Hidamari Sketch-Sunshine sketch

hat’s one of the things that makes this series stand out from its peers – it’s not so much about making friends (that’s already happened by the time the first episode starts) but about the fun of being friends. They are also four very distinct personalities, and it’s the way these four click that makes the story work so well. We have the tiny, gentle, sweet and somewhat timid Yuno, away from home for the first time and still finding her way in this new world. In stark contrast is her classmate and fellow freshman, Miyako, who explodes with almost childlike enthusiasm and energy – she claims the word ‘plan’ does not exist in her vocabulary.

Of the two seniors, Sae is the more serious. Already working as a professional author, she attends the school in order to learn how to illustrate her own tales. Tall and sporty (although she does take great offense when Miyako calls her ‘masculine’) she’s probably the most mature of the girls, although she has a mischievous and cunning side too, resulting in her playing slightly cruel tricks on Yuno in particular. However, any question relating to her love life results in her becoming very flustered and making up bizarre stories, whilst blushing furiously. Hiro, who is Sae’s childhood friend, is quiet and supportive – both of Sae (bringing her food, when the latter locks herself away to meet a publishing deadline) and the two juniors. Her efforts are, however, somewhat thwarted by her own obsession with her weight, leading to frequent diets, which are soon foiled by binging on sweet things.

There’s also been some online debate about just what the relationship between Sae and Hiro actually is. There are occasional hints that it might be more than just friendship, but it’s really left open for you to decide and personally, I just think they’re very fond of each other. Besides, if you believed any of what goes on in high school anime, you’d think Japanese schoolgirls were jumping each other left, right and center…

Strangely (or maybe not) as far as cast goes, it’s essentially just the four girls. Yoshinoya-sensei normally makes at least one scene-stealing appearance an episode, and we occasionally see the Headmaster (who has an interesting case of the shakes). Outside of a couple of brief appearances by Hidamari’s landlady, Sae’s little sister, Chika, and Natsume, Sae’s school rival, no other characters are introduced. One might think this could make the series repetitive or boring, but there’s enough magic and intelligence woven into the writing (including puns galore – I’m still convinced that Sae’s pseudonym of Tachibana Aya, is an in-joke that I’ve haven’t caught yet), characters and imagery to make each episode not only a bundle of fun, but one that you can easily go back and revisit time and time again.

Finally, just to show that you learn something new everyday, my research (i.e. staring blankly at the screen, waiting for a page to load) tells me that although the episodes are self-contained there is actually a specific sequence to the story (given away – now that I think about it – by the date flashed up at the end of each episode), so if you want to watch it in actual chronological order, then look at episodes 10, 5, 3, 2, 11, 4, 7, 12, 6, 8, 1 and 9. Goody! Now I have another excuse to go back and watch this all over again!