Issho ni Training: Training with Hinako

Isshoni Training, or rather Training with Hinako, is supposedly meant to be an OVA to encourage shameless otaku into exercising whether it be actual exercising for them or just a good old hand workout.

Story: What makes it even more hilarious is that there's an actual plot to it, if you can even call it that. The OVA actually starts off with a real life girl watching TV when she is suddenly sucked into it and is transformed into an anime character (Hinako). Of course we don't find out why this happens nor does it really matter. Not to mention Hinako is also a supporting actress ... in some mahou shougo anime as depicted in the ED.

Art: The animation is simple. Nothing groundbreaking needed to show off a girl doing exercise while her breasts are jiggling up and down. Most of it is just loops of her doing the exercise but several of the loops at least have a different variation of clothing from her regular top and shorts to school gym wear (including bloomers no doubt) and her doing squats in her bra and panties. There are also closeup of her breasts at the end while she's doing some hopping shit.

Sound: Uh... the bgm is simple enough? There's also some music playing for a half ass'd mahou shoujo ED. Hinako has the typical squeaky anime girl voice. They do have bouncing sound effects for her breasts if that counts for anything.

Character: Hinako was sucked into a TV and transformed into an anime character when she was in middle school. Now she's 16 years old and is an actress. She totally digs exercising too and she's pretty hot and stacked for a 16 year old.

Enjoyment/overall: Epic lulz factor is pretty high for this. Unless you're seriously intending on exercising while watching this, this is nothing more than blatant fanservice.

Listen up, those of you who are interested in losing weight or are just perverted. If you actually follow the workout, it is pretty good for toning the body and burning some fat. It's a good workout for either just waking up in the morning or right before going to bed at night consisting of multiple sets of push-ups, sit-ups, and squats. But like in all ways of getting in shape doing this once will not give you the body of your dreams. If you want a body like Kamina or Yoko from Gurren Lagann you will have to make this ... a daily routine doing it at least a few times a week on a regular basis to see results. After a little while you will be ready for cosplay at the anime expo.

Hey you! Yeah you with the potato chips in your hand. Quit complaining! What better way is there to lose weight and watch a cute anime girl scantly clothed at the same time. This is what you get to look forward to in Isshoni Training...

Definitely lots of bouncing boobies with her shoulder strap falling off so every time they bounce you think a boob might pop out. Hinako constantly changes her clothes from set to set going from her main workout clothes which are very short shorts and a tight top with spaghetti straps to a very tight school gym uniform to just bra and panties.

So whether you are interested in losing weight or you are just perverted and only interested in seeing revealing anime girls, this is the show for you. So get off your butt, stop just staring at Hinako and wipe that blood dripping down from your nose and actually do the workout with her.

There is kinda a story plot to it as well with some fighting but that's all I'll tell you about that... you'll just have to check it out if you want to see that part.

[Specialty: Fan-service + exercise]
I read Terminator's review, agreed with some parts of it but some info should be added as well.

Ok, this OVA is basically like the American exercise vids in the past, only that this is in anime form. The American vids I saw also feature busty women doing exercises like running treadmills etc.

Simply put, this OVA starts with a standard procedure of push ups-> sit ups -> squats.

Then later on they keep repeating the same scenes, only with different clothes and camera angles. Tank top with shorts, bikini pe attire . Then, more fanservice not related to exercise...

I think the ending was ... just counting numbers? I watched 6 min sub the rest raw, but the vids on youtube were kinda confusing so I may have gotten the order wrong.

Start exercising!

PS. I didn't exercise while watching the show, so it was kinda boring >_>.

In "Training with Hinako", Hinako was once a person, but somehow, she gets sucked into the TV and gets turned into an anime character. After noticing you watching her, she is surprised since she hasn't seen an actual person in a while. So she decides to interact with you, by calling you pudgy and saying that doing some training could help the both of you.

Sitting through this, I didn't expect it to have some actual plot. I was expecting the anime to pretend that you were friends with the cute girl who would like someone to train with because she secretly has a crush on ... you as well as you having a crush on her, or it being a training video with the trainer being something to look at while you're using this as the laziest exercise video in existence. Instead, Training with Hinako has this weird meta story to explain it's existence. I guess it's something different, which is nice.

After the first few minutes of introducing the character and the exercises that she, and what your supposed to do along with her if you're not just being lazy, will be doing the rest of the OVA. It also features Hinako wearing different clothing throughout the OVA, but all of them are worn very briefly (bah-dum-tish), and it doesn't actually show her changing it and out any of the clothing presumably because that would have been time consuming and would have gone over the meager budget, it will just cut to her wearing something different in the same shot.

