# [Training, Sleeping and Bathtime with Hinako](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZDk2NzhmNDgtM2QwMC00ZTRjLThhNzQtMDAxZWNhZGZhZTVlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjgwNTk4Mg@@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg)
# …what is this about?
This is a Watch This! for a series of three OVAs, released between April 2009 and December 2010. It focuses on Hinako, a [normal highschool girl](https://preview.redd.it/j4kjlosnv93b1.png?width=853&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=8baabf868e04ed85bed600edadf3566503d8cb1e) who one day was transported into her TV while watching anime. She [quickly accepts her fate](https://preview.redd.it/3ufi6psnv93b1.png?width=853&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=eb6c601c133b38bf107bf3b2f5cd03e0480482a9) and now even stars in her own [Mahou Shoujo anime](https://preview.redd.it/zw0pmgtnv93b1.png?width=853&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=a448624e5011cecd35811e2be2d838839b709702)!
In the first installment of the series, Hinako is [training](https://preview.redd.it/c6s8ahtnv93b1.png?width=853&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=13439f0a50b8bca67a50f9d67453c1a656ff25bc) to lose weight, else she’ll be fired from her role as magical girl. She invites the viewer to keep her company and lose some weight of their own. In the second installment, Hinako is [sleeping](https://preview.redd.it/innivqsnv93b1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=e87dc36e6aba7d07515bda7bdb2d215c95359895) and invites the viewer to spend the night with her in restful slumber, having grown close after being training partners. In the third and final installment, we can follow Hinako during her **bathtime** and have a relaxing time in the hot water with Hinako and her newly introduced coworker. The series ends with a final workout after the bath.
# A Fabled Deconstruction
Deconstruction is a loaded term, especially when discussing anime. We just can’t agree on what it is about. For the sake of the argument, let’s [understand it like culinary deconstruction](https://youtu.be/fiXzVaqdIgo). Is the …with Hinako Series a deconstruction? “Hell no, it’s just ecchi trash” is what you may think right now, dear reader, after looking at the screenshots. “This is shlock. Nothing else.” And still, it even got a German dub, just like Bakemonogatari and Kizumonogatari (a trilogy of movies in its own right.) Because the Hinako series is an OVA series of focus, commitment, and sheer will. Something most ecchi anime know very little about. It is stripped of any fat, void of anything distracting from its goal. Hinako mirrors this, she was stripped of one dimension, strips off her clothes and has to lose fat, to become as lean as the OVA she stars in. If she does not become more attractive to the male gaze, the executives will cancel her role. Meanwhile the OVA only exists because her character design was appealing enough to be greenlit for production. The series is full of these direct meta commentaries, though the first installment is the boldest (narratively.)
Surprisingly subversive for an ecchi series, the frequent and nonchalant 4th wall breaks bring cult classics like Funny Games to mind. Instead of being a critique of ecchi OVAs, Michael Haneke made an entertaining and hyperviolent movie, arranged with surgical precision- in order to condemn violence for entertainment. Even the legacy of the movie, the of the shot for shot remake Funny Games US (also by Haneke), bears resemblance to the future of Hinako. And just like Funny Games, the intent of Hinako is lost between script and final product. What we get is the Cheetos equivalent of ecchi anime- devoid of nutritious plot, 100% manufactured to satisfy you with the crunch of cleavage and the cheese dust of intimacy. Not molecular kitchen, 100% scientifically engineered hyperpalatable perfection that would kill any Victorian child not accustomed to ~~junk food~~ pantyshots and [cleavage](https://preview.redd.it/c6s8ahtnv93b1.png?width=853&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=13439f0a50b8bca67a50f9d67453c1a656ff25bc).
