Winter 2010 First Impressions: Hanamaru Kindergarten

GAINAX’s big epic is out! And it’s everything I thought it would be.

Unless Nodame’s Finale kicks off with a rousing start, I’ll go on record by saying that Hanamaru Kindergarten’s first episode was the best of the winter bunch so far. Cute, funny, totally enjoyable.

Basically, the story follows Tsuchida’s first day at his first job as a kindergarten teacher. He meets Anzu, a cute, little kindergartener, who probably has been watching too many doramas and thinks he’s hitting on her. He arrives at the school to find that he’s the only guy teacher (apparently male kindergarten teachers are very rare in Japan) amongst the all-female staff, including the especially pretty Yamamoto – a co-worker he instantly takes a liking too. And also happens meets his old high school senpai, who just happens to be Anzu’s 23 year old MILF. Oh, and Anzu proposes marriage to Tsuchi while her mother approves. You know, all in the days work of a kindergarten teacher.

There’s really not a whole lot too say about the show. I expect the show will pretty much follow a formula that involves Anzu and friends being cute, Anzu trying to get Tsuchi’s attention in cute ways, and Tsuchi botching things at getting close to Yamamoto. But I can live with that. It sounds like a good formula to me. I mean it’s not Hanamaru Evangelion, so I don’t need it to be anything more.

The surprising part about the show (in a good way) is that there’s nothing creepy about the show. There’s no ecchi or seductive kids like Kodomo no Jikan. All the kids seem to have well-adjusted parents. Tsuchi looks terribly generic, but is otherwise pretty likeable. Anzu’s mom seemed to be a little young to get married and have a kid (what’s the marriage age in Japan, 17?), and I thought she might go cougar on Tsuchi, but even that was defused when I saw that her marriage was still going strong. I feel confident in saying that Hanamaru Kindergarten is probably fun for the whole family.

The show looked pretty good. Light on details, but nice bright colors. Attractive and cute character designs (except for Tsuchi, who got hit by the generic stick). No OP in this episode, but the ED looked very cool. The song itself is too cutesy for me to ever listen too, but the ED screens had sort of a Alice in Wonderland meets Yellow Submarine trippy 70′s style vibe going for it.

This show may be the definition of a moeblob show (whatever that supposedly is), but if you don’t have a problem with that, I think it’s going to be a fun ride.