Hinako Note

TL;DR – A cute girls show that is never quite sure what cute things they should be doing, Hinako Note feels unfocused whilst at the same time increasingly focusing on the characters bodies. The potential for a good cute girl show was there, but it really needed a redraft or more editorial oversight to achieve it.

It's not easy starting again in a new city. It's even harder for Hinako, a girl whose social anxiety makes her freeze like a scarecrow when approached by strangers. It wasn't as bad in the countryside, where having a human scarecrow to attract animals away from fields was useful. But ... it won't do her much good in Tokyo.

Yet that's partly what drew her there, because she has come up with a solution to overcoming her shyness: acting. After meeting her new house mates – the book-eating Kuina, maid dressing Mayuki & landlady Chiaki – they resolve to form an acting troupe to bring more customers to Chiaki's cafe & maybe even perform on a famous stage. That is if they can find time between all the other cute girl shenanigans they get up to.

At the start, Hinako Note seems like it will be a spin on the cute girls running a shop set-up that proved popular in Is This Order a Rabbit? There's both a bookshop & a café to split time between, as well as a high school & threatre club – where they meet the final main member of the group; the bratty Yua. However, it flits between settings with abandon, leaving things feeling unfocused & unconnected, particularly as it becomes increasingly episodic. It's almost as though the original author couldn't pick one cute girl location, so tried to have all of them.

It also has the effect of making Hinako's progression towards overcoming her shyness feel disjointed. The idea is that the acting will cause her to gradually gain in self-confidence so that she no longer freezes when talking to people, which is what happens – twice. While the show generally does a fine job showing her friendships develop over time, her own shyness increasingly seems to come & go when it's convenient.

One might expect it to have been structured such that, for example, she starts off barely able to talk & ends giving the leading performance on the big stage, symbolising her finally overcoming her anxiety. Alternatively, it could have gradually dropped the idea altogether, perhaps shifting the theme from overcoming your weaknesses to accepting them & finding people who accept you for who you are. Instead it peaks & troughs throughout the series, with apparent breakthroughs being followed by a return to the scarecrow pose the next time it's funny.

But in some ways that's to be expected, given how the show evolves over its runtime. While it starts out looking like an ensemble anime, all about the importance of friendship & the various relationships between the characters; by about episode six it increasingly seems more about waifu worship & how great Hinako is. Ditsy, vulnerable & air-headed yet also amazing & perfectly proportioned, Hinako quickly becomes the centre of almost everything happening around her. She may not be every viewers favourite character, but she clearly is the director's, it becoming rather eye-rolling by the time a clamshell pillow has been added to her bath scenes like she's some sort of discount Venus.

There is some indication that this is all meant to be presented from Hinako's point of view. A notebook, presumably Hinako's, is often used as the image to break up segments of the show, perhaps suggesting this is all being taken from her diary (clue is in the name, I suppose). But while that may somewhat explain why the show focuses on her, it doesn't explain the things about her it focuses on.

To be fair, all of them get a degree of back story & time to further distinguish themselves as characters, though it all feels a bit predictable. Yua has a girl crush on Chiaki that somehow seems to end up being directed, effectively if not explicitly, at Hinako. Mayuki is insecure about her height & being treated like a child while Chiaki is...attractive & responsible? Kuina, despite looking like Konata from Lucky Star, doesn't fill that or really any role. She eats paper & dresses in animal onesies, quirks compensating for lack of character.

As if wanting to visually parallel this shift, there is progressively more fan-service as the series goes on, particularly once it's revealed what a great body Hinako has. There are two or three of what might be charitably called dress-up episodes, with each one seeing characters striking progressively more risqué poses. The incidental pervy cuts become increasingly so, with body pans escalating to close-ups of T&A while the images used for the next episode previews become increasingly fetishistic - one being of Kuina licking Hinako's foot. A degree of this is to be expected in cute girl shows, but at times Hinako's Note ramps it up to sex comedy levels despite never being one; the lewd parts never feeling in character or particularly connected with what else is going on.

