BUT YOU SHOULD GO IF THAT'S WHAT YOU NEED TO DO TO GET OVER IT. YOU SHOULD GO AND CRY YOUR HEART OUT
I only recently discovered the existence of this series, written by the same author of the more famous Sangatsu no Lion. I have always described this author as one of the best, if not the best in terms of "characters management", and I must say that this anime does nothing but confirm this thought of mine. I state that I do this review in the section concerning the 2nd season but I will allow myself to talk about the whole series.
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HachiKuro is a Josei romance that stars a group of students, most of them college-age. One day, the male protagonists meet Hagumi, a petite young girl with an innate talent for art. The story precisely describes the dynamics, romantic and otherwise, of this group that will be progressively joined by numerous secondary characters who will only improve and give even more completeness to the work.
The developments and the pacing of narration of the story undoubtedly recall those of Sangatsu No Lion, for the careful way it characterizes the characters in great detail before moving on to the facts. The second season in fact has the task of closing and making sense of the introduction made in the first. This logically does not mean that nothing happens in the first season, but as in the case of Sangatsu, the 1' is the one that lays the foundations, and the 2' is the one that builds the house. Although the house is more flashy, the foundations are essential to keep it intact.
The series features many comic moments that are used very well to break the tension created by the dramatic ones, which are very prevalent mainly in the second season.
Another strong point is how couple dynamics develop. During the series, couples are formed that seemed unthinkable during the first episodes. With the risk of making some mistakes, the author chooses the less comfortable path but the one that, in the end, is the more satisfying one as she never falls into banality.
The symbol of these couple dynamics is precisely the finale of the series. The ending is the most unexpected element of the series but it was handled perfectly. Very often this type of ending is forced and inconsistent, as the author wants to avoid banality, but runs into obvious development errors. Chica Umino instead managed to develop it in a truly sublime way because the ending, in addition to being unexpected and very satisfying, is incredibly consistent with all the choices made by the characters during the entire anime. The ability to write this kind of conclusion is absolutely commendable.
In addition to the dynamics of the couple, the anime manages to highlight very well the development of individual characters who instead face personal problems. Much of the characters of Morita, Takemoto, and Hagu are in fact represented by their inner dilemmas and a lot of screentime is dedicated to this part to be able to represent their thoughts and concerns well. Especially Morita has an entire subplot dedicated to the relationship with his brother Kaoru, with whom he has been linked for a long time even though Kaoru has always been envious of his brother because of his talent and the fact that he was the favorite of their father.
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As in Sangatsu, the strong point of the series is given by its characters, all perfectly characterized and with coherent and often unexpected developments. Most of the time we live the story from the point of view of Takemoto, a university student of the same school as Morita and Yamada. Morita represents Takemoto's main love rival while Yamada (a girl from the pottery club) has long been in love with Mayama (who graduated from the same school) but does not reciprocate her feelings. These characters represent the essential skeleton of the series. To them, however, are added a large number of secondary characters who will have a fundamental role in the love affairs. Above all Hanamoto (sensei who has been taking care of Hagumi for a long time), Rika (Makoto's longtime friend and Mayama's target), and Nomiya (Mayama's co-worker who over time will develop an interest in Yamada).
Managing such a large cast for a romance is a very difficult task for an author, as often mistakes are made in the motivations of the characters or you risk introducing many useless characters. But if I say that Chica Umino is the best author I know from this point of view, it is because I consider that her ability in the characterization and evolution of these characters is of an absolute level. Never an inconsistency, never nonsense but above all, they are all rendered so that you can always give the impression of making choices outside the repetitive patterns of the romantic genre.
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Despite being a rather old anime compared to recent ones, the graphics side of the series was handled well in my opinion. J.C.Staff has never been a very positive studio, more than anything else he has always been very discontinuous in his works, alternating graphically beautiful series with others that are very disappointing. Here, however, they were able to animate everything in a very positive way for the year in which this work was produced (2005-2006). I avoid making comparisons with Shaft (Sangatsu no Lion animation studio, being the same author the 2 works share the same character design) for a temporal matter.
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The musical aspect of the series is one of the elements that surprised me the most. In addition to using very apt soundtracks, the anime features an abundant amount of OSTs that are used exclusively in one episode. If I'm not mistaken there should be 21 OSTs in the first season (for 24 episodes) and 12 in the 2nd season (one per episode). They are all very beautiful and very consistent with the scene they support, and this only increases the drama of the situations even more.
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P.S. I am not a native English speaker, so I apologize for any mistakes