***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Handa-kun. Reader discretion is advised.***
Series Synopsis
Sei Handa (voiced by Nobunaga Shimazaki) is the son a famous calligrapher. Now in high school, Handa has already made a name as and up and coming artist in his own right.
For years, a sort of legend has formed around Handa. Everyone at his school reveres him. There's hardly a person who doesn’t know his name. And there are even fewer who don’t think he's the greatest. He's beloved by everyone.
There's only one person who doesn’t think so. And that's Handa himself.
In his mind, he's the bane of society. At any and every opportunity, he thinks people are trying to bully or get rid of him. Because of this, Handa has closed himself off to the world. You can count on one hand how many people he feels comfortable around.
With Handa’s self-isolation and everyone else’s high praise, misunderstandings are bound to happen. Regardless of how they play out, Handa always shrinks deeper into his worries. And the number of people who idolize him continues to grow.
Series Positives
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| Handa |
With that kind of history, it goes without saying I was looking forward to this one. And just like its predecessor, Handa-kun produced an immediate response.
This time, though, it wasn’t appreciation. It was true, unabashed annoyance. If you’re coming straight off from Barakamon, this isn’t the show you’re expecting.
Talk about in name only.
Now before casting Handa-kun to the depths of memory, there’s something to keep in mind. As a follow-up, prequel or not, it fails. We’ll get into why; don’t you worry about that. As a standalone production, the situation isn’t as grim. If we were to treat Barakamon and Handa-kun as two complete, separate entities, there’s merit. Handa-kun remains forgettable. But if we do this, it’s not awful.
When it comes to style and execution, these two shows couldn’t be more different. Change a few character names and the job's done. Under these circumstances, Handa-kun comes out of this under a more positive light.
The Right Circumstances
I can’t say Handa-kun was funny throughout. Many times jokes fell dead. Other times jokes felt forced. Then there were times the series straddled the line between awkward and stupid. Don’t believe me, see for yourself.
If you’ve seen Barakamon, try watching the first half of episode one here. See how long it takes before you’re asking yourself, “What the hell is going on?”
So, the opening minutes weren’t a strong start. But it was only that, not a strong start. Though a reoccurring problem, it wasn’t a constant problem. There was humor. In fact, some of it was rather hilarious. I had a few good chuckles.
Handa-kun was a joke factory. This series relied on pure probability. A strategy which worked for the most part. When all the pieces were there, the show was golden. This rested on the people involved and what mood they happen to be in.
For instance, the Handa Force. Junichi Aizawa (voiced by Yuya Hirose), Reo Nikaido (voiced by Tetsuya Kakihara), Akane Tsutsui (voiced by Yoshimasa Hosoya), and Yukio Kondo (voiced by Daiki Yamashita), were quite the cast. Why they were deemed important to the Barakamon series is beyond me. By themselves, they were an effective group of goofballs. If there was a story just on them, I bet it wouldn’t be half bad.
Where the show tightrope-ed the most was with Handa himself. Depending on how he got used, he either flew or flopped. His best was when he was the dense dork. Handa was horrible at reading a room. When clueless to what was going on, it led to some funny exchanges.
Yet, to guarantee success, the show needed someone to counter Handa. There were too many characters who playacted to him. There needed to be a person aware of his bull s@#$. And believe it not, there was.
Takao Kawafuji (voiced by Kazuyuki Okitsu) had two things going for him. One, he knew what was happening with Handa. Second, and this is a big one, he was actually a character in Barakamon. That alone was enough to establish a meaningful connection. You knew Handa and Kawafuji’s relationship led somewhere.
Now to be fair, their friendship wasn’t a central part of Barakamon. But it wasn’t insignificant either. Did Handa-kun explore how these two characters became the people we saw in Barakamon? Not in the slightest. Yet, the banter between them was some of the funniest bits of the series.
It was because of Kawafuji, Handa was the way he was. Seeing the depths his friend fell to caused Kawafuji to feel horrible. He wanted to bring Handa back from his despair. There was just one problem.
