Still Too Good For This World – Hinamatsuri Review

With the insanity of work and other things, the very show that was at the top of my watch list last season dropped off my radar and I hadn’t seen anything since episode 7. With just a little under half the season to watch I decided to marathon most of it Sunday night into Monday and write up my thoughts on the show that is genuinely adorable and still too good for this world.

So the episode I left off of suddenly jumped to Hina leaving Nitto a farewell note and me being confused as to what the hell happened. Of course immediately after the OP they show that it was a bit of a jump to get that very reaction. A woman appears in a terminator style teleport and bumps into Anzu, who immediately recogniszes her as Security Chief Ikaruga Kei, and assumes Kei’s there to terminate her. Hilariously, Kei had written off Anzu and really didn’t care that she was living as a greeter for a ramen shop. Turns out, because she’s a destructive force, Hina was discarded but now needs to be observed in her new environment since she can’t easily be “taken care of.” Kei is now terrified that Hina will of course lose control at a moment’s notice but is shocked when Hina is a functioning member of society, able to adhere to traffic signals and not violently assault individuals. More so she shows sympathy for animals and goes and fetches an umbrella not for herself but an abandoned puppy (also comically this is Hitomi’s umbrella). However due to this improvement, Kei’s instructions are to retrieve and return Hina. There is also a hilarious moment where Hina’s classmate finds out she has psychic powers, proceeds to “learn” them from Hina and then attempts to demonstrate them. At the end of this, Kei arrives to retrieve Hina and she obliges, thinking that she will die should she disobey an order, and struggles to inform Nitta. Turns out, without that ball she first arrived in, she can’t return and so our dear Hina gets to stay! Her return with Nitta however is just super memorable and I highly advise you to watch it for an amazing reunion.

We start off the next episode with Kei calling in a new magical psychic girl named Mao to bring in an extra ball to retrieve Hina. Of course she ends up summoned onto an island and her ball and the spare are thrown into the ocean to drift away. While most young girls would be done for in this scenario, she happens to have the same psychic abilities that make living on a deserted island possible. Soon enough, she starts going a little native and begins making 2 coconut replicas of Anzu and Hina. This continues on for 208 days by her count until she finally snaps. Sailing off on a raft, she drifts from a random point in southeast Asia to the mainland. We also jump back to Japan and have Nitta accidentally be declared the next boss in jest. Of course Nitta got things squared away properly so that his lieutenant would be declared the successor but that news was slower going. An awkward near execution later and Nitta finds himself the new first lieutenant.

An awkward celebration party later, we have episode 10, where Hitomi’s mother finds her sneaking in and is of course skeptical of her story of being a bartender. Her mind in fact jumps to “depraved” things much to their mutual horror. With the help of Nitta and Utako, Hitomi finds a very lavish apartment at a reasonable amount and the abusive seeming scene from the OP now has context and is considerably less awful and more hilarious. In a gambit to earn more money, she beings to work a number of odd jobs for her regulars at the bar and exceeds at all of them, being the amazing kid that she is. Her work at an office leads to her being over worked and being the target of mean spirited co-workers, who she manages to win over with her innocence and kindness. All of this working and real-lifing has left her absolutely broken and she invites her mother to her home-warming party in order to convince her to give her an out from adult life. Her mother however is thoroughly impressed that Hitomi has made this connections with major companies and is absolutely fine with Hitomi making her way up in the world. The second half of the episode is based around Anzu the adorable as she is amazed by her allowance being 5,000 yen which of course isn’t impressive to Hitomi who lives in an apartment that costs 150,000 a month to live. Anzu being the amazing human being that she is, instead looks to spend her money on purchasing a gift for her parents. Sabu however, decides to jump in and make things a bigger mess by showing Anzu what horse race betting is all about.

In a considerably more random turn of events, episode 11 has us with a documentary crew who are doing a show on Nitta, with the rumors of his amazing prowess in business and combat creating a huge name for him. They are of course disappointed when they find out he’s just a normal every day guy and not a violent or insane Yakuza. Of course this makes for poor television and as such, the entire documentary was staged to make him look insanely stereotypical. His boss, co-workers and even Hina were teasing him constantly afterwards. After this we have Nitta watching over Anzu while her folks would be away on a Chinese Spa and Nitta realizes how nice it would be to have Anzu instead of Hina. Even though he tries to corrupt Anzu, best girl is far too pure for his motives and he finds himself enjoying his time with her. In the end he relents and I shall visit woe and suffering against any who would try to corrupt that smile.

Into the final episode we go and the last one ended with one hell of a cliffhanger. Turns out, Hina went missing in the mountains during her skiing trip. Things take a turn for the worse and we find Hina, Hitomi, and two of the male classmates with her building an igloo to stay alive. Things get dire and Hina demonstrates that she has psychic powers, but is too hungry to use them. The kids go so far as to have Hina close her eyes and try to envision she is eating Ikura and manages to muster the strength to to create a giant Ikura roll as a signal to the helicopter team. In the hospital Nitta is there waiting when Hina wakes up and we have a touching montage of all the moments they’ve shared, and we see an epilogue of sorts with the other cast members.

 

Then we fast forward three years later to China where Mao is performing shows of martial arts. It seems she spent that time trying to make her way to Japan but unfortunately has been stuck being used to manipulate individuals into signing up for a “Superhuman Martial Arts” school. The rocker that was in a Central Park with Hina finds Mao and tries to learn how to do these psychic tricks. The school of course can’t be having that and moves to stop her, until the head of the school approaches her and says she can leave if she beats the final challenge. Of course, using her powers she can do so with great ease and a fair amount of flash.

Wrapping up this already massive article, I ended up staying up and marathoning the last few episodes. The show is amazing, and it has managed to bring an emotional response in me that death of family members has yet to illicit. The show that I thought was just some random gag show has become so much more to me as I know at any time when I’m feeling angry, or sad, or any negative emotion I can probably just watch this show and be filled with hope and/or happiness. I’m banking that I’m not the only one to feel this way and I’m sorry if you read through the entirety of this massive article. Check out our other no where near this big articles and feel free to let me know what you thought of this beautiful and pure show.