Oh & since important industry types undoubtedly read every MAL review, I have a request: Please stop using moo sounds to indicate big breasts are on screen. Please, just stop.

Of course, if this sounds like your kind of thing, then Hinako Note's production does a fine job presenting it. It looks & sounds pretty much as you'd expect, with suitably bright & colourful images, standard but appealing character designs & an upbeat, whimsical soundtrack. There were no notable dips in quality, though a minor but noticeable thing is the increasingly static background characters. By the same token, though, it never really excels, with no memorable animation sequences or the like. The OP & ED are somewhat notable for being the type of music that goes through multiple key & time signature changes, creating a sort of bubbly, schizophrenic mashup of cute girl sounds, unfortunately accompanied by some rather lacklustre dance routines.

There are some good things in Hinako Note. The characters are likeable, if not utilised to their full potential & some episodes deliver good enough cute girl antics. But it never manages to hold its focus on any one of its ideas for long, even as the camera increasingly focused on the characters vital assets. An okayish show that needed more editorial oversight to become a good one.

& I didn't even mention the busty 9 year old club advisor.

In these times of hyperbolic, sensationalist media, the word "mediocre" has taken on such a negative connotation that it's become hard to use outside of insults. This site's rating system seems to suggest "mediocre" is actually awful, since only truly awful shows have an average rating around 5. If you're confused as to what the word, "mediocre," actually means, I invite you to watch this show. You will come to understand.

The mediocrity starts with the characters. If you've watched a show of the "cute girls doing cute things" or "moeblob slice of life" genre before, you'll know these are exactly the ... sort of characters these shows are expected to have. There's a painfully shy one, a younger-looking girl in a maid uniform who's actually their senior, a pastiche of every tsundere ever, a big eater who makes catlike expressions, and on and on. Some of them seem to be direct knockoffs of characters in other shows. Despite the derivative nature, their designs are appealing. The characters themselves are endearing in their own way. Unfortunately, some of them stretch suspension of disbelief needlessly. Let's put aside the question of the club advisor for now, as I'm assuming her age is a lie until proven otherwise, but why is the landlady a first-year high school girl? Well, obviously, it's so they can all go to high school together.

The setting is probably the worst thing about this show. We don't see enough of the school for it to feel like a real place. It feels tacked on and unnecessary. GochiUsa just had the characters living and/or working together, and that was enough. We have that same setup here, with the main characters living together in a used bookstore which is also a dormitory which is also a coffee shop. Why a coffee shop? Because GochiUsa did it, and because it creates an excuse for a maid-like outfit. The home/work setting feels like an actual place, but it still feels a bit artificial. Where's the kitchen? There are rarely any customers. When there are scenes on the nearby streets, there are never any cars and barely any pedestrians. It's sort of odd, because the background work is pretty decent.

The show's artwork and animation is acceptable at the least. We don't have obvious mistakes like inconsistent border thicknesses, unerased lines, or jarring CGI, just to name a few I've seen in the last couple of seasons. Actually, for the genre, this seems to have above average production values. The OP/ED are fully animated, and even include a dance which presumably took a significant amount of animator effort. There's a fair amount of superdeformed art, but it seems like a deliberate decision because they thought it would be cuter, or more expressive, rather than a cost-cutting measure. There is one weird inconsistency, though. Since Hinako seems to be the primary fanservice vehicle, she has a wide variance in bust size in particular. This can happen mid-scene, and it's oddly jarring when it does.

The sound is the thing I'm least qualified to comment on. The music didn't make a big impression on me. I don't particularly like the opening theme, since there's too much spoken-word dialogue. It's especially annoying because it wasn't translated on the site where I watched it. I thought the voice actors were trying too hard for that high-pitched cutesy sound, but it does match the diabetes-inducing nature of the show, so it isn't really out of place.

