Handa-kun

"This show is shit." -Basically everyone Remember that senile old relative at your family gatherings growing up with an oblivious grin emblazoned on their face, who without fail would tell the same cringeworthy story each time you saw them? Every time they'd start the tale's prelude, "did I ever tell you about the time...?", your parents would shoot you a glance or an eye roll signifying just to let them roll on with the story. It was always better to nod in agreement and force unwarranted laughter than to call them out on their repetitive idiosyncrasies. You almost felt sorry for them in a way, and bityou own tongue to preserve their blind innocence. Handa Kun is the anime version of this cheeky relative. Sometimes in television, writers just don't "get" comedy. As I've said countless times, it's almost entirely subjective. Sure, there are some comedies that appeal to a larger fan base, but I don't value the same qualities you do and vice versa. The one metaphoric tightrope writers can balance on is the singular gag. The idea is to create an entire comedic show driven almost solely on one running joke throughout. Again, some may be quick to dismiss the validity of this idea because they don't care for the simplicity or subject matter as humor is in the end, subjective. For me, this type of comedy can succeed as in shows like Sakamoto desu ga? where the fact that Sakamoto was a perfect specimen of humanity allowed the gags to have unlimited potential. In Handa Kun, the running joke is much weaker. Instead, the writers focus on the over-explored idea of miscommunication. Although more commonly visited in slice of life anime, this awkwardness is addressed in the form of "everyone is against me" comedy through Handa's eyes. The result is a sputtering mess due to limited applicability and generic writing. The first episodes were actually pretty funny to me. A troll of a girl with an elephantitis head, over exaggerated scenes between characters and awkward exchanges of dialogue looked promising. Various companion characters and antagonists were introduced as well. Unfortunately as the episodes progressed, I soon realized Handa Kun was written to be a one-trick pony... and not a very funny one. What Sakamoto desu ga was able to do that this series could not was keep the element of surprise. Sakamoto's comedy was limitless and unexpected, as Sakamoto himself would adapt to the scene in order to maintain his perfectionist status quo. In Handa Kun, the entire episode is often formed around a general misunderstanding between characters. The result is truly boring after a few excerpts, and honestly I couldn't wait for the episode to be over once I knew exactly how it would play out. I will say, Handa Kun does have better supporting characters... but that's like comparing Trump to Hillary. Nobody wins here. OMG! CAVE-CHAN, AREN'T YOU GOING TO ADDRESS BARAKAMON!? I would be lying to you if I said I wasn't looking forward to a legitimate prequel to Barakmon, one of my personal favorite anime. I thought it would be an endearing SoL with a clear plot and relatable characters, perhaps even exploring more of Handa's past with an outlook on why he got into calligraphy or something of that nature. After struggling to make it through this anime's brief 12 episodes I can assuredly say I feel ripped off. It's like asking for a sweet action figure for Christmas as a kid and getting the Great Value brand with a lopsided face and without the "Kung-fu action grip" (not that I'm speaking from experience, love you mom!) Handa lacks virtually all of his charismatic and likable features from the original and turns into a lame, meeker version of himself. It's almost enough to ruin the image of the series in my mind. Hell I can't complain too much, Handa Kun and Barakamon aren't even produced by the same studio. Just do yourself a favor and temporarily leave the review to check out Diomedea's impressive resume. Literally almost everything they've made is a lackluster pile of poop. The directing in Handa Kun is not much better. Everything looks sort of bland and lacks anything really eye-catching. The first two episodes were handled well (except for the 10 minute broken 4th wall bullshit), but I think it may have been a pitched pilot for the studio and everyone kind of sat on their creative asses afterward. Perhaps Kinema Citrus, Barakamon's studio saw the source material's limited potential and ran for the hills. Though I'm not familiar with the manga for Handa Kun myself, but based on a few notes from my peers... It's not much better. The characters in Handa Kun are not very memorable, except Akane. That dude's bad af. This isn't really an issue because of the comedy genre the anime follows. Most tropes are covered here, with an added bonus of elephantitis head girl. Like seriously, who decided this was a good idea!? Kawafuji's remergence was a brief refreshment, as I think he may be the only small semblance or similarity to its parent anime. I have to admit that some scenes really made me laugh at the beginning, but the lack of variety in the series took a toll on my patience towards the end. The same jokes are only funny so many times. Except Borat, that movie gets me every time. Most times, the art and composition can save an otherwise train wreck of an anime from the depths of mediocrity. Aside from a catchy OP and fitting ED, Handa Kun falters again. The art is nothing to get excited about. It's average by today's standards... something that seems rather par for the course where Diomedea is involved. The character models are relatively unattractive and most lack originality (sans elephant girl), and by far the best use of animation is found in the show's OP. Background music is too often recycled and left me saying "oh, that track again?" Voice acting was actually pretty decent, but this aspect has never saved an anime for me. Ultimately, all that really matters to the person watching a show is whether or not they enjoy it. I've watched plenty of critical duds that I've revered as guilty pleasures, but alas Handa Kun is not one of them. It's few positives are overshadowed by the overall lack of effort the writers seemed to put into its creation. It's not an awful show, but so lackluster I kind of feel sorry for it. It's certainly not the prequel that Barakamon fans need nor deserve. As patient fans, the best we can ask for is an original series expounding on the first installment. I won't hold my breath any longer than you will. As always, thanks for reading and be sure to check out the rest of my Summer '16 reviews!

