(12 episodes)
What’s it about ?
Adaptation of a comedy manga series about a class of unlucky high-school girls.
Characters
“Hanako” Anne, who gives her name to the series, has a strong habit of endangering herself recklessly to get close to animals… who usually hate and bite her. She’s more than a bit air-headed.
Our actual point-of-view character, though, is “Hibari”, who serves as a straight (wo)man for most of the jokes here. Frankly, the show’s definition of “unlucky” seems rather wide to include her, since in this case it seems based on a bizarre and embarrassing fetish of hers.
Botan, on the other hand, has the true misfortune of a ridiculously fragile health. (Shaking her hand may break her bones.) At least her doctor parents had the good sense of teaching her enough self-first-aid to just barely get by.
Interestingly, the main gimmick of the series is that school gathered all those unlucky students on purpose, and instead of a normal curriculum, they will teach them how to overcome their bad luck and be happy.
Production Values
Bright and colourful and pastel backgrounds, which helps make Botan’s numerous injuries amusing rather than horrifying.
What did I think of it ?
The first episode is far from a home run, but there’s the nugget of a decent joke here. With a few more students to round out the cast, and the school providing a narrative structure for the show, it may turn out quite funny. Or maybe it’ll crash and burn soon because it has no clue where it’s going.
I’m willing to give it a second episode to see whether it finds its feet.
