Hamatora Episode 1 Impressions

Hey everyone, today I’m writing my first impressions for another winter 2014 anime series called Hamatora. Special shout out to one of my followers, Cassandra for suggesting this in a comment because I’m so glad you did. Although I’m not usually a big fan of anime crime/mystery shows, I really liked how this one was presented.

Rating: 4/5 curiously excited clouds

The anime is a mystery, supernatural, drama kind of show and follows a group of individuals with superpowers who, in this world, are called Minimum Holders. Your Minimum can vary from strength to lightning to sound to just about anything. It’s unique to who you are, I’m guessing and it makes the characters all the more interesting even on first glance. From what I’ve discerned from the first episode, Minimum holders work in pairs. Our main character, Nice, is this pretty punk ass kid on first glance and he doesn’t seem anything more than a private investigator out for action rather than pay… he gets pretty badass at the end of the first episode though. His partner is a totally good looking bishonen badass character *cough* I mean, cool and collected megane named Murasaki with some pretty awesome super strength.

Another pair of PI introduced to us are Birthday, a lightning wielding Minimum Holder and Ratio, a stoic character who has the power to assess someone’s physical makeup and then… beats them up with gold plated mecha gloves. Needless to say, the full details of his abilities haven’t been really disclosed yet. I feel like each of the Minimum Holders have a medium to help restrain or channel their power. For Nice, it’s his glasses; for Birthday, it’s a taser; for Ratio, it’s his eye patch and for Nice… it’s his headphones. I actually found Nice’s powers most intriguing just because he has the power to SEE sounds as the medium to his powers. In terms of super power distribution among characters (if I can put it that way), some powers are more unique than others but a mix of old and new are good for viewers who are trying to absorb all the introductory bits being thrown at them.

The main plot of this episode follows two different cases at first – a college girl serial character case and a bodyguard for hire gig. The interesting part of this show is that the private investigators get their cases from er… a little place unofficially officially headquarters, Café Nowhere. The ending of this introductory case is… rather interesting and quite inconsequential to the opening premise which serves to showcase the abilities of Minimum Holders.

I was happily surprised at how vibrant the animation is. The colours of characters and scenes are shaded with gradients and soft but detailed grey-black outlines that reflect the supernatural action-charged atmosphere of the story. That being said, I found the animation for Minimum Holder battle scenes pretty unique. The battle choreography is hella fast paced, playing with negatives, manipulating colour and timing to get the supernatural psychic style out there.

Oh by the way, did I mention the adorable little girl named Hajime that hangs around the Minimum Holders? There’s definitely more to her than first glance. I’m waiting for that reveal. Also, the reason this episode is rated with curiously excited clouds is because of the little slip of a serial killer who’s out there hunting Minimum Holders, foreshadowing some seriously awesome mystery, suspense and action.

If anything I’ve mentioned above appeals to you, check out Hamatora, you probably won’t regret giving it a try because I feel like this is one of the shows that appeal to both male and female demographics. And c’mon, Hiroshi Kamiya is in it. KAMIYA. THE VOICE OF LEVI FROM SHINGEKI NO KYOJIN. (That should be enough to motivate you to try the show.) He voices Art, a character who’s been shown but not yet introduced.