Welcome back to another week of rapid-fire anime samples with The Hook! This week, we're diving head-first into two series starring adorable girls who've come to Tokyo from very different places.
Hinako Note
Hinako is a country girl with severe social anxiety -- whenever she gets nervous, she freezes up like a scarecrow. To combat this, she's transferred to a prestigious high school in Tokyo known for its drama club. When she gets there, she gets two big surprises. One is that she'll be lodging in a bookshop with three classmates: a bibliophile named Kuu who literally eats books, a small second-year named Mayu who dresses like a maid and longs to be a princess, and elegant former child star Chiaki.
The other big surprise? The school's drama club is currently shut down until further notice.
The Hook: Chiaki doesn't believe the lack of a drama club shouldn't stop Hinako from pursuing her dream, and recommends that she restart the drama club with her classmates. The OP and ED seem to indicate that not only does that happen, but a fifth (and perhaps sixth?) join them. And, with any luck, Hinako will be able to achieve her dream and not freeze up in public.
Who is it for: Hinako Note is a cute show. Like extremely cute. It has a similar vibe to some KyoAni series, with a silly-yet-gentle plot and quirky but cute visuals. (And yes, Kuu looks a lot like Kona.) If you're looking for something light and fluffy, this could fit the bill.
Hinako Note is simulcast on Fridays at 6:30 AM PDT.
Alice & Zoroku
"Dreams of Alice" are children with mysterious magical powers, kept inside a research facility. Sana, known to the researchers as the "Red Queen," has the power to create anything she can imagine, as well as teleport -- and she wants out of the facility. But Dreams of Alice have no memory of their time before the experiments, so she isn't sure how to survive in the Outside World... until she meets Zoroku, a crotchety old florist who agrees to take her in provided she cuts out all that magical girl stuff.
The Hook: The first episode is a good 45 minutes long, but it's all needed for the introduction. From the introduction of the Dreams of Alice to the hints at Zoroku's unspoken-of early life, this is a well put-together exercise in the concept of "show, don't tell." We know Sana wants to raze the facility to the ground. We know the facility wants her back. And we know Zoroku has literally no interest in any of it. He seems to have gotten lost in the completely wrong genre, and there's something really delightful about that.
Who is it for: Magical girl fans looking for something new will love its mix of paranormal action and down-to-earth comedy-drama. Plus, the manga it's based on got a lot of positive attention, and it seems to be one of the darlings of the new season. Even our own Crunchyroll features team loves it, and has shared everything from a look at its real-world location counterparts to a recipe for Zoroku's lamb stir fry from the first episode.
Alice & Zoroku is simulcast Sundays at 8 AM PDT.
-----
Kara Dennison is responsible for multiple webcomics, blogs and runs interviews for (Re)Generation Who and PotterVerse, and is half the creative team behind the OEL light novel series Owl's Flower. She blogs at karadennison.com and tweets @RubyCosmos.
No comments:
Post a Comment