is a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 series created by GoDo, directed by Shigenori Kageyama, and produced by Genco. It was aired on Chiba TV

Chiba TV

, doing business as , is a Japanese commercial terrestrial television broadcasting company headquartered at 11-25 Miyako-chō 1-chōme, Chūō-ku, Chiba serving Chiba Prefecture but spill-over is received in the neibouring prefectures. It is a member of the Japanese Association of Independent...

 from April 8, 2006 to July 1, 2006 and afterwards got a second season, , and a short manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 to connect the two, .

Plot

Kasumi Kogen, which translates to "The Village of Mist", is a town somewhere in rural Japan. In this town there is a school, the Shinobi Gakuen, where competent female students gather from all over Japan and train to become kunoichi

Kunoichi

is the term for a female ninja or practitioner of ninjutsu .-Etymology:The term is thought to derive from the names of characters that resemble the three strokes in the kanji character for ; said in the order they are written: ku - no - ichi...

 (female ninja). The people of Kasumi Kogen are alumni of the school, and they run and jump and disappear as if the whole town were a big ninja house.

The story begins as a girl, Himawari Hinata, arrives in Kasumi Kogen. She has transferred to Shinobi Gakuen to train under Ichikawa Raiso and fulfill a dream of becoming a kunoichi that she has fostered since she was saved by one in her childhood. On her first day, she meets Hayato Marikoji, a teacher who is himself just arriving at Shinobi Gakuen, and he saves her life. Hayato does not possess any ninja skills; he is teaching the students about normal Japanese society in order to pay a large debt that was originally his friend's dept but was pass down to him. However, Himawari notices that Hayato bears the same mark on his neck as the ninja who saved her when she was young.

Himawari! is the story of Himawari and her journey to become a kunoichi, and the vow she makes to protect her teacher.

Characters

The female lead of the story. She was rescued by a ninja with an odd mark on his neck. Ever since then, she had sworn to become a ninja. The story begins with her trying to gain entry into the ninja academy.

She meets Marikoji Hayato, the male lead, after a foul-up of her training (hangliding on a kite) which causes her to become stuck on a giant gate pole. Hayato attempts to rescue her, leading her to refer to him from then on as "Hayato-dono" (dono is a suffix used for samurai to respect their honor). Her one and only dream is to become a great kunoichi despite her classmates finding her annoying and unskilled.

A single, 24 year old man who took the job as a teacher in order to settle a two million yen debt. Hayato wanted to quit his job when he found that the whole village is not normal and that the students he was teaching were ninja, but Himawari's rescue from being run over by a train had changed his mind.

Hayato doesn't fit in with the surroundings but manages to find a way to survive. For Hayato, it's his luck, his ducking ability when confronted with someone more skilled than he is, and some of his students taking a shine to him. On top of that, Hayato is skilled at throwing darts, which translates into moderate skill throwing kunai.

Because of his debt, Hayato spends most of the series trying desperately to earn money. This also results in Hayato spending much of the series scrounging for food.

Azami is a collector of (sometimes useless) information. He's strong-minded and high-spirited. He masquerades as a girl in order to attend the girls' school in which he acts as a spy for the students of a nearby boys' ninja school. This situation is known by the girls' school and tolerated since Azami also provides information about the boys' ninja school.

A grey-haired kunoichi-in-training who wears glasses. She is very knowledgeable about medicinal herbs and is among one of the more serious students in the ninja academy. One exception to her seriousness is that she keeps secret contact with Nanafushi, a male ninja from the boys' ninja school. Her ninja teleportation is slow, warping the scene, unlike the other ninja. She sometimes lets her hair down.

Yusura is a cute, young animal-themed kunoichi-in-training. She has panda-like paws, a tail, and animal ears and frequently compares various things to other animals. She is also shown to have the ability to converse with animals, and accordingly is in a relationship with Yonezawa, a kappa.

Yusura's pet animal whose attacks consist of farting. Yusura nursed it to health when it was injured, starting their friendship. So it gets jealous when it sees her with anyone else, especially Yonesawa.

This dark-skinned, strangely-speaking kunoichi-in-training is an expert in weaponry; carrying and using guns without restraint. She also uses a large sword. Himeji is half-American and dislikes cold temperatures.

This traditionally-clad young woman with a mysterious demeanor and elf ears is another kunoichi-in-training who doesn't appear very often. When she does, she's always eating miso soup. She either gives advice, shows the major characters what's concurrent events through her miso soup, gives someone the miso soup to eat, or some combination of the above.

He and Shikimi meet when she finds him in bottom of a pit in the mountains, immobilized by a leg injury. Though the two have good rapport, which others take to suggest romance, they maintain a casual friendship with limited contact. Nanafushi makes occasional appearances in times of need.

, , and

(The Boss), Yui Kano

Yui Kano

is a female Japanese voice actor from Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. She currently works for Aoni Production.-Anime cast in:*Ayakashi ~ Japanese Classic Horror as Wominaheshi *Chrome Shelled Regios as Dalshena Che Matelna*D.C.S.S...

 (Wabisuke), Miho Miyagawa (Sabisuke)

"The Boss" is a green-haired woman who rescued two kids, Wabisuke and Sabisuke, who have since been her subordinates. She believes that Hayato is a descendant of someone who killed her ancestors (later revealed to be Oda Nobunaga). After many bungled assassination attempts and suffering from being at the wrong place at the wrong time, she learns that Hayato is not her enemy.

A surprisingly friendly kappa. He is Yusura's boyfriend. He likes to eat cucumbers.

Theme music

Opening themes

• First season: "Taiyō no Kakera" by Ryōko Shiraishi
  Ryoko Shiraishi
  is a voice actress from Nara, Japan who works for Aoni Production. Due to her low and gentle voice, she is often cast as either the effeminate-and-kind young man or the sexually mature but sweet-and-sensitive supporting lady...
  
  
• Second season: "Sorairo no Tsubasa" by Ryōko Shiraishi

Ending themes

• First season: "Guruguru ~Himawari ver.~" by Eufonius
  Eufonius
  Eufonius is a Japanese progressive rock music group which debuted on October 11, 2003 with the release of their first album Eufonius which was also an independent release. The band has produced songs for various anime and video games, such as Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl, Himawari!, Noein, True...
  
  
• Second season: "Kirakira" by Eufonius (episodes 1, 8, and 13), Aya Hirano
  Aya Hirano
  from Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, is a Japanese voice actress and J-pop singer who has had roles in several anime, visual novels, and TV commercials in Japan. She was contracted to Space Craft Produce, a branch of the Space Craft Group, for her voice acting career, and for her singing career,...
  
   (episodes 2, 9, and 12), Kana Matsumoto (episodes 3, 6, and 10), Mayumi Yoshida (episode 4), Ryoko Shiraishi (episodes 5 and 11), and Asumi Nakata
  Asumi Nakata
  is a female seiyū and a Japanese child model who was born in Tokyo, Japan. She is 173 cm tall.She belonged to the talent agency Crayon, subsequently to Five Eight and Switch 58...
  
  (episode 7).