Hanayamata

Episode 9

Episode 8 ended with what passes for a cliffhanger by Hanayamata's standards: Naru stumbling and falling during the Yosakoi Club's first stage performance just as she had once before in elementary school, an incident which had ever after left her tremulous about performing in front of audiences. This time, though, she is surrounded by caring friends who help her pick up and carry on and afterwards assure her that they'll be there for her no matter what, even though Hana soon after faints due to a fever. A bigger crisis arises later when the girls learn that they still are not an official club – and thus in danger of being disbanded – because they do not have a permanent staff member for an advisor. (Amusingly, though, their school does seem to have a sanctioned Tank Club.) Seeing the girls' disappointment over this calls up Machi's resentment of Sally, her older sister, over her feeling that Sally abandoned her when leaving home many years earlier (the implication is because she was seriously at odds with her parents over career plans), and rather unfairly applies that to the current situation despiteTami's best efforts to reconcile the two. Fortunately the solution to the problem of the permanent staff advisor and making peace between Machi and Sally turns out to be essentially the same thing.

After being nearly pitch-perfect in producing the backstories of its other core cast members, director Atsuko Ishizuka and writer Reiko Yoshida stumble here as they push the final member of the core quintet towards the Yosakoi Club (but not quite into it – that will apparently officially happen next episode). Unlike the more measured pacing of earlier episodes, here the course of events feels rushed, with Naru's rescue happening too fast to be smooth or achieve any emotional resonance and Hana's collapse seeming like an entirely random bit, as exactly why she collapsed is barely elaborated on at all. Although episode 8 did establish a certain level of tension and past problems between Sally and Machi, the elaboration on it here is heavy-handed, which makes Machi's attempt to apply her sense of abandonment to the current situation come across as just being bitchy rather than actually trying to express long-standing frustration. Sally's unwillingness to defend herself in the face of Machi's misplaced anger also seems out of character. As a result, the eventual resolution of their issues does not carry the emotional weight seen with the stories of the other girls, either.

What episode 9 does have is a bit bigger dose of humor worked into the cracks of the much weightier issues. Some of Tami's peace-making attempts are at least a bit funny, and the other girls get in on the act, too, with their expressions or leaping tackle of Sally at one point. The first-person-perspective lead-up to the latter is, in fact, the most ambitiously-animated scene in the series to date, but otherwise nothing visually remarkable happens here.

While the overall story does continue smoothly and the characterizations remain consistent, the pacing and lack of emotional resonance place this episode well below the standard set by the series so far, to the point that it is arguably the weakest episode to date. Hopefully, finally having all of the girls together next time will bring the series back to its regular level.

Rating: B-

Hanayamata is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

A virtual high school teacher by day, Theron (Key in forums) has been an anime fan since the early '90s and a reviewer for ANN since January 2005.