I went into this anime with no real idea of what it was about; I had not even read the synopsis. Upon completing the anime, I decided to read through the reviews.
I will mention that I did thoroughly enjoy this anime. However as should be with reviews, I will be completely objective in my analysis. I generally do not write reviews often, and not necessarily for anime that I like, but I am compelled to write reviews for anime that are objectively misunderstood. In this case, I saw the terms/phrases “lots of filler,” and “undeveloped characters” floating around among other reviews, which I think do not do this anime justice. Of course I will explain why.
If you are not prepared to read a long review with relatively deep analysis, or simply disagree with me without attempting to understand why I think this anime deserves the points, both positive and negative, that I give it, then go ahead and mark this review as “Not Helpful” and move on. There’s no sense in wasting either of our time.
The animation style wasn’t anything special. At some points it was a bit lower in quality, but the key thing was that the animation was smooth, not choppy. The soundtrack didn’t really stand out, but at the same time it wasn’t horrible.
The three things I think stand out about this anime are the concept, execution, and some key character development.
*MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD*
Let me first begin with the concept. If you are even a moderate anime watcher, then you’ll immediately draw parallels to the iconic Darker Than Black, Durarara!, Psycho Pass, Mekakucity Actors, K project, maybe even Kamisama no Memochou. I do not know if the writing was inspired by any of these pieces, or if the story just happened to land in the crossroads of big names as mentioned, but the concept does not end up feeling overly jam-packed or forced. From the perspective of someone who has not seen any of the above anime, the concept is still interesting. Inevitably there would be a parallel drawn to the superpowers in Darker Than Black. In Darker Than Black, the condition for using powers drives a pretty key point home, that the power holders, or Contracters, are bound to their power and cannot escape, almost like the power controls them. However, this is not elaborated on in Hamatora. The group Hamatora is set up with a pair of freelance Minimum Holders who may be hired for odd jobs by, up to and including the police force. Despite this being their only apparent income, they give off the impression of being low key; they do not seem to advertise openly. This is a rather practical paradigm. As we see later in the anime, society becomes afraid knowing many Minimum Holders existed in the city, which results in rioting and chaos. A normal transaction would begin with a person who would require special help might seek out the power of a Minimum Holder. In this arrangement, the person relies on the holder to complete the job, and the holder relies on the person for payment. With this established relationship, the person has no reason to feel intimidated by Hamatora, who intends to solve their problem, because they have made a transaction just like they would with anyone else. It is a rather humble yet satisfying way to live. This is backed by the fact that Nice and Murasaki were some of the most genius Minimum Holders in history, yet both dropped out of the academy and settled in to this way of life.
While the concept of Hamatora the Animation is quite clever, I was also pleased at how smoothly Hamatora was executed. Similar to how there are many anime fans who care much about an anime’s soundtrack or animation, execution is a very subjective topic in anime. Some people say execution is everything, some people say everything else matters but execution doesn’t. Most people will probably disagree with this point over the other two, so I’ll keep it short. The best way to describe execution is attention to detail, smoothness, pacing, and in general how the anime comes together. Execution is what can make a relatively normal anime with normal characters and a normal plot stand out with an iron fist, and conversely how an anime with good concept and characters may fail. An obvious recent example of good execution is the first story arc of Sword Art Online. Considering everything except the characters and concept in Hamatora the Animation was nothing special, the anime flowed rather well from episode to episode, with well paced build up and detailed character development in some areas.
And of course I had to save the best for last. The reason Hamatora stood tall in front of me at the end of the day was because of its key characters. I say key characters because I do not believe every character was well developed, so please keep this in mind before reading. I will explain the ones that had good character development.
*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*
Since he was one of the first to be developed, I will begin with Inspector Art. Unlike the Hamatora team, Art is much more resolved and driven in his actions. We get the impression that he stands above Nice as an official defender of justice. We later learn that Art was the only graduate of the academy for Minimum Holders who’s power never manifested, and that he had worked very hard to achieve that. As the anime progresses, it is clear that Nice is not only a genius in terms of his superpower, but in his reasoning skills too. The reasoning behind Art’s jealousy is clear as day then. Art is a person who worked hard and obtained a prestigious position in the police force, yet is still overshadowed in every way by Nice, who dropped out of the academy and lives an apparently whimsical life, yet helps solve Art’s cases as if they were child’s play. Furthermore, Art begins to regard Nice with suspicion when they take down the purple giant Takahiro, and Nice comments, “He looks so carefree.” Art beings to draw parallels between Nice and Moral when he realizes Nice understands Moral far better than he does himself. Overcome with jealousy and suspicion, Art eventually cut Nice off from the Moral investigation. Ultimately, Art’s jealousy leads to his own tragic death, a mistake he knew he had made the whole time. His regret is clear as the last thing he does with all his might is attempt to answer a call from Nice, but never reaches it.
We see some similar parallels drawn between Art and Murasaki, the Hamatora duo. The anime introduces Art and Murasaki as partners. We see them work together on missions, and have their share of disagreements along the way. Later in the anime we discover that Murasaki was a genius among Minimum Holders, and was ranked number 2 among all holders in history. While Nice is impulsive and reckless, Murasaki is far more clear headed and logical, yet occasionally becomes angry when Nice disagrees with him. Later in the anime, we find out that Murasaki has always been overshadowed by Nice. Nice is so strong and smart that it does not matter what job he takes on, or how, because he gets the job done no matter what. It is almost as if Nice leads a rather mundane life. As Nice’s partner, however, Murasaki keeps up his end of the hard work, working efficiently and logically to complete jobs and obtain the most amount of money possible. Despite this, Nice never seems to appreciate the work Murasaki puts in, and the pent up frustration shows. Murasaki is both frustrated and angry at how Nice surpasses him in every way, and does not have to try hard to do it. For that same reason, he is the best fit as a partner for Nice, because whenever Nice slips up or loses his head, Murasaki is there to punch him back into shape, driven by his frustration, jealousy, and friendship.
