The main character of this show is Hinako, a girl who gets embarassed every time someone talks to her. She moves from the countryside to Tokyo in hope of overcoming this habit by joing the drama club in her new high school.
However, like most SoL/CGDCT shows, Hinako Note quickly abandons its plot, and instead of giving us cute girls doing cute things, gives us cute girls doing nothing, or rather, cute girls doing the same thing cute girls have been doing in every SoL for the past five (ten?) years, only with new characters.
The beach episode? Check. Characters trying bikinis/new outfits every five seconds? Check. Characters drinking tea or eating every five seconds? Check. And so on and so on.
This kind of stuff was alright ten years ago with animes like K-On, because it was done intelligently and it was new. This is not the case here.
Talking about K-On, people over at Passione were very obviously "inspired" by K-On and Gochiusa when making Hinako Note, as many, MANY parralels can be made between the two.
In the first episodes, the characters of Hinako Note make it their goal to play at Suzuran, similar to how the characters of K-On make it their goal to play at Budokan.
In the first episode, Hinako is in Tokyo and she's looking for the bookstore where she'll stay, similar to how Cocoa, in the first episode of Gochiusa, looks for the Café where she'll stay.
There is an episode where Hinako's mom visits her, similar to the episode in Gochiusa where Cocoa's sister visits her. Again, and so on and so on.
So, as you might have guessed by now, the story is a 100% not original. There is nothing new.
What about the characters? Frankly, they're not THAT bad. Hinako herself is very similar to Cocoa from Gochiusa, but putting that fact aside, she is rather likeable, although the "joke" of her being embarassed easily gets old and annoying really fast, which might lead you to not like her.
Chiaki is rather original, especially in a CGDCT show. She is likeable. Kuina is likeable as well, although if you don't like the "Eats everything and is always hungry" type of character, you're not gonna like her, because that's 90% of what she'll do.
Mayuki is a dress freak (obviously, otherwise the characters wouldn't be able to try new clothes every five seconds) and she's complexed about her height. She's always there but you don't see her that much. Because of this, I don't hate her, but I don't feel attached to her either.
And Yua. Oh, Yua. I'm not gonna bother talking about her too much, all I'll say is that she is one of the lest original tsunderes I've ever seen (and they're not very original to begin with) and she's worst girl. There. Unless you're 10, new to anime and don't mind bitchy characters, you're not gonna like her.
The music is nice. The sound effects do the job.
The animation is good. With that being said, IT HAS TOO MANY CHIBI MOMENTS. This is becoming more and more of a problem in anime in general. The animators are lazy, so instead of drawing all the details like they'd normally do, and like they're supposed to do, every time there's a slightly silly moment, they draw chibi. This is dishonest animation and I personally dislike this very much.
Overall, it wasn't hard for me to watch Hinako Note. However, there were too many flaws for me to enjoy it. Hinako Note is not bad, it's just not good, and little effort has been put in it.
