Hidamari sketch journal is a watch along where the two of us watch the Hidamari Sketch series in chronological order on the actual dates that the episodes are supposed to be on. Today’s episode was on Jan 11th, so we’re watching it today, on Jan 11th!
Feel free to join us in this watch along by following the spreadsheet and read our post afterwards!
Left: Jun
Right: Edy
Year 2 January 11th
Season 1: Episode 1
Summary: Yuno wakes up from her bed to go to school with Miyako. At school, she realizes that she forgot to do her homework. During lunch, she runs back to her home to complete her assignment using pictures of Yoshinoya Sensei she received in her mailbox. Miyako and Yuno play with the snow piled up and enjoy their time at Hiro’s room afterwards.
It’s the first episode ever!! Recently during this massive rewatch of Hidamari Sketch, I’ve been noticing that I don’t really remember the content of the episodes. But this time, I actually remembered! I don’t think this episode is that significant apart from being the first episode of Hidamari Sketch, so I’m not sure why it stuck with me. There’s far more visually impressive episodes from the first season, and more interesting plots and interactions that come up later on. I guess the first episode really does leave some kind of impression, even after this many rewatches.
I definitely remembered this episode the most. Though I think that the reason why I remembered this episode the most was because I attempted to rewatch Hidamari Sketch multiple times before but stopped immediately after the first episode for different reasons.
Speaking of first impressions, despite being the first episode, we can see some Shaft things that make Hidamari Sketch unique.
Yuno’s collage that she does for her homework is a bizarre mix of pictures and drawings, making a bizarre yet stylistic piece of visual work. It helps that Yuno’s an art student, so this kind of ‘weird artistic thing’ matches.
What definitely hooked me when I first watched this show was exactly this type of funky visuals. Other than Yuno’s collage, the teddy bear in her room at the start, her alarm, Miyako’s desk, amongst others all were substituted with real pictures rather than animated drawings. I think I mentioned in previous posts that this was Shaft’s unique “no money style” but I think it really shows up the most in the first season.
Also, from the first episode, they introduce the bestest of best girl! Very adorable and gives a really nice impression. She repeats some lines that she said last episode(chronologically), and gives off a childish and carefree atmosphere.
Shortly after, Yuno goes to ask her for a really short extension on her homework, and naturally you expect her to say yes, since it’s a short extension and most teachers in anime are nice. But Yoshinoya-sensei breaks your expectation and says ‘no’ in the most carefree and cute way ever, it’s really funny and a great introduction to the best girl of Hidamari Sketch.
My favorite moment from the scene was with Miyako near the end of the episode. Miyako writes “Love and Piece” instead of “Love and Peace” in her snow footprint made art without knowing the english properly. It was pretty funny when Miyako was trying to think of excuses for why she wrote Love and Piece when Sae pointed it out to her. I think it was a great way to set up the type of comedy that Hidamari Sketch has along with give the perfect klutzy character that Miyako has.
I think this is a perfect first episode to set up the viewers. It goes through the “alarm – school – table talk – bath” sequence that happens in Hidamari 9/10 times while showing how that sequence can be so entertaining. All the characters — including Jun’s favorite Yoshinoya Sensei — were given a good introduction to their characters and the aesthetics really showcased what the rest of the show would be like.
That’s about it for this episode. At this point, most of the good things about the show as a whole kind of repeats making us run out of things to say every episode without being repetitive. Stay tuned for January 31st’s post!
Convoluted Situation 