English Dub Review: Hinamatsuri “A Man Thirsty for Blood, Violence, and Money”

The penultimate episode of Hinamatsuri returns the focus to Nitta.

Overview (Spoilers Below):

When a reporter decides to do an in-depth documentary about Nitta and his life with the Yakuza, things don’t go as the poor investigator expects. Rather than going on murder sprees, Nitta just picks up his kid from school and plays video games with her. In the end, the final product that airs on TV is miles from the truth.

In the second segment, Anzu stays with Nitta for a while since her restaurant family has gone out of town to a hot spring. The occasion shows Nitta just how much of the short end of the stick he’s gotten by adopting Hina rather than Anzu.

Our Take:

As much as I usually enjoy Hinamatsuri’s wacky exploits and random plot lines of the week, I wasn’t a huge fan of A Man Thirsty for Blood, Violence, and Money. Because this episode focuses so much on Nitta and his life with the Japanese mafia and his time raising Hina, it neglected many of my favorite characters like Hitomi and Utako. The show’s main character is arguably Nitta, but he’s most often paired with another major character like Hina or Utako. Without them, I felt like this episode was just a little less dynamic than what I’ve come to expect from this show.

The initial storyline got me hopeful – upending the status quo by making Seta the reporter the ‘main’ character of the episode had the potential for a lot of humor. Unfortunately, Seta simply wasn’t as off-the-rails hilarious as most of the series’ other cast members. He’s fairly one-note and boring. Even his attempts to rig Nitta’s documentary footage are kind of a snooze fest. He just adds a couple shots of stacks of cash and misleading voiceover. At least the episode ends on a very funny note. Nitta’s deadpan expression combined with Hina’s puzzled, “Who was that guy?”, upon viewing the finished documentary is very good.

When it comes to the second half of the episode, Hinamatsuri kept up the humor but caused me to scratch my head a bit. This segment is funnier to me than the first one, with a lot of humor being derived from Anzu being contrasted favorably against Hina. While it made me chuckle more than the reporter storyline, it also feels like it may have dampened the relationship between Nitta and Hina. I’ve always felt he harbored a bit of genuine affection for the girl, but after his near-constant praise of Anzu… it’s hard to tell if he really even likes Hina at all?

The dub this week was as awesome as normal for Hinamatsuri. Jarrod Greene had to carry the episode as Nitta, and he did an excellent job. When the show began, I wasn’t sure how his accent would work for a Japenese show, but I’ve grown to enjoy the unique flavor it brings. A few of my favorite English lines from the episode: “Even the way you chew people out is wholesome.”  Nitta is a savage during his babysitting time with Anzu: “How much would it cost to trade Hina for you?

Overall, this week’s episode was a step-down from the last couple episodes. Hinamatsuri can be clever, hard-hitting, and very unique when it tries to be. A Man Thirsty for Blood, Violence, and Money has a few fun setups but fails when it comes to executing them with laugh-out-loud humor. Even if this episode won’t go down as an all-time great, it was still a solid 22-minutes of anime, and I’m eager to see Hina and Nitta’s reunion next week in what I believe to be the final episode.