As I promised, here’s my full review of Hanayamata. Or… a close to a full review as you’re going to get, because I honestly didn’t have a ton to say about the series. I have most definitely seen shows in this genre before (I was even thinking about how Love Live!‘s structures follow many of the same patterns), and I honestly don’t think Hanayamata does much to rise above the general motions of the genre. That doesn’t mean it’s bad; in fact, I quite enjoyed most of the show. But it did mean that the show was very reliant on the effectiveness of its characters within the larger superstructure—aka Yaya is good.
Mage in a Barrel 
I hadn’t started writing the Wall back in the summer season of 2014, so I can’t go back and quote myself.. In fact, I only started watching streaming shows with the Winter 2014 season and Spring 2014 was the first time I actually made a list (queue) and watched shows right from the premiere.
Anyhow, Summer 2014 and Hanayamata was my first encounter with the CGDCT genre. And I dang near didn’t watch it at all after the first ep… But it was in my queue, and I’d start watching it in the evening while My Lady was cleaning the guinea pig cage (which was right behind the couch at the time) and that catchy OP would get me in a good mood and I’d end up watching the whole episode. (Even during the frustrating and annoying first arc.) As it turned out, I discovered that I actually enjoyed CGDCT (to the vast amusement of my Lady Wife). And this turned out to be a good thing, because it meant that I watched Girlfriend Beta, and it was her role there that lead me to Miss Monochrome.
Your review aligns with my recollection though… Not bad, not great, mostly harmless.
And really, there’s nothing wrong with that at all. If I were a DVD/BR buyer it wouldn’t be on my list, but unlike some shows (cough Glasslip, Celestial Method cough) I don’t regret watching it. I don’t insist that everything I watch be a classic for the ages, only that it not suck and keeps me entertained for twenty minutes.
The wonderful video of the VA’s dancing in the locations that served as models for scenes in the show seem to have been taken down… So here’s the VA’s singing and dancing to the OP at a live event.
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“I don’t insist that everything I watch be a classic for the ages, only that it not suck and keeps me entertained for twenty minutes.”
What a great quote, and I’m right there with you on that.
I was already a longtime CGDCT veteran by the time I picked this show up, and as an entry in that genre it was perfectly satisfying. Where it suffered a bit for me was the relative lack of actual animated Yosakoi dancing (I presume for budget reasons), which I would’ve liked to see a lot more of, especially since I knew absolutely nothing about Yosakoi or what a performance was supposed to look like. And also the fact that I watched it almost immediately after I’d finished Love Live, which made the similarities between the two that Bless alluded to stand out even more sharply. I think I commented on this series here at the time I watched it and mentioned that problem.
I am a DVD/BD buyer, but this isn’t a series I’d ever go out of my way to acquire. Even if I was specifically looking for another CGDCT show to buy, I can think of several others that would be ahead of it in line.
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Yeah, it was a thoroughly pleasant watch, but I doubt it’ll rest in my memory long at all—and that’s fine. While, yes, there’s the whole opportunity cost thing there, I think I’m pretty much fine with the time I spent with the show. If only for Yaya and Hana.
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Yeah, opportunity cost is a thing… and that’s why I adopted the Three Ep Rule and developed the Mid Season Gut Check after all. But you can set the bar too high.
Though in retrospect I wonder if I’d have watched the whole thing if it were to air today, with a bit more experience under my belt.
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It was a pleasent watch and I totally agree with your review.
Even though it was a CGDCT Show, what interested me the most was the yosakoi dance itself.
So I watched a lot of Youtube Videos after this show and it made me want to see Yosakoi Dance live in Japan.
Golden Time did the same for me only with the Awa Dance.
The Show itself was okay. Not bad, but not as good as Shows like Kin-iro Mosaic or Yuru Yuri
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I liked the series, but I can understand not having a ton to say about it. Its episodes are full of ideas that most viewers have seen elsewhere.
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