Review: Hanamaru Kindergarten (はなまる幼稚園)
"While I was on my way over the hill, I turned around and noticed
The thing that I, myself, had forgotten."
Sypnosis: Hanamaru Yochien depicts the amusing everyday lives of educators and students. Tsuchida-sensei is the newest and only male teacher at Hanamaru. To stir things up, three peculiar students come into scene: the extrovert Anzu, the timid and quiet Koume and Hiiragi, the eccentric one. Although lacking experience and being obsessed with games, Tsuchida manages his chaotic days with his carefree attitude and kind heart. Much to his dismay, Anzu decides she needs to win his affections no matter what. However, it seems that he only has eyes for his fellow colleague Yamamoto-sensei.
The plot: Hanamaru Kindergarten starts with a simple premise of a male caretaker and his adventures with his students. It sounds pretty down to Earth and not complicated at all. And it isn't. This short anime (12 episodes) is a slice of life packed with the cutest and funniest moments you'll hardly find and nowadays anime. Unlike science fiction genre, mechas or fighting girls in elaborated sailor uniforms and plentiful attacks, in Hanamaru, we follow the troubled days of Tsuchida-sensei as he gets used to the working society and learns little by little that dealing with kids can be quite a hard task. The main theme that makes the entire plot advance is probably love. Not the obsessive/possessive relationships or broken-hearts. If you are thinking about romantic love and love triangles, you came to the wrong place.
We are talking about platonic infatuation here. From the first episode, Anzu misunderstand Tsucchi's (how she affectionately calls him) intentions: while he was worried about her, since she was waiting alone on the streets, Anzu thinks he's trying to flirt with her. And from there on, it's an incessant struggle with schemes and plans to get his attention. All this mastered by the Sakura class trio: Anzu, Koume and Hiiragi; often resulting in hilarious rejections or heart warming moments between them. The latter two also get their spotlight moments, as they make friends with boys from the Sunflower class.
Love might be one the central themes but friendship and family ties play a crucial part too. Anzu's mother was Tsuchida’s senpai during high school. Koume has an older brother with a sister complex. Hiiragi shares a passion for astronomy and every kind of knowledge in general, just like her father. Tsuchida's sister is missing his company since he moved to the suburbs. The Sakura class trio is always together and supports each other during difficult times.
It's a simple plot, no unexpected twists or shadowy secrets. Hanamaru Kindergarten is the open diary of a golden cast, tied together due to misadventures. Their interactions are enough to warm your heart, just like a mug of hot chocolate in a cold winter day. And above all, is cute. A real and exact definition of the word cute, which is being forgotten (unfortunately) in recent animes.
(Tsuchida-sensei and Yamamoto-sensei)
The characters:
Tsuchida “Tsucchi” Naozomi: the newest addition to the teaching board in Hanamaru Kindergarten, responsible for the Sakura class. He's your typical man - obsessed with games (to the point of arriving late almost every mornings) and always attentive to women with good figures (in his case, big breasts). Although being somehow a pervert (having a stash of gravure idols magazines and reading them during broad-light), he's very honest and cares a lot about his jobs and his students. Maybe due to the small number of episodes, we only get a few glimpses of his time as a high-schooler. I wish his character could have been more developed, especially during the final episodes when he starts to feel depressed, not only because Yamamoto-sensei don't reciprocate his romantic feelings (mainly because she always misunderstands his confessions as job related talks), but also due to his inner doubts about being and educator. His character song (Boku no Wasure Mono - The thing that I forgot) is very beautiful melody and the lyrics revolving about something he lost, but doesn't remember what. Hino Satoshi does a great job voicing him, a mixture of troubled innocence but also the lonely moments during the end.
Yamamoto-sensei: a fellow colleague of Tsuchida's who loves her job very much and enjoys a lot spending time with the children. She never raised her voice the whole time and is extremely tolerant (cleaning all the mess Anzu did when the little one was her helper for one day). Although having a sweet and gentle nature, she's very blunt and doesn't understand Tsuchida's feelings towards her. She was kinda irritating in my opinion. I know her blunt reactions contribute to the plot as a comical relief but sometimes are too much. Surprisingly, she's capable of telling that Hanamaru-sensei is infatuated with her sister but cannot realize the affections of all the men that come into her life (the same goes for her sister). She's my least favourite character in the series.
(Anzu, Hiiragi and Koume)
Anzu: the extrovert and crazy student from Sakura class. She “falls in love” with Tsucchi after he saves her from a getting hurt for climbing a tree. Her mother was Tsuchida's senpai during high school and married their art teacher. They are very similar in personality. During the course of the anime, Anzu tries everything to win his attention, from preparing a date on school grounds, cooking a lunch box, wearing a flattering swimming suit (and being chased by a “shark” portrayed by Hiiragi) to countless schemes. She's quite jealous of Yamamoto-sensei, which makes her stick to Tsucchi everytime she sees him. Although being in kindergarten, Anzu acts quite maturely when it comes to love. Later during Christmas, she dreams of being an adult and finally receives a kiss from a willing Tsuchida-sensei.
Koume: the shy and soft spoken one from the Sakura class trio. Among them (Anzu and Hiiragi), she's probably the one who acts more normally and according to her age too. Although she's the follower in the trio, Anzu's schemes always count with her participation. She's not very confident about her abilities, especially during the sports day, yet she manages to finish the competition with the support of her friends, Tsuchida-sensei and her brother. She later develops a crush on Yuu from the Sunflower (Himawari) class, as he kindly helped her to get up once when she fell on the playground.
Hiiragi “Hii-chan”: the last one from the trio who can compete with Anzu in terms of eccentricity and is known as a living encyclopedia. Hiiragi is very calm, often because she knows she is capable of handling whatever the situation is and seems to always have the perfect solution for their problems (resulting in an immediate lesson to Anzu and Koume). Her father is an astronomer and she also shares the same passion for celestial bodies as him. Hiiragi frequently wears different outfits, mainly animals (panda, tiger, turtle, among others). She develops a little rivalry in the beginning of the series with Kenji from the Sunflower class but later becomes his “master” (she's not so comfortable with the idea, though).
Hii-chan is my favourite character from the series!! She's smart and extremely cute (her eyes are extremely large, most of the time drawn without the iris and she hardly has a mouth... xD). Her plans, although not realistic, are hilarious and are a proof of her genius mind.
Final thoughts: I loved this series. I haven't watched such a masterpiece in a very long time (still writing my review about Sakamichi no Apollon - Kids on the slope, another great work). It's a pity it ended so soon without giving much detail about their lives from that point on. Although Anzu's love for Tsuchida is platonic and would certainly be considered pedophilia if he accepted her, I kinda wanted to see a future version of them two, Tsuchida now training other educators and being in charge of a new class while Anzu is already in college, and she still infatuated with him... haha! Yamamoto-sensei, on the other hand was quite a disappointment for me. I really don't like (hate is a too strong word to use here) blunt, clueless women like her.
My final advice: go watch the series. Watch it for a good laugh, on a rainy day, when you are feeling lonely or simply because you want to understand the definition of a good anime. Even if it's just for the ending songs - they had 12 episodes, each with a different ending song and animation sequence too.
Rating: 4.6/5
(the quote in the beginning is part of the lyrics of Boku no Wasure Mono - you can find its translation here: http://bambooxzx.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/hanamaru-youchien-boku-no-wasuremono/)