Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb - Episode 12 (Completed)

Another season of Hidamari Sketch comes to an end in an episode of new beginnings - New Year beginnings, to be more surprise.

In fact, this finale of Honeycomb is a pretty by the numbers New Year's Eve/Day episode, involving lots of sitting around eating under a kotatsu before paying a visit to the nearest shrine and with a visit to a bathhouse shoehorned into proceedings.

Within this setup, we get to enjoy Nazuna mix up what she's saying and what she's writing on some New Year greeting cards (a rare moment when I get to empathise with her, which has to be worth something), the younger quartet fret about not stressing out their seniors amidst thoughts of final exams and them moving on from Yamabuki (or not, as the case may be) which of course only makes things worse, another bout of terrible luck according to Yuno's fortune, and a chance for Natsume to say Happy New Year to Sae.  Awww.

As always with this show the devil is in the detail, that particular detail being some well-crafted humour, and while this wasn't the funniest episode of the series is once again generated some laughs while being generally relaxing and fun at the end of a really rough week - exactly the kind of scenario that this show is designed to act as a salve for.  On a wider note, this series perhaps wasn't as sharp as Hoshimittsu and suffered from what almost seems to be the traditional slow start to each season, but on the flip side of that it also offered up some of the funniest jokes that the series has ever crafted to leave me dying with laughter on a few occasions, and proved that it has an emotional core that is beyond solid by utilising the pending graduation of its seniors in a massively tear-jerking fashion.  At its heart though, I still adore so much about this show - even though Honeycomb delved a little too far into fan service territory at times it still holds a sense of innocence about it for the most part, and at this juncture each season is like being invited to spend some time with a few good old, long-lasting friends - you know their foibles and the stuff they do that might bore you, but you're willing to see past that and simply enjoy the good times instead.  Roll on season five... or at least some more special episodes to go with this season's Blu-Ray release.

Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb - Episode 10

Synchronise watches!  Just as we roll on through December here in the real world, so Hidamari Sketch also makes its way onwards towards Christmas in this week's episode.

For starters, that means some snow for the the Hidamari Apartments gang to enjoy, and although Yoshinoya's latest outfit isn't particularly conducive to enjoying the cold weather Yuno and Miyako seem to know how to make the best of it, even if it involves making up a game that involves both a snowball fight and studying at the same time.  Indeed, from this point forth, it's studying that takes the drivers seat, as we get to enjoy some of the apartment block's relationships as they pertain to studying, which includes Nazuna making herself useful for once by keeping Nori off the Internet.

Moving onwards, our focus shifts towards Hiro and Sae as once again their final year of high school looms large - indeed, even a visit from Chika doesn't detract from this, as she brings news of Sae's test exam results while also questioning her choice of colleges to apply to as they seem to suggest concern for both Chika and her family's finances over Sae's own well-being.  While the other residents quite literally offer to cheer on Sae and Hiro as they move towards their graduation, we finally get to see a softer side of Chika and Sae's relationship which feels far more sisterly than the veiled emotions of previous meetings between the two of them when push comes to shove.

After making me laugh harder than ever over the past couple of episodes on occasion, this week's instalment was always going to have to work hard to do the business - thankfully, it did still make me laugh a number of times, even if it wasn't quite to the same extent as previous outings as once again more serious matters and the prospect of the group being broken up loom large in a decidedly bitter-sweet way in the latter half of the episode.  Still, it's nice to see Hidamari Sketch tackling the issue head-on rather than aiming or hoping for some eternal high school days, and if nothing else it truly adds a different dimension to the show which is pleasing in a very different way to everything that has come before within the franchise.

Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb - Episode 9

The girls of Hidamari Apartments might be winning the game of life, but can they win at The Game of Life?  This week we get to find out, as a competition prize won by their landlady is passed to the gang for them to play... provided she can join in of course.

Being artistic types however, Miyako and company aren't too interested in the game as it stands, and thus they decide to recreate it in their own image as a Hidamari Apartments-centric game of life.  In essence, this allows for the episode to reference plenty of in-jokes from previous series (in the days before Nori and Nazuna were on-board), to appeal to the long-term viewers (and readers) such as myself.

