Hinamatsuri (manga)

Hina Nitta (新田 ヒナ, Nitta Hina)

Voiced by: Takako Tanaka[4] (Japanese); Brina Palencia[5] (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[4] (Japanese); Jarrod Greene[5] (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.

Anzu Hayashi (林 アンズ, Hayashi Anzu)

Voiced by: Rie Murakawa[4] (Japanese); Amanda Lee (English)[6]

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[4] (Japanese); Tabitha Ray[5] (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.

Hitomi, at least in the beginning, is a milquetoast; generally bending over backwards for anything that is asked of her. However, as the series progresses and she acquires influence, Hitomi becomes more willing and able to use her connections against those who earn her scorn. When the cast learns about the bad future they need to avert, for example, Nitta is shown not caring at all - not even when Hitomi returns to Japan specifically to seek his aid in regards to that. As a result, she manipulates things so that all of Nitta's businesses go under, and, as a final nail in the coffin, nearly alienates Anzu from him, causing him to give in and start calling her "my liege".

Utako Sakura (桜 詩子, Sakura Utako)

Voiced by: Yōko Hikasa[7] (Japanese); Mallorie Rodak[6] (English)

The owner and original bartender of the bar Little Song. She blackmails Hitomi into working for her after Hitomi becomes highly skilled at bartending, but is soon made redundant in her own bar as her customers come to prefer Hitomi's drinks. Nitta was romantically interested in Utako, but she rejects him because she believes him to be a divorced single father, and Nitta later loses interest in her due to her self-centred personality. Despite this, she is shown to have another side to her; protesting on behalf of and serving soup to the ward's homeless on the verge of eviction, and arranging for Anzu to be taken in by the Hayashis.

Mao (マオ)

Voiced by: Ari Ozawa[7] (Japanese); Ariel Graham[5] (English)

Another esper with telekinetic powers from the same organization as Hina and Anzu. After being sent to recover them both, she accidentally lands on a deserted island and is stuck there for months without human contact, creating wooden puppet versions of Hina and Anzu to keep from going insane. Eventually, she manages to build a raft and ends up in China, where she studies kung-fu while subtly using her powers to rise near the top of the school. After a few years of training, she returns to Japan after being tasked to establish a branch of the school there, which leads to the establishment of a fitness instruction class called "Superhuman Fitness".

Yoshihiko Ashikawa (芦川 良彦, Ashikawa Yoshihiko)

Voiced by: Hidekatsu Shibata (Japanese); Bill Jenkins[5] (English)

The former head of Ashikawa-gumi. He eventually retires from his position due his advanced age and poor health, but maintains much of his influence. He dotes on Hina in a grandfatherly way, even using yakuza resources to assist her in such situations as running for student council president, and encourages Nitta to take a more active interest in raising her.

Kiyoshi Baba (馬場 清, Baba Kiyoshi)

Voiced by: Tsuyoshi Koyama[7] (Japanese); Tyler Walker (English)[5]

The second-in-command of Nitta's yakuza group. He views Nitta as a shameless brown-noser, but respects his recent accomplishments. He succeeded Yoshishiko as the new head of the yakuza group.

Sabu (サブ)

Voiced by: Kengo Kawanishi[7] (Japanese); Kyle Phillips[5] (English)

Nitta's underling in his yakuza group. He usually proves somewhat inept at whatever task he is assigned, such as debt collection, forcing Nitta to handle matters personally.

Tatsuhiko Naitou (内藤達彦, Naitō Tatsuhiko)

Voiced by: Tetsu Inada

Nitta's former mentor and the estranged father of Hitoshi. Known to be quick-tempered, demanding, and violent, he gave Nitta the scar above his eye. He spent several years in prison and is released in the months after Nitta starts taking care of Hina.

Hitoshi Maeda (前田 仁志, Maeda Hitoshi)

A boy who attends the same middle school as Hina, and later on develop feelings for her. Hina helps him work up the courage to confront his absentee father, Naitou.

Mami Shinjou (新庄 マミ, Shinjō Mami)

Voiced by: Eri Suzuki (Japanese); Lindsay Seidel (English)

One of Hina's classmates, and one of the few people who becomes aware of Hina's powers. She is obsessed with the paranormal and as such tends to gravitate towards Hina and also tends to jump to weird conclusions and overall acts like a younger kid than she is. She is also a loner in high school.

Sayo Aizawa (相沢 さよ, Aizawa Sayo)

Voiced by: Mikako Komatsu (Japanese); Jennifer Alyx (English)

One of Hina's classmates. She helps in the investigation to discover Hitomi's secret job. She tends to be very serious, although she also plays around for fun. She is also noticeably smarter than her classmates, and her defining trait is her glasses.

Yassan (ヤッさん)

Voiced by: Shinpachi Tsuji

Yassan is the homeless man who takes Anzu in after she fails to return to her home time. He teaches her the value of hard work and money, and becomes a father figure to her. After the ward administration evicted them from the park they were staying in, he brokered a deal through Utako for the Hayashis to take her in as their daughter. Yassan meets Anzu again after the time-skip, getting a bowl of ramen from her cart.

Hinamatsuri has been serialized in Kadokawa's magazine Harta since 2010, and has sixteen tankōbon volumes.[3] English manga publisher One Peace Books has licensed the series for publication in North America.[8]

A 12-episode anime television series adaptation by Feel aired from April 6 to June 22, 2018.[9][1] The series is directed by Kei Oikawa with Keiichirō Ōchi writing the scripts and Nippon Columbia producing the music.[10] 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.[9] 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 anime, while Funimation streamed an English dub.[11]