After I played the Yakuza video games, I went hunting for more of the heartfelt nonsense the games did so well. The closest found was Hinamatsuri by Masao Ohtake. Now that the game series is crashing and burning, I decided to revisit Hinamatsuri – a story about telekinetic child soldiers from the future living in the modern world as normal kids.
Hina is the main girl. Put time out until she stops being a WMD, she falls into a yakuza’s apartment and parks her lazy butt on the couch. Nitta, the yakuza, reluctantly adopts her – the path of least resistance when a violent esper kid decides they’re going to eat your food and watch your TV.
Anzu follows Hina into contemporary Japan. But instead of wallowing in upper middle class organized crime luxury, she ends up in a homeless camp. Since everyone loves Anzu, a loving home is found for her. And thanks to her adopted parents, she gets really into food service.
Hitomi is just Hina and Anzu’s friend. She’s not a telekinetic time traveler, but she might be a child soldier because she doesn’t know how to say no. She gets dragged behind the counter of a bar to make cocktails, somehow convinces customers she’s not a middle schooler, and goes on from there. She cannot stop her trajectory to absolute success, no matter how hard she tries.
Mao – Another telekinetic time traveling child soldier. By the time she shows up, it’s not really necessary to have another one to balance out Hina and Anzu. But she’s a pleasant addition and she does add balance. The author’s notes at the end of the last volume said Mao was his favorite and he had nothing to say about that. I get it.
The story is a slice of life comedy. The plot is minimal and the horrible future that half the cast came from is barely relevant. There is nothing more than lovable characters getting into ridiculous shenanigans. It’s great.
(Also, this is part of the niche anime/manga genre of “person who can’t play guitar gets a Gibson for free.” I thought it was a joke genre. It probably is, but it’s still bigger than I imagined.)