However, we do have Nazuna to thank for a forfeit that forces Sae to talk like a cat - a forfeit which just so happens to coincide with her sister Chika phoning, with inevitably humorous consequences.  Come the end of the game, we get to imagine Nazuna as Prime Minister, and Nori as a near-millionaire unemployed woman who owns Hidamari Apartments... a result which gets everyone wondering what their actual landlady does for a living, although it seems that she's determined to remain a woman of mystery.

As a Hidamari Sketch veteran, all of the references to days gone by at the apartments made for a pretty fun episode in their own right (watch the Blu-Rays if you haven't seen prior seasons of this show!), while there were some more direct laughs to be found to boot - indeed, the last couple of episodes have presented possibly the two best lines of the series ever, which is a real pleasure to see from a show in its fourth season; proof positive that there's plenty of life left in this series and its otherwise mundane goings-on yet.

Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb - Episode 8

After some pre-amble last week, it's time to really dive into the heart of the Yamabuki culture festival in this week's Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb.

Despite Yoshinoya's proclivities, we find Yuno and Miyako's class plumping for that age-old culture festival staple, the haunted house, while Hiro and Sae's group opts for an udon cafe, Nori gets involved in a decidedly unique version of Romeo and Juliet featuring two male leads and cows, and Nazuna's class offers up a balloon room.  A spanner is thrown into the works however when at attempt to make the haunted house even scarier lands Miyako with a couple of injured fingers that puts them out of commission for a week.

Still, nothing is going to prevent the girls from enjoying themselves once the festival itself rolls around, and after Yuno takes her time picking up as many pamphlets as possible due to her design featuring on the cover, we spend the rest of the episode soaking in the ambience of the festival, all the way through to an impressively scary haunted house and a visit from Yuno's parents.

Even though the whole culture festival thing has been done to death (and arguably presented in a way never to be bested by Hyouka this year), as per usual Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb provides a light-hearted but hugely fun and frequently hilarious take on it, complete with perhaps the best line ever to come out of an episode of this series.  That the show's sense of entertainment remains undimmed so far into its fourth series is high praise indeed, but praise of which Hidamari Sketch is entirely deserving for proving so consistently adept at what it does.

Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb - Episode 7

It was inevitable that the traditional culture festival was going to roll around again at some point, and so it goes that this week's Hidamari Sketch begins with a lead-in to the forthcoming Yamabuki festival.

In particular, the first half of this latest instalment sees Miyako and Yuno's class working on pieces to be judged and potentially selected as the cover of the pamphlet for the festival's brochure - an exciting opportunity, albeit not quite the "international debut" Yuno seems to think it is despite the winner getting their work featured on the Yamabuki High web site.  Although she frets about not having time to finish her work (bringing about memories of her unfinished piece for her first festival), not only does Yuno get the job done but she actually wins her place on the cover of the booklet, much to the delight of both her and her friends.

In the second half of this episode, Yuno again features prominently as she heads off for a day out with her old (and older, college-aged) friend Arisawa - aside from the inevitable misunderstanding by some of her friends as they assume she's going on a date on account of her dress, Yuno gets to enjoy an afternoon of chatter about college life, trash, her recent successes, trash and trash.  Beyond the fact that trash features prominently, it's also a reminder that friendships can endure even after high school life is over provided you make an effort to ensure that they do so - an important and welcome counterpoint to Hiro's malaise in last week's episode.

Having brought me to tears last week (albeit in a good way), it was actually rather enjoyable to get back to more traditional Hidamari Sketch fare, with a number of laugh out loud moments to punctuate a fun episode that didn't do anything spectacular but continued to hit most of the right notes while being gorgeously produced; the latter point still makes this particular a standout even in the midst of Hidamari Sketch's oeuvre - as a fan of the series, it thrills me to see this simple show given so much love and attention, to add some sheen to an already greatly enjoyable work.

Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb - Episode 6

Yuno and Miyako have been hanging out together for a pretty long time by the point that this latest episode of Hidamari Sketch rolls around - but just how much do they really know about one another?

It's this question which dominates the first half of this week's instalment, as the two of them use a class involving drawing their own hands and faces to ponder just how little they know about both one another and themselves despite all the time they've spent talking to one another.  It's enough to make them both want to spend even more time chatting, leading to a sleepover (and in-depth discussion of curry eating practice) and some rather surprising compliments flying from both parties.

