After a somewhat enjoyable but largely scene-setting first episode to Hidamari Sketch x365 (which was very much welcome in my case, having not seen the original series yet), the second episode fast forwards us by almost a year. To be honest, this confused me a little bit, but thankfully after a while it all fell into place and made a little more sense.'Slice of life' series that this is, there really isn't a huge amount to talk about by way of a plot, with the episode instead featuring a whole host of little vignettes that mould together into what was quite honestly a very entertaining twenty-five minutes. While its first episode didn't give me any real laughs to speak of, there were some deliciously funny moments to be had here, which still managed to fit in with the beautifully understated nature of the series as a whole.As I mentioned last time around, it's hugely important to create likeable characters for this kind of series, and luckily Hidamai Sketch x365 has these in spades, from the four main characters through to the teachers we've been introduced to so far, all with their own foibles to add to their own individual comic value.Sure, a lot of the gags and themes are pretty old hat in the grand scheme of things; for example poor eyesight, Valentine's Day chocolates and so on, but yet these very seem subjects still managed to tickle my sense of humour enough to get a laugh out of me, perhaps providing that the old jokes are sometimes the best.While I have to confess that I feel like I'm maybe missing out a tad having not seen the original Hidamari Sketch series, as it means I've lost a grounding in some of the character's personalities, it still hasn't effected me enough to stop me enjoying this series so far. I'm always willing to lap up a 'slice of life' series provided it has sufficient quality, and this particular episode has certainly buoyed my hopes that Hidamari Sketch x365 can prove to be exactly that for this season.
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