Story: (Copied from "My Anime List")
"Seishuu Handa is an up-and-coming calligrapher: young, handsome, talented, and unfortunately, a narcissist to boot. When a veteran labels his award-winning piece as "unoriginal," Seishuu quickly loses his cool with severe repercussions.
As punishment, and also in order to aid him in self-reflection, Seishuu's father exiles him to the Goto Islands, far from the comfortable Tokyo lifestyle the temperamental artist is used to. Now thrown into a rural setting, Seishuu must attempt to find new inspiration and develop his own unique art style—that is, if boisterous children (headed by the frisky Naru Kotoishi), fujoshi middle schoolers, and energetic old men stop barging into his house! The newest addition to the intimate and quirky Goto community only wants to get some work done, but the islands are far from the peaceful countryside he signed up for. Thanks to his wacky neighbors who are entirely incapable of minding their own business, the arrogant calligrapher learns so much more than he ever hoped to."
Yup. So basically the story is about a narcissistic calligrapher who gets sent to the country side to learn a thing or two about respect. While there he runs into the townsfolk, who are all very friendly people who welcome him there. He soon realizes that being with them makes him happy. Happier than he's ever been. He definitely learns his lesson of course. And funny enough, his best friend from the village is an energetic 6-7 year old girl that warms his heart. I think the story is very easy to understand, and it's very cute and not over the top. It's a slice of life anime, so expect random things to happen almost every episode. Episode 9 and 11 are particularly hilarious to me, though the whole show can be freaking hilarious at times, too.
I give the story a.....7/10 :)
Characters:
All the characters are likable. Even Seishuu with his narcissism is a really great character. Even all the nosy villagers and annoying children bothering Seishuu. Even the guy who's technically Seishuu's rival. They're all so likable! The main character is Seishuu Honda. A 23 year old calligrapher who deems himself perfect, till one day an older man called his work "unoriginal" or even "mediocre." Being the guy that he is, Seishuu punched the man in his face (no joke) then got sent to the countryside by his father so he could learn some sense. He's a pretty cool guy. He's annoyed by the villagers at first, but warms up to them soon. They all invade his privacy anyway, so gotta get used to them, right? He was a jerkwad at first, but he learned to not be such a perfectionist anymore. The people living there (mostly Naru) helped him realize his passion while also being a good person in the process. Moving me onto this next character: Naru Kotoishi. Naru is a loudmouth little girl who in all honesty, acts the way real kids do. She loves to play around, she loves bothering people, she loves going outside hanging with her friends, she loves receiving gifts and going to festivals and whatnot. I'd say the creators of the series hit the nail on the head with this girl. When she met Sensei--oh sorry. Forgot to mention that all the villagers forgot Seishuu's real name almost immediately, and just started calling him Sensei instead (he didn't seem to mind too much, though.) but yeah, when Naru met Sensei, I'd say she grew attached to him rather quickly. He's like a father-figure of sorts to her. He plays with her, gives her gifts, takes her to festivals and whatnot, and I could really feel the bond between these too. Naru is a very funny character. She's adorable, she's realistic, she's kindhearted, and she's super funny. I'm sure anyone watching this show would instantly fall in love with this girl. Moving onto the next characters, we have: Miwa Yamakura. A 14 year old tomboyish girl who has a key to Sensei's house so she enters whenever she pleases. She's not a very good influence on Naru. Naru often repeats Miwa's bad habits, causing Sensei to scold her. Next is Tamako Arai. Another 14 year old girl who's best friends with Miwa. She has a thing for writing yaoi (BL/ Boys Love) doujinshi, and also having odd fantasies when seeing two men together in the same place. She also has a spare key to Sensei's house. Next we have Hiroshi Kido; a high school student who's also the son of the village chief. He's a pretty average guy, who Tamako thinks would make an adoring boyfriend for Sensei. Wouldn't you know it, though? He also has a key to Sensei's house! We also have Hina Kubota. She's Naru's best friend, and she's a crybaby. When I say crybaby, I really mean it, too. The slightest touch to her arm could probably cause her to bawl her eyes out. She's still a cutey pie nonetheless. There are plenty and I mean PLENTY of other great characters to get to know, but I don't want to spend too much time on this section of the review. I'll just let you guys see them for yourselves ;)
I give the characters an 10/10
Art/Sound:
The opening theme song, titled "The LiBERTY", was performed by Fo'xTails, while the ending theme song, titled "HIDE-AND-SEEK", was performed by Kenichi Suzumura. I don't know anything about Kenichi or Fo'xTails, so I can't really recommend anymore of their music to you, but I enjoyed the opening and ending themes. Weeeeell, I think they both fit the anime pretty well, but they aren't my favorite songs in the world. They're far from terrible, they're just not my kind of music. They're kinda slow but fast at the same time if that makes sense. So, I don't hate either songs, but I don't love them, either. They're good and they fit the anime, so it's all fine. I don't remember much of the music playing in the background of the episodes though, so I can't give much detail on that. I watched this anime dubbed like I almost always do, and I think the characters voices were just fine as well. No complaints there. The art was decent enough, too. Like a lot of other anime, the opening and ending animations are usually....well....animated better than the actual episodes. I think this applies here. Now, the animation studio is: Diomedéa. I've...never heard of them before. I can't tell you what other shows they've animated that I've seen, since I honestly don't know. I think they did an average job here. The animation isn't perfect, like say Kyoto Animation, but it's not terrible, either. Sometimes the characters would look just fine, and other times they'd look awkward. Particularly on their feet. I can relate to this however since feet and hands are very difficult to draw, sometimes even professionals struggle with those parts of the body, but I'm not gonna lie. Sometimes the characters had some strange and ugly looking feet, haha. I give the sound a solid 6 out of 10, while the art gets a .7 out of 10. Not horrible, but not perfect, either.
Overall Enjoyment:
I loved it. I loved this show. What more can I really say? As I said at the start already: Yes. I recommend this anime to you. If you're sitting at home bored and just wanna watch a random, lighthearted, comedy, slice-of-life, cutesy anime, then this is the show for you! All the characters are likable, and they're pretty funny (especially Naru.) And this show is family friendly. So if you got some family members out there who enjoy anime like you do, I totally suggest watching this with them. I'm sure this awesome show will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside once you finish it, and it's only 12 episodes! In short, this show was great and you should all definitely watch it if you haven't already. I give Barakamon a solid .9/10.
Hope you all enjoyed my review! :D
