28 March 2007

Hitohira 1: Im, Impossible...



One of the first of this year's spring anime to hit the air, this is a story of a very shy, quiet girl's life in a drama club. Impossible, you say?

The anime opens up with Asai Mugi (麻井麦), our shy girl, hiding behind a tree. This is the school announcement day, and there is a huge number of students that wants to know whether they are accepted.
When she realized she made it into the school, she let out an incredible yell that reverberates through the school. Some of the drama research club's member who are observing the new students, can't help but be impressed with it.



Skip forward to the self-introduction period in the first class, she became nervous again and speak so softly that no one can hear her. This is despite the fact that she already prepares her self-introductory speech. She is momentarily saved by another student who came late, as this shifts the attention away from her. A head bump later, she somewhat managed to regain her composure and yell out her self-introductory. This resulted in everyone laughing, but at least the torture is over!



Later on Mugi surveys the various clubs that are on offer, but nothing seems to be particularly interesting. She is "helped" on this decision when the drama research club's member go to her class to persuade her to join their club.
Panic strikes again, and chased by the masks in her imagination, she wants them to go away. Somehow, she managed to sign for the drama research club in the process, without really realizing what she is doing :) She just wants those people to go away.
When Mugi realized what she has done, she collapsed due to the surprise, while wondering whether she would be allowed to lip-sync while performing :D

Official site
Opening theme: Yume, Hitohira (夢、ひとひら) by Yuuko Asami
Ending theme: Smile by Mai Mizuhashi
The opening theme, meaning dream petals, reflects Mugi's dream to be a better person, at least on the stage :)

Hitohira chart

Impression:
This is definitely one of those slice-of-life shows. Judging from the first episode, it looks like the anime will follow the transformation of shy Mugi into a queen of drama. Hopefully there is more than this, but I will be quite happy even if no further twist is added as I generally like the slice-of-life type of shows. For those who wants their action, you won't get it here, though.

Some fairly famous actors and actresses confess that they were actually quite introverted when they were still a kid, and yet they achieved that incredible transformation. Taken from that angle, unlike the episode title, Mugi's dream is not that impossible at all. Sometimes to be extremely good at something, the experience of being extremely bad at it is actually good, because we would then experience and have insights on things normal people does not.


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