Kawafuji was also a massive ass hole. Yeah, he felt bad for what he did to Handa. Yet, Handa’s overreactions and everyone’s misinterpretations were too entertaining for him. Given the set up for this show, this level of prick-ish-ness was hilarious.
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| From left to right: Yukio, Akane, Kawafuji, Handa, Junichi, Reo |
It's a shame Handa-kun as the Barakamon label attached to it. Or, should it be a shame Barakamon is now associated with Handa-kun. Whatever the case may be, the point is, it’s a shame this show was what it was.
Had this been its own thing, I think I would've enjoyed it. At least I would've enjoyed much more than I did. It wasn’t a bad comedy series. But it was under the shadow of Barakamon.
That’s why I feel it necessary to make a distinction. First, I want to explain the problems I had with the show, as a show. Second, I want to explain why I think it fails as a prequel. Depending on what direction you're coming at, it will determine if this series is worth your time.
As a Show - Handa
As a Show - Handa
I already mentioned how Handa was a hit or miss character. When he worked, he was great. Some of the best moments involved him and his responses to certain situations. When there were things for him to work with and distract us from his faults, he was a highlight of the series.
This includes his gross misunderstandings. Since Handa had put himself in his own bubble, it was easy for him to not pay attention to what was going on. And because he was such a popular figure at school, soon or later he got dragged into what was happening. The combination of that and people not clueing him in made for some good laughs.
When this failed, though, it was insufferable.
When Handa went full emo-mode, it was enough to make you want to punch him in the face. It was frustrating to see Handa assume the world was out to get him. That everybody hated him. And having that juxtaposed to how everyone overpraised him.
I understand there are people who do have this negative outlook; well-founded or not. It’s an unfortunate perception that should get taken as a serious issue. If you know someone like this, try giving them appropriate kind of help.
But Handa-kun played this up for comedy. And the comedy just wasn’t working.
As a Prequel – It’s Terrible
I often don’t get the amount of enjoyment I got from Handa-kun, out of a show I don’t like. But the fact remains, I didn’t like this show.
There was nothing here that reminded me of Barakamon. Both shows had loud and energetic humor. But Handa-kun failed to capture the reasons it worked before. The same charm wasn't here and that was the biggest disappointment of this show.
If Handa-kun was always meant to be a different style, that would’ve been fine. But then why does it have so little to do with the original. Only the smallest of ties connected the two shows. That’s why it’s better to treat them as two separate things.
This series insisted on making the Handa Force a prominent figure in the story. Strange since they were never even hinted at in Barakamon. That in itself wasn’t the problem. The issue was, Handa-kun did have characters that bridged the two shows.
Why wasn’t this Handa and Kawafuji’s story? Why wasn’t their relationship the main focus? Why was Kawafuji, once again, regulated to a side character? All this crazy stuff would've still been strange and out of place. But at least it would've been happening to characters we knew were important.
But of all things that annoyed me the most, it was Handa.
Odyssey, you just went over what his problems were. Why are you doing it again?
I’m doing this because Handa was the reason why this show failed as a prequel. If you were to go back and look through my Barakamon review, you might notice something. Throughout the entire review, I didn’t refer to Handa as Handa. I kept calling him by his given name, Seishu.
The reason I haven’t done so here is because it would imply they were the same character. I don’t know who Handa was, but he wasn’t the struggling artist we met in Barakamon. Seishu was prideful, egotistical, and stubborn. When he got into one of his slumps, there were people who wouldn’t hesitate to smack sense back into him. And they never would’ve been so oblivious to it.
Handa-kun the anime was an attempt to use an existing, well-known name as a crutch to support itself. F@#$ you.
Final Thoughts
If you haven’t seen Barakamon, now is your chance to watch Handa-kun. You have the opportunity to see this show under its own light. Any faults or any good you may take from this show is its own. Plus, you get to watch an even better series as a follow-up.
If you have seen Barakamon, don’t even bother with Handa-kun. Unless you want to piss yourself off. It fails as its role as a prequel. It adds nothing of worth. It ignores everything that made Barakamon fantastic. But it still had the nerve to pretend it was in the same league.
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