My Little Impressions: Hilda · 11:23am Nov 12th, 2018

So, I'm here to talk about...

My Gods, this series is beautiful.

Okay, rewind; don't want to count our eggs before they hatch now. Hilda is a Netflix original series about a young girl named Hilda who moves to the big city of Trolberg from her home in the forest. Along the way, she interacts with various mythological creatures and in many cases, befriends them. Think reverse Gravity Falls -- if Dipper and Mabel were from Gravity Falls and went to the City instead -- meets Percy Jackson, but with Scandinavian lore instead. By all the Elders, this series is astounding. Coming from someone who collects and archives various folklores and myths, these are both gripping and accurate representations of many old myths. You can tell the writers did their homework while working on this series!

As it's a Netflix original, I went into Hilda with a degree of apprehension. I haven't found a Netflix series yet that's actively held me till the end. I've heard good things about Castlevania -- but I have yet to watch it -- and Disenchanted kept me entertained for maybe five episodes before I stopped watching. I was nervous that Hilda would fail in some way and I'd find myself walking away from it before it was finished. But I was so very wrong; if anything, it's the opposite. The series is very short, clocking in at only 13 episodes long. When I finished the last episode, I rolled over in my bed and bemoaned that there wasn't more. I felt it was too short for something so wonderful. It had moments that made me smile, ones that made me cringe in sympathy, and ones that made me laugh out loud. The characters are interesting, the world is immersive, and the animation is amazing. It really is reminiscent of Gravity Falls, only more fluid. In wide shots, the characters get simpler models, which I found jarring at first, but then I realized; it was so as to not distract from other things: the backgrounds most of the time, but also the vastness of what the characters are doing or a long silence placed for emotional impact.

The story of Hilda isn't much, because there really isn't much of one. It's a Slice of Life series through and through. There are continuations and events from prior episodes come back to haunt the characters -- sometimes literally. The continuity is well maintained and, as a fan of shows like MLP and Adventure Time, continuity is vital to me. I found those moments when events come back up to give me a spark in my chest, like when I saw something similar happen in MLP. Even something as simple as a well-placed name drop is enough to make me grin on this show.

Now, this doesn't mean Hilda is without faults. It's painfully short and has a few moments where I feel like the writers could've gone a step further with the drama to make it hit harder. The last, and most minor issue, is the things left unanswered. With only 13 episodes, Hilda left a lot unexplained. What happened with Frida's book? Will David stop getting bugs on himself? What is up with that damn librarian!? I'm hoping beyond hope that this series gets a second season, because my Gods, it was great. It was a wholesome, beautiful story about growing up that melted my heart and improved my mood.

For anyone with enough free time, I'd advise this series wholeheartedly. And for those of you without the time make the time. If you're a fan of cartoons -- and given your choice of fandom, that is pretty self-evident -- then I suggest you sit down and give this wonderful little journey a shot.

After all, such is the life of an adventurer, right?