April Anime Review – What Did We Do to Deserve So Much Win? (And a 4-Year Spring Retrospective)

[Part 1 of my plan to totally cover a season for once. This post isn’t going to say much in spite of being so many words, but I’ve taken a liking to these little things that keep my thoughts on the shows intact across the season. I guess I’m learning the appeal of episodic blogging.]

Screenshots from random current shows that I haven't gotten to use.

Spring 2007 was my first season watching anime fresh from its release, and over the years I’ve continued to think of it as the best major season I’ve been around for.

Hanasaku Iroha Is Like the Evangelion of “4-Girls” Shows

Screenshots all of my favorite scenes from HanaIro, all from ep 3.

Starting with what part of Evangelion I see reflected—Eva is what comes to mind when I think of taking an established type of anime to the next level in every way. Without getting into too much of “what Evangelion is,” since not all of it serves my purposes in this comparison, what matters is that Evangelion:

1. Is an amazing-looking show.

2. Is extremely well-written and directed.

3. Presents common genre tropes better than other shows that feature them.

Hanasaku Iroha, On the Other Hand, Can Wait.

Ghostlightning described Hanasaku Iroha to me as “hipster artfag porn,” but also said it was very good and that he enjoyed it.

His description was spot-on. The first half of the episode was so hipster porn that it felt like it was trying too hard, though that might’ve been on purpose to set up for the beatdown Ohana would receive to her hipster pride. The first names to flash through my head with regards to the writing were “Matsuo Kou” and “Diablo Cody“. The episode’s first half reminded me of the small bit of Jennifer’s Body that I watched, which was so overloaded with cheeky “smart” dialog that I felt like I was in the break room at art school all over again and couldn’t take it anymore.

Thankfully, that wasn’t the true nature of the show, and with Ohana’s new company being a load of hard-asses, there won’t be anyone to play off of her witty hipster dialog anymore.