Anime Hajime Review: Hidamari Sketch Hoshimittsu

Series Synopsis

For a third time, we return to the Hidamari Apartments located across the street from Yamabuki Art School. A new year is starting and besides everyone being older, nothing has changed. As always the residents of the small complex, the kindhearted Yuno (voiced by Kana Asumi), the lovable airhead Miyako (voiced by Kaori Mizuhashi), the motherly Hiro (voiced by Yuko Goto), and the accomplished author Sae (voiced by Ryoko Shintani), enjoy spending their time together.

Yet there is big news on the horizon. This close knit family is about to get a little bigger with the arrival of two new residents, the quiet and reserved Nazuna (voiced by Chiaki Omigawa) and the straightforwardly honest computer wizard Nori (voiced by Hitomi Harada).

The now six residents of Hidamari quickly bond and it becomes hard to imagine a time when they weren’t together.

The coming term is shaping up to be quite eventful. Yuno in particular looks onward with her typical gleeful excitement as she continues to better her art and learns how be to a fitting role model for her new underclassmen.

Series Positives

I absolutely love coming back to this series and am legitimately bummed that, as of writing this review, there’s only one more entry left to go. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, but if it’s anything like the original, 365, and now Hoshimittsu, well…it’s going to make it all the more sad to see it end.

Now this series is coming off the wake left by 365, which to me is the best of the lot so far. There was a lot for this installment to live up to. But lived up it did. By no means did it surpass its predecessor, but it’s a really solid follow up.

There’s something about Hoshimittsu that separates it from the first two series; which were generally a lot funnier overall. This is not to say that this one wasn’t hilarious, because it was. However this time around there was a stronger focus on the sweet, tender, and cute moments. So while there was laughter, there was a lot more smiling. It was effective and I liked.

In my last review of this series, I was at a loss of what to say. From Hidamari to 365 it was much of the same, but only better. This time around, there are new things. Thankfully, these new things are also good things.

The girls got out more; we get to see the town they live in. There were a lot more minor character interactions, and it felt like their school was a school for the first time. We finally get a better sense of this world and the people in it. But there are two things that Hoshimittsu did right and they were two things that it absolutely needed to get right.

Nazuna

Nazuna and Nori

We have gotten to know Yuno, Miyako, Hiro, and Sae quite well and frankly at this point in the series we are mostly accustomed to just them. So now at last we are getting two new major characters that are undoubtedly going to change this group dynamic that we are familiar with. It could have easily gone wrong.

Nori

But it didn’t, quite the opposite in fact.

In my synopsis I said that it is hard to imagine Nazuna and Nori not being part of the original group. That wasn’t a stylization attempt for the sake of summarization, that’s what it is. These new first years are fantastic additions. They're their own characters and not simple a rehash of existing ones. They influence what the group does and how they interact with one another and other people.

First I want to talk about Nazuna and Nori’s relationship with each other. They are direct polar opposites, which isn’t dissimilar to the pairings of Yuno with Miyako and Sae with Hiro. However this is the most extreme.

Nazuna is incredibly shy and is highly nervous about living on her own. She has zero confidence in herself and believes she is nothing except a burden. Yah, Nori’s not that. Yet Nori is conscious of Nazuna’s reservations and works with her to let them go.

Sure, Yuno and the others want to give their support, but there is that upperclassman-underclassman relationship that’s hard to overcome from someone as introverted as Nazuna. This is where Nori shined since they are the same age and the show did an amazing job of bringing them together.

The second thing I want to mention is that upperclassman-underclassman relationship. We’ve seen Sae and Hiro in this role, but now we get to see Yuno and Miyako take it up. Miyako doesn’t change all that much, nor did I expect her to, but Yuno is another story.

She completely encompasses the role. Nazuna and Nori are able to bring out and showcase how much growth Yuno has done. It was heartwarming to see this character in this more mature light, and I have to thank Nazuna and Nori for that.

Series Negatives

As I said, Hoshimittsu wasn’t as funny as its predecessors. There’s more to that then a simple change in focus.

The jokes came off stiffer than they ever have. They came off as joke attempts and didn’t feel as natural as they had been in the past. While I still really enjoyed this series, it was disappointing to see and for a while I couldn’t figure out why I was seeing it.

Then I thought of something.

I want to make this as clear as possible. What I’m about to say is complete speculation. I don’t have any proof and I don’t have any insight into anime production. Yet something changed between 365 and Hoshimittsu; this is me trying to rationalize it. I could be dead wrong and this may not be the reason for what happened.

However the point of the matter is, it did happen. It’s never good when a next installment is not as strong as the previous.

The Style

Hidamari, 365, and Hoshimittsu are treats to watch; this does not change and this is not what I am referring to. This is a Shaft production and they have made a reputation of producing anime with a unique stylization to them; which I love.

HOWEVER, Hidamari Sketch Hoshimittsu is the first Hidamari series to be released after Bakemonogatri; and it shows.

Monogatari's influence is all over this series. Character movements, posing’s, backgrounds, all of them have the Monogatari touch to them; albeit lighter, but they’re there. I am not going to sit here and start bad mouthing this style, especially after praising it to no end in every single Monogatari review I have done. What I will say is this. This style works in Monogatari because it is Monogatari’s style; it is not Hidamari Sketch’s.

The two show’s respective styles are clearly from the same source, but they both have their own take on it. Hoshimittsu seems to have gone through a kind of Monogatari-ization. It’s awkwardly noticeable because the two shows do completely different things. They're good for their own reasons and don’t need to pull from the success of the other.

This doesn’t ruin Hoshimittsu; it doesn’t come close to ruining it. Yet while watching, there are many times where I was left scratching my head, raising an eyebrow, and questioning a few stylistic choices.

Final Thoughts

Hidamari Sketch Honeycomb and then where done. Damn… I really hope that changes.

Hoshimittsu was fantastic because it continues to bring with it the things that have made this an enjoyable series. Not only that, it was able to do something even better; add to it. I may be looking forward to seeing what’s coming next, but I’m a little weary because everything is moving to a moment that is not going to be fun.