Hyakko

Hyakko (ヒャッコ) is a 13 episode slice of life comedy based on the manga of the same name by Kato Haruaki.  It ran on TV in Japan over the fall of 2008.

    The story follows four first year high school students, Ayumi Nonomura, Torako Kageyama, Tatsuki Iizuki and Suzume Saotome. They all attend high school at the prestigious private Kamizono Academy. The series and friendships start out as we find timid and dimwitted Ayumi as she finds herself lost on the sprawled academy complex. Wandering around, trying to find her homeroom on her first day, the first person she runs into is Tatsuki. This snobbish child of privilege has attended the academy since grade school but finds herself lost as well. Unwilling to admit she doesn’t know where she is going; Ayumi, none the less, follows her. As they struggle to make contact with other human beings let alone find their classroom, they are interrupted by the high spirited and spunky Torako jumping out of a 2^nd story window, followed closely by quiet and bizarre Suzume. Torako and Suzume, childhood friends, are also first year students trying to find their homeroom. Torako, having an alpha personality, takes the lead and decides they will find their way together.

    After what seems like hours of wandering around they have found neither another human being nor a way to get into any of the buildings. In a last resort Torako picks up a brick to throw through a window. Tatsuki struggles with her resulting in the brick going through the window just as a member of the faculty happens to stroll by. After initially fleeing the scene, Torako returns, cold cocks the teacher and grabs Ayumi and Tatsuki to make their break. They find their homeroom by the end of the day only to discover the teacher they assaulted is their homeroom teacher. After a severe scolding the four are released to go home for the day and Torako suggests they should all be friends.

    From there they band together, some more willing then others, and go about doing things every Japanese high school student does, like trying out for after school clubs and attending art class. As they spend more time together they begin to realize that everyone else in their class has a bizarre and unique personality and soon they are joining in on the high jinks as well.

    This would be about an average to sub par in the slice of 'school life that revolves around a group of girl’s' type series. While the characters are memorable and entertaining it isn’t anything new. All of the stereotypes and situations have been done before…it’s all just old hat for an increasingly crowded field. That isn’t to say I did not enjoy the series. It was funny, the characters were quirky and the art was decent. The most entertaining part of the series was their homeroom teacher and his over the top reactions. Torako is one of the more enjoyable hyperactive idiot characters. Where her stereotype is usually ignorant and offensive about it, such as Tomo from Azumanga Daioh, Torako is the eternal optimist and can’t seem to accept anyone not having fun or enjoying her company.  

    The episodes and show in its entirety doesn’t do much more than introduce a large cast of odd ball characters and show them doing random things in school. Almost all of the series takes place with in the school, with little to nothing shown with the characters lives outside of school. In fact there are only a handful of adults that are shown in the series. While the writing is good and the comedy is entertaining, it is the usual fare, some perverted, some screw ball situational, etc. You have the girl who looks like the girl from The Ring, you have the large breasted bimbo, you have the pervert, you have the chick who speaks Kansai-ben, you have the science geek, a few tsundere and a few delinquents. The saving grace for the series is its length; with only 13 episodes devoted to it you aren’t wasting a lot of time ingesting it.

    So if you are a fan of such slice of school life comedies as; Azumanga Daioh, Ichigo Mashimaro, Lucky Star or Sketchbook then you can enjoy this series, just don’t expect it to be your number one series of all time, or maybe even that year.  The series was released in North America on DVD by Right Stuf and is streaming on Crunchyroll.