hidamari sketch ×☆☆☆ 1

2/28 – 4/3.

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Hidamari Sketch.

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Hidamari Sketch x365.

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Hidamari Sketch ×☆☆☆.

Progress! Shaft’s animation is getting better, and this newest incarnation of Hidamari Sketch has the best, in early returns, the best animation of all the recent debuts. The characters are a lot more fluid and show a lot more angles than even Durarararara!! and So-Ra-No-Wo-To. They pushed their almost patented camera zoom that they started using in Maria+Holic to a science with ×☆☆☆. For best comparison though, this camera zoom effect was best put into use in… this episode of Ghostery.

(Of course, Toshiharu Iijima is behind Hidamari Sketch, x365, ×☆☆☆, Maria+Holic, and Bakemonogatari. That’s one hella resume for any art director. And a lot more appealing visual style, than, oh, Vampire Bund.)

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At one point in Sora no Otoshimono, Nymph asks Tomoki, “What’s moe?” He should have just shown her this episode of Hidamari Sketch ×☆☆☆. Yes, leave it to Shaft to come up with an indecipherable name.

(Also, this is the 31st episode of Hidamari Sketch. And would you ever think that this collection of four girls who did nothing would hit 31 episodes before that other group of four girls who did nothing?)

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Sailor fuku Miya-Miya… incredibly moe. Who cares if she’s a glutenous dumb ass? I think it adds to her appeal.

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I feel like it’s one of those Google employment riddles that they put up on the billboards along US101 sometime. I feel like a strange murder is going to happen in Sae’s room that’s going to require Dr. Langdon’s services to solve. I feel like Sae and Hiro discovered their true nature on that red sofa.

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Shaft more or less realized that things were going to slow in the original series, so they sped up x365 by merging multiple chapters into single episodes. I’m all for this for slowish *cough* Raki Suta *cough* anime. And, again, they seem like they’re speeding up ×☆☆☆ yet more. I’m liking the new pace, and, with the much improved animation, people who gave up on the original series because of the slowness should give ×☆☆☆ a spin.

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And, of course, the appeal of ×☆☆☆… new characters! A calm, demure type with an energetic type moving in? Who would have guessed? Are they going to be Miya-Miya/Yuno clones or Sae/Hiro clones? Whatever happens, I just hope when the year’s over, Sae and Hiro move on… to the same apartment in Europe… and become neighbors with Waifu Material Sayuri and Mai.

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Moe! I’m hoping Nazuna is a hikikomori.

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Yuno listing out ingredients in Engrish? Moe! I’m go moe-giddy, I’m not even going to make a nakkid apron joke.

(Love how the characters go through a bunch of costume changes. New clothing is probably the second best animation innovation of the 00s, right behind high definition broadcasts. Of course, this is yet another thing that Haruhi Suzumiya popularized. And it makes something where clothes don’t change seem so dated… it makes Love Hina seem as ancient as The Simpsons.)

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Yoshinoya-sensei! Shaft’s third greatest high school teacher, behind Itoshiki and Becky. Weird I just watched the Railgun episode that re-introduced Komoe-sensei before this… talk about night and day.

(Though she does pronounce “eye rabu ew” better than Chiwa Saito.)

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Moe! This episode features more testing than the anime with “Test” in its name.

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Definitely like how they ditched the Minami-ke Okawari blacked-out faces to represent the other students. And I like how Miya-Miya and Yuno are front and center, a change from the second-seat-from-the-back-window-side seat that almost every other anime character has.

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Wait, they don’t have interwebs at the Hidamari compound? What the heck? Does this story take place in 1987? No internet? No cell phone? Weird clue-like paintings? I’m beginning to see what is being setup… yep… that’s right! Ume no Naku Koro ni! This is actually an upcoming 07th Expansion game that takes place in 1987 Hidamari Apartments that features the repeated grisly yet moe slayings of the tenets there.

(Hoodies are moe? Sorry Patriot fans!)

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And Shaft brought their a-game for the obligatory Yuno bath scenes. So much more moe than the freaky breast faces of Chu Bra.

10 Responses to “hidamari sketch ×☆☆☆ 1”

  1. Do you think that, after the successes of Zetsubou Sensei and (especially) Bakemonogatari that Shaft actually has a budget now?

    I wonder if Nisioisin and his publisher are regretting the decision to give Katanagatari to a different studio.

  2. Finally some new episodes to watch. Will it air in HD as well?

  3. Miya is glutenous? Oh my sweet lord, I can feel my inner grammar/spelling nazi coming out to play. I believe you meant gluttonous.

    Anyway, I always liked hidamari, even if it’s a mostly plotless slice of life show. But then so is azumanga, minami ke and the like (not including K-On, I loathed that show, because it was NEVER funny). Given the whole art school nature of it I think the shaft being shaft moments work even better in it that it does in some other shows as well. Not really sure what to make of the new characters though. I suppose it’s a bit too early to tell but I don’t know if they’ll add much. Meh, should be amusing either way.

  4. They DO have cellphones, there’s even an episode in the second season (I think) where Yuno stares at hers all episode
    Why did you skip Sae’s picture? The one after the preview

  5. That’s ‘gluttonous’, and she’s not an idiot – just very unselfconscious and unrepressed. Also, Yoshinoya-sensei already did your hadaka apron joke for you last season: see Episode 6.

    And both Yuno and Yoshinoya-sensei got bust upgrades, so that the former can compete better with Nori and Nazuna; the former’s going to be more the ‘straight woman’ (as in the tsukkomi) while the latter.. well, Yuno should feel better after running into HER problems.

  6. ‘Glutenous’ actually seems appropriate for Miyako. She strikes me as being rather gummy. And I originally read ‘Dr. Langdon’ as ‘Prof. Layton,’ Which would work just as well.

    Is it just me or are their heads about 300% wider than previous seasons?

  7. GHR: Just in the screenshots he used. They’re basically the same when not in SD mode…. albeit there was quite a bit of SD this episode.

  8. If it weren’t for the comparison shots, I would not have guessed the animation quality had improved that much.

    What I’m wondering, though, is how do you install network cabling without them noticing it?

  9. By the way, I’ve heard that Mio’s birthday is on January 15th. I hope you put this information to some good use.

  10. I, too, appreciated the improved animation….until they got to the literal slideshow right before the ED. Oh well, at least airing in HD gives many more opportunities for wideface.jpg

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