All in all, this show is nothing special. It's highly derivative and unoriginal. However, it's still fairly well-executed, and that's what matters in the end. In particular, I recommend it to people who are already interested in the "cute girls slice-of-life" genre. It may be more of the same, but it's pleasant enough watching all the same. I've watched better shows of this genre, but I've definitely watched worse.

This will be my first ever review for an anime. Since it's my first, I'll get better at doing this in time.

As someone who has quite a liking towards moe anime, I found this show fairly alright to watch. Hinako Note was a fairly decent moe slice of life anime. It wasn't really anything standout, but it was overall an alright anime to watch.

When I first started this show, I didn't really think I'd like it a lot because it couldn't have felt more generic to me. It felt like the show was trying to be too cute with things like the character having ... very high pitched voices and how they would have to turn into chibis to act out small scenes at some point in every single episode, but I thought the show got just a BIT better I kept watching to the end.

Story
The story isn't anything unique or anything it's pretty simple. The main character Hinako is a shy girl who came from the countryside to move to a cafe/ bookstore called Hitotse so she could attend Fujiyama High School in the city that has a club where she could practice becoming an actress in plays to help boost her confidence with being around and talking to people. When ever she speaks to people at first, she'll freeze up and turn into a scarecrow. To help her topple her fear, her friends at Hitotse decide to help Hinako run a theater trope in the cafe on the side at times.

As Hinako moves into the cafe she meets...some generic anime personalities.
Kuina: The blue haired girl who has a hefty appetite, eats quite a lot which happens to include books (yes, BOOKS), & will make you think of Konata from Lucky Star.
Mayuki, the girl with blonde hair who is supposedly Hinako's senpai being a grade above her, but has trouble with her height as she looks like a loli. She looks and acts like a cute little kid at times, but is reliable as the age she claims to be.
Chiaki who'll play the role of the landlady and the popular girl who supposedly looks hot & just so happens to be in the same age range as Hinako and the others so she can go to school with them just because.
After Hinako has time in school, she'll meet the girl who eventually tries to become her rival for a very short period of time, but ends up becoming friends with, Yua, a very generic tsundere girl who pretty much likes Chiaki and gets very shy around Chiaki.
There's also a girl who happens to run the club Hinako was trying hard to get into named Ruriko: a loli with giant oppai.

The art was good, nothing special. You'll notice how low budgeted this show really is after the first few episodes. The flashiest scene in this comes from the opening with 2 short dance like scenes, which looked like the most expensive animation used in the show. As mentioned earlier, assuming it was used to substitute for the low budget, the characters will turn into chibis for short segments of every episode. It seemed like the character templates felt a little wonky to me because they all look like they could be adults (Excluding the short girl Mayuki). The background art for each scene was pretty good though. The scenery was beautiful & one of the best things about the art in this.

The sound factor for this was ok. Their voices are high pitched as hell so the point where I couldn't feel even a bit serious while listening to them at first, but I got used to that. The opening wasn't really anything special nor memorable. It's kinda decent, but it couldn't be a more generic opening for a moe slice of life. It actually mimics the OPs from a few shows sneakily like Lucky Stay & Nichijou with the dancing bits. The ED was just a little bit better though, but still pretty bland.

With girls working in a cafe & some of their characteristics, the first thing this reminded me of was an alternative cheaper take on GochiUsa. That thought lingered with me for the rest of the show, but it slowly split itself from that route as it seperates itself from the usual moe anime by trying to act TOO kawaii, and even trying to display some sex appeal which isn't something that doesn't feel right with moe sometimes. Throughout the show, they sprinkle some ecchi on it by showing a few shots of the characters (mainly Hinako & Chiaki) with some sketchy outfits and poses & Hinako in the bath a little. When those two get in bathing suits, their oppai suddenly got much larger than they look from the outside layer of their normal clothing. Even a few of the end cards would have some unusual shot for moe anime.

