Issho ni Sleeping: Sleeping with Hinako

The great country of Japan has truly blessed mankind with this. This anime is maybe the most atmospheric piece of visual media I have ever seen.

You can truly feel as if you are lying right there beside Hinako, who is perhaps one the most well-developed female characters in anime. The creators effort shows in presentation filling her with the charm and giving her guise required to be fully lost in this 40+ minute long roller coaster.

Story (10/10): A perfect full circle. It's very relatable and its something you will think back to time and again. That's about all that needs to be said. ... The story isn't without your typical tropes of the genre, but it is presented magnificently and paced so well.

Art (10/10): Jesus, what beautiful artwork we have here, the color palate is very soothing and the linework is delicate. A fair share of different close-ups and camera angles, outstanding is the only word that comes to mind.

Sound (10/10): Okay, volume - all the way up. I'm talking blast your eardrums out loud. Wow, this is where the anime really reels you in and makes you feel like you are being aided to sleep by our sweet protagonist, Hinako. The voice acting is out of this world, this anime fully commits to the experience. The talent just oozes from the performance here.

Character (10/10): Talk about being put through the ringer. I didn't know what to feel as our lead went through so hardship after hardship. Should have won female anime character of the year.

Enjoyment (10/10): I got everything I expected out this anime and more. The story's great pacing, unexpected twists and character development put this thing on another level. I only hope I can get amnesia and watch this masterpiece again for the first time.

Overall (10/10): This anime does everything. And you can watch it anywhere and use it for any occasion. You can watch this at the gym, you can watch this at your buddies house, you could even watch it with grandpa. You could even play this at a wedding. I don't know what sort of results you will get by its showing but you can do all these things. Mostly likely, if you want to be left alone at a family gathering, put this baby on full blast in your room and close that door. They may dare enter, but they might not like what they see. This anime has the Man of Culture seal of approval.

Training with Hinako sold really well, selling out on release day, so Studio Hibari, the company behind the first OVA, decided to make a sequel to capitalize on the first, releasing it a quick 7 months after the first. This time around, instead of exercise, you're now falling asleep with Hinako, assuming that you're all tired out from the exercises from the first one. Or you're watching her as she sleeps, depending on what you're doing under those bed covers of yours.

Much like the first OVA, Sleeping with Hinako is a few bits of original animation, like Hinako talking to you while you're both in ... bed, a few moments from the first OVA followed by on a scale to see if she's losing the weight, to her brushing her teeth, her dreaming about snacks, and her getting up to go to the fridge to get snacks, only for you to catch her in the act. But most of it is reused animation, mostly of Hinako sleeping (obviously). It doesn't look bad, but you can tell the budget went into a few of the scenes, and then some of it was copy and pasted until they had something long enough to press to a DVD.

It doesn't even have the interactivity of the first one. I imagine that this was released on an even tighter schedule to try and get something released to capitalize on the success of the first one. I guess you could call it a step down, but there wasn't much going on in the first one, so it's more like shuffling in place then a step down.

There isn't too much to say about this one. Once you've read the description, you've got the gist of the OVA is about, and it's pretty obvious what this is and what it's trying to do from the DVD cover alone. I guess if you're a big fan of "Training with Hinako", then this is for you. But for me, it's the weakest of the three Hinako OVAs. It has a few cute moments here and there, with the going to the fridge in the middle of the night being the best part, but most of it is just watching the same animation of someone sleeping.

All of this sitting in silence watching this makes me wonder the logistics of the world, if more people have been sucked into this anime world, or if Hinako is the only. I was so underwhelmed with this that my brain started trying to figure out the logic behind it just so my brain had something to do.

Didn't put me to sleep at all. 😔
This girl needs to go to an asylum with all of the ghosts she's been seeing, as shown in the fridge seen. Why does she see them? A sequel is needed to explain this??? Very curious?

Does she do this every night? I need answers! Are we a ghost? Sleep paralysis demon?

Groundhog day ending? How? Does she escape? Do we escape? Should we escape?? Why???



Very disappointing... 😔
... If you're looking to sleep, I'd recommend I heard crying yourself to sleep helps!

Ok, gonna go play genshin impact hope I get Mona, i've only been able to get men and I'm not gay like that so I'm wanting something epic