Anime of ∞.
Ha -na
Na -ru
Ya -ya
Ma -chi
Ta -mi
These are the 5 girls that make up Hanayamata and this anime is simply amazing. When I was acting a little silly a week ago, Cajun and I were talking when he linked me the OP for this song in it's full glory and I fell in love so hard; I listened to it nonstop for at least 5 hours. I was captivated by the song and going into the anime, I had no idea what I was in store for.
The main girls of Hanayamata are Hana and Naru, though the other three are also mains without a doubt, it's because of Hana and Naru that Hanayamata is what it is. It's a great story about fitting in, about doing something that you want to do because you just want to have fun, not doing things that you're forced into or that you're burdened with. The way it's told really reminds me of myself. Like Naru, I always had/have difficulties fitting in, I'm shy and quiet and it's hard for me to just break out (it's why I say silly things sometimes). I didn't expect a story like this at all and it really touched me; made me very emotional, even though Hanayamata is probably an anime most wouldn't shed a tear for. It's very uplifting, very happy and the struggles that the girls are presented with feel so real.
Naru isn't the only one with these fitting in issues. Hana, our exceptionally pretty and beautiful blonde girl of the show; the one who really sets in motion of getting the yosakoi group together, has had the unfortunate trouble of trying her absolute best to even find people interested in yosakoi, always putting on a brave face and just going for it. Tami, the refined and very wealthy girl has always been faced with trying to please her father, to be the princess she thinks he wants her to be. Yaya also has trouble dealing with the problems of being accepted, she's like "a lone wolf, but is really just lonely" (Not my words, the great Naru said that, the whole scene was absolutely brilliant). Machi has issues dealing with her older sister and the "troubled" past that she was involved with.
The issues feel real and sure, most of them could honestly be anime clichés that everyone has seen a hundred times over, but the way it was presented to me, just really touched me.
Now the issues aren't even important to the story, not really. The entire plot of Hanayamata is to get enough girls interested in yosakoi to then form a club and finally enter a festival that's three months away and perform a dance. We start with Hana and Naru, then Yaya joins, followed by Tami and lastly Machi. I haven't spoken about her yet, but the last important person to Hanayamata is Sari-sensei (Machi's older sister, also sounds like her name is Sally). Without Sari-sensei, Hanayamata would have stopped at a stand still. She's a very pretty young lady who really puts faith into the 5 girls and when everything comes together, it all just works so well.
The story is simple, the issues the girls face aren't important, but the combination of it all works so well, I mean, it really just works. It's also incredible how during the first "festival" the girls entered, it didn't go to plan at all, it shows this realistic view that just because you practice and try your best, you may not nail down the performance for when it comes time to show your stuff; heck this can be an anime cliché too, but again, it just works and makes sense.
The art style used in Hanayamata is gorgeous, incredibly pretty; the type of art that makes people happy and even squeeful by the sight of it. The animation is good too, but I can't say that it's without flaws. I normally don't have much to say about animation quality because I don't know if what I'm looking at is bad or good, due to how I view the anime, but there were a few flaws in how characters were drawn in certain scenes and some of the environment detail too; I won't say it's a detriment to Hanayamata though, it looks so good and with the art style used, it's not a big enough deal for me to knock it down, just an observation. I will say though, the first episode is one of the prettiest in all of anime that I have ever seen, the Sakura petals flying all over the place, the quick dance with Hana and Naru, the way it's all shown is just fantastic. The show itself is also incredibly pretty and once again, red blemishes on the girls to exude this innocent and "pure" feeling, I love that so much.
I also don't normally comment on cinematography, but in Hanayamata, it was really well done; I know in anime you can draw whatever you want to showcase feelings and it's easy to drive a point home, but all the cuts to showcase the emotions the girls were feeling, so well done. The shots of legs/feet showing reserve at times or the withered flowers followed by cuts to the girls themselves, there was a clear cut reason for just about every scene shown in Hanayamata, not a single frame wasted and for that, huge props to the guys that did that, it was amazing.
Sound/Music..... Well as you know, I fell in love with the OP and really that's how I felt about the music in Hanayamata. Throughout the episodes there was great BGM, but what made it so good was the use of the OP in an instrumental variation. Certain scenes would play out like they should and bam, you can hear that amazing OP in the background, really giving weight to what's happening on the screen. I'm purposefully linking the full version of the OP, give it a listen to. It's quite honestly OP of ∞ for me (I'm most definitely hyping this song to hell and back, but I love it). I've been focusing on the OP on purpose too, it's not like the ED is bad, because it's not, it's actually quite good, but nothing like the brilliance of the OP. The rest of the soundtrack is good, but "ahhhhhh"...... that's how I felt everytime I heard the OP come on during an episode.
The yosakoi dance. It takes all 12 episodes before we're shown the dance in it's all glory and my goodness is it worth it. We literally watch a group of girls who know next to nothing about yosakoi start with just the naruko (Clappers), then the recruitment of other girls, followed by creating costumes and training; constant practice to get the choreography down perfectly. When Tami works on the music for their dance, and when we realize that it's the OP that they're performing, tears shed. When we see the girls get recruited and see how the girls all face their issues, tears shed. When we see the dance in it's entirety, especially with how it happened, tears shed. This show is not sad, it's not dramatic, it's not even something to have tears fall for, but my goodness did I love it.
I'm overhyping this show to the moon, but I can't help it. We need more seasons, we need more dancing, we need more music and costumes. I absolutely love it and it could be considered average by everyone in the world, I won't let that stop me from enjoying this at all, ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ~~~~~~~~~ Honestly. (We also need more seasons of a lot of things I've watched lately......)