It was a pretty generic show overall and I might've given it a five if not for the little extra feeling it soon gave me, as I can't say I didn't enjoy it just a little. Nearing about episode 6, it got more enjoyable to me. It MIGHT give you a reminder of shows mostly like GochiUsa, Yuru Yuri, & Hanayamata while a bit like Anne Happy & Non Non Biyori as well. If you like those shows, then there's a chance you MIGHT enjoy this show. If you're not one for slice of life or moe anime, then I can't say I'd even recommend it for you.

This is a checklist anime, a perfect 5/10 series, a show crammed with cliches and cardboard characters/situations. For example, here is a leaked conversation between executives:

"So listen, Bob. The first couple episodes aren't getting great ratings."
"That's terrible, Jim!"
"We need to get more viewers or this will just be 'Jiggly Jiggly Heaven' all over again."
"Okay, so I'm just going to add boobs. Lots of boobs."
"Great! Make sure to take the amount of boobs you're thinking of adding and double it!"
"Boobs!"
"Booobs!!"

There was definitely potential to tell an interesting story, but about a fourth of the way in I noticed that all of the character progression was taking ... place off-screen. I'm a big fan of the live-work scenarios because it provides two big stages for arcs, and I also enjoy country-to-city backgrounds too--it's a handy way to show things off to audiences without seeming like a shitty tour guide. I have no problems with the checklist characters either, and all the VA was done splendidly; likewise, animation is of a high standard.

But Hinako's entire arc from frightened scarecrow to actress is skipped. Instead, most scenes are about boob closeups, yuri panic, cute chibi set pieces (which I really found charming), and things otherwise unrelated to the "central plot." There's the swimsuit shopping/beach episode, the sleepover/training camp episode, the school open house episode, the visiting mom episode, etc etc etc.

I 100% have zero issue with generic anime or generic anything if the execution is good and there's even a grain of soul/originality/passion/creativity involved. Hinako Note does not have any of those things. Is it bad? No. I did finish all twelve episodes after all, but for the last four I found myself only half-watching while I browsed hent--educational websites.

Without even seeing the show, it is undoubtedly a show intended to be adorable and funny. Hinako Note, no doubt, achieves this with its constant shifting between "normal" and "chibi" artstyle, as well as fitting sound effects and colourful backgrounds. The visual excellence don't end there as even their background characters are well designed and are fairly colourful. Overall, Hinako Note's visual presentation is peerless. The setting is fairly simple and fitting for the theme. Character interaction is also well-done by having the characters have fair amount of screentime and they also have decent synergy in creating interesting situations.

However, despite its wonderful visual presentation, ... Hinako Note falls short on several other aspects. For one, the genre of slice of life is already relatively slow. Comparing it to action, mystery or drama, slice of life in itself generally is more dialogue heavy and it needs to be extra creative to spark interest. Hinako Note does have its interesting moments, but it is pretty dialogue heavy in addition to the slow-paced nature of the genre. This leads to a lack of action and movement and where action is needed, scenes are usually rushed. Rather than showing where A gets X item, it often jumps to a scene wherein A already has X. While not really wrong, A could have trouble getting X that would produce interesting scenes. Moreover, sometimes the topics get boring and the punchline tends to get repeated with slightly modified set-up and premise. Patient viewers might pass this off and disregard it, but eventually it does get boring. Even the sharpest blades get dull over time. The quirks of some characters aren't really used enough. The starkest ones would be Hinako's nervousness, Chia's bust size, and Mayu's childish body frame. Due to that, Yua and Kuina tend to be overshadowed by the others, despite Yua being a fairly determined theater student and Kuina's affinity, or appetite rather, for books.

As a whole, Hinako Note is not a bad show. Its visual excellence is enough to keep me entertained a bit, but I do find myself getting bored or spacing out. The lack of movement and creativity certainly hurts the show which is disappointing, since the characters have pretty unique quirks. It just goes to show you can't always judge a book by its cover.

