Hinamatsuri

Transforming the “ヒナまつり” manga by Outake Masao into anime format, “Hinamatsuri” seems to be a hilarious show whose comedy focused on exaggerated or deadpan reactions from its characters to ridiculous situations and witty dialogue, all combined with battles involving super powers are somewhat reminiscent of series like “One Punch Man” or “Inou-Batoru wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de”.

Having read the plot premise and sampled its promotional video, I was keen on watching this new spring anime since it seemed this show could be a hysterical comedy. The first episode definitely did not disappoint, delivering excellent humor from absurd situations as well as featuring terrific verbal quips and deadpan reactions from its characters. Was pleasantly surprised the second episode not only followed the path set out by the first, but took things even further with plenty of absurd humor.

With the core plot being a yakuza thug takes in a teenage girl with superpowers and buffoonery ensures, the interaction and bond between main characters Nitta and Hina is an essential element to the story’s success and “Hinamatsuri” seems to execute this perfectly. Throughout these two episodes, the anime showcases plenty of silliness and shenanigans between Nitta and Hina, from verbal quips to terrific facial expressions.

The show manages to imbue Hina and Nitta’s evolving surrogate child-parent relationship with enough warmth through small moments and scenes. Any serious undertone though is quickly interwoven with absurd situations and comedy, making the series feel similar to gems like “Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon” that featured crazy characters up to silly mischief yet surprised throughout with genuine heartwarming moments.

Featuring crazy antics from hilarious characters that often seem to loose track of common sense and whose interaction frequently result in chucklesome conversations or straight-faced reactions, there’s no doubt that “Hinamatsuri” will be one of the comedy highlights of this spring season. This series even has potential to become one of the better anime comedies in recent seasons.

For those of you who like action comedies that are a little different, I definitely recommend you give this anime a try. You can watch “Hinamatsuri” on Crunchyroll.