Hamatora Review

Starting off my first anime review on ConFreaks and Geeks, is the series called Hamatora!  An anime which released in the spring season and ended off with 12 episodes.  Haven’t heard much about this anime during the whole spring season so decided to give it a try once the series ended.  After the first episode I was definitely hooked!

Animation


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Personally, I am really picky on animation styles of Anime as it’s something that I weigh pretty heavily on, but that’s mainly my personal preference.  The animation for Hamatora was quite amazing, it reminded me a lot of different types of Anime animations kind of combined together.  It sort of has the Soul Eater + Get Backers + Persona 4 feel to it.  The one thing I really enjoyed in this series were the colors, they were very vibrant and quite different than any normal type of Anime animation.  The character designs were quite simple, but also had a little extra something to each one to make them unique.

Story


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This series has an X-men feel to it.  It deals with those that live in the city, which contain people who have special powers called Minimum Holders, those who are non-innate Minimum Holders (people who wasn’t born as a Minimum Holder, but obtained the power), and normal city people.  In order for minimum holders to use their powers, they have to use something called a “Minimum” (an object that help initiate their powers). An example is the main character named Nice whose Minimum is his headphones and he uses it to initiate his power of speed (sort of like the way alchemy is done in Full Metal Alchemist).

The series starts off with two Minimum Holders Nice and Murasaki, who call themselves Hamatora.  They are detectives who help solve crimes or are up for hire to protect people or to help find items.  Most of the series is episodic, but does have an underlining plot dealing with those who don’t have the power of a Minimum and crave for the power, as well as the struggle of those who naturally have it, but are being discriminated.  The series itself has a few twists and turns in there, I highly suggest people who want to watch this series to either wait for the second season to come out first before watching this unless you have the ability to wait for the second season.  This was the reason why the overall score was affected.  Another thing that wasn’t expected is that it is a little bit more bloody than I thought it would be, so if you are watching it with someone that should not be seeing blood you have been warned.  The storyline was a little slow at first, but eventually starts picking up with a glimpse of the main plot here and there.  It definitely has it’s entertainment value with some really quirky episodes, but at the same time made the series really enjoyable.

Characters


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By far the characters in Hamatora were entertaining to watch.  A bunch of them are a bit different to say the least, but it’s really fun to watch how so many different personalities can work together and can co-exist like a family.  You also can kind of relate to some of the characters that have the feeling of wanting to be more powerful, as many of us probably have felt it, but through some of the “weaker” characters you find that with hard work it doesn’t matter how weak you actually are you eventually will get there.

Enjoyment


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This anime constantly had me guessing!  I fully enjoyed every minute of it even though I have to wait for the second season (argh!!).  There were times where you are like huh? did that really happen? *Dies Laughing*  and then other times where you are like *gasp!*  The one thing i really did enjoy was that it was similar to Get Backers which has been one of my favorite Anime, if you weren’t a fan of Get Backers then this might not be for you.  Totally give it a try!  Also the opening and closing music in this series is quite amazing in general.  Check out the trailer if you wonder if you want to watch it or not.  Also definitely check out their opening music ^^

Overall Score: 9/10

Yeewiz signing out!  ^.^v