Oh boy, I cannot stop loving this whole fucking show.
Hidamari Sketch x365 is the second season in the Hidamari Sketch series, produced by Shaft and directed by Akiyuki Shinbo (With no co-director this time). As those of you who read my original review for Hidamari Sketch know, I love this show. It’s in my opinion the greatest slice of life ever made, and I still stand by that opinion. I just think in terms of allowing me to sit back and relax after a stressful day or to get rid of all traces of my bad mornings, it’s just perfect and fills me with happiness, which very few animes can do for me. I tend to like a highly emotional, thought provoking show like Madoka Magica or Ef: A Tale of Memories, but Hidamari Sketch got me thinking about how it portrayed conversations from episode one, and I was able to figure out the reason for the out of order episodes compared to The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya’s fucking mess of chronological order. It just was an amazing show, and I wasn’t sure how it could be topped.
Of course, I thought the same thing before I watched the second season of Ef. I was proven to be horribly wrong.
Hidamari Sketch x365 takes what was wrong with season one and made good with those problems. A certain problem I mentioned in my review was the lack of any truly good animation. There have been much better animated Slice of Life compared to Hidamari, and it was one of the things that lowered the score slightly. Hidamari Sketch x365 saw that problem, and just thought “Yeah, fuck that, let’s make this look absolutely stellar.” And damn did it succeed. The animation was more fluid and had a better flow. It made the conversations and events look so much nicer to look at, and not just a static image with occasional mouth movement. It was so strange to see such a shift at first after getting used to the first season’s animation, and despite being confused I felt glad that there was more, because it just looked better.
Another thing that was improved was the time change animation. Usually halfway through the episode, there is a shift to another segment of time. In the first season, there was one animation to signify this, so that got boring after a little while. In x365 however, rather than always have the same animation every time, there were cases where it changed to different patterns that stuck to the same segment changing theme but just looked different, and that just made it much more interesting to me. It’s a small, hardly score changing thing, but I liked it still and I’m glad they changed it.
The absolute best thing about x365 isn’t what they changed however, it was what they kept. The show was still all about showing relationships and conversations between its characters. And it managed to do it even better as well, which made me so glad. One thing I am scared of when watching sequels is whether or not they will manage to at least keep to the whole premise and feeling of the original. I had the fear with Ef: A Tale of Melodies and Mushishi Zoku Shou, as I wasn’t sure if the two could be a great as the first. Both are absolutely fucking amazing by the way, by all means go watch them. But it’s still hard, and that’s why it’s great that Hidamari Sketch x365 could do so well at staying the same to the point where it does even better.
Overall, Hidamari Sketch x365 is a great sequel to an already great original. It made an almost perfect series get closer to perfection, and I love that Shaft could pull it off. If there’s anything Shaft is good at, it’s recognizing what people like, and recognizing the previous flaws and making better on them. They did it with Ef, they did it with Hidamari Sketch, and hopefully they’ll do something about the shit show that was Mekakucity Actors (That’s a review for another day).
And god dammit, how did Ume Aoki manage to be even fucking better than she was in season one?! Is that even possible?!
Hidamari Sketch and Hidamari Sketch x365 are both produced by Shaft and directed by Akiyuki Shinbo. It is currently licensed by Sentai Filmworks in the NA and by MVM Films in the UK . The original manga going by the same title is illustrated and written by Ume Aoki, so go read it and try to support her somehow because she’s fucking the greatest.
Thanks for reading my glorification session of an article of sorts. I’m sorry for how long it’s taking to write my review. I really need to set a schedule for myself, maybe I’d stay on time if I did that. It’s in the works though, and it’s still on The Pet Girl of Sakurasou. I like how it’s coming so far, so I hope you guys will like it too. I’ve already started watching Hidamari Sketch Hoshimittsu, or season 3, so don’t worry, I’m still watching it!
And I want to thank anyone who reads my stuff or follows me. It feels good to know I have people who enjoy reading what I write, especially since Tumblr could give less of a shit about my usually picture-less posts. I guess it would be more popular if I put Sherlock and cats in there. Or Free! Iwatobi Swim Club. Definitely that. Again, thanks you guys, you make me want to write more and keep me doing this silly hobby of mine. So selamat tingal everyone, this time the sign off is in Indonesian, and I hope you guys have a good time!
A Discernible Lack of Catgirls 