Hanamaru Youchien

"You're hitting on me!"

I facepalmed. Onto my desk. With full force. That is the last thing you'd expect to hear in a show about kindergarteners. But Hanamaru Kindergarten is full of comments and moments where you stop and think to yourself, "What are the children of humanity learning these days...?". At least, that's what I was thinking the entire time.

Anyways, Hanamaru Kindergarten is a sickeningly sweet anime that I just happened to find on Crunchyroll one day, and decided to watch it, thinking that it was about time I stopped watching action related shows for a while. So I watched the first episode. In ... the beginning, I was taken back by the cuteness of the show, which was at a very high level. So I continued on, got some good laughs, and ended up finishing the show a few weeks later in my spare time. My initial thoughts were that I had found a cute and slightly rom-com anime. I was correct of course, it was well worth my time I put into watching it.

As for a story, Hanamaru Kindergarten is one of those shows without a main plot. If you think of Azumanga Daioh, Lucky Star and Acchi Kocchi, this show runs along the same lines. A kindergarten girl falls in love with her new teacher, you know, the usual. Oh, wait, never mind, that's unusual. Every episode is filled with random comedy, moments of pure denseness, and just plain old fun. They failed to end the series with a good finale, it seemed like a completely normal episode to me, but overall I enjoyed it.

When I told you I was taken back by the cuteness, I really was. It's one of those animes where you AOL (Aww Out Loud, not that crappy internet service). The cuteness is bombarded with comments that may make you spit out your drink in either laughter or sheer disbelief, but either way, they managed to make you wish for a daughter or a son that looks as cute as kindergarteners appear to be in Hanamaru Kindergarten. Other then the characters, they made the actual Kindergarten look like a place that you would have been dying to attend back when you were 5 years old, it is truly a kid's paradise. Equipped with a slide going down from the second floor, an amazing playground, and classrooms with fun everywhere, I'm kind of wishing that the school I attend now was like that. Fantastic way to make students jealous.

There is no English Dub for this show, and frankly, I thank God for that. It's hard to imagine what all 40 of the 5 year olds in this show would sound like if they were dubbed over, and I really wish not to, as they are loud and have high pitched voices. But thankfully the Japanese Dub tones the realism down a little bit, making them all sound cute and unobnoxious most of the time. I liked most of the voice actors and actresses, they played their parts well, overall a good job.

Watching this made me excited to have kids. I'll probably be regretting it when the time comes around in certain moments of my life, but the characters in the show are portrayed in such a way that you wish all kids were like this. Anzu, the energetic romantic in the group manages to bring most of the comedy into the show due to all the fantasizing she does about the day she marries her teacher, while at the same time comes up with problems in her head that have absolutely no need to worry about. Then there's Hiiragi, the genius in the group, and I mean genius. She's smarter then most seniors in high school, maybe even college. She's the reason I now know what a Lunula is. At the same time, she also has a cute side to her with all of her costumes, mostly Panda Cat. And the last one is the shy and insanely adorable Koume. That's pretty much it. She's the kid that every parent wishes to have. Then there's Tsuchida-sensei. Frankly I'm wondering who goes to look at "adult magazines" and drinks until he passes out, yet is still able to become a Kindergarten Teacher. I like him, he's funny, but seriously.

I think the part I most enjoyed about this show was the Panda Neko dance. I was laughing so hard, due to the sheer hilariousness of it, and the absolute adorableness of it. I still have it stuck in my head. Overall, insanely cute show, got a lot of good laughs in there. Could have had a better ending, but it was worth watching.

This anime follows two groups of characters: the adult kindergartner teachers centering on Tsuchida, and the kindergartners themselves centering on Anzu. Right away a bridge is established between the two groups, with Anzu being a flirt and madly in love with Tsuchida. It is very cute and endearing to start off with, but quickly becomes old and boring. The show even goes so far as to lay out exactly what the love triangle and love arc of the show is at one point. The sound gets a worse score here than it probably should, mainly because all of the kids make a squeaking noise with ... every step they take. The characters are well done for what it matters, but I personally find the story lacking and too cliche driven, even for a genre made from cliches.

In just the first episode, everything is uncomfortable. Anzu's mom, who nonchalantly got knocked up by her art teacher, doesn't bat an eye when Anzu says she got hit on by her teacher. Plus, she's barely scared when Anzu climbs up a gigantic tree and falls off it. Tsuchida, the teacher, is pretty unlikeable, since my entire impression of the first episode is 'he wants to get in Yamamoto's pants'. The characters suck but the art is cute. It would be a lot better if the kids acted like kids and the parents took everything a bit more seriously, I doubt it'll change in the ... future.

Edit: oh my god the kid has her moms blessing and her mom is planning on actually going through with this, too. Dropping.