Disclaimer: This is based on my perception of the show, which is most likely not applicable to everyone.

Its not bad, its quite an enjoyable experience.

Story can be boring at times and has holes in it. Like how the land lord is going to their highschool and how could a shy girl wear such revealing clothing but can't say thank you to customers? Story moves too fast and seems a little forced at times.

But overall the Story is simple and effective. Every episode makes the next episode more desirable. Every time I watch 24 minutes, I'm always hyped up for the next 24 minutes. Especially around episode 4 when it really starts picking up steam.

60% of the anime is shown in moe. Every ... eventful moment is in moe and is only not moe at the most 'boring' parts or erotic parts.

Art is super cute. Hinako Note is painted with cute characters doing cute things. There are moments where you can't help but say 'awwww' and If your in to erotic stuff then Hinako Note got that too.

I like the music. Especially the Opening song. Music is appropriate for such settings for the most part. Nothing much to say honestly.

Characters are easily the most paramount detail about this series.

Hinako is a joy to watch her eagerness to overcome her shyness. Seeing her fumble her words is super cute.
Mayuki is way too similar to Hinako. She is like shy girl #2 or cute girl #2. She is a much shorter, slightly more confident, loli version of Hinako.
Kuina is the most predictable of the bunch which isn't bad at all. Besides eating she isn't much different from the other girls.
Chiaki is probably the most well executed character in the series. I find it hard to find criticism of her. I'm not going to say she is a bad character because I hate characters like her. She is quite good.
The supporting characters are bad. Ruriko is just a copy and paste character and Yua is just ok.

If you are able to overlook the flaws and focus on the positives then this should be an enjoyable series for you. But it doesn't stand out from other slice of life animes.

Gimmicks here, Gimmicks there, Gimmicks everywhere. There is no problem that Hinako Note has more of then letting the Gimmicks take too much space in the show. The gimmicks themselves aren't the worst but they get repeated so often that it clearly becomes a crutch of the show. Maya is small and childlike, Hinako is a scarecrow, Kuina eats EVERYTHING (especially books), the gimmicks can be somewhat creative, the scarecrow, but there's so forced that it's hard to see anything good in them. Especially when one's like Kuina's have been done so much before. It's telling when standard tsundere is one of the better characters ... of the story, although that may be due to my own like for tsundere.

Sadly the gimmicks get in the way of character development. Rather than give them depth and shine, time is spent using this gimmicks and setting up weak comedy skits. The characters are mostly the same throughout the show, they don't change nor do they get any depth. They're shallow and the roles they're introduced as are pretty much what they are. The only exception is Mayu who does get a nice episode that focuses on her, but even then it doesn't add much to her character.

Adding to the weak gimmicks is an OST that makes me cringe. The songs are fine, but the sound effects are the most cliche and corny things they could possibly find, complete with BOING BOING and Moos when they focus on Hinako and Chiaki's large breasts. There is something about the sound choice which makes it feel that much more offputting to watch. The fanservice wasn't even the worst but the sound effects that they chose did a good job of making it seem as sleazy as they could. It was a terrible choice.

The show tends to switch off between well-designed episode ideas and bad jokes, the plot itself is decent enough to provide a sort of idea of where it's going but not good enough to be immersive itself. The acting itself was covered well enough as well as their reasons for why but the actual development of that plot feels lackluster. That may be a side effect of the adaptation blues though.

The interactions between the characters are pretty cute though, and if anything it does succeed at being a cute show. If one wants to watch something just for the cuteness this wouldn't be a bad choice, but for any other reason, it doesn't have much merit. That said I'd personally suggest skipping it, there are much better CGDCT shows that don't force their gimmicks every couple of minutes.

P.S. What were they thinking with Ruriko and her age?

