AKA: いっしょにとれーにんぐ (Issho ni Training: Training with Hinako)

Genre: Fan service disguised as a fitness video

Length: OAV, 25 minutes

Distributor: Currently licensed by Sentai Filmworks through their Maiden Japan label.

Content Rating: 16+ (incessant fan service)

Related Series: Sleeping with Hinako, Bathtime with Hinako and Hiyoko

Also Recommended: Video Girl Ai

Notes: People have asked me on numerous occasions whether or not this entire series is just a massive joke. Nope, this is legit. ANN lists this as only 10 minutes long, but does not account for the intentional repetition of video clips that constitutes the exercise portion of this title.

Rating:

Training With Hinako

Synopsis

High-school girl Hinako has been sucked into her favorite anime, and needs to lose weight so as not to be "canceled" and trapped in the anime world. So she's decided to start a training regimen with you, the viewer!

Review

Of all the stupid ideas the Japanese could have come up with...

Okay, it's actually not THAT stupid of an idea to have an anime exercise video. After all, there are plenty of exercise video games (Wii Fit, Biggest Loser, etc) and, before that, plenty of exercise videos dating all the way back to The Jane Fonda Workout in 1982. This is simply a natural extension of that.

The problem here lies in the presentation: instead of simply giving us a cute girl showing us how to properly exercise, instead we have 16-year-old Hinako chattering cutely at us while the camera captures her in increasingly inane and perverted camera angles. Hinako's time in the anime world has given her substantially more curves than her "real-world" origin, and she Gainax-bounces through the entire production - I'm pretty sure in the first ten minutes you get cleavage, side-boob, under-boob, and everything short of actual nudity.. It doesn't take long to realize that they don't care whether the viewer is actually doing pushups and situps (the anime makes literally no attempt to explain or display proper exercise form, or diversify exercises) or are simply exercising their right wrists instead. It doesn't help that Hinako apparently has little to no shame - even the "title cards" for the exercises seem to essentially be sharpie-markered on her body in various states of undress. And then she flirts with you, at times while dressed in nothing more than her underwear, because one of the key points of this anime is that it has no fourth wall.

It becomes very clear then that this is not a pure "exercise video" but more of an exercise in relentless fan service, as even the sound effects emphasize her boobs. Near the end, the video almost completely dispenses with even the pretense of exercise, as Hinako simply lies on the bed counting to twelve, as apparently it's summer and she's too hot or exhausted to go on. And that's it.

It's hilarious that this thing even pretends to have some sort of storyline, and Muneshige Nakagawa (the one guy responsible for this whole mess) has stumbled upon some sort of moe masterpiece here, though at least unlike its sequels, Training with Hinako does at least pretend to be something else other than pure fan service. The sad thing is, I would actually want to watch whatever anime Hinako was watching and is now supposedly starring in, as her seiyuu Mai Kadowaki is really bizarrely cute.

However, *this* show is one hot mess.

If you actually take this at face value as a fitness video, Training with Hinako is at least of limited utility, so it barely avoids the dreaded one-star rating, unlike its sequels. — Carlos/Giancarla Ross

Recommended Audience: No nudity, but you pretty much get your eyeful of cartoon high-school-girl boobs and butt and crotch. While jiggling. Not for children, though I imagine teenage boys without access to Google images might get a kick out of this.