Hidamari Sketch x ☆☆☆

The first season of Hidamari Sketch took its time to introduce viewers to the main cast and told its lessons along with some mild comedy and entertaining character interaction.

The second season of Sketch went ahead and gave this world much more depth with a higher budget to spend on making it look and feel more natural.

This third season seems to benefit from everything the first and second season offered, but decides to expand itself rather than giving much more depth to the main cast. While still developing the supporting cast.

Once again, the story is much the same as the first two seasons, the girls are ... a year older and two new main cast members get introduced to add something fresh to the group. This season probably has some of my favorite self contained stories thus far, yet the season's conclusion is the weakest of the series.

The art is what a viewer of the first two seasons would expect of Sketch, if not a slightly more subdued version of it. No major improvements or setbacks over the second season of Sketch that I found notable.

Sound in the third season is better than the first and second. The background music ranges from meandering bouncing to soothing melodies and when you notice them they really feel special. This season had my favorite ED of the series so far.

Characters are the same girls you'd seen for the first two seasons, slightly more mature, more comfortable to be themselves around each other. They're all familiar with the quirks of one another, so the two new additions to the group almost serve as the straight men to the OG 4's antics.
One is more technology savvy and the girls are at times intimidated by her ability to comprehend computers, while she at the same time is the first to deescalate a situation. The other is a very timid GenEd student that at first feels distant from the group because she believes them to all be naturally gifted at art, where she is eventually corrected by them that the reason they attend the school is because they believe they aren't. Overall, the interactions are more or less the same.

I enjoyed this addition to the Sketch series, but other than two new characters and some development for Natsume I felt it didn't do anything the first two seasons didn't. Still a fun watch as I make my way through the series.

There's a tried-and-true formula in Hidamari Sketch, and one of the reasons for its success: "A day in the life of Yuno and her friends". Season 3 is no different in this respect (iyashi sitcom based on a comic strip) but it expands on this in several ways.

Season 3 introduces 2 new characters, Nori, the assertive, tech-savvy art student from (presumably) Osaka, and Nazuna, the shy, dojikko "regular track" student who also happens to be a local. I gotta say, Nazuna is one of my all-time favorite characters, because she gets herself into all kinds of silly situations, like her move-in day (it helps that ... her parents are sillier).

They did a neat thing for the opening animation during the broadcast of the show, partly because it wasn't finished (the final cut is used in the disc release), partly to poke fun at their own penchant for using still frames in these situations, and partly because they wanted to make the appearance of Nori and Nazuna a pleasant surprise. For the first couple of episodes, the "animation" consisted of still frames with 3 stars flying overhead. This wasn't bad (it got a good laugh from Japanese viewers), and it was well within the animation quality of the first 2 seasons. But when Nori and Nazuna were officially unveiled... Everyone went "WOW". The animation quality and detail were cranked up to 11, introduced the icons used for each of the 6 girls, and perfectly matched the fantastic new opening song.

A staple of the series is the creative "film leader" that precedes every (sub) episode. Season 2 improved upon the original "sun" leader by incorporating a flower representing which season (as in "spring, summer"..., not as in "television season") the episode takes place in. That was cool, but season 3 took that up a notch: here the film leader is a planetarium which (I presume) has the constellations visible in the Northern Hemisphere at the time the episode takes place in. A little too detailed, but nevertheless shows off Shaft's mad animation skillz. If a sub-episode precedes Nori/Nazuna, it uses the season 2 leader, which is cool.

Season 3's episode chronology is a bit of a transition between x365 and Honeycomb: There is always one part of the episode that is chronologically in-order, but it often comes with another part that has a story from "last year" and out of order (but related to the in-order part). It's still very much a "Plot? What plot?" kind of show, but this time there's some chronological progression. This becomes more important in season 4 with Yuno, but at least now we're starting to see the girls start down a journey.

Let's talk about mundane stuff! Why only a 6? What is Hidamari Sketch?

I have watched all the previous seasons of Hidamari Sketch for one reason; SHAFT made it. That's it, that's the only reason I have. When I first started watching the first season of Hidamari Sketch I actually dropped it because it was too trivial and tedious for me, but when I then started over 6 months later I found it slightly alluring and quite charming to tell you the truth. I don't know why, none of the seasons or ova's are any different, they're all about the exact same stuff with some slight ... alternations in settings, scenarios and activites, but maybe that's what's so charming about Hidamari Sketch.

Hidamari Sketch Hoshimittsu is no exception, it's exactly the same as the previous seasons with the addition of two new main characters. Everyone's been upped a year in school which invites two new freshmen to enter Hidamari apartments. Don't worry though, they're exactly the same as all the other characters in this show so you won't get too rattled up and your brain won't get overheated with the originality displayed on screen.

It's cute, it's charming, it's nonsensical, without substance and forgettable. Let's expand slightly on the forgettable part; it's actually so forgettable I can't really recall what happened in the last episode (11) which I watched the same day I'm writing this review, which means that the first two seasons which I watched sometime during the autumn of 2009 are basically two animes I've never seen before. This is not negative, if you like Hidamari Sketch it makes for great rewatch value!

In any case, as I mentioned before I think the charm of this entire anime franchise is the same as with all the other ones pertaining to this, such as; Minami-ke, Ichigo Mashimaro and then ones that are partly similar such as; Azumanga Daioh, Lucky Star, Hyakko etc. etc. They are all to different degrees about nothing and everything, just regular (or not so regular) everyday life. You have your set of characters with different attributes and traits and then you make a storyboard around that that has no substance and fill it with interesting screenplay instead and there you go!

Hidamari Sketch's biggest problem I think is that the characters are a bit too monotonous, you know they could have done with a bit more variety in their actions, they're a bit too milky white, they're vanilla icecream when you feel like eating strawberry icecream. And this is the main reason why this anime gets a 6, a 6 is not a bad rating, but it's nothing over the top, just like Hidamari Sketch Hoshimittsu.

For the people who dislike the animation and art style that SHAFT chose to go with; screw you, it owns.

TLDR: It's charming, it has refreshing art, characters are a bit too bland, lacks in originality which renders this anime a 6.

As usual, I am always right in my reviews, even if you comment on my profile saying I'm wrong does not change the fact that I'm always right, you can't be right if you disagree with me and that's one of the few truths that exist in this world.