Hinamatsuri – 02 [This Is How You Have a ESP Battle!]

Welcome to THE comedy gold of the season. Before I get into anything specific, let’s me discuss about what make this little show about a psychic girl and a yakuza hilarious in the first place. The main source of humor in Hinamatsuri largely comes from situation-based weirdness. Putting these characters out of their comfort zones and see how they react. It helps that Hinamatsuri always gets straight to business – there’s no beating around the bush here. Like in the first episode, it doesn’t take long before Hina appears out of the blues inside that metal egg and gives Nitta one heck of a time. The comedic timing is largely sharp and when it’s time for a more heartfelt scene, Hinamatsuri nails it without succumb into soapiness. The show also has a rich cast in which they all have great presence and bound off each other very well. So far, our lead duo Nitta and Hina more than carry the show with their odd-buddy but surprisingly grounded chemistry.

Coming to this second episode, I’m more than happy to report that this second one is even better than the first, both expand that world with more awesome characters, and still put the central development between Hina and Nitta into forefront. In the first half, there’s this little girl with crazy power appears and wreaks havoc – Anzu, a more eccentric counterpart of our Hina. What makes her character stand out is how well contrast her appearance and personality compared to the oblivious Hina, yet in the end the two kids are still… little brats who need love, attention and FOOD (on that notes, thank GOD that Hinamatsuri never sexualizes those girls when they’re nude). The comedy gold hits right off the bat within the first few seconds, with Anzu miraculously gets herself out of that metallic egg. I have the same sentiments with her regarding the egg’s structural design flaw. What the use of any of it if the person inside can’t get themselves out? To raise the bar of hilariously ridiculousness even higher, Anzu then wipes off the entire gang in one whoop and steals the boss’ uniform in a process. The comedy is really on point again when all her victims say nothing but “Ouch”, in turns.

The man of the moment in this segment, however, is Nitta. Realize the same vibe this new kid has, he follows her in the most obvious way possible: camouflage himself as a tree in a middle of the freaking city. Yeah, genius. There are couple of good gags before he decides to bring Hina along for the “ultimate battle” – psychic style, chief among them involve the homeless man who thought that Nitta gang will do bad things with the girl (boy, dark humor here), and how Nitta reflects that he might save the world without knowing it (on that, imagine what kind of misadventures Nitta will experience – and what kind of series we will have – if Anzu were the one dropping into his house instead of Hina). So, the girls have to fight since this was Anzu’s goal all along. In order to protect the lives of possibly entire Japanese population, Nitta alters the rules, while continuously manipulating Hina-side with ikura (red caviar), since manipulation is obviously how yakuza works. The fight, I must say, remains one of the most refreshing and downright hilarious fight I have seen in a while, and the animation and deadpan “facial reactions” – if I can call them that – are dead-on. I won’t go into details about this duel since I believe it’s something you need to watch for yourself. Needless to say, the emotional core hits me again when Hina offers Anzu to spend the evening together – just hanging out and playing like normal harmless kids, because as crazy overpowered as they are, they still remain kids.

The latter half, while focuses on the main dynamic between our duo, Hina’s classmate Hitomi becomes my install favorite character out of this rich cast. Imagine this, a good girl Hitomi was tagging along with Hina to tail Nitta (for the reason as obscure as “because the TV says it’s better with two”), left behind by her friend in the adult bar, encountered the drunkard old man who demands her to make an alcoholic drink and already excelled at bartending when we meet her again. She had me at “Daiquiri-desu”, my friends. Meanwhile, the more heartfelt conversation between Hina and the real bartender Utako carries the show distinctive quirks as Hina literally floats on while listening to Umeko ‘s adivce. That moment is so Hinamatsuri-esque that I am in awe of a show that understands so well about its own personality. The later moment when Hina finally speaks her mind, and Nitta agrees to hang out with her, and the rest of the gang, including Hitomi is a nice resolve to their little conflict. I could say more but I’m at risk of just recapping the whole episode with my squeaky over-excited voice, so let’s just enjoy this episode with a glass of champagne and kanpai for the Super Illusion.