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I genuinely do not get the hype for this one. Hamefura is just a harem magic high school slice of life with a villainess subplot. The title baits you into thinking, “it’s different this time” when in reality it isn’t. It’s the same story about a dense protagonist getting all the boys and girls she meets, and how everybody flounders in front of her to get her attention. It’s so bland to the point I won’t recommend it to anyone who watches anime somewhat critically.

Judging by its synopsis, Hamefura seemed like it had potential, and the first 3 episodes do deliver. The introduction of the main cast is paced very well, giving us a good picture of their personalities while progressing the plot. Katarina’s in-brain meetings are also a nice touch that is reoccurring in the series, serving to establish Katarina’s charm and the series’ appeal in striking fashion.

Unfortunately, everything went downhill from there. After episode 3, we experience a huge time skip and meet Maria, who was hyped up to be this final boss figure, only to be disappointed. Effortlessly, like any other character in the show, Maria quickly becomes one of the harem members, and I think you can see why that’s a problem. Maria is only one of many examples that displays how conflicts come and go way too quickly in this show, making them feel negligible. The unique villainess plot slowly fades, what took place is a B-grade slice of life with isekai slapped onto its name.

It even has the slice of life trope of a few final dramatic episodes. I will give credit where credit is due, the episodes resolved some plot threads that desperately needed answers, and they are some of the best episodes IMO. But, that also sheds light onto the show’s most glaring issues, more on that later. Let’s just start by saying this: Hamefura touched on the regrets of dying at a young age very briefly, that is very unfortunate. That scene where Katarina is reminiscing about her past life is truly one of the most powerful scenes I’ve seen in any isekai, but that’s exactly why it’s so unfortunate it is only given so little time. There was so much unrelished potential. It ended up with just one scene to wrap up the whole past life plotline, of which was much more interesting than the Fortune Lover one to begin with. 

That’s because the main cast is so lacking in personalities. In episode 11, we were greeted with Katarina sunk in sleep, unable to wake up. The whole cast began by turning on exposition mode and talk about how Katarina had changed their lives, then proceeds to all do the same thing of “staying by her side”, literally. Ignoring how cheesy that was, the drama really shows how “loving Katarina” overshadowed any kind of personality they had. It’s kind of ironic how a show based on gal games, which is all about the characters, has a bad cast.

The only arguable asset may be the girl herself, Katarina. On one hand, you can’t really hate her for the pure heart and for always doing the right thing while still having somewhat of a personality. But on the other hand, her cluelessness about her surroundings actually made me physically flinch sometimes. It goes without saying a double-edged sword in an already lacking cast is not what Hamefura needs.

The art and sound aren’t that outstanding either, of which the OP is the biggest offender. Fitting in whatever recognisable classical piano music with the right key is, honestly, quite cliche and uninspiring. Which for me kind of ruined the whole OP for me

nothing against the singer though she’s amazing. As for the animation, Silver Link is a studio with quality ranging from “kind of Kyoto Animation” to whatever J.C. Staff is putting out in recent years. I would say this lies in the middle of the spectrum, nothing too fancy or too awful.

Seeing the heaps of praise this show receives, I feel I must have missed something and or have gotten some things wrong. But, even after giving this show all the opportunities I can, I still failed to see the show’s appeal. In some cases, I needed to split episodes into 2 because watching it in one sitting is way too much for me. Hamefura is not irredeemably bad, I just feel the community is giving too much credit to such a mediocre show.