Handsome teenage calligrapher Sei Handa is worshiped by all his classmates as an aloof superstartoo bad Seis inherent negativity and neurotic personality make him believe that everyone actually hates him. A comedy of errors Its so ridiculous but it knows its being ridiculous I cannot help but love it The entire series derives humor from: 1. everyone is impressed by Handakun Hes a notable calligrapher And handsome And polite No matter who you are you have reasons to believe that Handakun is the best at whatever you dowhether youre the class rep who enjoys class repping or a thug who likes fighting etc. 2. Handa due to an old prank by a friend believes that everyone hates his guts and interprets literally everything through that lens. He gets nominated to be class rep? Obviously because no one wants to do it so theyll foist it on him. He gets pushed out of the classroom after school? Sure they said its so he can go focus on his calligraphy but clearly its because they hate being around him A note about connections to other things: This 12episode series is the adaptation of a manga which was the prequel to a series called Barakamon. Barakamon which came first is a comedic sliceoflife following youngadult cityboy Sei Handa whos been exiled to the countryside to calm his nerves and find inspiration for his calligraphy. And then theres culture clashes the city boy not knowing how to do anything and found family. Its a sweet series with its own humor but its very different from Handakun so if youre already familiar with Barakamon this series is much more slapstick. And if youre not already familiar with Barakamon youre probably fine. I read the Handakun manga first before reading or watching anything else and found it perfectly understandable. School fan clubs are common in anime but here we get the Handa Force a group of 4 classmates who have been inspired by Handa and of whom believe hes a genius of unmatched levels. The fourth member is an average student who besides Handas one friend who was responsible for making him believe the theyhateyou thing in the first place is the only student who actually figures out that Handa is justshy and nervous and stressed and that his schoolmates are ascribing motivation that he doesnt have and are just making Handas anxiety worse. And yet hes never able to convey this to Handa or the others in a way that doesnt already fit with what they believe and thus the cycle continues. Its a simple gag but I laughed so much while watching. I loved how it addresses the why doesnt someone just explain whats going on problem because if it could be solved that simply it would just be frustrating to watch. I hate those sort of communication issues. Instead its made obvious: the only person who can really explain is old friend Kawafuji who intended it as a prank in middle school but Handas innocent spirit believed him so hard he couldnt take it back. And also he thinks the whole thing is frikkin hilarious. Hell explain everythingsomeday but for now hes enjoying the show. Handa for his part think hes so unpopular that he refuses to be publicly seen with Kawafuji so Kawafuji wont suffer by association. This also conveniently means that no one will ask Kawafuji any questions so nobody is telling lies directly to anyone else its all just everyone going from 060 on assumptions. There are other characters but no one has made gifs I can find of the guy whose face almost matches Handas and impersonates him for a while or the athlete who thinks Handa is his nemesis or the girl who dedicates herself to erasing any other girl who dares to get close or the teacher who gets steadily scruffier as the year goes on Verdict English dub? Yes Theyre all great I didnt consciously think about their voices for the entire time I watched which is goodit means everyone sounded like they fit their character. Visuals: Light and brightly colored with good character designs that are distinct enough to make everyone easy to tell apart. Worth watching? Yes if you like wacky humor. This was just so ridiculous to me and I liked the predictability that everything would end with everyone having the same ideas Handa is Great at Everything group vs. Handas selfisolation. There was no attempt to make this a deep drama: it set out to be silly and it did it very well. Plus at 12 episodes it doesnt have time to get stale.