When I first heard about the drama drama of Hitohira, I was completely unenthusiastic about it. The last thing I wanted to see was some bumbling shy girl powering up and becoming a star under the spotlight. Fortunately, Hitohira was a rather nuanced story that focused more on relationships and moving forward in life than on Stage Voice That Pierces The Heavens.
If you can get past the rather formulaic initial episodes, there is a really great story about Mugi slowly realizing a new dream and learning to live life. I thought episodes 5-9 were especially good, mostly because Nono completely stole the show away from Mugi. The similarities and differences between Nono and Mugi made for some compelling storytelling, and there were a lot of touching moments. I also liked that not every loose end got tied up; nobody managed to hook up with anyone, and nobody suddenly became a super-amazing actor. It was a lot easier to believe that Mugi would find a small purpose in life and work on developing her talents, and I appreciated the pacing in this short 12-episode series.
Of course there were a few flaws. After episode 9, everything kinda got sucked into a spinning whirlpool of Mugi emo dorama, and that was depressing. However, I thought it was really believable. It was like Kayo was telling Mugi to believe in herself and not just in the Kayo who believed in Mugi. Hey, sometimes life sucks, and sometimes you don’t just get over it in one episode. Things do get put right eventually (and reasonably), but the completely WTF ending really confused me. Furthermore, I do have to call out the uber-craptastic plays that the DC and DRS put on, but then again original high school plays are not usually Tony material.
I liked the music, as it was catchy and not too overly sweet. It really fit along with the show, and enhanced the story. Production values were generally good, although the art style is occasionally a little odd. Overall I liked Hitohira and would recommend it if you like some sorta-dramatic slice of life. It was a very sweet story, and even though it had a few flaws (and didn’t really match the title all that well), I found Hitohira touching and enjoyable. Now, bring on the timeskip!
Kabitzin’s Rating: 4/5
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Hitohira was good. Completely forgettable, but good. Being a realistic and simple slice of life story made it really easy to watch, which was something I appreciated. I think I marathoned it before I really started getting into Gurren Lagann so I didn’t catch that similarity though, LOL.
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