I hate how this show has the potential to be one of the most wholesome "cute girls doing cute things"anime troupe, (like lucky star or wataten for example) where random turn of events may occur anytime; since the show's concept is built-upon the character's interactions rather than a static progressive plot.
But the people working on it just has another thing in mind and strewn about sexualization into the mix, As if that'd make the show more alluring to male demographics FFS. They might as well go gung-ho and oversexualize it to the brim and add an *ecchi* tag if they want cliques. It's ... so cheaply writtten ever since episode 2..
.
One thing is for certain, a show with young'uns as main and ONLY protagonists, doesn't mix well with sexualization and adult humour. Just imagine that as an actual sitcom with real underaged actors. SMH.

If you're only here because you want to see cute girls doing cute, everyday things, battling with truly uninteresting and normal problems without anything else whatsoever, then I guess you've found four hours of enjoyment.

The understanding and being beloved by animals was the only truly interesting setting in this anime and I wish it was used more. Sadly, the only moment seems to be the little chick that somehow follows her around all the time and it's sadly not used much more than that, every once in a while.

As for the acting/theater part, it was kind of boring. Honestly, it felt like they overdid ... the cuteness a bit too much and focused unnecessarily much on erotic shots. Libido would be the only thing getting fired up with stuff like that and I doubt that's what people watch this for. Sadly, it was fairly disappointing overall, or perhaps it's more correct to say that it was average and didn't bring any surprises, although it was honestly a bit subpar even then.

It was pretty monotone and although the cuteness was appealing, I feel like it lacked too much in other departments. It's just that, cute girls doing cute things and nothing creative or exceptional going on. I found myself struggling to continue after a few episodes and no good anime should ever make people feel like it's a chore to watch instead of interesting. The good ones should make you feel that you're not bored at all and want to see what comes next and the truly great ones should capture your attention so that you can't wait to watch more. This was sadly somewhere around where you can watch it, it's not horrible, but you kind of feel bored and fall asleep after a few episodes.

So, did this show have clever and good jokes that makes you laugh? Nah, I didn't really find anything like that here, it's too focused on being cutesy to actually try to make any good jokes that is so sorely needed. Don't misunderstand, there IS comedy present, but it's always on the level of perhaps provoking a slight smile as even the jokes are just there to show how cute the characters are. Eating book pages, gluttonous characters or clumsy characters are about the peak of humor in this anime. Essentially, this anime focuses on one or two particular character traits and abuses them to the point we might as well call it "beating a dead horse". One character only has the role to be clumsy and cute, another one just has the role to be gluttonous and cute, another one just has the role to be childish and cute and all their actions revolve around these things. It gets very boring after a few episodes. It feels artificial and lacking.

As for characters, they feel pretty flat, cliché is such an overused word, but I guess that's how I'd categorize them. We have the clumsy, shy character, the kinda silent "cool" senpai, the cute doll-like and tiny girl that has a complex about her size and everyone teases about it, we have the :-3 smiling cat-like persona who is gluttonous and sleepy, the super tsun tsundere that just can't be honest with herself and the child(loli, in this case a somehow extremely busty nine year old) "teacher/advisor" that also fills the manipulative role.

While we have all these clichés, I don't feel like they interact well with eachother and it's missing quite a lot to be truly good. In the end, all the focus went to make them as cute as possible, so they don't even feel real anymore, instead feeling like empty husks that only exists to act within a pre-defined role like a robot and play the cute-game with every other robot. As mentioned before, they're hopelessly simple and only has one or two traits each, all the focus is going to those two traits.

I can see why this anime got this fairly low score, because even as a show where it's all about cute girls doing cute things, the proportions are unbalanced and the setting is quite lacking in zest. I do love cute girls doing cute things shows, but even then it's just bad writing if you ignore pretty much all other aspects in order to make it as cute as possible. Also, a 9-year old child actress with humongous boobs? Come on. Is she only there to be fanservice to people who likes both lolis and boobs? I see no reason whatsoever as to why she would be a good addition to the character cast. I could somehow buy that she'd be a child actress that is training there, but drop the unrealistic and moronic addition of the huge knockers.

