Hundred (Season One)

Hundred Title

Hayato has arrived at Little Garden a floating fortress where he will learn to use a Hundred and help humanity fight back against the Savages. The Slayers are humanities only hope to reclaim their homeworld!

Hundred (Season One)

What did you watch?

Back in June of 2018, I was drifting from series to series as I tried to catch up on all of the anime… I saw a lot of great shows, but there was one that really spoke to me. I enjoyed it so much that I added the music to a playlist, which I still listen to although it’s much longer now, and jumped online to see if there was any news about a second season. There wasn’t. What there was, however, was a lot of people criticising and complaining about the series – Hundred. Had we watched the same show? Turns out we had, but it doesn’t matter what others think. I enjoyed it. A lot! So, I decided to rewatch it and try to document why! There will be spoilers beyond this point.

Hundred Episode 5 Claire challenges Hayato to a race

What happened?

Hayato, who currently has the highest ever recorded Hundred compatibility score has just arrived at Little Garden. His bizarre score has already made him a bit of a celebrity. Anyone that hadn’t heard of him was about to. After a crazy scene in the admissions ceremony, Hayato ended up in a duel with the Queen of Little Garden – Claire Harvey to decide the fate of three other students. One of them was his roommate Emile Crossfode.

During the duel, Hayato lost control and went into some sort of berserk mode, unlocking skills that were far beyond his perceived ability. It turned out that Hayato was a Variant, someone that had been infected with Savage blood and survived. There are very few of them in the world and surprisingly, Emile was one of them. If only that was the only secret Emile was keeping!

Hundred Episode 1 Hayato Kisaragi and Emile Crossfode

What did you think?

I will freely admit that this series is not perfect. It has its issues and I went into those as they came up in my episode reviews. That said I still love it. The bottom line for me is that this series has a fun cast of characters, a believable romance, and some hilarious ecchi scenes. When I think of ecchi, this is the sort of stuff that comes to mind. It’s primarily accidental and awkward, but also cute and endearing. There’s a lot of hate out there for this series, but I’m not buying any of it.

Hundred Episode 3 Claire Harvey

What was your favourite moment?

There were lots of great individual scenes but I’m going to go with the action from episode three. Hayato and Emile had been drafted in to help Claire, Erica, and Liddy as they attempted to take out three Savages that were threatening to destroy a populated island. This was the first time we saw the Savages and they were threatening and dangerous. Hayato managed to save Claire and the others but then lost control again. He was saved by Emile who kissed him. It was all pretty amazing, but it was Claire’s reaction once it was all over that did it for me. She was upset that Hayato had stolen her first princess carry, that Emile was actually a girl sharing a room with Hayato, and that they kissed on the battlefield.

Hundred Episode 3 Emile Crossfode kissed Hayato Kisaragi

What was your least favourite moment?

I was originally going to say the idol scenes, but that actually had a purpose in the story. So, even if they weren’t animated particularly well, I’m going to let them be and focus on the introduction of Claudia Lowetti, Emile’s friend from her homeland. She exploded into the episode and instantly became incredibly annoying. She then challenged Hayato to a duel, was easily beaten, and then tried to weasel out of her agreement. I’m just not sure if she actually added anything to the story.

Hundred Episode 7 Claudia Lowetti

Who was your favourite character?

It has to be Claire Harvey. She is the undoubted best girl in the series. At first, she comes across as this angry and overly confident queen, but she also has the ability to back that up. However, she started to show more and more of herself as the series went on. There were lots of small moments where she would say something that would reveal how she really felt about Hayato. Then, there was the scene at the lake where her character really shines through.

Hundred Episode 1 Claire Harvey

Who was your least favourite character?

Other than Claudia, I think I would have to mention Judal Harvey, Claire’s older brother. I feel like they were setting him up to be some sort of potential villain when that was actually Vitaly. However, that just made him come off as even more of a dick! I wonder if he would become more important to the story if it went any further. The light novels do, but they have not been translated so I’d need to learn to read Japanese which is something I’d like to do, but I don’t have the time right now.

Hundred Episode 7 Judal Harvey shows Liza to Hayato Kisaragi

Would you like some more?

I wanted more the first time I watched it and I still want more. This is one of those series where I would definitely watch any further material that was produced. As with most of my favourite shows, it often comes down to the characters and how well I connect with them. I liked the variety and the fact that not everyone was in love with Hayato. It was more complicated than that.

Hundred Episode 1 Emile Crossfode

What have you learnt?

One of the things that often holds authors back from releasing their work is the idea that it’s not perfect. As Leonardo Da’Vinci once said, art is never finished. Sometimes, we get so fixated on trying to make it the best thing in the world ever. Of course, no story can ever claim that. The problem isn’t with the story. It’s not even a problem. Everyone has their own tastes. There are different things that speak to all of us. That story that you’re working on your tenth edit. Maybe it’s time to release it into the wild.

I know I’ve been guilty of this in the past. Now, I’m trying to get to the point where I’m not writing a story for everyone. I’m writing it for me and if I’m lucky someone else will like it. If you look at the existing stories out there, I’ll bet there are some that you would consider fairly average, but you still like them. There are incredible works of art that people hate.

Stories like Hundred are great because they’re not great and they’re not trying to be. They are trying to entertain. I guess you need to work out why you’re writing a story and then work out just how perfect it needs to be before you can move on. There are plenty of writers that make a living selling pulp fiction.

Hundred Episode 12 Hayato Kisaragi attacks giant mecha Savage

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What did you think?