Hidamari Sketch



Buy the DVD (Released by Section23 Films and Sentai Filmworks):
Hidamari Sketch Season 1 Complete Collection

Hehehe.. this is also on it's way to me. I hope to have it Monday. This seems like it should be right up my alley, and I will probably watch it right after I finish Ghost Hound!

Aww...this was such a cute show. Not cute as in Little Sugar Fairy where your teeth rott out from to much sugar. No, more like Azumanga Daioh cute. Slice of life both in and out of school. Down to earth characters interacting with each other and their somethimes weird, eccentric but caring neightbors.

I give it props for the animation style is uses.

Can't wait for season 2.

Sounds good, especially since I loved Azumanga. Hidamari is definitely perhaps my highest priority buy, along with Maria-Holic, as soon as I can afford 'em. As much as I can make do without a dub, this is one title I always wondered since it was announced what it would be like if there was a dub though. I think ADV's dubs always excelled in these types of series the most.

Season 2 hasn't been announced yet though. Hopefully Hidamari S1 does well enough that they do pick up Season 2 and onwards. Sentai and ADV have in my opinion always been great at trying to complete series, so here's to hoping! But in this kind of market, nothing is a given, so we'll see...

And now the cat's out of the bag.

Yeah, it's great that they are finishing the show. Most R1 companies have a very dubious record when it comes to licensing and completing multiple seasons of shows. It's great to see Sentai setting a precedent for reliability.

Still debating on getting this show or not. Money is getting low , won't be doing any kind of work to the spring , and there is just a lot coming out over the next few months (March Especially). So some stuff may have to be skipped. Was thinking about ordering it witch Skull Man from the weekly's ,but at the same time waiting for a sale means I can spend more plus like I said not sure I want to start another series that's not finished in 1 set.

I just finished watching the first 7 episodes of this today. I thought some lighter fare would be nice after finishing our Ghost Hound and Clannad.

So far, I've been enjoying it. It's definitely random, and there is a lot of jumping in time. For instance, episode one takes place in January, while episode two takes place in August, then it jumps to May, and then Ju;y, etc. But since it's entirely episodic, it doesn't affect the show or confuse you. In fact, it actually adds to randomness and fun in the show. Think of it as Azumanga Daioh with less order and a smaller cast.

The series is also much more stylish than I expected. Random scenes will pop up while the cast is having some otherwise fairly boring discussion. Dream sequences can even be randomly be intertwined with shows. It also does a lot of interesting things with the animation. A lot of live action items are seen in it. For instance, Yuno's teddy bear is an actual stuffed bear, and sometimes they have "real" paint brushes, or will drink "real" cans of juice. It also makes excellent use of colors. The show is quite vibrant, and makes excellent use of many different types of art and animation.

The show can easily draw a lot of comparisons to Azumanga Daioh, Lucky Star, or Doki Doki school hours. Like all those shows, it's based on a comic strip, as opposed to an actual manga. And like the other shows, you can easily tell by how the plot lines flow. It's also basically a slice of life comedy, and focuses primarily on the lives of four high school girls, as opposed to the large casts of Azumanga or Doki Doki.

The big downside to this show is the comedy. While it can be quite hilarious at times, it suffers a bit from the fact that most Americans are not going to get the Japanese puns and references that are made throughout the show. It could have benefited greatly from some ADVidnotes, or some on screen translation like Clannad had. But overall, the show is still easy to understand, and the comedy well balanced.

As for the DVD's themselves, the audio is only 2.0, but that is about all you need for this show. Even when I upconverted the sound on my receiver, it showed very little directionality, as this is a primarily dialogue driven show. There isn't a lot of action, so surround sound really makes no difference. The video quality is crisp and clean and it looks excellent upconverted on an HD screen. There are no jagged lines during motion, no blurring, and no digital artifacts. Sentai continues to deliver on something we could almost always depend on ADV for.

As for the subs, they are pretty good and on par with most anime releases. I spotted a total of three typos on the first disc. One was a dropped word, the other two were simply misspellings. Once what should have been "our" was "out". But there was nothing to distract you from the show.

All of the Japanese seiyu did excellent jobs here, and they all suited their characters perfectly. But with the lack of dub, it's hard not to watch it and imagine hearing Hillary Haag, Monica Rial, or Jessica Boone in various roles. This was always the type of show that ADV excelled at dubbing, and it's a shame we don't have that her.

I still have the rest of the first season and the OVA's to go, but if they play out as well as the first half, I will have no problems recommending this show. If you enjoy shows like Azumanga Daioh, Lucky Star, or Doki Doki School Hours, then you should give Hidmari Sketch a try.

The cover art for X365 is up now. It looks pretty good and should match the season 1 set well. Hidamari Sketch X365 releases on April 6th.



To preorder: www.rightstuf.com/cgi-bin/catalogmgr/hEU...wse/item/86526/4/0/0 $29.99

This shows up on VOD this week.

I can't wait!