Besides subversion, the OVA has another goal. Education. More direct than an Aesop, but less epic than a Bildungsroman, the OVA has a vigorous appeal to all the otaku watching: [Engage in light to vigorous activity](https://preview.redd.it/bpkaxpsnv93b1.png?width=853&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=d282d06d7338cddbd7187bc6eec6871e2a24f97c), lest your waifu will be disappointed. Hinako herself is quite intent that one works out with her, an enthusiasm that is all too rare in ecchi series. Another point where the series goes against the grain. All participants are quite willing. Hinako even quickly accepts her whole life being uprooted by mysterious forces and makes the best out of her lot in life, urging the viewer to become part of her life and strive for mutual improvement. Her vulnerable, naked self has a rare earnestness often missing in the genre. Turning her into an anime character is a literal objectification of a young woman for entertainment purposes, being so open about your own meta critique of yourself requires vulnerability.
# One must imagine Hinako happy
Life is repetitive. Work, eat, sleep, repeat. I harken back to B-Movie creature features that reused scenes from its own production or made series as a collage of earlier works, creating a new scope in art. But most repetition is not as artistically relevant. Work, eat, sleep, repeat. Training with Hinako is Sisyphean. But so is training in real life. Sure, when we engage in sets of 12 to 20 reps of pushups, we will improve until the boulder of gains can only go further uphill by working harder against gravity. But rest too long and you fall down, back to the bottom. Hinako works out. Then works out some more, and some more. [Costume changes](https://preview.redd.it/o5lbbqsnv93b1.png?width=853&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=4955fd05775d721d981e457cb40ecd72f5ce20f1) are not only for the gratification of the viewer, it shows the progression of time, an actresses daily grind just to stay in the role she is currently in. We see a shot for shot remake of earlier work out scenes, ever so often in different outfits. Work out, eat less, sleep, [repeat](https://preview.redd.it/c1tkmtsnv93b1.png?width=853&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=e6a174881fd55e79687fe95edb71f4dafb97ca9e). And Hinako is happy, for she has a goal to arrive at and a checklist to fulfill.
Repetition is also a central theme in sleeping with Hinako. But in the end it comes with a reward besides good sleep. The message for every hiki-neet is to become Sisyphus. Be like Hinako, don’t despair in the face of your unfortunate fate- embrace it. Make the best out of your life and do bodyweight squats while watching anime. Get a good sleeping schedule. Take a bath. Maybe then you can get a girlfriend too. At least you did something with your life and rolled the boulder uphill, at least for a little bit. Get a job, repetition is a part of life. Work, eat, [watch anime,](https://preview.redd.it/kbvt5htnv93b1.png?width=853&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=602a2e11ce097a347d7613b93d6f80deee1bcac8) sleep, repeat.
# 45′55″
The duration of Sleeping with Hinako is almost 46 minutes. Most of the time is spent in (almost) silence, simply watching Hinako sleep. It’s the dream of John Cage. 46 minutes of opportunity. Get all your friends and family (there is no full frontal nudity or nipples and the OVAs promote values like exercise and good hygiene so it is definitely meant for everybody), make them sit in full concentration and watch this OVA. Repeat it with another set of friends and more distant relatives after everybody shunned you. It will be two different experiences, just like every performance of Cage’s famous silent piece. You can do a lot with very little and you have to be bold. The OVA dares to center the viewer as integral part of the anime. If you ask me, the gamble succeeded.
# Watch Hinako
I won’t spoil the events in Sleeping with Hinako and will leave the plot of Bathtime with Hinako up to discovery of all readers. Though let me say, it is a reward for every viewer diligently working out and recovering with a good night’s rest following Hinako’s training. An experience unashamed of its genre and intensely aware of its goals and appeals, it is a seminal piece of OVA history after the death of the 80s/90s OVA and following the escapism boom of Haruhi Suzumiya and K-On! 4/10, fans of[ One Room](https://www.livechart.me/anime/2417) are urged to check it out.
The availability on streaming is poor, but you can find the DVDs for cheap or acquire a security copy at your friend’s place.
**Databases:**
[Training](https://www.livechart.me/anime/4640)
[Sleeping](https://www.livechart.me/anime/4686)
[Bathttime](https://www.livechart.me/anime/5259)
~May 31st of 2023
View Reddit by chiliehead – View Source