Are you a fan of the Slice of life and Cute girls doing cute things genres? If your answer is yes, then this show is not for you. Why? Because you probably already watched much better, much more original shows than this one.

The main character of this show is Hinako, a girl who gets embarassed every time someone talks to her. She moves from the countryside to Tokyo in hope of overcoming this habit by joing the drama club in her new high school.

However, like most SoL/CGDCT shows, Hinako Note quickly abandons its plot, and instead of giving us cute girls doing cute things, gives ... us cute girls doing nothing, or rather, cute girls doing the same thing cute girls have been doing in every SoL for the past five (ten?) years, only with new characters.

The beach episode? Check. Characters trying bikinis/new outfits every five seconds? Check. Characters drinking tea or eating every five seconds? Check. And so on and so on.

This kind of stuff was alright ten years ago with animes like K-On, because it was done intelligently and it was new. This is not the case here.

Talking about K-On, people over at Passione were very obviously "inspired" by K-On and Gochiusa when making Hinako Note, as many, MANY parralels can be made between the two.

In the first episodes, the characters of Hinako Note make it their goal to play at Suzuran, similar to how the characters of K-On make it their goal to play at Budokan.

In the first episode, Hinako is in Tokyo and she's looking for the bookstore where she'll stay, similar to how Cocoa, in the first episode of Gochiusa, looks for the Café where she'll stay.

There is an episode where Hinako's mom visits her, similar to the episode in Gochiusa where Cocoa's sister visits her. Again, and so on and so on.

So, as you might have guessed by now, the story is a 100% not original. There is nothing new.

What about the characters? Frankly, they're not THAT bad. Hinako herself is very similar to Cocoa from Gochiusa, but putting that fact aside, she is rather likeable, although the "joke" of her being embarassed easily gets old and annoying really fast, which might lead you to not like her.

Chiaki is rather original, especially in a CGDCT show. She is likeable. Kuina is likeable as well, although if you don't like the "Eats everything and is always hungry" type of character, you're not gonna like her, because that's 90% of what she'll do.

Mayuki is a dress freak (obviously, otherwise the characters wouldn't be able to try new clothes every five seconds) and she's complexed about her height. She's always there but you don't see her that much. Because of this, I don't hate her, but I don't feel attached to her either.

And Yua. Oh, Yua. I'm not gonna bother talking about her too much, all I'll say is that she is one of the lest original tsunderes I've ever seen (and they're not very original to begin with) and she's worst girl. There. Unless you're 10, new to anime and don't mind bitchy characters, you're not gonna like her.

The music is nice. The sound effects do the job.

The animation is good. With that being said, IT HAS TOO MANY CHIBI MOMENTS. This is becoming more and more of a problem in anime in general. The animators are lazy, so instead of drawing all the details like they'd normally do, and like they're supposed to do, every time there's a slightly silly moment, they draw chibi. This is dishonest animation and I personally dislike this very much.

Overall, it wasn't hard for me to watch Hinako Note. However, there were too many flaws for me to enjoy it. Hinako Note is not bad, it's just not good, and little effort has been put in it.

Hinako Note feels like a bloated cake filled with sugar and cream.

Hinako Note follows Hinako Sakuragi voiced by M.A.O a "scarecrow" wanting to be an actress to get rid of her extreme shyness by joining a drama club in Tokyo and arrives in a boarding school which happens to be a bookstore and a cafe attached to it.

