Hinamatsuri

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As there are a lot of other reviews, i will skip most of the stuff covered by other reviewers.

This manga is a ridiculous mix of yakuza + espers from future + normal highschoolers + few adults from various walks of life. The comedy is always on point. Having such a wide variety of characters also allows the manga to focus on different characters (and their interactions) in various chapters. Although Hina/Nitta are the main MC pair, we have a secondary cast of characters who are atleast as popular. Hitomi's rise or Anzu's heartwarming adventures are always wholesome.

Despite going past 100 chapters, you never ... feel like a chapter is boring. Although there is a plot, it is almost always in the background while the comedy drives the series slowly progressing the plot towards its climax.

Fortunately, this manga establishes the mood right from chapter 1. So, if you can read a few chapters, you know exactly what you are getting into. I really wished for Nitta to be married by the end of the series, but it is not that much of a dealbreaker.

If I had to sum it up: Hinamatsuri is the art of spending 19 volumes with almost no story, like a huge slice-of-life manga, and letting most important moments happen off-screen. It's a frustrating read, because all the ingredients for a great manga were there. But the art is beautiful and expressive, and a few of the characters are really admirable (not the main, though).

The background, explaining where some of the main characters come from? Completely glossed over, just a few words near the end of the story, to provide motivation for the finale scene. No character is ever curious or asks questions.

The reason for ... the "psychic girls" and friends to have been sent here? Forgotten immediately. Understandable for Hina herself, but the others conveniently arrived in circumstances that allow them to drop their mission and focus on ordinary life.

The yakuza? Mostly used for jokes. What little story there is absolutely does not require them.

The psychic powers? Serve no purpose whatsoever. Just a few running jokes, and one-off stories with no repercussion.

The characters

First, the main ones: Hina and Nitta. They're arguably the worst of the bunch. Nitta is weak and incompetent as a yakuza, indifferent as a father, and has no evolution whatsoever. Hina is passive and lazy. In the first half where she's of middle-school age, she spends her days in a couch, doing nothing, feeling nothing and wanting nothing. It's a bit better in the second half, where she's three years older, as she has some agency, takes some initiative and worries about others, but it doesn't amount to much.

I still fail to understand the point of Hina as a main character. She barely does anything, has almost no emotion good or bad. Her only defining element is her very strong psychic power… which has no use in the story. The "father and daughter' dynamic with Nitta never goes anywhere. So what's the point?

Where Hinamatsuri shines, it's with the rest of the cast. Hinamatsuri is, at heart, a slife of life manga about life choices and trajectories. Hitomi, Anzu and Mao do have remarkable trajectories. All three start with no agency, either because of their age (Hitomi) or because they don't have anything (Anzu and Mao). Opportunities come their way, and they're good enough to grab them, leading them on unexpected paths.

The manga doesn't lack in variety: Hitomi's achievements are all about money and business, Anzu's are about family and having pride in her own accomplishments, Mao's are about martial arts and devotion to a cause.

The story

As I said above, there's very little story to speak of. The manga tries to come up with one near the end, in order to have a conclusion, but it lacks any punch, both because of the lack of build-up and because nothing is changed for the main characters afterwards (they just keep living their lives as before).

But what's most annoying is that the most pivotal moments tend to happen off screen. A character has a crisis-of-faith moment where they have an important decision to make? Off screen. A important discussion happens? Off screen. That happens far too many times.

Conclusion

On one hand, the manga is far too long for what little story it has to offer. It's just slice of life, a bunch of kids finding their own paths in modern Japan in spite of incompetent adults.

On the other hand, once you cast aside the two useless main characters, you keep coming back to see Hitomi, Anzu and Mao grow and evolve. The three-year timeskip is a godsent, making them older and having more agency.

I'd love to see someone edit and trim down the 19 volumes by removing all those pointless elements. At least half of the manga would be gone, and we'd have a focused story on three girls crafting their own success stories. As slice of life go, there are few characters that I came to like more than Hitomi and Anzu!

[Note]
Despite the inclusion of yakuza, this is pure comedy without drama or anything

Story: 6/10
The side stories redeemed this manga, the growth of Anzu was great and Hitomi's gradual build up was bloody hilarious. The final arc was stupid in the best of ways and I loved it.

Those are the manga's only redeeming factors to be honest. There is no growth for anyone else (except Mao becoming not insane). Hina has her moments but is essentially the same, even in the 2-part final. This is a death knell for a comedy series, it gets repetitive and hearing the same joke twice is never funny. Nitta never ... grows either but he really a vehicle for jokes or the foil to Hina so it's not a problem

Art: 5/10
Not bad but not good. All characters have those weird doughy faces that you see in mediocre manga. The backgrounds are pretty good but many panels have plain grey or white background.

Characters: 3/10
I hate pretty much all the characters here.

The real problem is that Hina never grows as a person. She is constantly the unlikable, spoiled brat who gets everything done for her. Even in the final, she puts no effort in, even with the random motivation the author pulls out of a hat for her from one random panel in a previous chapter.

Anzu is a lovable cinnamon roll who actually grows as a person and is likable. Hitomi is… normal, which is exactly what makes the story around her hilarious. Mao is kind of just there, we don't get much out of her beside the jokes about the dolls (it makes sense in context), she feels very shoehorned in because the author felt he needed another character.

I actually like Nitta, his vase obsession is a good gag and he's relatively normal despite his gang affiliation. His normalcy combined with his job is what drives the comedy in many cases, relying on Hina to do gangster-like things

A lot of the side characters are very bland and get some chapters together, nothing interesting and they take away from the few good characters.

Overall: 4/10
I wasn't sure if I was actually going to finish this or drop it but I stuck it out in the end. I'm surprised to be giving this manga such a bad score when there's so much hype for it but it just doesn't click with me to be honest. Maybe I just don’t like the comedy but it felt like a drag at times, even near the end I was skimming chapters. I dislike most characters, I just can’t stand the main character most of the time. This would be a 3 or a 2 if not for the few redeeming factors it has: the loony ending, Anzu (in general) and Hitomi's story arc. I mention them a lot throughout this review and that's because they're the only bits I liked. Some other parts were funny sure, but I've seen much better.

Of course this is all subjective, there seems to be raving reviews otherwise, so maybe this manga just isn’t a fit for me. Read the other reviews and come to your own conclusion, comedy in any media is even more subjective than any other genre and you may love this.