Hinamatsuri (Japanese: ヒナまつり) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masao Ohtake. It was serialized in Enterbrain's magazine Harta, formerly known as Fellows!, from June 2010 to July 2020. Its chapters were collected in 19 tankōbon volumes. The series is licensed by One Peace Books. An anime television series adaptation produced by Feel aired from April to June 2018. The story follows yakuza member Yoshifumi Nitta, who ends up taking care of a mysterious girl with telekinetic powers named Hina who inexplicably appeared in his apartment.
Contents
Plot
Yoshifumi Nitta, a mid-level Yakuza of the Ashikawa-gumi, finds his normal life thrown into chaos when a girl from the future literally drops on his head without warning. Knowing nothing more than her name, Hina, and the fact that she has incredible psychokinetic powers, Yoshifumi reluctantly becomes her de facto father. However, Hina's arrival sets off a chain reaction of events that affects everyone in the city, especially after more girls from the future arrive to bring her back or terminate her.
Characters
Main characters
Hina Nitta (新田 ヒナ, Nitta Hina)
Voiced by: Takako Tanaka (Japanese); Brina Palencia (English)
Hina is the titular heroine, possessing superhuman abilities such as telekinesis. Originally hailing from the future, she went back in time in a pod and landed on Nitta's head. Due to Hina threatening to break his furniture, Nitta reluctantly lets her stay. As he takes care of her, Nitta begins to feel more and more like a parent. Over the course of the plot, Nitta and Hina's relationship grow to the extent that they consider each other to be father and daughter - Nitta would welcome her into the Nitta family as his daughter, in front of his mother and sister.
Nitta enrols Hina in school at her request, but she does not usually take it seriously, often sleeping in class. At home, she usually lazes around and plays video games. She is very particular about food, despite demonstrably lacking a refined palate; her favourite food is salmon roe. Although Nitta cares for her, Hina can annoy him to the extent that she gets kicked out of the apartment (temporarily). Nitta often compares her to the diligent Anzu, a fellow esper, and imagines being her father instead.
Yoshifumi Nitta (新田 義史, Nitta Yoshifumi)
Voiced by: Yoshiki Nakajima (Japanese); Jarrod Greene (English)
Yoshifumi Nitta, mostly referred to by his surname Nitta, is the series protagonist. He is a member of the Ashikawa-gumi yakuza, later to become its lieutenant (kashira). One day, a portal opens from the future and drops Hina in a pod on his head; she threatens to break his furniture if he doesn't let her stay.
Nitta acquired cooking and housekeeping skills to take care of his mother and younger sister after his father died, and his hobby is collecting rare porcelain vases and urns (which Hina often destroys). Initially, Nitta presents Hina to his family as Hina Adachi, the daughter of an imprisoned fellow yakuza he is fostering. However, he decides to acknowledge her as his daughter after realising just how much their relationship has grown.
Supporting characters
Anzu (アンズ) / Anzu Hayashi (林 あんず, Hayashi Anzu)
Voiced by: Rie Murakawa (Japanese); Amanda Lee (English)
Anzu is another superhuman with telekinetic powers like Hina. She is initially sent to kill Hina, but loses to her in a contest of strength and abandons the mission. Unable to return to the future because the device necessary to do so was inadvertently damaged, she is taken in by Yassan, a homeless man. He invites her to join a homeless camp in Tokyo, where she learns the value of hard work and money.
When the camp is evicted from the park where they were staying, Anzu is adopted by a couple who run a Chinese restaurant, the Hayashis. She starts to adapt to a normal childhood; though retaining her values from her time with the camp. Anzu's conscientious and dutiful nature (a far cry from who she was when she first arrived in the present) often makes Nitta wish she were his daughter, instead of Hina.
Eventually, Anzu's parents decide to close down their restaurant, prompting Anzu to start up her own mobile ramen stand, which Nitta and Sabu frequent. When Hitomi visits the stall with her employees, one of them recognises her as his adopted younger sister. Later on in the series, Anzu bans Nitta from visiting the stall after a misunderstanding involving Sabu, although she later unbans him after Sabu apologizes.
Hitomi Mishima (三嶋 瞳, Mishima Hitomi)
Voiced by: Kaede Hondo (Japanese); Tabitha Ray (English)
Hitomi is Hina's classmate in middle school, who has trouble saying no to helping people. When Hina asks her to tag along whilst she investigates what Nitta is getting up to, she's left all alone at Little Song. Mistaken for a bartender, Hitomi proves superb at tending bar, leading Utako to blackmail her into working at Little Song. Through a series of coincidences, she is taken for an adult, and starts working at more and more jobs whilst trying (and failing) to be a normal student. She also accumulates connections to influential businesspeople, politicians, and yakuza. Hitomi climbs the ranks so fast at one company, that she ends up President - hiring her father under her adult guise when he is laid off from his job. Later on, she resigns from her job to escape the corporate world and moves to Florida, but somehow ends up CEO at an even bigger company.
Media
Manga
Hinamatsuri is written and illustrated by Masao Ohtake. It was serialized in Enterbrain's magazine Harta (formerly known as Fellows!), from June 15, 2010, to July 15, 2020. Its chapters were collected in nineteen tankōbon volumes.
English manga publisher One Peace Books has licensed the series for publication in North America.
Anime
A 12-episode anime television series adaptation by Feel aired from April 6 to June 22, 2018. The series is directed by Kei Oikawa with Keiichirō Ōchi writing the scripts and Nippon Columbia producing the music. Rie Murakawa performed the opening theme song "Distance", while Yoshiki Nakajima performed the ending theme "Sake to Ikura to 893 to Musume" (鮭とイクラと893と娘, transl. "Salted Salmon, Salmon Roe, 893, and the Girl") as his character Yoshifumi Nitta. The second ending theme titled "Shashin Jō" (写真帖, transl. "Photo Book") by Yoko Ishida is used in episode 6, while episode 12 uses two ending themes: "Taisetsu na Hito" (たいせつなひと, transl. "Someone Important") by Haruka Chisuga and "Hajimete no Kimochi" (初めてのキモチ, transl. "First Time Feeling") by Ari Ozawa as her character Mao, respectively. Crunchyroll simulcast the series, while Funimation streamed an English dub.
Reception
Hinamatsuri was nominated for the 52nd Seiun Awards in the Best Comic category in 2021.