For the second half of the episode, our attention turns to Hiro, who is behaving in a manner anything but her usual self as she largely forgoes food and keeps relatively quiet.  So, just what's bugging her?  Perhaps inevitably, her thoughts are turning towards graduation and her future... a future that she seems entirely unwilling to embrace at present.  So begins the single most emotional thing to come out of Hidamari Sketch - a reminder that nothing lasts forever and everything is fleeting, although such moments can be eased by good friends with good advice.

It's really the second half of this episode that stands out for me - as a reader of Yen Press' English releases of the original manga I knew this was coming, but Hiro's turmoil is an incredibly emotionally charged one on so many levels.  For starters, picking Hiro - normally the "mother goose" of the group - as the girl unable to face change is striking in itself; then, on other levels, her realisation that one day she'll have to say goodbye to her high school life echoes our own deep-seated knowledge that one day this series will have to end; on yet another level, her troubles evoke memories of having to say goodbye to good friends and good times in my own past.  To be honest, it made me cry in both manga and anime forms, and it's a beautifully quiet and subtle portrayal of something that everyone will most likely recognise from their own lives.  If slice of life anime does one thing well, it's reminding you how close you've become to its characters at moments like this, and for a series so focused on (successfully) getting laughs it's done an expert job of getting under my skin and pulling my heartstrings here.  It's a thing of beauty, but boy is it sad and poignant to consider - thank goodness that even these sad moments were also infused with just the right doses of considered, simple humour to ease us through.

Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb - Episode 5

This week's Hidamari Sketch is brought to you by the word "nightmare", starting out with a living nightmare for Nazuna.

After a sound night's sleep, Nazuna awakens in a panic as she realises the gravity of her current situation - her parents are paying her a visit today, and despite her assertions that she's become an expert at it she can't cook to save her life!  Thus, it's up to the rest of the Hidamari Apartments crew (although more notably Hiro and Yuno) to teach her how to cook a dish based around fried chicken before her parents turn up the next day - an endeavour that isn't entirely successful, but it's the thought that counts, right?

It's the apartment block's other relative newcomer that stars in the second half of the episode, as Nori awakens with a shout from that most terrifying of nightmares - a computer crashing with unsaved data in play!  So loud is her commotion that it awakens (or rather, attracts the attention of) nightowl Sae, and the next thing the pair know they're chatting over some tea about technology versus pen and paper, Sae's sister and other topics until they both doze off, making for a potentially awkward morning after when Hiro pays them a visit.

All of that brings to a close another episode of Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb that isn't amongst the most memorable that the series has to offer, yet it still has more than enough of a fun quota and sprinkling of fantastic laugh out loud moments to make for a more than worthwhile watch.  The series also continues to play with what seems to be its ever-grander animation budget, which is interesting to watch in its own way even if it doesn't always fit such a simple series as this one.  Even when it isn't firing on all cylinders, there's nothing here to suggest to me that the Hidamari Sketch bubble has burst yet, and it's really nice to see the two newest characters getting some proper dedicated screen time to boot.

Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb - Episode 4

From bad weather to glorious sunshine, such is the beauty of the relatively random nature of Hidamari Sketch's timeline - more importantly however, this week sees us introduced to Yamabuki High's swim meet.

Despite being a free event which allows its students compete, watch or simply stay at home, there's a good turn-out to watch proceedings, for reasons not at all to do with Yoshinoya wearing a school swimsuit.  Meanwhile, despite learning to at least float, Yuno still isn't up for playing an active role in the meet, and thus acts as one of the "recorders" tasked with taking photos; something she does with relish and with an occasionally worrying flourish, in spite of the expensive camera in her possession.

Meanwhile, Nori, Sae and Miyako are Hidamari Apartment's contestants in various disciplines, with Sae's heat in particular creating a surprising bond between Hiro and Natsume as her cheerleaders.  At the end of the day there's good news all-round for the main characters involved, with their role in helping their class to victory proving to be more important than some of the younger students had realised, while Yuno's photographic efforts are very much appreciated, and displayed (quite literally) in all of their glory on the school web site.

Sure, this wasn't one of Hidamari Sketch's best episodes, but it still brought out a number of laugh out loud moments while being vaguely fun and reminding us once again of how much bigger this show's budget is now than during its first season, ensuring that it looks the part as well as delivering a decent chunk of humour.  No matter where its subject matter lies, it seems like this show always has one or two gems to deliver, and this week's instalment is no different in that regard.

Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb - Episode 3

With the summer break about to end as Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb and its ever-jumbled timeline reaches its third episode, Yuno and Miyako have big (albeit ill-defined) plans for the final day of their holiday.

Unfortunately, little do either of them realise that there's a typhoon on the way, and cvome the next morning any thoughts of going anywhere or doing anything are blown away on the high winds.  What's more, there isn't even any food in their apartments, leading to them (and the other residents) to make a beeline for the one person who is always going to be well-stocked no matter the weather - Hiro.  Cue a half episode of hanging around in Hiro's apartment, eating, playing cards and generally having a lazy day of fun indoors.

With their holiday now over, it's back to school for the first day of the new term - a day dominated largely by a fire drill and test evacuation of the school.  If nothing else, this gives us an opportunity to see some of Hidamari Apartments resident's special skills in action, whether it's Sae and Hiro's ability to communicate no matter what, Nori's smart attempt to save Nazuna from an embarrassing predicament, or Miyako's innovative solution to the problem of not having a hankerchief.  Oh, and Yumo gets to "enjoy" experiencing an earthquake at first hand.

From its slow start and a better second episode, this week's instalment of Hidamari Sketch feels like the series has gotten up to full speed now, with a great vein of humour running throughout it with great jokes and amusing moments aplenty.  Sure, I'm a big fan of the series so I'm terribly biased from the outset, but this still felt like some of the better material this show has to offer when it's firing on all cylinders, and as a result I enjoyed it immensely.

Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb - Episode 2

It's as you were for episode two of Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb, as Sae and Hiro continue their class trip in Hokkaido while their fellow apartment dwellers carry on without them.

Of course, this means that Yuno is still fretting over ways to make herself useful or more accommodating to her juniors - a concern which brings about dangerous times with chairs, a period of stalking and ultimately a trip for the gang to the local bathhouse so that the remaining quartet can check out the delights within... that being Miyako's breasts mostly, it seems.

Meanwhile in Hokkaido Hiro and Sae continue to check out the sights and try their hand at the foodstuffs of the region - a period of enjoyment tempered only by the realisation that this marks another step towards the end of their high school lives and, perhaps worse, exams.  Still, at least Natsume seems to have finally made some progress in her pursuit of Sae...

After its unspectacular opener, this felt like something of a return to form for Hidamari Sketch, with far more well-crafted jokes and amusing moments in the midst of the usual slice of life fare, and with perhaps the slightest hint of some more emotional times ahead as Sae and Hiro's time as high school students draws towards its inevitable conclusion.  Thankfully though, we get to enjoy their presence for a little while yet, as things simply aren't the same without the full Hidamari Apartments crew in attendance.

Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb - Episode 1

Anyone who follows my online persona around will probably not need to be told twice of my love for all things Hidamari Sketch, so am I pleased to see it return for a fourth season this autumn?  You bet I am!  As Honeycomb begins, we find Yuno feeling a little homesick - not for long though, as she's soon surrounded by the comforting sounds of her current home.

There is one oddity at Hidamari Apartments however, and that's a commotion coming from Sae's room - it seems as if she have guests, but just what is going on?  Instead of just straight-up asking, Miyako decides to try and find out using other means - an ultimately fruitless effort that nonetheless does eventually lead to Sae and Hiro introducing some of their classmates as they prepare for a senior class trip to Hokkaido.

With the entire senior year off on their trip (and very much without Yoshinoya in tow), just who is going to take on the role as "leader" of Hidamari Apartments?  It certainly isn't likely to be Miyako, and despite Yuno's assertion that it should be Nori it seems that she ultimately becomes the "mother" of the group - the go-to person when problems of a culinary nature occur in Hiro's absence, even if nothing can save Nazuna's attempt at stew.  Meanwhile, the senior girls are enjoying culinary delights of their own, taking in Hokkaido's local foods such as..... err.... omurice.

So begins a pretty solid start to Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb - a few funny moments, the relaxing sense of fun which this series has always held and a lovable bunch of characters, worked into an ever more grandiose (for want of a better word) visual framework as SHAFT's production budget increases every series.  Hidamari Sketchis back, and I won't hear a bad word said about it, even if this isn't one of its classic episodes.