The setting is right. An onsen. Service should be automatic. But the running time is short. Can Onsen Yousei Hakone-chan deliver???
Anime
Onsen Yousei Hakone-chan is a anime that ANN describes like this:
Asahi Production and the Hakone-chan Production Committee announced on Wednesday that a television anime adaptation of Daisuke Yui‘s Onsen Yōsei Hakone-chan (Young Hot Spring Spirit Hakone-chan) manga has been green-lit. The “warm slapstick hot spring comedy” centers around a hot spring spirit in the popular Japanese resort town of Hakone.
The story follows Hakone, a hot spring spirit who descended to a spa resort on Earth. However, with her long slumber, she looks like a little girl on the outside. (The “Yōsei” in the title is a wordplay on the Japanese words for fairy and a young child.) The high school boy Tōya stumbles across her at a hot spring and ends up joining Hakone in retrieving her original powers.
Or as Wizard describes it:
That onsen fairy anime.
Anyway, it’s a series of shorts. Each episode has approximately three minutes of running time (3:30 total) and is scheduled to run for 13 episodes. The show is produced by Asahi Production and Production Reed.
Episode 01
Episode 01 is mostly setup and character introduction. With a boob grope scene at the very end. Nice…
Her name is Hakone. She’s the spirit girl (fairy girl) of the onsen. Short. But mischevious. Should make things amusing… But do be careful about dropping food into an onsen spring…
Her name is Haruna. Big sister, shrine maiden type. With an ample rack. Nice. Do like character intro shots like this in the show. So cute.
We haven’t been introduced to this girl from the OP yet. But I’m already liking her character design…
Somehow this stitch just communicates that Hakone is prone to deliver mischief…
And it doesn’t take long for Hakone to deliver. In the form of a boob grope scene! LOL. Too bad the end credits were playing at the same time though…
Somehow I see rough times ahead for mc-kun. LOL…
Episode 02
Episode 02 is more character introduction then dives right into the all important onsen scene! Nicer…
Seriously, does this onsen fairy spirit girl look all that innocent to you? Would you trust her? Or not?
Her name is Aki. The younger sister of Haruna. Could she be a tsundere? Another cute character intro shot…
On to the good stuff. Onsen time! Girls in an onsen setting just have to take baths don’t they? Only natural…. (Not many screencaps but a handful of nice stitches…)
Official Art
Due to lack of time (short notice) and lack of hype, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of official artwork out there. I did find a few pieces but more cute than sexy…
Overall
Short. But interesting. In a good way. My initial impression is that it’s cute, happy and mildly ecchi with above average artwork. I had fun making stitches for this show.
Short shorts tend to only have time for one gag per episode. More like a short comedy skit than anything else. It’s really nice when that gag is ecchi even if too short or too mild. But the girls did spend a lot of time in the onsen in episode 02. Here’s hoping for more…
So will there be nudity on the BDs? There have already been several opportunities. My initial vibe says probably not. It’s just too cute, too warm and fuzzy, and seems too much aimed at a younger audience. And according to Wizard, the manga was non-nude. But what makes things interesting is the production companies: Asahi Production and Production Reed. From what I can tell, the former has been involved with ecchi shows and the latter with hentai. So it’s a possibility. Hopefully Wizard can chime in with more info on their nudity track records…
Notes
You can find the full version of the cover image for this article here.
The first stitch in episode 02 is normalized. You can find the original stitch here.
All of my videos did make it into the article. For once. But you can find my albums for each episode here: 01 and 02.
