Hinako Note

Born and raised in the countryside of Japan, Hinako "Hina" Sakuragi gets anxious easily when she talks to new people—so much so that she resembles a stiff scarecrow. To overcome this, Hina hopes to get involved in theater, inspired by a play she saw during her school's field trip. So, Hina moves into the Hitotose Manor in the bustling city of Tokyo to study at Fujiyama High School, aspiring to join the school's renowned theater club.

But to Hina's dismay, she learns that Fujiyama High's theater club has been on a lengthy hiatus. Having already come to Tokyo and enrolled in the school, Hina is at a loss for what to do next. Sensing her disappointment and eagerness to learn theater, Chiaki Hagino, the landlady of Hitotose Manor, encourages Hina to create a troupe with the residents of Hitotose Manor as its members.

Hinako Note follows Hina as she begins a new life in Tokyo attending Fujiyama High while learning the ropes of theater with the support of her friends along the way.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Natsukawa, Kuina Main

Tomita, Miyu Japanese

Sakuragi, Hinako Main

Ichimichi, Mao Japanese

Hiiragi, Mayuki Main

Ogura, Yui Japanese

Nakajima, Yua Main

Kouno, Marika Japanese

Hagino, Chiaki Main

Toujou, Hisako Japanese

Kuroyanagi, Ruriko Supporting

Yoshida, Yuuri Japanese

Hinako's Mother Supporting

Satou, Kanami Japanese

Chiaki no Chichi Supporting

Sasa, Kenta Japanese

Ruriko's Mother Supporting

Inoue, Kikuko Japanese

Chiaki's Friend Supporting

Ueda, Hikaru Japanese

Tanaka, Shou Producer

Isogai, Noritomo Producer

Saitou, Kazuhiro Producer

Kurosaki, Yuuki Producer

Reviews

Feb 19, 2022

BP2004

Recommended

Story: 7 | Art: 7 | Sound: 7 | Character: 8 | Enjoyment: 7.5 | Overall: 7

A cute, fun and short comedy anime about a girl with anxiety who moves away from her farm to try doing live acting performances to make herself more confident. She stays with a few other girls who become friends and has a great time with them all.

Someone else who reviewed Hinako Note mentioned how this is great to watch when you've had a tiring day and stuff, which I much agree with. It was also great for helping me calm down before going to sleep or getting ready to ... go out somewhere such as appointments and meetings.

There were some things that I thought weren't too necessary (some mildly perverted scenes lol), and just a couple times where they have some comedic scenes go on at wrong times or longer than it needed to.

Overall this was still fun to watch, it's nice for calming you down or just to see Hinako's first steps to getting over her anxiety while also having cute funny moments along the way. I don't know if I'd watch it again but either way it was still a nice show to put on when stressed.
-15/02/2022 (edited 19/02)

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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May 4, 2020

starfarts

Mixed Feelings

This is a checklist anime, a perfect 5/10 series, a show crammed with cliches and cardboard characters/situations. For example, here is a leaked conversation between executives:

"So listen, Bob. The first couple episodes aren't getting great ratings."
"That's terrible, Jim!"
"We need to get more viewers or this will just be 'Jiggly Jiggly Heaven' all over again."
"Okay, so I'm just going to add boobs. Lots of boobs."
"Great! Make sure to take the amount of boobs you're thinking of adding and double it!"
"Boobs!"
"Booobs!!"

There was definitely potential to tell an interesting story, but about a fourth of the way in I noticed that all of the character progression was taking ... place off-screen. I'm a big fan of the live-work scenarios because it provides two big stages for arcs, and I also enjoy country-to-city backgrounds too--it's a handy way to show things off to audiences without seeming like a shitty tour guide. I have no problems with the checklist characters either, and all the VA was done splendidly; likewise, animation is of a high standard.

But Hinako's entire arc from frightened scarecrow to actress is skipped. Instead, most scenes are about boob closeups, yuri panic, cute chibi set pieces (which I really found charming), and things otherwise unrelated to the "central plot." There's the swimsuit shopping/beach episode, the sleepover/training camp episode, the school open house episode, the visiting mom episode, etc etc etc.

I 100% have zero issue with generic anime or generic anything if the execution is good and there's even a grain of soul/originality/passion/creativity involved. Hinako Note does not have any of those things. Is it bad? No. I did finish all twelve episodes after all, but for the last four I found myself only half-watching while I browsed hent--educational websites.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Apr 3, 2025

ggol

Not Recommended

Brief overview: One of the most annoying voice acting I have ever heard in my life

Story 5/10
Hinako spends most of her life in the countryside growing up and doing hard labour. One day she decided to move to Tokyo and transfer to a nearby high school where she lives. At the same time she is not used to being around lots of people and learn decided to learn the way of life from the people in the city. When she visited her high school one club caught her eye which is the theater club. She is excited to join but learns that the club is ... on a temporary hiatus and the club needs her help to reopen it. This is when the story of Hinako's note begins. It is a by-the-books story where cute girls do cute things and school life, but oh boy what ruins this series is the voice acting.

Characters 3/10
Now, I normally don't criticize the voice acting in anime but fuck, the voice of the characters in this series makes you want to rip your ear's out. They literally put almost all the characters in a high-pitched voice INCLUDING the main protagonist throughout the series it makes the characters sound like squirrels talking for 99% of the time. Those voices heavily impacted the anime, nothing against the voice actress, but whoever directed this holy shit they need to work on their hearing that's for sure. Apart from that the characters are fairly average and by the books standard for a slice-of-the-life anime.

Animation 8/10
The animation is very good for that time. They combined both standard and chibby styles together which makes the animation pretty cute most of the time. Apart from that there really isn't anything special about it.

TLDR
Overall, is a generic story of cute girls doing cute things and school life with a pretty adequate animation that has been put into it. However, the only thing that ruins this series is the voice acting. The voice actress is forced to voice in this ridiculous way of high pitched voice and they did it to more than one character which makes the anime very painful to watch all because of the voice.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Hinako Note Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Apr 21, 2017	54 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Jul 17, 1:36 AM
	Poll: Hinako Note Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Apr 14, 2017	57 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Jul 17, 1:31 AM
	Poll: Hinako Note Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) poosh_ink - Mar 17, 2017	96 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Jul 17, 1:15 AM
	Poll: Hinako Note Episode 6 Discussion Stark700 - May 12, 2017	34 replies	by Alkimia »» Apr 24, 8:50 PM
	Poll: Hinako Note Episode 5 Discussion Stark700 - May 5, 2017	32 replies	by Alkimia »» Apr 23, 11:01 PM