The Winter of our Content (Part Two)
Ξ February 8th, 2010 | → 2 Comments | ∇ The Anime Annals |
And now, after a brief sidetrack and adventure (explained soon), the conclusion to the Winter Roundup (of what I’m watching):
A few years ago, a delightfully funny classical-music based series began, called Nodame Cantabile. To say that it’s centered around Chiaki, the gifted pianist/violinist/conductor would be a mistake, as the centrifugal force whipping around him at all times is his erstwhile patner in charm, Nodame, a prodigy at the piano whose innocence and unabashed quirkiness confuses, dismays, and ultimately constricts around him at all times. Whether her resolute claims upon him pan out remains to be seen by the Viewer, but getting there is more than half the fun as they face many trying trials and tribulations together, and for the most part, apart. At some scenes I laughed harder than at any other show, it was that good.
While the pared-down animation style might be more “old-school” than new, the story was always entertaining, heartwarming, and clever. Nodame is a treat to watch and steals practically any scene she’s in, whether playing at her piano, purse-lipped expression of concentration alternatively flickering or set in stone, or screaming her catch-phrase cries of “MUKYA!” and “GYABO!” whether in happiness or dismay. It’s hard to believe that the talented Ayako Kawasumi, who also voiced the oh-so-serious Saber in Fate/Stay Night, performs so well as Nodame in quite an opposite character. The series and its two sequels are worth watching just for her performance alone.
In this third season entitled Finale, the pair are now officially “together” (as together as they can be, given their personalities), and keep moving on with their pursuits in musical careers in Paris. For fans of classical music, as in the other series, snippets of classic classical tunes are performed, at times to great effect. Generous CG effects are kept for these moments as the instruments and the fingers playing them are rendered nicely and with care. Here’s the OP, and as always, move fast in viewing these, as YouTube sometimes takes them down quickly!
Last but not least comes the surprise hit of the season, Hanamaru Kindergarten. Now, if before this season had begun you’d have told me that I’d be watching a series based around a pre-school slice-of-life comedy, I’d have called the guys with butterfly nets to come and take you away to the funny farm. However… ! This show is funny! The pre-schoolers, drawn in a decidedly distorted fashion, are in no way meant to dissuade the viewer that yes, these are pre-schoolers, from their voices, mannerisms, and designs down to their sense of… well, ”sensibility.” Or lack of same. What the heck, they’re pre-schoolers, right?
It’s very sweet and innocent, and not ashamed about portraying with abandon the whims, fantasies, and realities of the children, not to mention the teachers themselves. And it might even jar loose some of those pre-school memories from beneath the cobwebs of time 
Little Anzu is convinced of her crush on her teacher “Tsuchi” despite his obvious leanings toward his cute so-worker Yamamoto, and this subject matter in a more cynical society could not be shown as well as what comes off in this series: funny, playfully squirm-inducing, and very heartwarming. Anzu’s friends, the smart and cosplaying Hiiragi, and the insecure and shy Koume, are great foils and play large parts in filling in the comedy, as do the teachers to slightly less effect.
While a cynical person might assume that this is either a “kiddy-show” or the other extreme, a show catering to pedophiles (though likely only in this country of hand-wringers), Hanamaru Kindergarten is neither. The humor is often adult-oriented, and the character designs, as shown by their pear-shaped bodies and “sproingy” footsteps, are so definitely cartoonish that neither assumption holds any water. And that’s a good thing, and makes this delightful series well-worth watching, unafraid that some nay-sayer is watching over your shoulder. They can instead watch the latest installment of “Miss Baby-Beautiful Pageant” or the like *shudder*
Decide for yourselves; here’s a review of episodes 1-4 from Anime News Network, based on the streaming episodes (probably) available on Crunchyroll!
Have a taste:
Hard to believe that Gainax, the studio responsible for Gurren Lagann, put this series together! Well… except for this special EnDing for episode 2 that totally knocked my socks off:
…and this one as well! Seems that all the EDs might be different from one another, which is another minor thing that not only sets it apart from the pack, but should keep things moving along quite nicely!
That’s it for this (Winter) season! I won’t go into those series that I dropped, like Baka to Test or Omamori Humari ; why spoil a good thing?