When I was checking out the summer anime titles last year, I realized that the season included Re:_Hamatora. I realized then that I have yet to finish the first season of Hamatora, and decided to just watch the series and its sequel in succession so I can do a single wrap-up.
Hamatora refers to the private investigation agency created by Nice and Murasaki. Along with the always-hungry Hajime, they solve different kinds of cases that come in through their headquarters at Nowhere Cafe. Another duo, Birthday and Ratio, who works odd jobs, helps them but are also known for taking on jobs that conflict with theirs. Honey and Three are known to help out the police. What makes this group different from others in the same line of work is that they are all Minimum Holders. Minimum refers to supernatural abilities that give them an edge over normal humans, but also make them a match for wrongdoers who use their own Minimum ability for evil. All of them came from the Facultas Academy, where the government trains and monitors those who manifest or has the potential for Minimum abilities. Among the graduates is Nice's friend and police superintendent Art, a rare Facultas graduate without ever realizing his Minimum ability.
Becoming a Minimum Holder gives an individual plenty of advantages, particularly if he or she is a graduate of the Facultas Academy, thus making the government prioritize the secrecy of the abilities and those who wield them. Aside from hiding the inequality from non-Minimum holding citizens, the government could use the holders' abilities to their advantage. And that inequality between the normal and superhuman individuals would be a focus for most of the series.
Hamatora's first season starts out innocently enough, with Nice and the others taking on different cases, but a pattern soon emerges among the wrongdoers they encounter. Art works on a serial killing case that involves Minimum Holders getting murdered and their brains extracted from their body. Meanwhile, a Facultas Academy professor, Moral, expresses his belief that all humans should be equal and every individual should possess a Minimum ability. Re:_Hamatora, continuing on the themes of inequality, takes a more serious tone, with Art going rogue and the public now aware that Minimum Holders live among them. It is also revealed that a group of Minimum Holders calling themselves Freemum are opposed to the government's control over those with abilities. The activities of Freemum, and the actions of other volatile Minimum Holders, are influenced and funded by the mysterious figure Saikyo.
The premise of the series is interesting enough, even though the themes that prevail in the series aren't particularly unique to those who have been watching anime for many years. Hamatora, despite its use of colorful characters and humor, is serious at its core, with main characters who have dark pasts and villains with even darker means to achieve their visions. It's an urban fantasy tale about about people with superpowers, misguided intentions, and the consequences of very human failings.
Hamatora is an ambitious project, a mixed media creation that involves a manga series, this particular anime series, an RPG videogame, a light novel and even a stage play. The manga actually tackles events that occur prior to the anime, but those events are mentioned in the anime series, though you really have to pay attention to piece them together. I don't know if reading the manga would enrich your viewing experience, but I have a feeling it might have helped me like the series more.
While there are interesting enough characters, I found that the storytelling style of Hamatora can feel disjointed. The character focus varies per episode, covering past and current struggles, but the change in viewpoints, even an episode apart, feels abrupt. You have to watch the whole of the series in order to get the picture and not even an entire one at that. With the drama of their individual and collective stories, I was expecting to be more drawn in, but I found myself realizing that I never invested fully in their journey after watching its final episode. And this greatly takes away my enjoyment of the series when the characters get around to their fight scenes, which should be interesting to watch when they utilize their individual Minimum abilities.
At the conclusion of viewing Hamatora and Re:_Hamatora, I wished the series could have been something more. It had the potential to be fun and compelling, but never quite became either completely.
Just okay viewing with this one.Labels: Action, Anime, Hamatora, Mystery, Supernatural, TV
