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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Watch | 7 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:1905#1552] |
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Another high school slice-of-life comedy? Fun. This one plays up all the typical cliches and archetypes of the genre (focus on character quirks and chemistry, jokes involving puns and Japanese culture that would be lost on many Western audiences) with our main lead Torako being the obnoxious and energetic troublemaker and having prominent focus throughout the show. It doesn't really do anything to break the slice-of-life comedy mold in any way and your mileage will vary on how well you warm to the show's comedy. The anime makes an attempt at serious drama in its final two episodes, which backfire due to the lack of proper buildup and awkward moments of the series still playing up humor off character quirks. Also, the animation style used for this is a bit rough and unpolished with rough details on characters and their facial designs often having me mistake any female characters for pretty-looking guys in drag. Overall, Hyakko's a rather forgettable entry in the slice-of-life comedy genre as it doesn't really do anything to stick out too prominently nor does it have anything memorable after a complete watch through the series.
Last updated Thursday, October 10 2013. Created Thursday, October 10 2013. | ||||||||
| Rent | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 |
 Dreamer
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[series:1905#2279] |
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Here's a fun light hearted anime to pass some time away. It's a simple tale of a few ordinary friends in thier ordinary school lives. This is one of those animes that after watching it, it leaves feeling nice and warm inside. Art, Animation & Character Designs The art was pretty good. Background colors were really rich and pretty detailed.... at times. The animation was really smooth with a decent frame rate. As for character designs, although they weren't types that were to stand out from any other anime, they were still well drawn and animated with enough differences to make them still "unique". However, uniqueness between each character was an A+. There's a variety of "lovable" characters. But their background stories were next to none.... well, rather "none" in double quotes. However, this is a type of anime that wasn't really about the character's themselves, but rather their more immediate school lives and their daily antics. Thus, the lack of character developments was just fine. Music The opening theme song was kinda catchy... surprising for me. Throughout the episodes, there was enough decent tracks that piqued my interests.... especially the one "angelic" piece used when Shishimaru sets his eyes on Torako. Episode and Series Stories Right off the bat I had a good feeling about this one. Especially in episode 1, how the 4 of them first meet each other.... felt almost like it was destined to be, and along with some slight humor, it had me smiling almost right away. Although this anime really don't have a plot to speak of, it's more the "everyday" occurances in the life of these group of girls that make it still worthwhile. Primarily silly antics, there was enough there for a few good light-hearted chuckles, amusing character to character interactions/conflicts and plenty of kawaii moments. "Ooba" was uber cute and sexy.... if I could use such words for an anime character...... god, what's wrong with me!? Overall, it's a fun anime to watch for a few good laughs. If you want to get away from your "normal" anime, this is a good pic. It's a high Rent for me. Last updated Wednesday, February 04 2009. Created Wednesday, February 04 2009. | ||||||||
| Watch | 6 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 6 |
 Xenoknight
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[series:1905#2967] |
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final review soon... Good stuff. Proves again that if an anime is suppose to be funny, it has to be watched subbed. This is the only time when I would prefer a subbed anime - for a comedy! Not a bad way to start off a series. I laughed quite a bit. I'm already in love with Suzu and Lizuka as they have that "funny as hell" vibe and I love their character personalities. Suzu as the "robotic-like girl" with little emotions and Lizuka who is the strict/serious one to keep them all in check. With those two around, I feel much better about this title as I start up ep 2... Holy crap, was ep 2 funny or what? Lizuka and Toraka take things way too far as they try to beat each other in all the club activities. The funniest part in the ep was when Toraka yelled to aim for the world cup (soccer club) and she let out a battle cry and she made Ayu (the scared/shy one) let out a pathetic battle cry as well and she sounded so terrible that it was hilarious. The whole