So with that little introduction to Hinako Note, what does Hinako Note look at?
*Theatre
*Cafe more specifically maids
*and books

This is kinda what LA means by "bloated cake", also like Hinako Note literally wanted to have their cake by being like Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka?, Kiniro Mosaic and Wakaba*Girl ... and eat it too by bringing in something refreshingly new from this anime trend (easily because of Hinako's dilemma of being a scarecrow). Now LA isn't bashing on Hinako Note, no no no, LA is merely saying the similarities are there and heck LA actually really likes the frequent changes into moe chibified form that only increases that yes, this is typical moe fluff...but "ok to decent" moe fluff.

But if LA REALLY needs to talk about faults, then it's that Hinako Note has ALOT going for it trying to be soo many things as well as riding into the anime trend of moe fluff and their daily lives and sure some defence is that both the cafe and the bookstore helps Hinako get over her shyness as she works at both and hijinks ensues. The other problem is the most obvious one and that is that most of the characters have a preset running gag that never changes or evolves to the main cast (from again the aforementioned Hinako's scarecrow shyness) such as Kuina Natsukawa voiced by Miyu Tomita eating habits (which includes books), Chiaki Ogino voiced by Hisako Tojo being the affection of all the girls in Hinako's school as well as Yua Nakajima, Hinako frienemy because of her Chiaki and in the early theatre moments. Finally we have Mayuki Hiiragi voiced by Yui Ogura, the maid of the group and gets shy when she's called a doll and she was LA's favourite character...why?...the majority of her comedic moments landed quite well even if they are running gags.

In terms of animation by Studio Passione, the animation has a really tendency to switch from normal character designs to chibified form ALOT and yes the chibified form are moe as hell and LA really does it like from all this, though it makes LA question if their chibified form is in a metaphorical sense or they can actually change into chibified and it's ONLY the main cast...and LA is looking too deep into this. One little flaw LA will say about the animation is that the fanservice is there and eye-rollingly annoying at times when it does show up. The fanservice is mainly n the more risque costume the cast (sans Mayuki) gets into, like sexy nurse or maids and they plain old chest shots because big boobs are great in conjunction with a moe fluff anime...... -sigh- again Hinako Note trying to have it's bloated cake and eat it too and no LA has no defence for this one.

Annnd in comes voice acting and there's ALOT of squeakers in this anime, from M.A.O to Marika Kouno as Yua to the typically obvious Yui Ogura, but thankfully Yui Ogura's vocals fits into her role thus her being a caricature of her roles doesn't exactly apply to this role if this character is SUPPOSE to be like this and the fact that YUi Ogura doesn't go crazy with her moe squeaker vocals as Mayuki. LA was slightly annoyed by Hisako Tojo due to her ever constant low monotoned moe vocals. For LA's most annoying voice actor it went to M.A.O for obvious reasons and on the flipside, LA's favourite voice actor goes to Yui Ogura.

Hinako Note isn't a bad moe anime, if anything LA just wished it could do something more with it's material outside as well as trying to ride into the anime trend of Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka?. Hinako Note is a hit or miss in terms of comedy and will vastly depend on whether you like the main cast of this anime (or the voice cast). LA will say this again for Hinako Note...it's a bloated cake filled with sugar and cream...whether you can handle and eat all that can either frustrate you into leaving or just go into a sugar rush, run out of energy then find finer cakes with a better focus.

Rabbit House Coffee anyone?....

Hinako note for me is like another generic moe anime. The plot is quite simple but not that bad. It has some references but it doesn't make any better instead it made it cuter and that is where Hinako focuses the anime pretty much focuses on how cute this girls are and how they will look cute on certain situations. It can be quite funny but just situational. And Sounds and Art is very good as well and i can see it is well-funded and they hired good Seiyuu's for it which is great. Characters... though i haven't seen the 5th girl but then ... i don't think i need to anyway since 4 of them is already introduced in the first episode so far the noteworthy character would be Kuina cause she looks like matured version of Konata. The rest is just fine as they are. Overall Hinako Note is indeed an Moe anime cause it's all sugary-and-rainbows and they did a good work on it. and at least i like it for it's cuteness and calming atmosphere which all of the Moe anime gives me.