Hidamari sketch journal is a watch along where the two of us watch the Hidamari Sketch series in chronological order on the actual dates that the episodes are supposed to be on. Today’s episode was on December 24th, so we’re watching it today, on December 24th!
Feel free to join us in this watch along by following the spreadsheet attached and read our post afterwards!
Left: Jun
Right: Edy
December 24, 25
Season 1: Episode 12
Summary: Sae’s little sister, Chika, comes to see everyone in Hidamari Sou. Chika and Sae have an EXTREME BATTLE because Sae refused to give Chika her autograph. After Chika leaves early(after being wounded from the ultimate fight between her and Sae), everyone in Hidamari Sou goes shopping. When they come home, they discuss what it feels like to be living alone referring to Chika saying she aspires to live alone. Hiro finds out that Sae actually gave Chika her autograph while we was asleep.
The final episode of season 1! Unfortunately for us we’ve still got a few episodes from the first season to go through, so we’ll have to bear with these visuals for a while longer.
That being said, there definitely were some cute close ups of the characters.
If I remember correctly, this is the first episode that Chika comes out, and despite the lackluster art style of the first season I think she was really cute.
It helps that she’s voiced by Kugimiya Rie, who has a really distinctive and often adorable voice. I know that Edy for one is a big fan of her.
Yeah Kugimiya Rie has a really cute voice. The only problem is that she gives me Toradora PTSD.
Also, we got to see Yoshinoya-sensei this episode!!!!
Not much more you could ask for, really. She was as childish and excited as ever, dressing up as female santa.
It goes without saying that the part with Yoshinoya-sensei was my favorite from this episode, but if I had to say my second favorite scene, it would be the conversation that the main four had together in the dark.
It wasn’t really the fact it was revealed that Sae had actually given her sister the signature she wanted, but it was just the relaxed atmosphere as they discussed trivial things and what they were going to do during the Winter break. It’s essentially what you keep coming back for when you’re rewatching Hidamari Sketch, that calming mood with the light music in the background, besides the creative visuals from Shaft(and of course, Yoshinoya-sensei. But I guess there’s no need to say that because of how obvious it is).
That’s definitely my favorite part of Hidamari. A lot of the time they end the episode with this type of conversation on the table with Hiro’s food. I think this really feels like a summary of the whole episode. Chika was talking about how she was envious of how the four are living alone, while the end of the episode reflects on how it doesn’t really feel like the four are living alone because they have each other. Parts like the fight that they had. They also are talked about in a very reflective manner at the end.
Although I really enjoyed this episode, I think I may have ended up enjoying it even more if I actually watched it during Christmas. This post should be going up on December 25, but edy and I watched and are currently writing this post on December 22nd, since he’ll be busy on Christmas.
Oh, and there was a slideshow of some images where the main 4 were playing together in the snow and being themselves. Really nice and added to the atmosphere while the music faded out.
My favorite moment in the episode was probably in the shop where they were talking about what different objects reminded them of each other. I had a pretty good laugh at how Sae was talking about how the sunflower suits Miyako’s image and told her to come for dinner.
Well, I think that’s about it for this episode.
Merry Christmas everyone, and see you on the next post on January 10th, the first episode of Year 2!
Convoluted Situation 