[Anime] Hinamatsuri

Hinamatsuri - 7/10

Note: There are spoilers for Alice & Zoroku as well in this post.

It's that time again, where I try out a series based purely on the whimsy of wanting to enjoy anime outside my core interests.  Usually these result in a fairly miserable experience, as I discover once again why I have the preferences that I do.  But hope springs eternal, and this experience was pleasantly different.

"One night, a strange object falls on the head of Nitta, a member of the yakuza. Inside the box is a strange young girl named Hina. She has tremendous supernatural powers, and Nitta finds himself reluctantly taking her in. Her powers can come in handy for his yakuza business, but he also runs the risk of her using them on him! Not to mention, if she doesn't use her powers, she will eventually go berserk and destroy everything around her. Nitta and Hina's strange life together is just beginning..." - MangaHelpers

Hinamatsuri's description belies its true nature, for although Hina is a girl from some war-torn alternate reality with telekinetic powers, and Nitta a member of a violent mafia group, neither of these factors defines the series.  In fact, after the first few episodes they are entirely irrelevant, and what comes to the fore is a more mundane slice-of-life/comedy hybrid.  The focus is on the characters and not their unusual circumstances.

In this way, I was reminded strongly of Alice & Zoroku, a mostly-panned entry last year with a similar premise and, ultimately, similar execution as well.  A supernaturally-powerful brat shows up on a jaded man's doorstep, much to the latter's chagrin.  Her complete ignorance of the world is used as a tool to explore life lessons, exaggerating the normal child-parent dynamic.  Soon the original arrival is pursued by other girls from her "world," but this ends in a friendly manner and they join the regular cast and feature in a few episodes of their own.  The rest of the story is devoted to the inevitable growth of the original child and her caretaker as they become accustomed to their new roles.

Obviously I am simplifying both series to highlight the similarity, but I do not do so in dismissive mockery.  It is informative when two separate works are so parallel.  It's like having two eyes for depth perception.  While I believe Hinamatsuri is ultimately the better of the two, the comparison between them helps deepen understanding of their respective strengths and weaknesses.  What follows, then, is an appreciative look at two series I enjoyed for what they were.

The Good:
Hinamatsuri is funny, genuinely so.  While it does frequently rely on more trite methods such as exaggerated expressions or ridiculous extremes, the more enduring jokes are those that rest simply on the characters being themselves.  That is, I didn't laugh out loud frequently, but had an amused glow nonetheless.  All the series had to do was place these people in proximity to each other and Hina's obtuseness, Nitta's selfishness, Anzu's pride, and Hitomi's inability to say 'no' would carry the rest.

Usually I like to give examples, but this is a case where I feel I would be doing it a disservice.  Trying to extract this sort of comedy from its circumstance is even more hopeless than normal, and I believe that is a compliment to its execution.  This finds no reflection in Alice & Zoroku, which has minimal humor, but is strikingly similar to KonoSuba; the running gag of Hina saying, "What are we doing?" and Kazuma repeatedly replying with, "Kazuma here" is only funny when you know who is saying the line.

Hinamatsuri's other pillar is its slice-of-life pathos.  The series is surprisingly touching.  This was not something I expected, and more so I got it from a character I did not expect it from.  While Hina's connection to Nitta bears some dramatic weight, Anzu completely steals the show in this regard.

Her arc, of having her pride broken, finding connection with the homeless enclave, having to work hard merely to eat, and finding genuine value in what would normally be considered a poor existence really struck something in me: here is a small piece of wisdom.  She has nothing, and therefore she values it.  It was one of my regrets that more time wasn't spent on her, as well as the other men she was with.

"There's no place for all of us.  We're barely managing to take care of ourselves.  Leave me alone."

This latter part was especially saddening, because there was so much there.  The above line is spoken by one as they are forced to vacate their camp and Anzu tries to convince them to all move somewhere together.  I think it is one of the best moments of the series, as it bypasses the saccharine tendency to paint these men all as kindly grandfathers.  This isn't sacred poverty; there are negative reasons they are homeless, and that while they have come to care for Anzu the hope that she brings out in them hurts as well.

Here, like with the humor, I believe Hinamatsuri surpasses Alice & Zoroku, but how it does so is what is most informative.  Both of the main characters, Hina and Sana, are designed to be a slow burn of affection.  They begin stridently unlikable and it is only with repeated exposure that we are convinced of their worth, and how their acting out represents ignorance rather than an immutable character flaw.

This is even highlighted in the same way with their inarticulate nature: Hina can only dumbly point to a picture of the queen leaving to explain she is going away, while Sana uses the generic word "frazzled" for every negative feeling from anger to sadness to confusion.  Both are nearly pathologically incapable of getting their point across, Hina being the more extreme of the pair.

