First Impressions / Hanayamata

「シスター・コンプレックス」 (Shisutaa Konpurekkusu)
“Sister Complex”

The gang’s all here now! With five for five, the entire cast is fully integrated, after some sad dramatic stories from each one. Machi is no exception as her struggle with her sister proved an emotional roadblock, but thankfully the show gets that over with quickly. Let’s dive in!

It has been a quick recovery for Naru, even though last episode left her practically paralyzed. However, to avoid interference with Machi’s exposition this episode, it was a good call to have a clean resolution of, “we knew all along,” from Tami and Yaya. In fact, one possible interpretation of this scene is being placed in this same sort of surprise as Naru–while it was expected from both us and Naru for this to become a major part of the episode, it was surprising that Yaya and Tami quickly and calmly understood what was going on. That’s true friendship right there, where your friends give you the confidence and support you didn’t even expect. It’s nice to know that there are few surprises that can really shake these two lifelong friends, especially since Naru seems to think no one can read her embarrassing faces. With that good feel in mind, the show proceeded cleanly into Machi’s situation, with club logistics making nightmares all over.

Moreso than the other four girls, Machi’s troubles are tightly connected to her sister’s actions. While Tami definitely had struggles with her dad’s wishes, Machi is in direct conflict with another active character in the show. This allowed us to see both sides of the problem in a better light; we saw why Machi tries so hard to achieve and who she models herself on, while for Sally-sensei, we see what exactly drove her to be the character that she is. That laid back attitude of Sally-sensei is a backlash against the tight expectations of a medically entrenched family, which unfortunately affected her relationship with Machi in an unexpected way. What perplexes me though is why it took until now for Sally-sensei and Machi to make up, if they really were looking out for one another. Perhaps the answer lies with Sally-sensei’s pride; we did get told how Sally-sensei withheld her exam results out of fear of being embarrassed of failure, so this may be the reasoning behind their long stalemate. But then again, doesn’t it seem awfully roundabout for Sally-sensei to choose Machi’s school as a path to apologize? Isn’t it weird that Machi was unable to see Sally-sensei’s troubles, especially as she’s facing those same troubles herself? The show hints that Machi knew the answer all along and was in simple denial, but I would’ve liked to have seen more concrete expansion of this to remove doubts. Overall, I’m actually pleased with the amount of development achieved this episode, as well as the cute faces Tami made in order to cheer the two up. Cuteness is something the show does consistently well.

Alas, there isn’t much time left for Hanayamata to really expand on these troubles, so the show did its best to expand on a fairly emotional topic in the span of 15 minutes. With 3 episodes dedicated to hot springs and more, what sorts of characterizations will happen now is beyond me. I’m still crossing my fingers on Hana getting some proper backstory, considering how this is the first episode where she explicitly mentions her parents. There are so many holes left to be filled in this final mystery, so Madhouse, do your stuff and don’t leave us hanging! We’ll get a hot springs episode and a final dance for sure, but please, come full circle and complete the mystery that you set off to frame in episode one!

 

Preview

24 Comments

  2. This show and its characters can be show freaking stupid. So much intrusion of personal space, fallacious arguments and outbursts, and illogical emotional responses. Oh the lives of 14 year old girls…

    Oh, and fucking Hana Fountainstand… You’re the one who caused Naru to fall in the first place!

    SBC
    Reply

  5. Strange, how is it cruiser270’s post above with 3 internal RC screenshot links gets past the spam filter, yet mine with only one more (4 links) triggers the filter?

    Mods mind unlocking my post please?

    echykr
    Reply

    1. Firstly, thank you mods for unlocking said post.

      Secondly, as an absolutely harmless neutral request post for the mods, I honestly do not understand the actions of you two downvoters (at time of writing) downvoting this post of no value whatsoever.

      echykr
      Reply

      1. Well, you never know. There was this one time that I waited for 24 hours and nothing happened, prompting me to make a post. As much as I hate to go off topic and attract these annoying downvoters with nothing better to do.

        echykr
        Reply

  7. This episode was so cute!! Even though towards the end Machi said “I’ll think about it” when joining the club, I know for sure she’ll join anyways!
    I’m still curious about Hana’s family though too… they really should dig more into Hana’s past.

    Megan
    Reply

  9. Gah, why are they racing though this? Machi’s resolution with Sally-chan didn’t even take up an episode. All they’ve done is tease us with snippits of dance. There’s more in the OP than we’ve seen in the show I think. This story just deserves better.

    Bear
    Reply

  12. One thing I like about Hanayamata is; while it has a lot of drama, all of them resolves quickly and beautifully.

    Also. this must be one of the rare series where it is so hard just to start the club offically. In many show, MC usually get invited into an already existed official club or a group of MCs starts the club offcially in the first ep. as all of them share the same interest.

    I like how Hanayamata goes slowly on members recruitting / club organizing / Yosakoi training.

    marina2
    Reply

    1. I agree with you on both accounts.

      I was actually kind of fearful Naru would fall into a slump or something – a development that was unneccessary because we already have a good grasp of her problems by now. It’d be drama for drama’s sake. And it seems the characters agreed! They know she’s like that, but they’re her friends, and they don’t care. Even if she screws up along the way, just help her up and get going. They avoided one pitfall by turning it into a gesture that was quite nice indeed. It feels more real like this, in a way.

      The same goes for the club troubles. The struggles they have to go through are quite varied and every member has to pull their weight in a lot of ways. They’re putting real effort into this and their challenges make for a lot of interesting developments. Challenges that also don’t rely on some kind of hackneyed antagonist or something, but just the sheer work involved in setting this up.

      Also, Zani, I think you may be expecting too much in terms of Hana. She’s a strange one for sure, but I doubt there’ll be some kind of grand revelation about her in the end. Especially considering how casually she brought up her parents, shooting down the whole ‘she doesn’t have a home’ theory and whatnot.

      Dvalinn
      Reply

  13. I just notice this show has almost all the complex you can count. There is Daughter complex(naru) father complex(Tami) sister complex(machi). The only thing left is to see if Hana and Yaya has some kind of complex.

    Random
    Reply

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