Hinako Note Episode 4 Review – “Scarecrow Heroine”

The series continues to progress slowly and predictably.

(Spoilers in this review) 

Hinako and Kuina find out that the advisor, Ruriko, is a 9 year-old genius child actress who is extremely developed for her age. She has returned from her trip to Europe and has learned how to be a good advisor. However, she wants to keep the theatre society as a society instead of an official club for various, undisclosed reasons.

I’m not saying that it’s wrong for the show to depict a 9 year-old who is that well-endowed, but some shots specifically focus on her assets and it is a bit discomforting to see considering her age.

Mayu heads over to practice to see how Hinako is doing on dance. To no one’s surprise but Mayu’s, Hinako is paralyzed by shyness because there’s too many people surrounding her. Mayu tries to show Hinako how to dance to a song and ends demonstrating that she’s amazing at dancing and instantly gains a fan club consisting of the theatre society member. Hinako also demonstrates that she’s a stellar singer.

It was previously estabished in episode 2 that Mayu is hesitant to start acting. We get to see why later on in this episode, but the fact that Mayu is a ballroom star could be a reason why she’s persuaded to join the theatre society. The other members could beg for her to join and it just works out that way. I’m not quite sure how Ruriko knew instantly that Hinako would be a great singer, but she did.

The show then jumps to a scene where Mayu and Hinako are working at the coffee shop/cafe. Chiaki heads out to see a small theatre trope perform and Mayu, who wanted to go down to the station with Chiaki in order to eat ice cream together, acts clingy. Hinako and Kuina try to shower her with attention and affection, but Mayu doesn’t want to be treated like a child. Chiaki returns home late at night and brings home ice cream (from the place near the station).

So here we see why Mayu is hesitant to pick up acting…I guess? I mean, if Mayu is jealous of theatre, which Chiaki priotizes above all else, then why doesn’t Mayu just join theatre so they can spend more time together? I don’t think this was very well thought-out. I’m also getting fed up with Mayu already.

The episode ends with Ruriko choosing Hinako as the heroine of the play they’ll be performing at the cultural festival. Apparently Hinako matches the ideas Ruriko had concerning the heroine’s voice, singing, and figure.

Yua lost a lot of points from me since she was so adamantly against Hinako being the heroine. I get that she is prideful and that she supposedly doesn’t mean what she says, but Yua really did said some mean things. The series just seems to be unable to get away from jokes about girls’ physical assets, too. At least there was no obligatory “show Hinako reflecting on her day as she takes a bath” moment in this episode.

Four episodes in and all of the main characters in the OP and ED are finally formally introduced. It took a while, but now things should start picking up. However, Hinako Note is just progressing too predictably and slowly. Every episode can be summarized within a couple of sentences if need by. That usually isn’t a problem for this type of series, since “all girls’ slice-of-life” shows are more character-driven than narrative-driven, but the cast in Hinako Note are just unengaging as a whole. We did get to see Hinako and Mayu reveal some unexpected talents and all, but they are also the most boring characters so I can’t find myself to care. This show isn’t showing too much promise.