If these two were the only characters, I would actually give the medal to Sana and Alice & Zoroku (more on this below).  It is Hinamatsuri's secondary cast, with Anzu as the shining example, that pushes it ahead.  In fact, reflecting back on Alice & Zoroku, I believe this is one of the principle reasons why it failed: characters like Hina and Sana are not likable for a very long time, and they must be seen to grow in order for us to feel satisfied.  Neither series had the opportunity to do so properly thanks to 12-episode anime production schedules, but at least Anzu and Hitomi came to the rescue for Hina while Sana's future can only be hinted at.

Finally, I wanted to make a note that even though Hinamatsuri had little time, it did do a lot with it.  The pace was excellent, with every episode effectively split in two to ensure that it never dragged.  A simple thing, but crucial, and a delight after the normal foot-dragging that occurs in anime.

The Bad:
If I had to point at the major failings of the series, they could be easily classified into two categories: an inability to unite all its elements effectively and a loss of momentum in the second half.

As I mentioned in the introduction, the powers that Hina has are not only downplayed... they are effectively eliminated.  Yes, she occasionally will float upward when she is distressed, but when it comes to who she is they are irrelevant.  There is even the minor plot hole that she is supposed to go out of control if she does not exercise them, a convenient device for one episode and then never seen again.  They are swept under the rug so thoroughly that even when she reveals her powers to her friends in episode 12 it's little more than a speed bump.

The same applies to Anzu, who gives a token explanation as to why she no longer uses her abilities, which is in truth is narrative brute force; the author wanted her to develop the way she did, and therefore she couldn't have powers.  Again, I am happy with her in the series, but I must acknowledge that we are never given a compelling reason for why it had to happen.

This is a double loss for Hina, however.  The series insists on reminding us that she is foreign, and for good reason.  Characterization is the bedrock of both the comedy and pathos, and her origins are necessary for explaining her stunted emotions and lack of familiarity with the world.  Her (and Anzu's) wonder at events only make sense in that light.  Yet just when her powers would have implications for her whole personality, and hence add depth, they are dropped and forgotten.  The series wants her to be a normal child with exaggerated characteristics, nothing more.

It is the core reason why I find Sana a superior protagonist: throughout the series, her powers remain a relevant factor, but within a similar slice-of-life framework.  Both are told to not use their abilities, both to facilitate life lessons and so the series can avoid continual deus ex machina, but in Sana's case she isn't so scrupulous.  In fact, seeing how she decides to disobey and use them is what is telling.

For instance, there is a sequence in which another ability-user ends up harming somebody Sana cares about.  Sana's response?  Punishment.  She doesn't use her vastly overwhelming power to, say, combat the person or prevent them from causing harm in a rational manner.  She just wants to tell them off and make them feel bad because she's a peevish little brat.  She's "frazzled" and how she deals with it tells us about her.  Hina remains an unreadable lump.

And it is here that we reach the second half of the series.  Hinamatsuri simply stops moving.  I've already touched on Hina herself being slow in developing, but after episode six it comes to a complete halt.  Nitta has declared Hina is his daughter to his family, so cementing the relationship.  After this there is no more question about how they feel, or will come to feel, about each other.

But Hina herself doesn't grow into that role; her later episodes involve running for class president or having to deal with Mami (supernatural enthusiast), not developing as a person.  There is only a single nod to this when the security chief comes to investigate, and while it emphasizes how Hina has changed, frustratingly we didn't see it happen.  It's just the series telling us it has.

Anzu can't come to Hina's rescue either, for Anzu has the opposite problem: she is perfect.  There's nowhere else for her to go as a person, because she is now completely grateful, obedient, and humble.  The conflict in her character is gone, and all that's left is to periodically trot her out and show off what a good daughter she is.  It's like they split a single Sana into her good and evil halves, leaving one to culminate and the other to languish.

This brings me at last to the biggest offender of the second half: Mao.  Her deserted island episode was supremely awkward to me, because while the series normally alternates comedy and drama to good effect, here it attempted to unite them as she struggled with her loneliness being stranded far from anything familiar.  I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at her throwing her coconut "friends" off the cliff, and I don't think that's a good thing.  Her whole situation, her whole character, was an awkward juxtaposition of adorable and pitiful.

What made this worse is that the series inexplicably ends with her, following the scene with Hina and Nitta in the hospital with Mao's Chinese exploits years later after she gets off the island.  It is a jarring end, one that defies both our expectations while further diminishing Hina's already limited-to-derelict function as main character.  Whether Mao plays a larger role in the manga is immaterial; I know there's no right answer for studios here, but the fact remains that until a second season justifies her presence she merely gums up the anime.

Concluding Thoughts:
It's an unfortunate side effect of putting the worst last that I give the impression that I disliked the series.  Hinamatsuri was fun, warts and all.  It gave me several chuckles, and even got me to reflect for a moment when I turned on the light how lucky I was.  There was sincerity here, and more than a little heart when it was at its best.