Hanamaru Kindergarten - Complete Review

Posted by: Crim @ 2010-04-03 20:35:11

Up front I'll just start off getting to the point, this anime was good. Those of you who are familiar with what we do will know that we don’t throw around the G-word lightly. In retrospect I feel bad that we almost didn’t watch this show, we would have missed out on one of the best shows in the past several years.




Hanamaru Kindergarten did (almost) everything right, it remembered that it was a comedy slice of life show before all else and didn’t get hung up in drama or bogged down with a cast of characters that nobody cares about. Being a school, you really only get to know about the core 3 plus one or two who are not superfluous at all, if you get to know someone's name its because they'll be showing up regularly. The teaching staff is the same way, even though the show revolves around Tsuchi and Yamamoto-sensei the other moes all play important supporting roles on a regular basis. The comedy is fast paced and fresh, there really is no gag that gets overused even though Anzu will never let you forget that she is the only woman for Tsuchi, you'll never get tired of it because it's just too cute. Thanks to GAINAX the show looks wonderful from start to finish in every episode, they even took the time to truthfully animate an original ending animation for every episode, often each in a very distinct style that focuses on important characters in the preceding episode. Sound is used to perfection in Hanamru, almost every action taken by the children has its own sound effect which you might think would get old, it really doesn’t, it's just too cute and fits so well, you'll even probably wish your life had sound effects after a few episodes. The OP and ED are fairly forgettable, interestingly enough every ED has its own song as well as the original animation so that may partially explain it.




Really the only thing keeping Hanamaru Kindergarten from being the greatest anime of all time is that it suffers from lack of closure (like every anime). Honestly I have a feeling that if we loved it so much Japan has to be going fucking nuts over it, and if it sells well enough it will probably get additional season(s), which is really a must. The story only covers a about a year with the final episode occurring over Christmas (we thought the worst when we noticed this) and new years, which leaves room for a second year of the children staying at Hanamaru if a second season was green lit. The ending was one of the saddest things, everyone watching was so angry because despite Tsuchi's second and third confessions to Yamamoto-sensei she is still too clueless to pick up on his heartfelt but shy advances. Everyone else in the fucking show knows he wants her, including Yamamoto's younger sister (who ironically has her own troubles trying to get Hanamaru-sensei to pick up what she's putting down), none of them really do their part to help him out either. The moes got him totally drunk along with Yamamoto-sensei at a karaoke bar which thwarted his first confession, and even when THE ONE PERSON IN THE SHOW who has no reason to help him out (Anzu) is brought to tears because she realizes how much he wants to be with Yamamoto and forces him to run her down on a snowy Christmas night he still comes up unsuccessful. Its so aggravating you just want to lock the two of them into a closet and not let them out until they figure the shit out because you end up being so attached to everyone by the end of the show you wont accept anything less than everyone living happily ever after.




In a season full of shows that make you a little uncomfortable being an anime fan, Hanamaru Kindergarten is a safe place that you know will be waiting for you at the end of the day and you can watch without worry of someone walking in and catching you. Dispite the lack of closure, which I pray will one day be rectified (but Japan does have a history of blueballing fans of truly great shows in favor of doing stupid shit with cash-cow properties like reanimating the same episode nine times and calling it a second season) Hanamaru easily lands on my Top 10 list of all time favorite/greatest anime.



If you watch one Anime this year make it Hanamaru Kindergarten, you won't regret it.