Yama no Susume 2-3
You know, perhaps it was because of the delay in watching the episodes or whatever, but I think I'm swinging back toward
Yama no Susume as the "you can do it!" show of the season.
Hanayamata has the infectiously (perhaps insipidly depending on your mindset) genki Hana to drive the show forward and to bring out Naru, but
Yama is a lot more subtle about it all.
Having a first season of short episodes do a lot of the ground work forced them to keep Aoi's development extremely efficient, without room for too much meandering. And while the half-episode length gives them a lot more wiggle room, they still keep the pace fairly brisk compared to a full length episode. There is no need for "filler" cuts that are just pans of the background, and you can feel the show move without it feeling completely rushed. Sure, episode 2 is probably mostly unnecessary in the grand scheme of things, because it just sets up the next little arc, but I don't really mind giving the characters a little time to express their personalities.
And it's strange. Aoi has had what amounts to one season's worth of character development... but all fit into what would be a single episode of a standard anime. So with the heavy lifting done, they can have her realize how she can inspire herself much more effective without being forced to show her as an extremely shy girl. It feels like a natural evolution of the character rather than something set up just to have her make a gigantic life-altering moment of self-realization.
Of course, comparing
Yama no Susume and
Hanayamata is more for the sake of having a discussion more than anything else. They both do the "make a friend and learn more about yourself" arc pretty well in their own right, and having two of these shows is great if you're into that arc. After getting a taste of
Tamayura again, and even in the
Non Non Biyori OVA, it's nice to have shows that are going to go deep into that character arc.
