Opening Songs
OP 1 - Flat (Livetune Ft. Yuki Ozaki)
Ending Songs
ED 1 - Hikari (Wataru Hono)
Genre: Action, Comedy, Drama, Mystery, Supernatural
Episodes: 12
Its always nice to see shows about teens with badass special abilities that go around kicking ass. It always gives off that sense of satisfaction when you see somebody pull off a cool ability, especially like how the main character of "Hamatora", Nice did in episode 1. "Hamatora" does a good job in introducing some potentially interesting, cool and badass characters, as well as pulling off a nice first episode. It gives a nice early impression, but then quickly falls into just a silly exhibition of well demonstrated powers with really underdeveloped characters, a story that doesn't blend well, and mysteries that don't make any logical sense at all. For an anime about a detective group, there really isn't anything here that inspires ANY sort of detective work at all...all we have are some cool characters with cool powers and little character development. "Hamatora" is good to look at, but its a mess.
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| Well...these guys don't kid around. |
The opening song is pretty good. "Flat" is another song by Livetune, the genius behind many awesome Miku songs, as well as the opening song for "Devil Survivor 2:The Animation", which was pretty good as well. This time on the vocals, its Yuki Ozaki, vocalist for Galileo Galilei (the guys behind the "Anohana" songs"). The song isn't as fast paced as I'd like it to be, but it works for the series, and it gives off a nice sense of serenity. The ending theme is "Hikari" by Wataru Hono, and its alright. Its not really to my liking, but I guess it fits for this.
Rating: 7.0/10
It could have been a lot worse, but at the same time, it could have been a lot better. The only thing that "Hamatora" has going for it, is a really cool concept, some cool powers, and likable characters. But the characters themselves don't really develop over the course of the show, and while the majority of the cast DO have some amazing powers, they don't really use it too often because Nice steals all of the screen time. Nice is cool and all, but seeing him beat his opponents using the exact same style and technique over and over can get a little bit old (he steps it up a bit in the final episode). And of course, the story and mysteries. The show tries to pull off a "all the mysteries are actually pieces of the puzzle that make up the entire story!" that fails horribly. The story, because of this, is all over the place, and the mysteries that the "Hamatora" duo solve make NO sense. They aren't mysteries at all! Might as well turn the entire show into a super powered brawl between good guys and bad guys...that would be a lot more entertaining.
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| And of course, Hajime always takes the cake. |
Nice is as arrogant of a super powered dude as he gets. In modern day Japan, two types of people exist, normal people and "Minimum Holders". "Minimum Holders" are super powered individuals who are meant to excel in society. Society views "Minimum Holders" as important individuals, and they always climb up the social ranks to become successful people in life...they are pretty much GUARANTEED a successful life, unlike the normal people. However, its hard to become a successful "Minimum Holder" that is recognized by the government, and its because of this that the good "Minimum Holders" are incredibly rare. Using their special powers, the self proclaimed detective duo "Hamatora", consisting of Nice, a young man that can utilize sound and move at super speed, and Murasaki, a man capable of empowering his body to do superhuman feats, decide to use their powers to help the common people. Of course, their only problem is that they're poor as hell, and they use a freaking bar as their HQ. Along with their other "Minimum Holder" friends, they solve mysteries and keep the peace of the town...or at least that's what they try to do.
"Hamatora" is a mess, the ending even baits us for a sequel that's coming in July. There's many things that can improve "Hamatora", and hopefully it does improve in its sequel. They could try making the mysteries a little bit more mystery like, or at least give our characters some much needed development (Nice is pretty much still the same in episode 12 as he was in episode 1!). It's not horrible, it just could have been a lot better.
Peace.