Handa kun has a very simple but reasonable setting that purposefully made for the sake of the comedy rather than its story or moving the plot forward. And dont judge this anime based off from its sequel (barakamon that came out first), because, you know, both of them is a slice a pretty typical slice of life anime with comedy as a mix to it. Since slice of life's essential facet is to add the comedy into them. All slice of life are like that, even if the greatest slice of life anime in the UNIVERSE like Barakamon that delivers its theme, character development, relationship,and philosophy for success in life and shit. Handa-kun's comedy is a pretty unique and peculiar one to me as an anime "watcher", or as a fucking Otaku. Like really, just call me an otaku coz you all are one as fucking well. But why is it peculiar? That style of comedy though, through the excessive uses of miscommunication, misunderstanding, and characterization or ascription of godly, so fucking pro and badass characteristics to the MC. This anime may seem like an identical fucking anime to the Sakamoto Desu Ka series but it's really not. Just some of the theme, character's position and other facet are, but not its entirety. The side character or minor and the support character are alot more "good looking", or suitable for the role that they have in the anime. With some addition role that hasn't been introduced to Sakamoto Desu ka ofc. Like the horny ass otaku who draws shit loans of ecchi shit, or reverse gender of someone. The earliest part of the anime is pretty funny in my perspective, but as the anime progresses, i just find its forced comedy, repetitive uses, and the lack of character development abit too much now. This is not fucking Re:zero for christ sake, it doesn't makes it ok to spend the 16+ (in this case it's 12 episodes) for a character development or realization to happen. Barakamon has done a fine job in that, but to see the prequel to fail to do so, this is just sad to me as a hardcore (presumably) Barakamon fan. Coz that shit gotta be one of the fucking best slice of life anime in the fucking universe no doubt. Plus they also took a real local kids to voiced each kids character, it's fucking nice. You could definitely feel the bond between the voice actors and the character simultaneously as you watch the anime, and that's what makes this anime so great. You should definitely check that one out. I wouldn't recommend you to compare or watch Handa-kun first, then go to Barakamon. Just pretend that this anime has really nothing to do with Handa Sei in Barakamon. But this is just a comedy with no real contribution to his character (aside from being a loner, unsociable, but wanting to interact with others kinda person). In the later episode or halfway to the end of the series, comedy may not even be funny to you anymore. You know why? Just fucking watch it if this kind of comedy is within your alley of interests. While people have different idea of humor when it comes to these kind of anime. Just so you know, our sense of humor can never be the exact same and you gotta respect that. Some might rate this a 1/10, or a fucking 10/10 for crying out loud. But tbh, this anime isn't quite bad. Sure the quality of the comedy drop in the half way through the existing episodes (just like Sakamoto Desu Ga). But for real, it was a funny show lmao. Give it a go.

Its kind of sad a lot of reviewers hating this series because it is repetitive and boring but I'll do my best to give a positive reviews and try to make you watch it. Handa-kun is the prequel of Bakaramon, and this anime covers Handa Sei's High School life. The story each episode has a common sequence new character - hate handa - handa makes a move - misunderstoods - likes handa. Although it has that formula I still found it entertaining because it has some moment where you can smile, giggle, and cringe. Also the characters are pretty funny(for me) and each of them havedifferent ways of interpretation of Handa like someone sees him as god, respects as powerful man, wants to be him, rival and etc. Handa-kun vs Bakaramon There is a huge difference in both series because it has different story and how it is presented. In bakaramon it is focused on Handa Sei's improvement as a person while in Handa-kun it is focused on his struggle on how can he maintain his persona(that is wall joke i guess). So to be precise these two series should be viewed as an art(since this anime is focused on calligraphy) Handa-kun represents appreciation while Bakaramon represents motivation or inspiration. How can I say it that way? You have to understand the people around Handa Sei. In Bakaramon, people around him always tries to make him different stuffs and they interact with Handa in a different way and it is the not the usual way Handa was treated. How can it be inspiration/motivation, inspiration usually fires when new things is being experience and motivation because of the words that townsfolk says to him like "People always look up, the key is a breathe look down and you will see opportunities" not the actual quote but i hope i get the context from the mochi episode. While in Handa-kun, people around him always misunderstood his actions but this kind of interpretation always lead to positive rather than negative so that's why I call it appreciation. Ending remarks: I like Handa-kun and I wish it has a second season its either his 3rd year highschool or his college life because I still don't see the people on the picture in bakaramon. And lastly its hard to watch bakaramon without imagining ERASER is around the bush watching him xD