Hidamari Sketch: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Hidamari Sketch: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 18, 2014

Those of us who have reached what is euphemistically called “middle age” have a bit of perspective on our teen and young adult years, and frequently there are at least a regret or two regarding (in the words of a famous poet) “the road not taken”. In fact most of us can recount opportunities that came knocking which for one reason or the other we decided not to take advantage of, and quite frequently those decisions lead to a certain sense of loss and, for some of us at least, self chastisement about how stupid we were. Hidamari Sketch is not the weightiest anime to ever come down the pike, but it at least has the refreshing simplicity to show a young girl who is going after her goal, come what may. This slight but charming cross between shōnen and slice of life never really delves too deeply into the meaning of it all, but there’s still a nicely articulated subtext that if you try hard enough, you can realize your dreams. It may not seem like a very formidable concept, and is indeed kind of redolent of any given Hallmark card, but in a genre that is so often fraught with overly philosophical and convoluted outings, it’s kind of nice once in a while to just take a deep breath and enjoy something that’s sweet and unaffected. Hidamari Sketch follows the low key exploits of Yuno, a young girl with a passion for art (as in drawing and painting) that she has finally parlayed into a matriculation to Yamabuki Art High School, where she hopes to attain both the skills and the business sense in order to make what she feels is her life’s calling into her actual career. Along the way, Yuno becomes friends with three other students, and Hidamari Sketch is more or less simply about their small scale adventures together. It’s an admittedly lightweight affair, but there’s a gentleness of spirit to this anime that may well recommend it even to jaded sorts—even middle aged jaded sorts.

Don’t go looking for grand plot arcs or deep character development in Hidamari Sketch, for there isn’t any. The show opens in media res, with Yuno trying to drag herself out of bed one cold winter morning. It turns out it’s right after New Year’s (a subtitle proofreader needs to go back to school—it’s “January”, not “Janurary”), and school is starting up again. Yuno meets her best friend Miyako, who lives in the same boarding house as Yuno, and they head off to school. They’re soon joined by the two other main characters in the anime, Hiro and Sae.

Once at school, Yuno is innocently asked about the homework assignment they had been given over winter break and which is due that day, which she of course has forgotten. She instantly freaks out, but is reminded her horoscope that morning said she would have good luck, and so asks her teacher if she can it in late. There’s a bit of a misdirect here, for the teacher actually says “sorry” and the color is instantly drained from the episode, as if all were lost. But Yuno perseveres, running home on her lunch break to manically finish a collage and hand it in before school ends early due to snow.

Even potential areas of disagreement are almost always readily solved in this almost uniformly amiable series. A later episode finds the girls briefly at odds because it’s discovered that Miyako pays less in rent at their boarding house than the other three. Other times minor misunderstandings stay just that—minor. Miyako thinks she’s helping Yuno in one episode by taking Yuno’s painting and hanging it at an event after Yuno has fallen asleep. It turns out Yuno hadn’t finished the piece and is temporarily thrown for a loop by what’s happened. Everyone ends up loving the work as it is, and all is well with the world.

It’s the friendship between these four girls that really provides the heart and soul of the show. While there are some passing efforts made toward character differentiations—Hiro tends to be a jokester, Sae has a burgeoning life as a writer—truth be told, they’re fairly interchangeable. But there’s a satisfying bond forged between all four that is evidenced over and over again in virtually every episode. When something unexpected happens to one of them, the other three virtually invariably chip in to make things right as soon as possible. It’s a very reassuring take on what a strong, secure social network can achieve, even under occasionally trying circumstances.

This all may sound as if Hidamari Sketch is drab. It’s admittedly relatively uneventful, to be sure, but it’s oddly ingratiating. The four main characters are a solid, even lovable, unit, and once the series gets into its endgame, where Yuno’s desire to become a professional artist is more germane to the overall plot arc, there’s a decent amount of momentum. A lot of apocalyptic anime or mecha based series, not to mention the hyperbolically philosophical works of masters like Oshii, tend to be so in your face at times that you can hardly breathe. Hidamari Sketch takes the opposite tack. It’s deliberately unassuming and sweet natured. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but after heavier fare sometimes it’s nice to just cleanse the palate with a show like this.

Hidamari Sketch: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hidamari Sketch is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The good news is that this show looks a good deal better in motion than some of the screenshots accompanying this review might suggest. That said, this was produced in 2007, and while authoritative technical data is hard to nail down, my hunch is this was not a native HD production (unlike Funimation Entertainment, which at least makes a passing—if sometimes questionable—effort to differentiate native HD sources, Sentai does not list any qualifying information on its keepcase insert). The overall look of this show is relatively minimalist to begin with, with the four main characters sometimes cavorting against a completely stark white background. At other times, graphical elements are introduced and there are some whimsical touches that allude to the Art School setting. Colors here are okay, if not overly vivid. A lot of the series has a sort of milky overlay that seems intentional but has the appearance of low contrast. There is some very minor stair stepping noticeable in some line detail. Generally speaking this is a fairly soft looking anime, though given reasonable expectations it probably won't prove to be overly disappointing.

Hidamari Sketch: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Hidamari Sketch's original Japanese language track is presented here via DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 with optional English subtitles. This is not a sonic wonderland by any stretch of the imagination, but the track offers excellent fidelity for what largely amounts to straightforward and undemanding dialogue scenes (albeit dialogue that has occasional shrieks of excitement and/or terror). The show's charming, music box like score is also well represented here. Dynamic range is fairly negligible throughout the episodes on these two Blu-ray discs.

Hidamari Sketch: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Clean Opening Animation (1080p; 3:04)


• Clean Closing Animation (1080p; 3:04)

Hidamari Sketch: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Hidamari Sketch is no great earthshaking achievement, and to argue otherwise is probably a losing proposition. But the show ambles along in a genuinely affecting manner. Nothing much happens here; instead, little trials pop up for a moment and are just about as quickly overcome. The relationship between the four main characters never devolves into name calling or petty jealousies (with the exception of really minor issues like the aforementioned rent episode), and instead this quartet faces things head on, almost as an inseparable unit. The show is quiet and kind of slow, with amusing but never guffaw inducing humor, Nevertheless, I found myself enjoying it at a perhaps unexpectedly consistent level. This Blu-ray set has virtually no supplements, and the video quality is a bit on the lackluster side. With all of these caveats in mind, Hidamari Sketch still comes Recommended.