Review of Haruchika: Haruta & Chika

Haruta to Chika wa Seishun Suru, or HaruChika for those who don’t want to run out of breath before finishing their sentence, is a victim of misidentification that bears partial responsibility for the hole it sunk itself in when Winter season began. Misguided direction muddles the small moments of brilliance and potential the series teases, which is a shame because even with its messy composition, HaruChika remains as an endearing anime that is sure to entertain more than its rating entails. As the title suggests, our story closely follows the lives of childhood friends Kamijou Haruta and Homura Chika. Reunited upon entering high school, Haruta andChika quickly invest the bulk of their free time reconstructing the crumbling remnants of their school’s brass band club. While the incentive for both is driven by their romantic feelings for the club’s conductor and advisor, Kusakabe Shinjirou, both Haruta and Chika (Chika more so) find themselves slowly taken in by the concerns the members of the brass band introduce even though their ulterior motives persist.

This is really where HaruChika excels: as an episodic character piece that examines varying dynamics of clashing personalities. Author Hatsuno Sei chooses to draw out the majority of interactions through a collection of entertaining mysteries – some on the lighter side and others surprisingly thorough and novel considering the limited scope of controversial topics anime tend to tread over. Given the 20 or so minute cap each mystery has to be solved, Haruta employs his Sherlock Holmes-esque deduction skills to piece together various pieces of the mystery to reach its resolution.

At its core, when HaruChika understands its strengths to use the aforementioned elements to build its cast, it absolutely excels. Unfortunately, this focus never persists throughout the series. The sudden shifts of focus from understanding the backstory of a supporting character to its obsession of placing the band’s goal of winning the grand prize at their regional competition at the forefront of importance hinders HaruChika’s general direction. It’s reminiscent of an impatient child: trying out a bunch of things and refusing to settle with its strengths. Whether this is the onus of the original author or series composition director/screenwriter Yoshida Reiko is up in air as I have not read the original source material.

However, given these issues in story direction, the fact that the characterization of its core cast and even its supporting cast can push through the series’ messy composition is a testament to the thought and care put in HaruChika’s dialogue and character development. The character that best exemplifies this crowning achievement is Chika. Thrust to the audience as a brash, klutzy, yet cheerful girl, one’s first impression of Chika’s personality isn’t too promising. Blabbering about changing her middle school image to become the prototypical high school “cute girl” belies the tremendous development Chika sees as an individual; however, there really isn’t a defining moment that catapults her to a more well-developed character.

And that’s what’s so impressive about it.

There is no overdramatized moment that pushes Chika to become more than a stereotype yet it happens so organically. Just as her cheerfulness encompasses the slowly growing brass band club, it finds its way to endear the audience as we explore the complexities that define her behavior and persistence. Although the same level of development cannot be seen with Haruta or the rest of the core cast, Chika’s progression and charisma alone is enough to warrant giving the show a try.

As for HaruChika’s supporting cast, development of other important characters like Narushima or Maren is inherently stunted by the series’ episodic nature, which is a shame given that each individual episode covering them provides rich backstories and cathartic moments. The conversations exchanged between the cast also holds an impressive degree of maturity and cognizance of each particular situation, although that might come off as a bit unrealistic since we are talking about high schoolers. However, given that we have a Sherlock Holmes boy genius in Haruta, one could argue that their maturity is a minor detail. Unfortunately, it’s not something that can be easily overlooked with an anime keen on developing characters through continued conversation.

In terms of other general issues, HaruChika harbors a distinct lack of a band dynamic present in other similar shows like Hibike Euphonium. I would say this circumstance is inescapable though because HaruChika’s strength of individual characterization contradicts the construct and complexities of a school band, so this results in a core setting issue leading to an unfortunate paradox of tradeoffs. Namely, if HaruChika wasn’t set in a team-related club (e.g; band, sports, etc.), it would justify its failure to consider drama within a larger group but forfeit opportunities to capitalize with its episodic mysteries, especially since many were focused on convincing members of the supporting cast to play for the band.

Shifting focus to HaruChika’s technical merits, they are unfortunately far and few in between. PA works is typically known for its consistency and quality in animation; however, HaruChika sees almost none of the artistic brilliance and care previous PA Works entries such as Uchouten Kazoku or Shirobako have received. Character models are generally choppy but grow on the viewer as the series progresses. Visual cues and framing techniques are seldom employed to augment a scene, and backgrounds were generally unimpressive. However, voice acting performances and the few band entries played throughout the series help offset some of the lackluster animation efforts. Sarah Emi Bridcutt’s jubilant Chika heads a handful of notable performances that includes Chisuga Haruka’s Narushima and the endearing Omigawa Chiaki’s Asahina twins, Sae and Kae.

Overall, when viewing HaruChika as a complete package, it falls short. Muddled in its ambitions to be more than what it excels with, the natural progression of the story feels haphazardly constructed. The animation quality does not hold up with what we’ve come to expect from PA Works and its limited runtime left the viewer with more questions than answers. However, even with that in mind, when viewed in the perspective of an episodic character piece with a loose string attaching the pieces together, HaruChika remains an intriguing and entertaining entry highlighted by an excellent main character. If you have a few hours to spare, I would definitely give HaruChika a shot despite its abysmal ratings.