we can talk a bit about Handa next.

Handa is the most popular kid at school, which he absolutely misses till the very end. He is humble and shy, always having a pessimistic outlook on life, which, seemingly, shares that outlook back. He likes cats (but has an allergy to them), very into pressing flowers, always happy to spend time with his friend, he is the purest thing you could think of. But, not sure if that’s intentional or breaking the character, there are plenty of times when he is shown as an asshole, his memory loss being the prime example. In that episode, he forgets that everyone 'hates" him and accepts that he is popular. So he starts to harass girls and act like a douchebag. Maybe it’s his idea of what being popular means, but that’s a drastic change of personality just from memory loss that is never explained. That creates a multilayered person, who is entirely pure, minus the times he really isn’t and wishes a grandma in front of the line to be hit by a bus. I think it’s more madness than genius, but with all the other stuff happening in the anime, it might as well be his dream of wanting to fit in. Because who doesn’t want to think that no one actually hated them in school and it’s all a big misunderstanding ending with a school festival in their honor. Memory loss Handa sure would. The simplistic names of schools (Yes-high, White-high, Black-high) is also a clue! It all finally makes sense! Well, no, it’s all real, it’s all insane. Let’s get the rest of the cast out of the way.

Handa Force is a group of four people claiming to be Handa’s friends, while having no clue who Handa really is. More than that, everyone believes them. It’s classical for the main characters to attract stereotypes, but I never saw the stereotypes being that distant from them. They are crazy about him, to the point of stalking him, and they aren’t the only ones. Erazer might as well be part of the Force, as her actions are not much saner. Dash has an actual disease of puking near Handa. There is an actual imposter casually going around. But let’s discuss the main group. We’ve got: A smart guy in glasses, who also gets his medical advices from manga; A punk, who looked so androgynous in the past, that it attracted too much unwanted attention, forcing him to get buff via a TV ad; An ex-model; And an ordinary average Joe, who actually tries to understand Handa and bring some sense into others, but fails miserably in both aspects. They all see Handa as different people, while Handa sees them as a bunch of stalkers and rightfully so. From everyone in the group, punk and Joe are the most interesting ones, but generally, the characters are there to create extreme situations, not to flex on you with how well written they are. What can I say, they get the job done. Trying to find a stalker while being the stalkers themselves is a funny scenario. So is arranging a Shakespear play with Handa as Queen Elizabeth. The show firmly lands on its feet when it comes to situations, but the characters are comically one-dimensional even by the genre standards. Some don’t even appear more than once, as they literally have no more potential, and are replaced by new ones. The most enjoyable ones were actually a group of weebs discussing how an average manga reader just wants porn. And it’s most likely due to the creator himself being a large otaku.

So, I’ve done nothing but critique so far. The characters are bad, nothing makes sense, why would you even watch this mess? Well, because it is an entertaining mess, with pretty good comedy. Handa is a likeable character and you get a sense of him being alone, simply because everyone else is a lunatic. The misunderstandings land surprisingly well, the characters serve their purpose, albeit as a part of entourage, and the animation is very solid. I don’t even think it fits into “so bad it’s good” category, because I had a good time laughing with the show, not at it. The show even has good wholesome moments, the end probably being a highlight. Break down your walls and the world is going to seem different is actually a nice message I can agree with. It’s surprising how so much soul is mixed with so much insanity in this anime, but for some reason it works. And the Ending is maybe my favourite part of it all.

I feel like changing Endings should be more of a thing. In here it is done perfectly, simply because it changes as the show progresses, adding new characters to follow behind Handa, with him turning around and seeing no one. Until the very final episode when he finally notices and turns around for a final shot of him surrounded by friends. The song “Hide’n’Seek” is also perfect thematically and by itself, the “La la la la la” part is stuck in my head for a week. It’s a shame that immersion easily brakes, when you think of how many of those people are not really his friends.

This anime is weird. It never reaches the heights of Nichijou in terms of madness, but only because it broke into another dimension and jumps there. It never is as funny as Saiki, but only because the characters are holding it back, not the concept. It tries to be meta at first, but is never as successful as Gintama and quickly gives up. It is not a show you are supposed to think over, you just need to relax and go with the flow, as that flow can be really enjoyable if you give it a chance. If you start overthinking stuff, you might get a crazy idea of trying to critique it on MyAnimeList or something. Anyway, I’m off to defeat the Spanish Armada, and maybe rewatch Barakamon. Thank you for reading.