Midori no Hibi
Title: Midori no Hibi aka Midori
Days
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Company: Studio
Pierrot
Format: 13
episodes
Dates: 4
Apr 2004 – 27 Jun 2004
Synopsis: Sawamura Seiji, also known as the
infamous “Mad Dog Sawamura” for his brutal fighting style and powerful
right-handed punch, is one of the school’s most feared “delinquents”. He’s
capable of everything, it seems… except for finding a girlfriend. When one day
he starts wondering if his right hand will remain the only girlfriend in his
life, something unusual happens: He wakes up with a young girl named Midori as
his right hand – she’s cute, she’s in love with him… and she’s attached to his
right wrist…
The Highlights
Plot: Hilarious
premise.
Humor: Wackiness
galore.
Characters: Quirky
and likable.
Drama: Sometimes
very powerful.
Music: Catchy
and light-hearted.
Fanservice: Too
much naked skin.
Mood: Drama
doesn’t always work.
Side
characters: Unresolved issues galore.
Ending: Forced
and weak.
“Will I
ever have someone to replace my right hand as my girlfriend?” Answering that
question (which quite a few young men must already have asked themselves) by
giving poor Seiji a girl as a literal right hand is probably the funniest thing
I’ve heard in my entire life. The concept sounds a little perverted (and it’s
meant to be), but fortunately, Midori no Hibi refrains from becoming an ecchi
series… most of the time, that is.
The show
has its greatest moments when it just concentrates on sheer situation comedy,
and there is plenty of that coming when you have a tiny nude girl instead of a
right hand. Add to that two characters you wouldn’t want to lock dental braces
with – Seiji’s dominant sister Rin and the obsessed otaku Takamizawa – that
cross paths with our protagonists way too often and you have a guarantee for
the wackiest situations since FLCL. And while Rin and Takamizawa are a good
start for funny and well fleshed-out side characters, there are a few more, and
almost all of them are so quirky and likable you’ll really be looking forward
to seeing more of them. Only one of the characters doesn’t work because he has
way too little screen time and that is Midori’s friend Kouta.
Midori no
Hibi isn’t only about comedy, though… there are quite a few serious moments in
the show revolving around Midori’s life before she became Seiji’s hand, and
they are sometimes very powerful and captivating. Rather often, what seemed to
be an annoying or just funny trait becomes an unresolved, rather serious
dilemma in the life of one of the characters. Things aren’t always as funny as
they look, and when comedy and drama collide, the series has its strongest
moments.
Unfortunately,
these moments are rare, and all too often, they are stifled by the only really
annoying aspect of Midori no Hibi – the fanservice. There are enough nude
breasts in this 13-episode series to outweigh the entire Baywatch cast in the
boob department, and there is even a stereotypical onsen episode which only
serves the purpose of seeing Seiji’s sister topless. Some dramatic moments are
lost to nudity while others don’t work because you just don’t care about the
problem which could be resolved if people just started talking with each other.
Sorry, this has been done better before – Fruits Basket comes to mind.
As the
series progresses, it gets increasingly weak until the final episodes try to
resolve everything at once… and fail gloriously. The worst aspect is that the
side characters you really started to care for are never resolved and don’t get
the happy ending they deserve. Did I say happy ending? They don’t get any
ending at all; the script just forgets about them! And as for Midori and Seiji,
while their relationship is resolved, it is done forcibly with the infamous
Scriptwriter’s Crowbar, and it ends in fifteen minutes of running around and
five minutes of stereotypical dialogue. Of course, trying to finish a series
based on an unfinished manga isn’t easy, but Midori no Hibi never even comes
close to living up to its hilarious premises.
If I still
consider this a series worth watching, it’s for the wonderful comedy, the
quirky characters and the catchy music. Had Studio Pierrot waited for the manga
to be completed (or at least for it to become long enough to make this a
26-episode series), many of the problems could have been prevented. Too much
too quickly – that’s Midori no Hibi in a nutshell.
