Barakamon

Image from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/22789/Barakamon/pics

Name: Barakamon ばらかもん
Side Story: Barakmon: Mijikamon

Status: Completed
Episode: 12
Release Date (for eng subs): Every Sunday


Summary:

As a punishment for punching a famous calligrapher, young handsome calligrapher Handa Seishu is exiled to a small island. As someone who has never lived outside of a city, Handa has to adapt to his new wacky neighbors, like people traveling on a tractor, unwanted visitors who never use the front door, annoying kids using his home as a playground, etc. Can this city guy handle all the crazy hardships? Find out in this wacky island comedy full of innocence and laughter!

Summary from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/22789/Barakamon/

Personal Ratings: 4

A slice of life type of comedy anime, away from the cliche high school life which most anime uses. Here, we are following an adult which has just moved to the country side to find his own style of calligraphy. 

Underneath all the comedy side of this anime, it really has a proper story line with the proper developments and seriousness to it. I really like how each episode addresses at least one of his problems as a calligrapher. It's quite refreshing to see how he applies things he experience in daily life into climbing his wall of problems as a calligrapher. 

Having heard Kansai and Tokyo accent in most anime, hearing a different type of Japanese accent really makes this anime a lot more interesting for me (I really like to learnt different things about Japan), even though I don't understand a single thing their saying (level of accent too high for me to understand).

Even though the first episode maybe a little annoying with Naru constantly trying to get into the house despite getting thrown out a thousand times, I really thought that as you continue to watch it, it's really smooth and relaxing to watch. So I totally recommend finishing this series if you ever start. 

Having a young kid as the 2nd main character is really odd and rarely seen (except for Usagi Drop), after watching and really seeing how the kids and adult interact, you would realize that despite their inexperience in life and innocence, there are a lot of things that we can learn from them. 

Some goes for the country side people. Seeing how Japanese people in the country side is, and their unusual practices, as compared to the modern Japanese lifestyle makes this whole anime stand out from the normal animes out there. And of course, learning new things on top of things which you always see from all the other anime is really refreshing and interesting.

The mixture of mostly old and younger kids really makes this anime more unique, because most anime has characters between the age of 14 to 30.

I also rarely see (never, actually) an anime on the occupation calligrapher. Things like getting inspiration from the things around you and stuff like that can mean a lot, and things like that can't really be explained with words.  After all that has happened in the anime, I don't know why but I feel very happy after watching the whole anime, I guess the whole country side setting really makes this whole anime bring out that inner happiness.

Ono Daisuke really did an awesome job with his character. At first, I was quite doubtful about him voice acting in a comedy anime (since most of the anime I watch, he always play the serious character). But his voice acting really makes the anime funny, especially all those parts where he has to put in a lot of funny voices (like quivering or shaky voices).

I guess it would have been a lot better if they actually include how Seishuu actually behaves and acted at home or in Tokyo, so that we could see the difference from before and after he went to the island. It would also enable us to understand what his mother was talking about about his character change in the last episode. 

Art Ratings: 3.5
Kind of like the art, it kind of reminds me of Kyoto animation's art. I guess there isn't really anything to complain about. 

The normal art, and less outstanding character design really bring out that sense of calmness and country-ness to the whole anime. 


Recommended for:
Gender: Both
Age: 12 and above
My Ratings: PG