Hidamari Sketch Ep 4 – “Puns here, puns there, puns everywhere!”

A Hino without sweet stuff to fill her stomach is definitely a very depressing one as you see the happiness beam in her eyes when she can grab something sweet. I wonder why she has such a paranoid of being fat. I mean she is not exactly a chubby loli (that is of course disproved as chubby lolis later on).

Hidamari Sketch just keeps getting better and I am so glad that the first two dry episodes did not stop me from viewing more. Now, time to capture the summary of this episode and hopefully, I can conjure out some of the linguistic jokes in this episode!

Episode summary

Yuno woke up to a sunny bright morning, as she brought her futon out to sun as she saw Miyako at the balcony. She was in fact hanging “ah ji” (hangar fish) on the “aji mata” (clothe hangar) to dry (linguistic joke). Yuno then decided to dry up all her clothes and went to school. Miyu-sensei, seeing the good weather had a lesson in sketching outside and said any theme would do. Yuno asked if really anything would do, leading Miyu-sensei to think delusively that they cannot draw her in a naked posture out here. Miyako requested to go back and rest due to drinking too much milk (possibly expired). Yuno first went to a beautiful garden, only to meet the principal as she fled after he suggested to have a “principal and the garden” pose.

Yuno then arrived to a bamboo area “chi ku ling”, and drew a cactus ball (”chi ku ling”). As she drew, two blushing gals ran out, leaving Yuno in shock as they told her not to say that they were inside. Yuno asked if they were having a private affair, as they both strongly rejected it. Yuno went in the forest, only to see a little Buddha, as she got reminded of her father who she had not seen for a long while. After that, she was shocked why the Buddha that made her think so but the thought was interrupted by Miyako who said that the Buddha would give all the gifts on her doorstep. Miyako then rushed to put a safety cone on his head so that she would get some free gifts by Buddha too.

With that, a tennis ball hit Miyako as Hino rushed over, patting and asking if Miyako was all right toward the Buddha statue. She added it was a joke, as Hino said it was Sae who overhit the ball. As Sae came over, she said she had no idea about this statue but Hino said it had been here for a long while, with Miyako proposing to drag it back to Hidamari Hostel. With that, Sae dragged Hiro back, with Miyako questioning whether Sae was as strong as a boy and like a monster, half-monster and … Returning home, Yuno found vegetables with a little worm sent by her mother and father, as she thanked them and the little Buddha for the gift. Going over to Hino, she brought some of the vegetables as the two were eating cakes. Hino was looking extremely sad.

It seemed that some girl in the park called her fat and Sae wanted to elaborate further but was stopped by Hino. Miyako wanted to grab Hino’s cake, but Yuno continued that there was a karaoke place that gave the amount of calories used and approximated one song to be around 10 calories. Hino’s eyes beamed up, saying that if she sang thirty songs, she could eat this cake. They went over to the Karaoke place, with her singing the first song and only burning 8 calories as she wanted to sing something more energetic.

As Hino was singing, Sae explained to the other two that a little girl came up to Hino when she was at the benches, saying that she was “kaka” (fat). Just when Sae was about to say which part of her body was fat, Hino stopped Sae as it was very embarrassing. Yuno assured Hino that she was not fat. Hino happily wrote 10 calories lost as she forgot to see the screen.

Sae was singing a love song, blushing quite a bit for some reason. Hino then told Sae to sing louder but the second part of the song was sung very off-tuned as she left the room and spotted Miyu-sensei singing too. Miyako was looking at the English song menu, hoping to find Japanese songs. They talked about how Miyu-sensei was the maker of the Buddha and it was originally a structure that was somehow ravaged by time to look just like what it was now. After that, they wondered how old Miyu-sensei was. Sae actually prayed at the statue as the person in the talk came back. Sae was pressed for an answer as she finally said that it was rumored by praying to the statue, since it was made by Miyu-sensei, would make her breasts bigger.

Hino was now shaking on her seat, having trouble resisting the attempts to eat any snack as it was Yuno’s turn. Even though the song was sung with the right lyrics, she was pretty tone deaf. What was equally amazing was how Miyako could copy Yuno’s style of singing flawlessly. It was Miyako’s turn and she was surprisingly good enough like a professional. It seemed that Miyako had helped to sing in some place in exchange for snacks. Hino said it was her turn, as the other three discussed which part of Hino’s body was fat since she had a perfect figure for a gal. Miyako talked about the arms, the neck and eventually the breasts, before explaining that she was not trying to be sarcastic toward Sae.

The topic changed as Yuno said she was going to rear the worm that was in the vegetables, instead of throwing it away like Miyako. Sae remarked that it was like Yuno to do something like that, as the phone rung. Hino picked up the phone as they asked whether any time extension was required. She was about to say yes when Sae took the phone away and said no as they had a last song. On their way back, they met up with the same girl, only to realize that she had said “Kaka” (pink curly hair) rather than “kaka” (fat). The girl also called Yuno very small, making her sad and wanting to drink tons of milk. Back home, Hino received her diet drinks as Miyako wanted some, only to be rejected since she would probably finish everything. With that, everything ended with a bathe and the worm being reared by Yuno.

Thoughts

Darn, this is getting better by the minute. The first two episodes might have been a little disappointing, but the next two episodes really redeemed it as one of the better series, a slice of life once again, of the winter season. Even though the winter season is nothing really to be wowed about, this series is proving to be a good mix of subtle humor and random linguistic play on words, which caught me by surprise every single time. The “Kaka”, the salted fish hung in a clothe hanger as well as Chi ku ling wordplay is really silly, like cold humor splashed with icy water.

They are really amusing to keep the fat gag on Hino all the time, and in various ways to display the paranoia of Hino who was perfectly shaped as a girl. This is remarked by Yuno and the likes, which means that Hino is definitely not fat. However, her own paranoia of things probably make her extremely sensitive and it is a good touch to see her gain 1 kg after the whole Karaoke in the ending part of the show.

She probably will go all bonkers trying to lose that 1 kg soon. Poor Hino.

Miyako is really pretty mysterious in a funny way. She seems to have a child-like behavior, yet having a lot of talents in various areas. I guess the part of her being talented in so many areas (drawing, singing, artistry) fits with the part that she’s so happy go lucky and that she is in fact an elite student. No one believes her since she is always so child-like sometimes. Poor Miyako, she is turning to be my favorite character since she livens up the conversation between the four.

The rumor about breasts getting bigger is hilarious. It is funny to see Sae, supposedly cool and not really moving in emotions, totally flustered. I can imagine the embarrassment in telling all the gals that she is praying to have bigger breasts. The last accidental talk about too fat breasts on Hino is also amusing when Sae glared at her. Hah.

It’s a pity that there is very little Miyu-sensei and her cosplay, even though her deprived thoughts of a “naked posture in the grass” is downright hilarious. In any case, this episode is really good and Hidamari Sketch is turning out to be a good series for Impz to blog, simply because it is short and funny at the same time.

Did I miss out any puns, linguistic play, parodies or humor in this episode? Share!