Hyakko’s Tight Rope Act
Over the course of years I realized that voice acting can and sometimes does make or break a show.
Another thing is that despite all of my forceful indifference towards Aya Hirano, I think she did make Manabi Straight a more fulfilling experience. It’s not that I liked her acting in particular, but I realized she was able to convey honest emotions through her acting and that’s really the heart of acting. At the same time, both Marina and Hocchan were able to deliver a little bit more of the sublime between the gaps of what they don’t say, through those thoughtless “um”s or “etto”s. Perhaps it’s only fair to chalk all three of their acts to good writing and directing, too.
But will Hyakko, perhaps the immediate analog of Manabi Straight since, well, Manabi Straight, say much the same? I hope not. It is certainly not because I didn’t like what was expressed in Manabi Straight, but this is not something so simple that a writer can copy and generate the same or better effect. It is like hoping, praying and giving your own children guidance to what they want to become when they grow up. It may be troublesome if both of them seek to take over your estate, and it might be for the best if that black sheep ends up moving to a big city and make a (different) name for herself.
Still, with any ragged-tagged gang of mercenaries, dim-wits, rich busybodies and earnest adventurers, it takes time for that chemstry to jell. If heart-felt harmony (Azumanga Daioh?) and (r)evolutionary unity (Mikan Straight!) are what await us at the end of the journey, then Ayumi Nonomura’s ragged-tagged gang has a long(er) ways to go! Chemstry? What chemstry? How do you jam someone like Michiko Neya in there? I guess we’ll find out with Aya Hirano right in the center of it all.
And if Hyakko doesn’t take the oft-trod path (Strawberry Marshmellow) to do it, all the better.