One of the best points of this anime was how subtle yet substantial the build up was for Nice’s character. Although Nice seems to be a central character in the anime, he remains rather passive for much of it. When it is revealed that he is the legendary number 1 Minimum Holder, we realize that Nice is not simply a uniquely talented deadbeat impulsive protagonist out of a shounen anime, but the whole time he was the most powerful Minimum Holder in existence. This changes the perspective on his character. The reason he looks so bored and laid back is because there is nothing for him to be serious about. This also reveals why both Murasaki and Art are jealous of Nice, because Nice can afford to breeze through problems that are larger obstacles for them. More hints to Nice’s character begin showing when Nice encounters the transformed Takahiro, and comments how Takahiro looks like he’s having fun. Later when Takahiro comes back to ask Hamatora to help him regain his body, Nice makes a seemingly uncharacteristic decision and refuses to help Takahiro. Because Nice doesn’t care about the money and takes jobs on a whim, this seems to be a strange outburst of emotion on his part. However its at this point that Nice’s true feelings are revealed. While others struggled to hold a candle to him, he has always despised his own power and talent. His reason for half-assing everything is not because he is trying to express his superior ability, but because he hates his own power. He knows its unfair and that it distances him from his friends. But whether he uses or hides it will not change their feelings of jealousy. When Art heard Nice comment on how he thought Takahiro was having fun, he misinterpreted Nice’s meaning. Art probably thought Nice wanted freedom to use his power as he pleased, a dangerous wish. Nice’s true feelings were different. Takahiro desired his power, and obtained power. In other words, Takahiro got what he wished for, albeit in a twisted manner. Nice was jealous of Takahiro because Nice himself is very dissatisfied with the power he was born with, a feeling that Art or Murasaki could never understand. As a result, he was angry at Takahiro for wanting to throw away what he had wished for and obtained so easily. However one person did understand, and that was Moral.
This brings us to the crown jewel of the series, Moral. If you look past his creepy demeanor, Moral is one of the best written antagonist villains I have come across for awhile. In fact, the only problem I did have with him was that the writer felt the need to make him come off as creepy and weird, presumably to off-put the viewer. Part of the reason it is difficult to write a good antagonist is because unlike the protagonist(s), whom the audience is meant to relate to and side with for a supposedly good cause, a well written antagonist must do things that impede the protagonist’s progress, or clash with his ideals, and by extension the viewer’s, causing the viewer dislike him. At the same time, a good antagonist’s actions must be logical, or also relatable to an extent. Otherwise it is simply a bad person doing bad things for no reason. Moral understands the insecurities and wishes of each of the above characters, which he uses to manipulate them. He sees the potential of unrest that the people would express if he simply gave the Minimum Holders a little push over the edge. When Moral justifies his creation of non-innate Minimum Holders, he says there is nothing wrong with giving someone the means to achieve their goal. As the viewer, we somehow know what he is doing is wrong, yet upon taking a step back and thinking it over, in itself there is nothing inherently wrong with helping people towards a goal. The sole purpose of Hamatora is to help people with jobs they may not complete on their own. In a way, Moral does the exact same thing, using a different method with slightly unstable people. Both ways, Minimum Holders are interacting with society. Moral knows this is a similarity in their methods, and uses it to mock Hamatora, showing that good intentions can drive people and society to chaos. Moral then proceeds to reveal the dormant fears of people by manipulating media, causing riots across the city. While on the surface it appears to be coordinated anarchy, Moral wants to send a message, that these people had always had the potential for fear, chaos, and violence. They simply lived a life of ignorant bliss by burying their fears. Moral decides to reveal this true face, causing people to realize they are unequal, thus triggering a desire to become Minimum Holders. Conveniently, Moral has developed a method to do this. In the end, Moral was able to provide society with what it truly desired. Near the end of the series, Moral talks about “saving” Nice by gaining a Minimum that will match Nice’s. Of course in the last episode, Nice tells Moral that he’s insane, that he does not need saving. Moral ended up achieved that objective as well. Throughout the anime, Nice is not only laid back, but is also lacking in emotion. Because he is so powerful and smart, he is far removed from society, which causes him to lose touch with people around him, including his closest friends. When Moral kills Takahiro, however, Nice becomes enraged and goes to fight him. This is the first time that Nice shows a strong emotion in the anime. Shortly following when they fight, Nice is at a clear disadvantage for the first half, and he gets kicked around. Moral was able to do what even Murasaki or Art could not do, make Nice feel pain and anger. In essence, confirming that Nice is human. Although Nice would never thank Moral for it, Moral knew he had completed everything he had hoped to, and embraced his defeat. We also see at the end that Art shoots and kills Moral, then shoots Nice. But Moral is fine with dying by Art’s hand, because Moral was able to drag Art into the darkness with him.
Thus concludes my review. Of course I have not covered every aspect of this anime, but I feel that I did not have to. I covered what I needed to. I do not often review anime, but when I come across an anime that I not only enjoyed, but believe is objectively different than the other reviews that I read, I definitely feel compelled to put in my own word.
