HINAMATSURI

It's impossible to discuss the joy of the Hinamatsuri anime without mentioning the crushing blow of realising that it's unfinished. Badly unfinished, at that.

It's a blow that's only soothed by reading the finished manga, preferably from the start. That makes this a review of the anime and the manga together - one without the other ends painfully.

Nitta, the adult main character, is a Yakuza lieutenant living a single man's life. He's modestly well off, a bit of a playboy and a man with a passion: collecting vases.

That life is shattered one night by the mysterious arrival of Hina, a girl in a pod who demands clothes and food and refuses to leave. She's a psychokinetic girl, an esper, and she backs up her demands by attacking Nitta's precious vases.

At its core, Hinamatsuri is an odd-couple show. A ruthless gang member is forced to care for a young girl who follows fewer rules than he does - she's AWOL from an evil organisation that raised her as a tool and a soldier without teaching her the value of anything.

Nitta and Hina's deadpan interactions set the scene for an off-beat comedy masterpiece. I love the vocal performances, the timing of the gags, the musical accompaniment and the sheer stupidity of the situations.

The cast of supporting characters is great too. Hina's former comrade at the organisation, Anzu, settles in town nearby. Anzu-chan is another esper child-soldier and she starts out equally as ignorant as Hina before turning out to be a sweet angel.

Hina's school friend Hitomi realizes too late she has become one of Hina's carers, before being dragged into uncomfortable situation after situation. She's the straight-man who shines more brightly than should be humanly possible.

It's great, then it ends. That's where the manga comes in. The anime covers about one quarter of the story but has bits missing so that the end of the anime is about halfway through the manga.

It's well worth reading from the start, or at least skim-reading, in order to catch all of the chapters that were cut from the anime. There are some great ones with Hitomi that shouldn't be missed.

A question that arises here: is it worth watching the anime at all if you need to read the manga to get the full story with an actual ending?

I believe that the answer is yes. Every chapter that got adapted turned out well in the anime. The pacing is great, the music makes the story even funnier and the voice acting really helps to build the characters. The animation may be simple but the high-definition, colored scenes have an ambience you won't get from a manga.

Watch the anime and then read the manga. I don't think you'll regret either one.