Original Run: January 11, 2019 - March 29, 2019 Number of Episodes: 12 Genre: Comedy, Slice of Life
***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Hulaing Babies. Reader discretion is advised.***
Series Synopsis
Suzu and her best friend Fumi (voiced respectively by Haruka Yoshimura and Mikoi Sasaki) want desperately to start a hula club at their school. Although their drive might be there, the two are finding it challenging to recruit new members.
Slowly but surely, though, their twosome does manage to grow bigger and bigger with the additions of:
- Mona (voiced by Suzuko Mimori)
- Nagisa (voiced by Sarah Emi Bridcutt)
- Shiina (voiced by Rikako Yamaguchi)
- Moe (voiced by Moe Toyota)
- Miku (voiced by Miku Itou)
Soon, Suzu and Fumi’s long-shot hula club begins practicing their dances, going to competitions, and making lifelong memories.
Series Positives
Much like the show, I am going to try to keep this review short, sweet, and to the point.
In as few words as possible: Hulaing Babies was fun.
Granted, the series wasn’t memorable, unique, noteworthy, and even as I am writing this sentence, I can feel whatever presence it may have had slipping from my memory. This won’t be something I will hold onto for very long. But, as it was happening, I can’t say Hulaing Babies wasn’t without its charm.
Most notably, this show’s animation was interesting to look at – or, at least, I enjoyed it.
Continuing with what I was getting at, Hulaing Babies’ visuals weren’t anything special either. To tell you the truth, if someone who thought this series looked cheap confronted me, I wouldn’t be able to argue with them all that much.
Nevertheless, the art style, the colors, the motion (including the lack thereof) gave Hulaing Babies a noticeable charisma.
As for the other elements which generally go into making a series worth watching – characters, story, etc. – you can sit and wait until the cows come home, but it will be for not. Hulaing Babies was as simple as simple can be.
My argument, in this case, that wasn’t a negative. In fact, this show worked as a nice little curiosity. If you have an hour to kill and you are looking for something neat to watch, then Hulaing Babies will get the job done in spades.
There isn’t much else concerning this show. I fully expect Hulaing Babies to slip into obscurity quietly. However, if you ever do decide to give it a chance, or you just so happen to stumble across it in the future mindlessly, please know, you could do a whole lot worse.
Series Negatives
Given how short the Series Positives section was, that should give you a pretty good idea of what was “wrong” with this show. Mainly, there wasn’t anything to it.
More to the point, though, you shouldn’t go into Hulaing Babies expecting anything more substantial. But for my due diligence, here is a quick rundown of this series’ negatives:
- A barebones story
- Uninteresting characters
- Lackluster developments
- Utterly forgettable when you come right down to it
This was not a masterpiece, but reviewing Hulaing Babies under that sort of scrutiny couldn’t be more unfair.
Think of it this way. Hulaing Babies didn’t rock the boat. It stayed well within a very safe operating sphere. Did that make this a good show? Probably not, but speaking for myself, I never imagined more. Therefore, I had a different question in mind while I was watching:
Was Hulaing Babies a waste of time?
In that respect, I don’t feel it was. Although I didn’t need to invest that much effort into this series (a grand 60 minutes and about one-fifth of each five-minute episode was taken up by the theme song), never once was I annoyed, frustrated, or bored.
In the end, what more can you ask for?
Final Thoughts
This series didn’t warrant a long review; there was hardly anything to work with.
Additionally, I know many of you will never give this show the time of day. I can’t blame you either. There is no urgency with this one, and I imagine it will slip your mind. That then begs the question:
Odyssey, why did you even bother?
In a way, I saw this as a quick pallet cleanser. There was nothing to think about. There was nothing to worry about. I got in, I got out, and it just so happened to be a satisfactory experience overall.
With that, Hulaing Babies does have my recommendation.
But these are just my thoughts. What are yours? Have you seen this show? What would be your advice concerning Hulaing Babies? Leave a comment down below because I would love to hear what you have to say.
And if you’ve liked what you read and want more anime content, please follow me at LofZOdyssey Anime Reviews or on Twitter @thelofzodyssey.
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I’m LofZOdyssey, and I will see you next time.
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