neko’s thinkbox

Out of the many shows of this fall season, Hyakko immediately appealed to me, for the school life comedy premise sounded and looked similar to one of my favorite shows, Azumanga Daioh. Although hesitant to blogging it, I’ll try to share my scarce musings with you folks nevertheless.

That landing didn’t go so well.

The first thing which struck me positively was the rather cute character design with the occasional SD outbursts, though the huge eyes need getting used to. I’m also pretty glad that this series does not play the fanservice card (yet): of the few possible pantyshot angles, none actually showed any. That’s good, leave the pantsu and cleavage to the other series. The animation looks pretty decent too so far.

The Opening song スッピンロック (Suppin Rock) by Mana Ogawa is pretty okay, it reminds me somewhat of School Rumble 2nd Term op. I guess that kind of fast-paced pop rock songs does fit the school comedy genre somewhat. The OP animation, however, was just a collage of scenes and images of the episode. I suspect they must not have had enough time to create one in time, hope it will be replaced by a more appealing opening soon.

Gasp!

Double Gasp!

About the story… Four lost girls wander aimlessly around in those huge school grounds, they end up beating up a teacher, and get scolded at the end of the day. True, this episode doesn’t sound all that thrilling, but it is definitely amusing. The many various comic elements seem pretty natural and refreshing, sometimes bordering hilariousness (like the two punching scenes).

Besides, the main focus of the first episode was on the introduction of the four main characters, which was very well done in my opinion.

Nonomura Ayumi	Iidzuka Tatsuki
Saotome Suzume	Kageyama Torako

Nonomura Ayumi is a very shy and introverted girl who can’t find her own personality, and thus has a hard time to adapt and to associate with her classmates. The first person she encounters in her search for the classroom is Iidzuka Tatsuki, whose personality is overflowing with self-confidence and arrogance; she is totally the polar opposite of Ayumi.

And then they make this fateful encounter with the two defenestrating girls, Kageyama Torako and Saotome Suzume. Hard to guess, these two are very adventurous, especially Torako. She is impulsive, frivolous and likes to take the spot of the leader. Her proactiveness, however, makes her prone to clashing with Tatsuki’s pride. Incidentally, her name contains the kanji for tiger (虎)… Doesn’t that sound familiar?
Suzume is more silent and diligent, and quite strong. Her suppleness reminds me somewhat of a Kunoichi. She’s pretty cool and cute, I like her :) Yay hairbuns!

Fgsfds.

She’s too strong.

All of a sudden, Ayumi is surrounded by three unique personalities, but doesn’t feel oppressed by them; on the contrary, it motivates her to find her own color as well. For now, these girls are merely sisters-in-arms, but it is clear that the bonds of their new friendship will tighten as they will share new adventures together at school.

We can expect many more classmates to be introduced later in the series, and some look promisingly… stupid. That poor teacher looks hilariously pathetic too. He almost seemed as if he’d pull out a Nozomu Itoshiki-esque ZETSUBOUSHITA at any moment, especially after he got severely KO’d by Torako…

Brace for impact…	BAM!

…but then I was shocked at his revengeful thoughts. Who in their right mind would hit a girl- WAIT!

I’ve been waiting so long to do this…

FALCON PUNCH!

IT’S A FALCON PUNCH!!! He’s forgiven.

But wait, he had been stalking the girls earlier in the day, right? OMG, is he related to Kimura-sensei from Azumanga Daioh? Speaking of which, I’m glad this first episode isn’t some kind of rehash of Azumanga… although, I wouldn’t really mind Ayumi speaking in Kansai-ben… Osaka anyone? (　´∀｀)Σ⊂(ﾟДﾟ　) なんでやねん！

She’s quite the crybaby.

But that’s cute. :3

The only thing I didn’t really appreciate was the ED song 涙 NAMIDA ナミダ (Namida Namida Namida) by Aya Hirano, (no wonder) it feels somewhat out of place… actually, it sounds more like an OP song than anything. And here too, they must not have had enough time to prepare a nice ED animation, as the only thing they show is some sketches of the school and the characters.

Note that I’ve been mentioning Azumanga Daioh so often, but that’s because both series are pretty similar in essence. Hyakko will always be overshadowed by AD and will never replace it, at least not unless it offers something new.

Nevertheless, the first episode of Hyakko was overall a very pleasant watch, and I’m looking forward to the next ep. Looks like there will be some PE tennis lessons, and… gardening?
Remind me to read the manga one of these days.

See ya~