roehell

Mine will be shorter than 90% of the reviews here. I believe what threw most people off with this series was its genre. Barakamon 80% slice of life; 20% Comedy Handa Kun: 80% Comedy; 20% Slice of life Of course, the above percentage I provided was solely based on my opinion. I believe most people hoped for a slice of life feel which exactly what Barakamon was but this series didn't deliver this. Instead, comedy moments took over despite the repetitiveness. Essentially, we all have a different opinion but this series took a different path from its predecessor; therefore, please try to watch this without comparing to Barakamon.

PyraXadon

Barakamon was a series that gave the calligrapher Handa Sei a journey through self discovery on an island village where he was able to create a form of calligraphy that he felt comfortable and happy with. It was a show that garnered a decent following and had a relatively lasting popularity during 2014. And so, to remind us that that series existed, we have Handa-kun, a look into his earlier days in a comedy gag series that...should've never been made. Story: As previously said before, Handa-kun is a series about Handa Sei in his school days, where he was still as awkward anduncomfortable as he was in Barakamon (probably even more so), thinking that literally everyone in his school hated him when in reality...he's considered as a god walking among them and that anything he says or does is law. As a result, there's a misconception between Handa and the rest of the school (except Kawafuji and maybe Yukio) and thus, 'hilarity ensues'. Alright, right out of the gate here, I'll tell you the thing about Handa-kun. It's. One. Long. Running. Joke. The entire runtime of the series is dedicated to some member of the cast (usually new members) coming into contact with the 'divine entity' known as Handa-kun, only to be swayed by his words (as well as taking them in the COMPLETELY wrong way) and changing their entire perspective of life before becoming indoctrinated into the Cult of Handa. That's it. At first, this seems kinda amusing. For the first few episodes, the awkwardness and overall comedy of the series is pretty funny because of how utterly ridiculous it is. Then it doesn't become funny. Then it REALLY doesn't become funny. Then it becomes eye-twitchingly bad. Good things come in small doses, and when you don't do that and instead use the exact same material over and over again, it becomes unbearable to watch. Handa-kun is exactly that. As the episodes run by, you'll come to expect the same things episode after episode but with increasing ridiculous cringeworthy scenes and even stranger characters, ultimately creating a show that's sad and difficult to watch. (Devoting the entire school festival to ONE student? Changing the curriculum to adhere to what he says accidentally? Making something based on someone without their consent? How can ANY of these situations be considered comedy?!) By the end of the series, everything does get resolved...in some way, but not enough to salvage this series. Admittedly, there are people who do enjoy this kind of comedy, but just using one joke for what equates to about six hours worth of material is not the way to write a comedy series, especially when the only gag you have is to torture some poor misunderstood individual with daily occurrences that he doesn't understand and is terrified about. Overview: - The entire series is one long-running joke - Concept gets tired FAST - Episode writing gets worse and worse with every passing episode Characters: Oh boy, where do I start with this one? Characters, or should I say mentally challenged individuals are probably the number one reason why I despise this series and think that it's absolutely terrible. First it's Handa Sei. Now, first off, we don't actually get much of Handa. Yes, the title character of the series probably gets the least amount of screentime out of any of the main characters in this series. In any case, Handa Sei is the same awkward and nervous individual that you saw in Barakamon, just de-aged about 5-7 years. The main reason for Handa's existence is just to be a figurehead of reasoning for every other character's delusions and obsessions. The dynamic of 'I'm hated but in reality, everyone loves me' gets old really fast, and Handa really doesn't do much in the series aside from cower away and wall himself off from the rest of the school because he feels alone and unwanted when in reality, that's not really the case. Then there're the nutjobs. I'm not even going to separate and talk about them individually; the other characters are all nutjobs. You have the Handa Force consisting of a delinquent, a bishonen, and the stereotypical glasses character who say they're Handa's friends when in reality, they all have barely any understanding of who Handa Sei is as a person, you have the girl who sits next to him who becomes a stalker with a pension for 'erasing people who threaten handa' after she was given Handa's eraser because she lost hers, the handa-kun copycat, the student president who for some reason makes her vice-president who is a burly man dress in the girl's uniform, and other various characters strewn about the series who're just as weird and strange as them. On paper, they sound interesting and hilarious enough to be entertaining and fill the series with life, right? Well...no. The only character trait that have is the oddly stalkerish way of worshipping Handa. Every new one that the series introduces begs to ask the question "WHY?!" because of how strange and borderline sad they all are and/or become. And for the characters I handpicked out, we have Yukio and Kawafuji, the two characters in the series who actually have some decent sense. Sure, Yukio plays the 'I'm average, and everything about me is average, and I like it' card, but at the very least, he plays the straight man in this mess and tries to bring some kind of sense to all of the other characters in the series despite how fruitless it is. Kawafuji's the same way, but he's more akin to a real person and also has common sense on the situation. They help me bring back some sanity from this sh*tshow. Overview: + Some straight man characters to point out the sheer ridiculousness of this series - Handa is more of an idea than an actual character - EVERYONE ELSE IS A F*CKING BASKET CASE Art: Made by Diomedea, Handa-kun is...average looking at best. The show has the animation that you would consider as standard fare for this day and age of animation, and there really isn't much I can say about this series. I mean, the most they do is add your classic comedic facial expressions in order to accurately express the characters' emotions, but any more than that, and you're asking for a bit much. Sound: The soundtrack...isn't all that interesting to be honest. I mean, the opening has a rock song akin what Barakamon did for its OP, but it's leaning more towards heavy metal to relate to the sheer ridiculousness of the series. (Which I think is what they were going for.) But in all honesty, the OST isn't really anything to look forward to, and the voice acting is standard at best. Hell, everyone in the series save for Handa sounds so damn happy that Handa is around that I can only say that that's the ONLY expression sound that they can make. Personal Enjoyment: :) So...what do I think of Handa-kun? Ok, at first, I thought it was funny. Like the overall ridiculousness of the series gave me a few laughs because of how dumb everything seemed and how the overall plotline was about these comedic misunderstandings. Then it got old fast. The show's inherent problems lie with the fact that it was just the SAME DAMN THING OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Think I'm being repetitive in this review? You try listening to characters shout the phrase "Handa-kun!" "Handa-san!" "Handa!" "Handa!" God, that name is like nails on a chalkboard. Did I like this series? It's start was ok because the show wasn't so heavy on the misunderstandings or the stupidity of the situation, so it wasn't so heavy and more enjoyable than what came later. Also, Yukio. I really like the straight man in any comedy situation. What didn't I like about this series? Ok, take what I said above and subtract that from the series. What do you have left? Everything I hate. Cringe is about the only way I can even begin to describe this series. As mentioned many times before, the series just went on and on with how Handa-kun was great and how Handa's the goddamn messiah to all of our problems while introducing more and more characters that belong to this nutjob high school where I can only shudder to think what they were all worshipping before this poor calligrapher's son. They even have an episode where Handa thinks that he has a stalker, when in reality it's EVERYONE ELSE IN THE CAST STALKING HIM, and they go and assume that they need to protect him from someone who doesn't actually exist! That's not funny! That's not funny at all! It's sad! It's really, really sad! Would I recommend this series? No, don't hurt yourself. If you want to watch a series about Handa Sei and all of his glory...just...just go watch Barakamon. This spin-off from hell was a mistake that should never rear its ugly head ever again. It's a much better series and I would honestly say to avoid this dreadful cour birthed from the devil that honestly...wasn't even THAT funny to begin with.