Issho ni Training: Training with Hinako

Maybe we're beholding one of the best examples of experimental anime.

At first sight, this OVA may seems a boring, stupid, full of fanservice animation, sure it is, but it has a weird charm that make you forget you're watching the same three scenes of abdominals, push ups and squads. Hinako has the typical anime girl attitude, and invites you to practice with her, talks to the camera and even gives you a kiss. This is the epitome of weeb culture, the reason why this page exists, the cute-girl-doing-cute-things at is maximum.

Of course, after some time with the same scenes it becomes a bit tedious, ... but then, Hinako's clothes change for a really cute underwear and then for some sports clothes. The fanservice gain a new level but the anime stays far from being vulgar or an almost-hentai anime.

The so annoying phrase "is not for everyone" really fits here. This is not an animation for common people, it just finds a way in the hearts of the most cultured men. People who are over the self called "otaku" who only watches the seasonal shonen, over the kid who thinks Sora no otoshimono is ecchi, this anime is for the person who really enjoys the fanservice as a inherent part of anime, because this is not anime, is fanservice at its purest form.

In "Training with Hinako", Hinako was once a person, but somehow, she gets sucked into the TV and gets turned into an anime character. After noticing you watching her, she is surprised since she hasn't seen an actual person in a while. So she decides to interact with you, by calling you pudgy and saying that doing some training could help the both of you.

Sitting through this, I didn't expect it to have some actual plot. I was expecting the anime to pretend that you were friends with the cute girl who would like someone to train with because she secretly has a crush on ... you as well as you having a crush on her, or it being a training video with the trainer being something to look at while you're using this as the laziest exercise video in existence. Instead, Training with Hinako has this weird meta story to explain it's existence. I guess it's something different, which is nice.

After the first few minutes of introducing the character and the exercises that she, and what your supposed to do along with her if you're not just being lazy, will be doing the rest of the OVA. It also features Hinako wearing different clothing throughout the OVA, but all of them are worn very briefly (bah-dum-tish), and it doesn't actually show her changing it and out any of the clothing presumably because that would have been time consuming and would have gone over the meager budget, it will just cut to her wearing something different in the same shot.

The fact that there is more than one set of clothing is a minor miracle, because I wasn't expecting her to appearing anything else to begin with. Also, in between the exercising, the OVA is broken up by joke credits, featuring scenes from a magical girl series featuring Hinako that doesn't exist. That's probably due to the fact that the DVD has some minor interactivity, allowing the viewer to rearrange scenes.

Would I recommend "Training with Hinako"? Yeah. It's cute, but not annoyingly cute. Sure, it's not wank material, but I expect it to appeal to someone. It might not have the variety or quality of something like (Makura no Danshi ENG: Pillow Boys), but it's remarkably well put together for what it is, and seems to be earnestly trying to be enjoyable. It's not going to be for everyone, but I imagine someone getting something out of it.

I'm guessing this was made to encourage shut-in viewers that physically let go of themselves over time. While at most this seemed to be a decent idea as inspiration for those people, over time I came to witness the unrelenting persistence and unwavering passion to lose weight that Hinako had possessed. At first, it seemed great, we even had decent angles to encourage us even more as we went through this adventure with Hinako, but as time passed it seemed Hinako's stamina was far beyond what I had imagined, even having the ability to switch her clothes in a short amount of time and keep ... going made me rethink everything I ever thought about my body weight and mindset. The ED was kind of confusing and seemed unrelated to the OVA as a whole.
At the very least this OVA is a revelation, and if needed, could motivate with your exercise if you desire to do so, although previous preparation and stamina training would be highly recommended from me.