Hidamari Sketch x☆☆☆ - Episode 5

When everyone starts worrying about dieting around Yamabuki High, that can mean only one thing - It's time for physical examinations!

While Yunocchi is fretting far too much about both her height and weight, it's almost inevitable that one person at Hidamari Apartments will be suffering even more, and so it proves, with Hiro's brief crash diet proving to be a little too much for her. However, come the examination itself Hiro gets some good news to see her through the rest of the school year, although things aren't quite so positive for Yuno - It appears that she's actually shrunk.


With this ordeal out of the way, after-school discussions (coupled with lots of freshly baked goodies from Hiro, naturally) turn to the time Yuno left her mobile phone in the school's art room, and it's this anecdote which kicks off the second half of this episode, as she meets up with the senior who found her phone during a late after-school drawing session. This particular segment of the episode isn't so much played for laughs (although there are gags here, don't get me wrong) as it is a bit of inspiration for Yuno with an eye towards her future, and to be quite honest it's all rather warm-heartedly adorable. Somehow Hidamari Sketch can get away without being outright funny and yet still have me glued to the screen with rapt attention.

All in all, I suppose that's all there is to say about this episode really - There are some great jokes as always, but as I've just mentioned even when it isn't trying to be funny I find myself entranced by the series. While Nori and Nazuna were somewhat sidelined once again in lieu of the major four characters, I continue to have nothing but admiration for this gentle and kind-hearted series, particularly when those little SHAFT animation and presentation touches somehow manage to lift it out of the realms of the ordinary into something genuinely special.