Hirayasumi Anime Promises a Cute Slice of Ordinary Life
And not just finished, but great! The team at Production +h. still has to finish the rest of the season before the show's January 2027 premiere, but barring any serious production difficulties, Hirayasumi seems like a safe bet for one of Winter 2027's better-looking shows. Keigo Shinzō's award-winning manga's soft line work and rounded designs, along with the watercolor backgrounds of its cover art, translate perfectly to animation. It's gentle, cute, and instantly appealing, and it suits this laid-back slice-of-life story perfectly.
Also appealing: an ordinary adult protagonist! 29-year-old Hiroko Ikuta is still technically on the list of anime adults I'm older than (the first time I felt “old” was when I realized I was older than Spike Spiegel), but he's very relatable as a freelance worker dealing with finances, anxiety, and disappointment — and very likable in how he chooses to approach his life with utmost positivity. He's not good at talking to girls his own age, but old ladies love him, and one in particular invites him over twice a week for tonkatsu dinners. When “Granny” dies, Hiroko inherits her house, and his 18-year-old art student cousin Natsumi Kobayashi moves in with him.
In terms of plot, not much happens in this first episode, and from the sound of things, there might not be much plot in the series as a whole. There's light humor throughout, but it's not exactly a comedy. Granny's death might be the big inciting incident (and there are some well-observed notes on how grief hits Hiroko later than he thinks it will), but it's not going for big weepy drama either. It's a pure iyashikei series, content to just be nice and pleasing — and when the world feels so mean, that niceness might just be enough to hook people. I knew I needed something like this after watching a depressing movie and reading some horrifying news earlier. Someone brought a baby to the screening, and it didn't feel too distracting; it's the sort of show where the occasional baby noise in the background kind of fits the vibe.
After the screening, composer Kaori Sawada, anime producer Junichi Katsutani, and Junya Okamoto from manga publisher Shogakukan did a Q&A. Seeing the episode for the first time was most surprising for Sawada. While she communicated more with the rest of the creative team than she had on most live-action dramas, she wrote the music without seeing the animation, submitting a bunch of pieces without knowing exactly where they'd be used in the show. The show's use of her score fulfills her intention to “complement the story rather than override it,” keeping the mood relaxed and subtle. She was impressed that some of her more comical music in the tonkatsu scene led into the more serious funeral scene, blending heaviness with lightheartedness. Sawada praised the show's diverse cast of characters (presumably there are more to be introduced in future episodes), and how there are “no true villains.”
While Sawada's presence meant the most detailed behind-the-scenes discussion centered on the music, Katsutani made sure to also call attention to the show's animation. He described Shinzo's manga as “having a gentle touch that's also very fresh,” and made sure the crew “protected and respected that.” He singled out the contributions of character designer Naoyuki Asano and character designer Mika Nishimura, who “took their time and paid a lot of attention to the small details.”
Okamoto thanked the audience for taking a chance on something that's “a slightly different kind of anime than you're used to seeing.” Promising he wasn't “talking smack” about other series, he said, “there's no ogres, there's no monsters, it's an everyday story about a hyper-local residential area.” He thinks this may be “the first time” such a low-key manga has been animated. I'm sure iyashikei fans have evidence to dispute this claim, but at the very least, this is the first time Shinzo's had a manga adapted into animation after several live-action adaptations (while the Hirayasumi anime was announced before the live-action drama, the live-action one ended up airing first). He realizes Hirayasumi might be “hard to describe,” but thinks it's a “must-see anime” that can connect with a wide audience.
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KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.