The fact that there is more than one set of clothing is a minor miracle, because I wasn't expecting her to appearing anything else to begin with. Also, in between the exercising, the OVA is broken up by joke credits, featuring scenes from a magical girl series featuring Hinako that doesn't exist. That's probably due to the fact that the DVD has some minor interactivity, allowing the viewer to rearrange scenes.

Would I recommend "Training with Hinako"? Yeah. It's cute, but not annoyingly cute. Sure, it's not wank material, but I expect it to appeal to someone. It might not have the variety or quality of something like (Makura no Danshi ENG: Pillow Boys), but it's remarkably well put together for what it is, and seems to be earnestly trying to be enjoyable. It's not going to be for everyone, but I imagine someone getting something out of it.

Today, I decided to challenge myself.

I may have got an A in P.E. class last semester, but workouts bore me to no end. I can listen to music or browse the Internet on the treadmill, but sometimes I drop my phone and that's no fun. (Pretty sure I already broke the internal recording audio thingy from dropping it too many times.)

Suddenly, I had an idea. What if I could be more motivated to exercise if a cute anime girl would do it with me? I'd known about this "Training with Hinako" OVA for quite a while, and maybe it was the answer to my prayers.

I ... ate my pre-workout snack (cinnamon roll flavored protein bar) and eagerly clicked "Play".

STORY (4/10):

Training with Hinako's plotline is paper-thin - a girl named Hinako gets sucked into her TV one day and becomes an anime character because...plot. (I'd really like to see a psychological version of this where Hinako struggles with herself and starts to have a mental breakdown over becoming an anime character. Or maybe she's actually in a coma! The theories are endless...)

She's starring in a new anime, but she's been told she needs to lose 5kg or they'll cut her part. (Classic example of the 'Hollywood Pudgy' trope - Hinako is far from needing to lose 5kg.) She'll also call you a little chubby (which I am not, thank you very much - Oprah thinks this will be the year of my best body, which to me means getting more muscle on my frame) and asks you to do weight-training with her.

So, yeah, Training with Hinako lacks a substantial story. But really, that's like complaining there was no substance to the story in your Richard Simmons tape.

ART (6/10):

The artwork to Training with Hinako isn't half-bad - the boob physics and booty close-ups get a little ridiculous if you're legitimately trying to work out, though.

SOUND (5/10):

The music's barely worth mentioning. The voice actress for Hinako does a decent job, and the boob-jiggling has its own special sound effect. Lovely.

CHARACTER (5/10):

Hinako is the only character in the OVA we see, but those five minutes or so we get of her character development are decent. I'm sure she's somebody's waifu, which is what they were going for.

ENJOYMENT (5/10):

Believe it or not, Training with Hinako is a decent basic workout. I couldn't keep up with the supposedly out-of-shape girl at times, which I'm just going to blame the video on to save myself embarrassment.

The second half gets very repetitive, and the timers are confusing. I was on the floor utterly confused and changing positions as fast as possible. "Why are we doing so many push-ups? How many different outfits do you feel the need to wear while doing the same set of push-ups?"

Towards the end Hinako stops exercising and sits in some suggestive positions while counting. I assume this is the point where the stereotypical otaku is supposed to stop exercising and start...y'know.

OVERALL (5/10):

Lack motivation to exercise and like anime boobies? Maybe Training with Hinako is your video. If you were one of those weird kids who freeze-framed your mom's workout videos whenever she left the house, this is even better.

Are you pretty good at exercise already? Try an Insanity video or something. This will likely bore you.

Don't want to exercise and just want to admire the...artwork? Sorry if I disappoint you, but this is only PG-13. You're on the Internet, you can find something better.

I really just watched this because I was bored, but then I was left laughing when I finished it.

To be honest, I don't really know how to describe this anime. It was very... educational... in terms of physical education, that is. It was also cute in a way. The ecchi was very evident, but once you get used to it, it's just a normal workout video. Is it a comedy? Is it an H video? I don't know!

First off, let's talk about Himeko, the anime character that every otaku would love as their training partner. Well, not that I would need one, but it ... just seems fun to see her be fully aware that she's an anime character. She's like the Deadpool of anime.

The background music also got me to move around a little, and it eventually led me to do the workouts as well. You can't have a workout video without a pumped-up track like that!

So, did I enjoy it? Well, if you count frequently laughing and facepalming as an act of enjoyment, then yes, I did enjoy it. But don't just take my word for it. Just watch it and you'll see what I mean.