Anime Review: Hanabi-chan ~The Girl Who Popped Out of the Game World~
Musashi Shinonome has recently come of age, and has decided to reopen his inheritance from his grandfather, the pachinko parlor Shitamachi God Heaven. It’s been closed for a few years, so the new manager is surprised to find a pretty young woman living in the building. This is Hanabi, who is not exactly human. She’s a pachislot machine that has somehow gained the ability to assume a humanoid form!
You might be asking, “what’s a pachislot machine?” It’s a kind of slot machine associated with pachinko parlors, with a skill component that allows experienced players to have a higher chance of a payout. They’re highly regulated, a fact that comes up multiple times in the short series.
This cartoon is four-five minutes per installment, and is primarily a gag series revolving around the antics of Hanabi and other pachislot girls. The lazy Hanabi can shoot fireworks, enthusiastic Versus is superstrong and has befriended a bear (who also becomes a parlor employee) and motherly Thunder can call down the lightning. Manager Shinonome has his hands full trying to wrangle his new staff and get ready to reopen the business!
Despite being only twelve episodes long, the series has several different opening and ending credit sequences. This means we get to see Hanabi in several different artstyles in addition to the cartoony main version. All the characters are pretty much one-note with no particular development; they’re just here to set up gags. That said, the final episode is unexpectedly sweet and Hanabi doesn’t screw up for once.
Cultural note: “Tacoslot” here has to do with Japanese cuisine, not Mexican.
Content note: slapstick violence, gambling addiction is played for laughs, breast size jokes.
Overall: Well, I learned a little bit about a niche bit of Japanese culture. This is a dumb fun series that will work nicely as a short palate cleanser between more serious and deep anime viewings.
