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.

I have very mixed feelings about this anime. Some moments were heartwarming, others just didn't add anything to the story.
Hanamaru Youchien shows us the everyday life of a couple of toddlers and their teachers, how they overcome hardships and how they share their fun moments. Love is also a very important theme in the series. At some points the characters really drag you into their lives making your heart pound faster whenever something important happens. On the other hand there are many episodes were this feelgood-feeling just isn't present, making them random and unnecessary.

Story: 5
Hanamaru Youchien doesn't have much of a story. It's ... a slice of life anime which tells about the adventures of three toddlers with Anzu and Tsuchida as the main characters. There is a lack of realism which disturbed me, like 5-year olds running through town on their own and crawling on to people's shoulders. The strange thing is that in the episodes were the story becomes a little more serious, the script-writers really succeed into creating an emotionally strong anime. I don't understand why they didn't take more advantage of this, because Hanamru could be such a tearjerker. And even if they went for a more lighthearted story, it still could have been a lot better than it is.
Maybe the end was disappointing for some. It could have been an episode in the middle of the series too, but that didn't bother me too much.

Art: 5
Nothing special here. Shading was very poor, facial expressions were alright. Nothing unique about the camerawork either though everything is shot from close against the floor. Mainly because the toddlers were very very small compared to the adult characters. The kindergarten was cute and well thought of. All of the other surrounding shots weren't too impressive.
The toddlers did have something cute about them and the colorpallet was enjoyable.

Sound: 3
The version I watched had very poor sound quality so I can't say I enjoyed the intro nor any of the ending songs. And even though every episode had its own ending theme there wasn't any I really liked. Aside from the ending songs the soundtrack fitted the anime, though overall I did find it a bit boring.
As for the voices they were alright at the beginning but at the end I couldn't help but get a headache. This goes especially for the kids and their teacher Yamamoto, whom sounded more like squirrels then humans.

Character: 5
I liked the characters but sometimes they were really annoying.
Anzu brings the energy into the anime. She's madly in love with her teacher Tsuchida and very determent to marry him in the future. Tsuchida is a young man who starts working at the kindergarten and falls in love with another teacher, Yamamoto. He tries to confess his love to her but fails time after time.
Hiiragi is Anzu's friend and the series' own Einstein, and Koume is the shy one who cries over nothing.

Enjoyment: 7
Though Hanamaru Youchien has many flaws if was a lot of fun to watch. It had many fun moments, a few touching moments, romantic moments... and all of these pull you into the story. I enjoyed seeing the children into trouble as well as seeing how similarly the adults encounter trouble.This is the main reason why I decided to continue watching.

Overall: 6
After watching the first episode, which is one of the best, I expected a great anime, and it was fun but not realistic nor too touching, which is why it doesn't get better grades. It did leave me behind with a good feeling. This feel-good vibe is most definitely the serie's trump card.

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.