The Hidamari Yurilevels Project exists to provide a source of data from which interpretations can be drawn as to whether or not the series gets gayer with time and on which Hidamari is the gayest. As with Season One, I feel it proper to summarize the findings of Hidamari Sketch x365 and to determine larger trends, both intra-seasonal and compared to Season One. The analysis of Hidamari Sketch x365 will observe patterns within the season for episodes and characters, determine an overall Aoki reading for the season, determine overall Ume readings for each character, provide explanations for these figures, and compare the figures with the overall readings of Season One.
Analysis of Episode Readings
The episodes of Hidamari Sketch x365 have been listed below and ranked by Aoki reading:
- Episode 05: 2.2437A
- Episode 12: 1.7643A
- Episode 07: 1.6913A
- OVA 03: 1.5589A
- Episode 13: 1.5318A
- OVA 02: 1.4650A
- OVA 01: 1.3957A
- Episode 06: 1.3226A
- Episode 03: 1.2625A
- Episode 09: 1.1768A
- Episode 08: 1.0602A
- Episode 02: 1.0329A
- Episode 01: 1.0193A
- Episode 11: 0.8776A
- Episode 04: 0.8449A
- Episode 10: 0.7437A
Figure 1: Aoki Readings of Episodes - Season 2
The linear regression gives a slight increase that is slower than the trend for Season One, suggesting more consistency in Aoki readings.
Episode readings trended to be in the low- to mid-1 Aoki range, and unlike in the last season, there isn’t a clear divide between lewd episodes and non-lewd ones; Episode 04 (wherein Miyako is defiled and Sae and Hiro are caught in flagrante delicto) is probably the closest to having a consistently lewd atmosphere throughout, but it’s only one data point (though notably, it’s the second-least gay episode in the season). As such, a comparison between lewd and non-lewd episodes is not possible for Season Two. This is not to say there is no lewdness in this season, but there is certainly not as much as there was in Season One: there are no swimsuit episodes, fewer visits to the bathhouse, less frequent cosplay scenes from Yoshinoya, and fewer instances of lewdness on the whole. Most yurilevels in this season came from emotional or physical intimacy (touching of the shoulders, head, and hands which is not overtly sexual) rather than sexually-charged comments or situations. This itself is an interesting trend, and if the second season has more yuri overall than the first while being less lewd, then it could still suggest a contrast between lewdness and yuri and therefore that yuri is a pure form of love (consistent with findings in the Season One analysis).
Generally, the high-yuri episodes this season focused on the characters’ relationships with each other: first place by 0.5 Aokis went to Episode 05, which featured the Hidamaris fawning over Chika, while second and third place both featured the Hidamari residents operating as a unit (Episode 12 shows this unit under stress, while Episode 07 shows this unit being formed). The remainder of the high-yuri episodes show the Hidamaris doing things together and being friendly.
Meanwhile, the low-yuri episodes either shifted focus away from the Hidamari residents (such as Episodes 02, 03, 04, 09, and 10) or featured the Hidamaris in situations where they couldn’t convey notable intimacy with each other (such as Episodes 01 and 07), while Episode 11 is an oddity since on the surface it seemed to be high in yuri content, but was held down by its very high scene count which concentrated yuri too tightly to give it a high reading. Overall, Hidamari Sketch is gayest when focusing on the Hidamaris, which is logical.
Analysis of Character Readings
Hidamari Sketch x365 included the secondary characters much more heavily than Season One, a trend reflected in the increased number of data points for character readings:
Figure 2: Ume Readings per Episode - Season 2
On the whole, the main cast rose and fell with the general yurilevel of the episode, particularly Sae and Hiro, and until Natsume gave up on her rivalry with Sae there weren’t any major outliers affecting the overall episode readings. The side characters, who weren’t as tied to the overall readings, significantly varied in how their readings changed throughout the season: Yoshinoya and Chika stayed fairly static, the Landlady declined steadily, Kuwahara flared briefly in the third quarter, and Natsume began to decline before hitting heights no character has ever come close to matching beginning in Episode 10.
