The protagonist of Hiiro no Kakera is a teenage girl named Tamaki. At the beginning of the first episode, she is revisiting a small village that she remembers from her childhood in order to pay her grandmother a visit. After getting off the bus, Tamaki realizes she's early. Instead of waiting of the person that her grandmother is sending to fetch her, Tamaki decides to try to navigate her way to her grandmother's house on her own.
As she navigates her way through an area dense with trees, Tamaki comes across a small, white round object that has sticks for limbs and talks. Tamaki chases after it, and finds herself attacked by three slime creatures. Tamaki is saved by a young man named Takuma Onizaki; it turns out that he was the one sent to meet her at the bus stop. By the time they reach Tamaki's grandmother's house, Tamaki doesn't have a good impression of him. Unfortunately for Tamaki, it turns out that Takuma is one of her new classmates at school. Takuma may be slow, but he has powerful strength.
Tamaki's grandmother explains that Tamaki has the blood of the Tamayori princess running through her, and that she is destined to become the next Tamayorihime after her grandmother. It's explained that the creatures that Tamaki encountered are demons, and that they are gods who are no longer worshipped. It's also revealed that there is a barrier in the area to keep the demons at bay, but that the barrier is breaking down due to her grandmother's time as a Tamayorihime coming to an end. Tamaki's grandmother summoned Tamaki to come so she can learn about being the next Tamayorihime and to repair the seal.
Hiiro no Kakera is definitely a series being aimed at a female audience. The two elements that make this abundantly clear is a focus on relationships and the fact that the male characters who have the duty of serving as Tamaki's bodyguards have a "bishonen" (beautiful boy) look to them. Takuma is one of her bodyguards; he is joined by the older yet immature Mahiro Atori and the emotionless Yuuichi Komura.
After seeing the first episode, I found myself interested in seeing more of the series and finding out how the story progresses. While it has a bit of a "stereotypical" setup for a series based on a light novel, I found the characters to be interesting enough that I wanted to learn more about them.
Visually, I saw nothing objectionable in the first episode of Hiiro no Kakera for younger viewers. I would personally recommend this series to anime viewers who are 13 or 14 years of age and older.
| Hiiro no Kakera | 13 | 2012 | Bob Shirohata | Studio Deen | Sentai Filmworks |
| Hiiro no Kakera: Dai Ni Sho | 13 | 2012 | Bob Shirohata | Studio Deen | N/A |
