Hanamaru Kindergarten review

Probably the cutest show to come out so far this year, Hanamaru Kindergarten attests to GAINAX’s flexibility with different genres of anime besides mecha. Twelve episodes wasn’t enough to get me extremely attached, but the show will definitely be missed…

Hanamaru Kindergarten is simply a light, plot-less, slice-of-life comedy. The stories are fairly episodic, usually with two different vignettes per episode. It stays true to being a light comedy and never gets too dramatic. Even the slight romance in the series is treated as part of the comedy rather than taken seriously. The main story element is kindergartner Anzu’s comical infatuation with her nice but nerdy teacher, Tsuchida, who actually has a crush on fellow kindergarten teacher Yamamoto-sensei. Additionally, being a slice-of-life series without a central plot, many of the episodes focus on the daily quirks and interactions of the series medium-sized cast of other characters. What’s special about Hanamaru Kindergarten compared to most other slice-of-life anime is that the main characters are kindergartners rather than middle/high school students, thus their thoughts, reactions, relationships, etc., are different.

The characters of Hanamaru Kindergarten, while I didn’t find them particularly unique, worked perfectly well with the mood of the series. Anzu is the typical cheerful, outgoing, “genki” girl and Koume is the typical shy, quiet, and somewhat clueless girl. Hiiragi, however, was probably the most unique character – she’s knowledgeable beyond her years without being snobby nor stoic, and yet her intelligence doesn’t interfere with her image as a cute little kindergartner. Hinagiku was also interesting in that her pampering didn’t make her snotty, though it would have been better if she had more screen time. Tsuchida is yet another hapless male protagonist who reminded me of Keitaro from Love Hina, but with less perverted accidents. And Yamamoto-sensei is the traditional ideal Japanese girl – innocent, polite, caring, and always forgiving. The rest of cast unfortunately didn’t get enough screen time to be anything more than just supportive. Characters such as Sakura and Satsuki were appealing enough but could’ve used more episodes.

Hanamaru Kindergarten is one of those anime where I watch the opening and think to myself, “If I showed this to a typical American and told them that the target audience for this show is not little kids but young adults (probably more male), what would they think? Would they think that Japanese males are weirdos or even pedophiles for liking a show starring cute little animated kindergarten girls?” I’m not gonna get into a whole essay about that here, but the cultural differences between America and Japan, not just in regards to animation but also the dividing line between what specific genders and age groups are supposed to like, always fascinates me. The concept of watching an animated show just for the sake of relaxing and feeling intimate with the daily lives of cute, nice characters is foreign to Americans. I’m still sticking by the belief I discussed in a previous post about the universality of Hanamaru Kindergarten. It may have its target audience (GAINAX fan boys?) but it’s actually one of the few TV anime that can literally be enjoyed by little kids as well as adults. The children characters and their antics appeal to the kids and the adult humor appeals to adults, without getting mature enough to make it inappropriate for kids.

The animation in Hanamaru Kindergarten is good – lots of bright colors and simple character designs to match the light, comical feeling of the show. Since there’s very little action, nothing really distorted is noticeable in the animation. 2DT has already written about the background music in Hanamaru Kindergarten, so I’ll just discuss the opening and endings. The opening is fun and perfectly fitting for the show, but the endings really make Hanamaru Kindergarten stand out. Each and every one of its twelve episodes uses a different song and animation style/mood (Janette has graciously pointed out all of them). Is this a new trend for anime, or is it just some fan pandering on GAINAX’s part?

Since it’s basically an episodic series, there’s not much to comment on the ending of Hanamaru Kindergarten other than GAINAX’s treat of showing us grown-up versions of the kindergartners. Like anime in a similar genre, the last episode pretty much returns to the status quo with only slight developments (Tsuchida further pursuing Yamamoto-sensei and Anzu supporting him).

The only thing I can fault Hanamaru Kindergarten on is being too short and not fleshing out some of the supporting characters more. But other than that, it’s a very cute, funny, enjoyable show, if you don’t have an aversion to cute/moe of course. If you enjoy slice-of-life anime where there’s no central plot and you simply watch the characters live out their cute, warm, comical lives, Hanamaru Kindergarten should be right up your alley.