The secondary characters had two main impacts on the overall yuri of the season: by providing more data, they balanced and slightly raised episode readings, but their presence also caused there to be more scenes, which again concentrated yuri and would therefore have lowered readings. These effects seem to cancel each other out, and because they still had a minimal presence compared to the main cast it would have been a small impact anyways.
Season Yurilevel Readings
Like in Season One, overall readings were determined by treating the season like a very long episode and adjusting the formulae in the Methodology accordingly. Season Two had 18,489 seconds of scene time across 436 scenes, with a total of 1,159 yurilevel readings recorded.
Season 2: 1.2559A
Hidamari Sketch x365 was noticeably gayer than Season One, with the second season reading exceeding the previous one by 18.6 percent. As mentioned before, this increase is largely attributable to a greater focus on the intimacy and closeness between the Hidamaris. Nearly all episodes stayed between 1100 and 1200 seconds long, so no single episode had a substantially weighted effect on the season reading.
Characters:
- Natsume: 2.588U
- Chika: 2.152U
- Sae: 1.653U
- Hiro: 1.623U
- Yuno: 1.320U
- Miyako: 1.146U
- Landlady: 0.849U
- Yoshinoya: 0.834U
- Kuwahara: 0.305U
Figure 3: Yurilevels of Tracked Characters - Season 2
The readings of the Hidamari residents specifically are also being tracked from season to season, since the nature of the investigation lends itself to a secondary analysis of which Hidamari is the gayest. The current order is Sae, Hiro, Yuno, and Miyako, but this is still temporary.
Figure 4: Yurilevels of Hidamari Residents - Season 2
Comparisons with Season One
Compared to Season One, x365 had more scenes, used more characters, and was more even in tone and characterization; most of these effects have already been described above. Season Two recorded over twice as many yurilevels, and the larger pool of data works to balance itself out and prevent single incidents having undue influence, which means the season reading of 1.26 Aokis is more credible than the reading from Season One (this does not mean the Season One reading is discredit, just that it has a greater margin of error).
Every character substantially increased their yurilevel readings, with two characters ending above 2.0 Umes for the entire season. Changes in the readings of the Hidamaris are reflected below:
Figure 5: Yurilevels of Hidamari Residents - Seasons 1 & 2
Again, everybody in Hidamari Apartments got gayer, with Yuno nearly doubling her yurilevels, Hiro substantially rising, and Miyako and Sae having small but noticeable increases.
Evaluation of Expectations for Season Two
The Season One Analysis predicted that Hidamari Sketch x365 would “have more consistent yurilevel readings since the show will have a better-established identity and mood” and that “yurilevels may go up slightly, but for most characters I don’t expect significant increases (with Natsume as an exception)”. While x365 did have a more consistent tone that prevented large disparities of the type seen in Season One, there were large increases in yurilevels across the board both for episodes and characters, so this part of the prediction proved false (except for Natsume, who really did become gayer).
Expectations for Season Three
The most important difference that xHoshimittsu will bring will be the introduction of Nori and Nazuna as new main characters. This will probably cause another major increase in the number of scenes, since there will be more characters for the show to juggle, but the higher number of scenes in this season certainly didn’t prevent the show from increasing in yurilevels and I doubt it will hurt xHoshimittsu. As for group scenes, Nori and Nazuna will weigh down scene readings unless they prove just as gay as the current Hidamari residents, but because they likely will be as yuri, if not more so, I expect further across the board increases in the next season (except maybe for Natsume, since it’s hard to think of how she could get much gayer ).
Season Three analysis will begin within the next day, and at the current pace of investigation will be finished in late March to early April. The revised expected timeframe for an overall conclusion of the investigation is mid- to late-May.
Corrections:
2/26/2013: A tabulation error in Hidamari Sketch x365 OVA 02 gave Hiro a higher reading than she should have received. Her erroneous initial reading of 1.626 Umes has been corrected to 1.623 Umes.
3/13/13: A math error caused by improperly tabulating the N value of Scene 9 resulted in an original episode reading of 1.7578 Aokis. This has been fixed; the graphs will be updated at a later time.
6/25/13: The season Aoki reading was mislabeled as an Ume reading. This has been corrected.
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