YMMV / Hanayamata

• Awesome Art: The first episode is ridiculously pretty and colorful. Not too surprising, when one realizes that the director's and studio's work for the previous season was No Game No Life, which also featured a vibrant color palette. Later episodes tone things down, but these bright palettes come back in full force during dramatic or otherwise yosakoi-related scenes.
• Broken Base: While Manga Time Kirara is not alien to drama (fellow contemporaries in Forward including Dream Eater Merry and School-Live!, for example), it is often seen to be the go-to source for light and fluffy Schoolgirl Series. As a result, opinion among watchers are divided between those who like the addition of a continuing plot with more than its fair bit of drama, and those who prefer a "traditional" Kirara series, like the shows that preceded it previously.
• Confirmation Bias: Machi starts deadset about her big sister Sally-sensei. She repeatedly tries to warn the budding Yosakoi club not to trust this irresponsible traitor of an advisor. She jumps at news about Sally quitting the school (rumors) on top of having witheld the information about inability to officially advise a club (evidently). Machi refuses to acknowledge reconciliation efforts of Tami and protests of Hana. On the other hand, Sally seems to be aware of the whole picture more than anyone. She stays tight-lipped through repeated Machi's ministrations (faltering only to deny the animosity, and only once). Imagining that her leaving the house makes a poor disposition for arguments (family expectations, traditions), as well as taking into account the common sense of dealing with Confirmation Bias (mind the age and age difference too), — Sally actually has been tearjerkingly caring about her younger sister the whole time. Things work out quite plausibly.
• Fridge Logic: "Ha" = Hana, "Na" = Naru, "Ya" = Yaya... leading to "Ma" = Machi, "Ta" = Tami.
• Les Yay: As a Kirara series, this is to be expected, but Madhouse goes the extra mile through its (stunning) visuals to lay things as thick as possible, what with the cherry blossoms, evening fireworks, and constant blushing. It doesn't help that Naru and Hannah's first encounter ended with what could be interpreted as a marriage proposal.
  • Not shown anywhere in the anime, but Yaya actually calls Naru her "secret lover" in the manga (chapter 4), and jokingly even calls Naru her "true love".
  • With the above entry in mind, Yaya acts more or less like a jilted lover during the entirety of the second episode, once Naru starts to spend more time with Hannah. She actually gets so jealous, that she plainly states to herself that Naru is hers, and she won't let allow anything to take her away.
  • This just escalates with every episode, with Naru herself saying lines that wouldn't be out of place in a yuri series. See her speech to Tami during the rain in episode 04.
  • See Machi feeling up Tami's thigh in episode 08. Sure, she was checking if Tami's complaints of their flabbiness really were merited, but the frames used in the scene could easily be taken out of context.