episode was full of laughs and I enjoyed the hell out of every minute. Another thing was how desperate Toraka was to stop Lizuka from beating her every time, that she would intentionally try to injure her with every opening and apologize every time. It seems like I bumped into another great title here... Well, at least I know consistency is not a given with this title. Ep 3 sucked pretty bad actually. I had a few giggles with the bisexual class rep and when the guy kept telling the smart girl to shut-up, but overall this ep went straight down the drain. I'm not worried though as there is still plenty of time to make up for this ep. Nothing much to say about ep 4. It was in the middle in terms of entertainment (not being too funny though). Suzu eats too much and then we had the self-portraits that turned into a sexy photo shoot. Ep 5 was terrible! Nothing happened at all and I giggled once when Toraka and Ushio hated each others singing and started fighting! The first half was a confusing romance plot that had no place in this story at all and didn't make any sense in the end anyway (who did he really confess to first (?) and why was there a huge gap in the details (?)). What happened to this title? It's getting worse as it progresses. I hope it gets it's act together soon. Crap ep... Ep 6 was funny as hell. Liz is troubled after she realizes that she has been alone with no friends for most of her life but her new friends won't allow her to worry about that anymore. They barge in her room and I had a blast watching Toroka make fun of Liz's old album pics. They all have dinner and all goes well. After some early a** credits, we see an unbelievable preview of "epic proportions". It was like a completely different show as there is high level drama and fighting (!) and things look incredibly interesting. It was like either the writers were just trying to flex their mental muscles for a change or they were just proving that anyone could write an epic "fighter" type anime. Either way, it was just a joke and it returns to normal after fooling the viewer and wasting (stalling) the last seven minutes in the episode. I call it a "low blow" but whatever. Great ep... Ep 7: Since when did this title switch the focus off of the main girl group to these stupid other characters! I can't stand watching them when I know I could be laughing my a** off with the main group of girls. That is the only reason this title has been so boring after ep 2 (besides ep 6). If this keeps up, this title is going to fall "face-first" in the garbage as far as i'm concerned. As for the ep itself: the sub characters (the writers insist on not leaving these losers alone) worry about taking pics of random girls to meet their quota of demands (really stupid stuff). There is one guy though who is a total "G" and he walks up to Ayu and flips her skirt (score) to expose her panties for more pics. This guy is actually Torako’s big bro! The other guy who likes Torako wants the brother to help him win her over and he agrees to it. They catch her alone (rare) in the cafeteria and the bro puts hot sauce in her food to screw her over and leaves. The guy switches her ruined ramen with his (they had the same soy sauce ramen) and scores small points with her. The bro meets a girl he knows in the hallway and he tells her that he had lunch with his sister and this is surprising to her. Crap episode as the writers continue to lose focus of the reason this title was so funny in the first place... (sigh) Ep 8 was back to the story I loved in ep 2 the way it should've been (funny as hell with side-splitting laughs though they still insisted on the other random retards that pollute this anime). They meet a girl named Ino and she never had friends in her whole life and Torako changes that soon enough. The bathroom scene is not for the faint of heart as it was too funny for words (the Japanese language is full of grey areas to let that many things be misunderstood - LOL). They help her and she gets a make over (she was freaking hot if I do say so myself - think "librarian" status ^_^). It was a simple episode structure with a genius approach and I laughed until tears fell to the floor! No where near the power of episode 2, but it was refreshing to see this title hasn't completely lost it's edge. Funny a** ep... Ep 9: Minato is too clingy when people do her favors and the gang tries to get rid of her without crushing her innocent heart. Some solid laughs here and there but was nothing special and could have been skipped if desired. The second part of the ep was just as random and funny as the series has always been with Suzu walking around the school collecting food from the students (?) just to end up sharing them with the gang and that is all that happened. Regular ep but funny none the less... Ep 10: Funny yet boring at the same time. Torako wants to be friends with Touma and Touma is against it with all her heart. The whole ep had Torako trying to befriend Touma and eventually tricked her into having