Subculture Anime Blog

Strawberry Panic meets Hidamari Sketch, and the secrets of room 203 revealed!

Summary:

When Yuno wakes, she takes a look into the sky. With this, she decides to make rice balls for school that day. When the main school activities ends, Miyako expresses her distress in that she will not be able to eat because of the sports activities she must attend to. Miyako was given the important role of managing the events when both of the girls were asleep. Yuno saves Miyako by giving her some rice balls, which Miyako quickly gobbles down. After Miyako gets to work, Yuno takes the chance to go to the school rooftop. Setting out a blanket, she looks up at the sky that she loved since she was in middle school. A few pigeons eventually land close to Yuno because of her rice balls, annihilating the meal after only a few minutes. Yuno dozes off after awhile, and when she wakes, she panics at the fact that activities have already started again.

After sports activities that afternoon, Yuno leaves Miyako to search for the gym clothes that she had left behind. Yuno finds these clothes, but more importantly, she finds Hiro passed out in a narrow hallway. The girls discuss the events that happened while Hiro was asleep in the infirmary when they return to the Hidamari apartments. These events consisted of things like Yoshinoya kissing her in an attempt to wake her up, and the exploring of the nearby drama club room full of costumes. Sae eventually guesses that Hiro had passed out while trying to put on a new pair of pants, leading to the event where the girls had helped Kuwabara take the said pants off. When Miyako had slid them off, a pair of panties had come with them. Unable to hide the facts from her friends afterwards, Hiro admits that the real reason she had passed out was because she had jumped and hit her head while trying to put on a pair of pantsu.

The girls discuss what they should have for dinner afterwards, though Hiro attempts to suggest diet type foods. Yuno hears a noise coming from room 203 while leaving with the girls later, which makes them curious to see what is inside. Hiro attempts to keep the girls from opening it, but to no avail. With only Yuno having her eyes covered by Hiro, the rest of the girls see quite a few pieces of exercise equipment inside. The Landlady, who was using some of it, leaves the room after seeing the girls. Before parting with them, however, Hiro makes her lock the door. Miyako teases Hiro about this afterwards, but she can only be concerned with her wish that Miyako would keep this a secret from Yuno. Sae tells Yuno that she would eventually find out what was inside, as Miyako and Hiro are not good at keeping secrets. At Yamabuki, Yoshinoya remains trapped because of a mishap earlier in the day.

Preview: Don’t look!

Impression:

This was definitely one of the funnier episodes of Hidamari so far. From Yoshinoya’s antics to the irony of finally finding out what is actually inside of room 203, there was plenty to be entertained from. Some of the best parts came from simple imagery, like Miyako’s chalk drawing of Hiro and Yoshinoya’s sculptures and paintings. Watching Ume-sensei imitate the girls’ situations was as cute as ever too, and seeing the “Moon Phase” type shot of the Hidamari apartments in the beginning was just awesome. There were a ton of other great parts, including plays on girls love and Miyako’s usual teasing of Hiro, but listing them out would just be spoilerish and silly.

The episode still stayed true to its slice of life and art themes as well, mainly towards the beginning. I loved Yuno’s observation of the sky, as it’s typically the simple things in life that inspire artists so much. The way the falling feather was presented just proved that the animators at Shaft understand this perfectly well. While looking at the shots of the sky though, I did chuckle at the thought of the studio using their ef style in Hidamari. With only two episodes left, it’s almost time to shift gears again. It seems like there will be one Shaft production in each season here for awhile, which makes me a very happy panda.