Hamatora The Animation
ハマトラ THE ANIMATION
- Action
- Mystery
- Super Power
- Episodes
- 12
- Duration
- 24 min per ep
- Aired
- Jan 8, 2014 to Mar 26, 2014
- Status
- Finished Airing
Synopsis
In *Hamatora The Animation*, rare individuals known as “Minimum Holders” are born with “Minimums” — small, miracle-like abilities that set them apart from everyone else. Private investigators Nice and Murasaki are two such holders, running the Yokohama Troubleshooting agency, nicknamed Hamatora, from a single table at Cafe Nowhere, where they and their associates wait for clients to wander in.
Their routine cases take a darker turn when the requests arriving at the café begin to echo an investigation led by their police officer friend, Art. A serial killer is targeting Minimum Holders, and with the victims linked by the same unusual trait, Nice and Murasaki find themselves pulled into the mystery — especially as questions arise about how the mastermind’s plan connects back to Nice himself.
Otaku Consensus
Hamatora The Animation earns its following through Seiji Kishi and Hiroshi Kimura’s brisk mix of super-powered action, detective-case banter, and oddball ensemble comedy, with reviewers consistently singling out the cast as the series’ strongest asset. Its weakness is just as consistent: the 12-episode season spends too much time on episodic detours, making the central mystery feel less disciplined than its concept deserves. The result is a moderately enjoyable urban-superpower mystery with enough personality to outlive its uneven pacing.
Why You Should Watch
Watch Hamatora The Animation if you want a superpowered detective show with loose, fast-moving casework rather than a dense procedural. It scratches some of the same itch as Bungo Stray Dogs or Darker than Black: urban ability users, crime scenes, sharp personality clashes, and a city where the weird is treated like part of the job. The appeal is not airtight plotting; it is the energy of Nice and Murasaki working out of Cafe Nowhere, bouncing from comedy to violence with a cast reviewers repeatedly called more entertaining than the story structure around them. At 12 episodes, it is an easy commitment for viewers who like stylish action-mystery anime with male-led buddy dynamics and do not mind a season that favors character flavor over narrative compression.
Key Characters
- NNice(VA: Ryouta Oosaka)
Nice is the show’s kinetic center, the kind of protagonist fans remember less for solemn heroism than for how casually he turns a detective job into a provocation.
- MMurasaki(VA: Wataru Hatano)
Murasaki works as Nice’s cooler counterweight, giving the lead duo its dry, buddy-investigator rhythm rather than letting the series run on chaos alone.
What Makes It Stand Out
- 1
The season was produced by NAZ and aired as a compact 12-episode Winter 2014 run from January 8 to March 26, giving it the rhythm of a short, case-driven action mystery rather than a long-form shounen build.
- 2
Its reception profile is notably split: MyAnimeList lists it at 7.24 from 134,465 votes with popularity rank #903, while AniList places it at 69/100 with 650 favourites, matching the common view of a liked but uneven cult-leaning title.
- 3
The creative structure is unusually staff-heavy for its length, with Seiji Kishi as chief director, Hiroshi Kimura as director, and both Jun Kumagai and Touko Machida credited for series composition.
- 4
Makoto Yoshimori provides the music, a notable credit for fans of urban ensemble anime since his name is strongly associated with the sound of Baccano! and Durarara!!.
- 5
AniList’s tag spread captures the tonal whiplash that defines the show: Super Power at 100%, Crime and Detective both at 79%, but also Slapstick at 60% and Gore at 40%.
Fun Facts & Trivia
- Fun fact 1
- Hamatora The Animation credits Yukinori Kitajima as original creator and Yuuki Kodama for original character design, giving the anime a concept-and-design identity beyond a simple studio assignment.
- Fun fact 2
- Touko Machida is credited twice in the production data: as co-series composer with Jun Kumagai and as a script writer, making her one of the key hands shaping the season’s episode-to-episode voice.
- Fun fact 3
- Only Nice and Murasaki are listed as main characters in the provided cast data, reinforcing how much the anime’s identity rests on its two-man investigator dynamic.
- Fun fact 4
- The web-review consensus is unusually consistent: critics called the characters fun and the intrigue enjoyable, but repeatedly identified the volume of filler-style episodes as the central flaw.
- Fun fact 5
- The show’s genre labeling is lean but telling: Action and Mystery on MyAnimeList, with Super Power as the dominant theme, while AniList adds Urban Fantasy, Crime, Detective, Kuudere, Slapstick, Episodic, and Gore tags.
Studios
- NAZ