lunch with the gang. I love the elementary kids that act smarter than the high school cast of characters. Nothing special but still somewhat hilarious... Ep 11: Torako and the gang all play a game of brutal dodge ball. The game is funny as hell with tons of casualties of war (LOL). Suzi was a beast and won for her team. Funny ep... Ep 12: Torako's past is finally revealed. I would say it's a normal childhood these days. One father, multiple mothers, 3 children who are forced to be siblings. It was tragic, but an interesting story nonetheless. One might ask if this story (depression) belongs in this anime (comedy), but every title deserves a chance to sway the heart I guess. Heartwarming ep... Ep 13 done... Check out my award list to see some of the best anime titles in the world! Never forget Xenosaga. Last updated Wednesday, February 11 2009. Created Friday, November 07 2008. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Forbin
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[series:1905#1573] | ||||||
Analysis 9 Fansubs watched:
And with the 2nd episode Forbin has found a keeper for the season! Hope it keeps it up. 9 episodes and I'm still a fan but the subs are slow. Dang MFI. MAISM! Last updated Monday, December 29 2008. Created Tuesday, October 14 2008. | ||||||||
| Rent |
 Stretch
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[series:1905#628] | ||||||
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(All episodes watched): The first episode left me a little bewildered, in that little more than a basic introduction of the four principal characters had taken place. It was not terribly funny, but I decided I'd give it a go. Going into the second episode I wasn't altogether excited, since my impression was that a lot of concentration would be required in exchange for relatively little comedy and storytelling. But I found myself saying "this is actually pretty fun"! Kind of dumb fun, but fun nevertheless. The characters' well established personalities interact well as the four girls experiment with numerous school clubs which are recruiting. Sometimes it gets a little too daffy, but all-in-all was much more fun than I'd expected. I suspect Hyakko will be a modest series which doesn't get great attention but in fact reliably delivers quality entertainment. I know I'll be watching it. I like this show! The jokes are a stage above the norm for comedy anime. There are in-jokes referring to well known anime series, and weird jokes such as the robot built by a geek girl. The jokes are fairly sophisticated and sometimes I don't completely "get" them, but I find myself amused nevertheless. This is the sort of show which somebody who loved Azumanga Daioh and wished it had had more episodes would want to watch. Hyakko is one of my top five favorites of the Fall '08 season (and this is an unusually high quality season as well). Starting with number three, there seems to be two sub-episodes in each 23 minute episode. Before I had caught on to this, at least once I found myself wondering where the story was going to go after the station break, since I hadn't noticed a clear conclusion and/or good joke to wrap it up. But instead I was surprized to see a whole new story begin; a definite disappointment, coming from such a favorite show. Hyakko seems to take a retsrained approach to comedy, at least some of the time. If the enjoyment one gets from a comedy episode is directly proportional to the amount of humor, then perhaps a steady amount of moderate humor is being dispensed instead of the usual highs-and-lows. Whatever the case may be, I find it a pleasant change and look forward to the next episode. I especially liked episode eight, in which the creepy, morbid girl who everyone dreads turns out to be a shy girl who hopes to make friends but has no idea how to do so. This one stuck to this basic premise throughout the 23 minutes of airtime, had numerous good gags, and a sort of happy ending. I was hoarding episode nine for awhile, but when I decided to do myself a favor and finally watch it I was dismayed to find it to be nowhere near as funny as usual. Nothing was done wrong, except there weren't any particularly good jokes. Likewise for episode ten. Fortunately, episode 11, which involves a game of dodgeball during PE, was great fun; it's goofy spirit reminded me of episode two. In the end, I think the quality of Hyakko varied somewhat between episodes, but on the average it was great fun The attempts to get sentimental didn't move me very much and I think it would've been a better idea to keep doing what the show does best, i.e, being funny in a goofy way. But Hyakko earned it's place as one of my favorites of the excellent Fall '08 season. My favorite line: "Hey, comment! I feel stupid for nothing!" Last updated Saturday, February 07 2009. Created Tuesday, October 07 2008. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
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| Japanese Series Web Site | http://hyakko.jp/ |
