YORKTON - There is no doubt games with a Japanese flavour generally attracts the attention of The Meeple Guild.
So Hanami from designer Aki Watakabe, artist Mirika Kimura, and publisher J&M SPACE Entertainment definitely caught our collective eye.
The game has an interesting creation process.
“I’ve been running an Airbnb hostel for foreign tourists in Japan for about 10 years,” said Watakabe via email. “I thought it would be nice to make a board game that those tourists could take home as a souvenir from Japan.
“Whenever I travel abroad, I always buy local board games as a memento of my trip. I thought there were no such products in Japan that were worthy of such a product, so I decided to make one.
“I hope that people from all over the world will feel, remember and look forward to Japan while playing Hanami.
“By doing so, I hope to achieve the goal of having fun conversations unfold through the game. This game is not language-dependent. So people from all over the world can play together. People from all over the world visiting Japan and playing together will also lead to world peace.”
Hanami is a game in which players enjoy the cherry blossom in Spring. Apparently all over Japan, parks and gardens are full of cherry trees in full bloom, and Japanese people enjoy Hanami, sitting under the blossom to eat and drink and party, which actually sounds like a pretty good diversion in our hectic world.
That said the ‘theme’ doesn’t exactly permeate the game, although in fairness rarely does any theme manage that other than through the art and here the art is functional on the cards but certainly not elaborate.
This is a strategic territory capture game with a new and changing board. Herein lies the game’s greatest strength. The board is – well modular, so each game it can be laid out differently, although how great an impact that has on game play is questionable.
But, the board, or portions of it at least, can be shifted in-game too. This ‘feels’ important, but proved to be less so than the imagines, in-art because the card combos which trigger the ability to shift the board happen less often that we would have liked. A greater ability to shift the board would certainly meet with Meeple Guild approval.
The boards are also interesting in the sense they “are made from real natural rush grass and are all handmade using recycled tatami mats used in Japanese-style rooms. With the cooperation of Fujise Co. Ltd., a tatami shop in Osaka founded in the early Showa period, we were able to realize an upcycle that makes use of Japanese traditions from the perspective of the SDGs. Fujise also wants to create tatami, a Japanese culture, in various forms and share it with the world, so we decided to have him join us,” notes the publisher.
“Players can feel like they’re in Japan by touching components made from real Japanese materials. The tatami boards are made from Japanese rush grass, so they can even smell the scent of Japan.
Through Hanami, we hope you can experience a real Japanese Sakura viewing experience,” said Watakabe.
Hanami is card-driven. Players are trying to collect sets of three, runs and flushes – it feels a tad like rummy -- which when laid down allows the player to ‘capture’ spots on the board – you place a stone to claim it.
When the deck runs out the player who has captured the largest area – orthogonally connected as we interpreted the rules tends to be the winner, although not always.
Each player gets points based on their largest area, and then a few other scoring elements kick in before you know who wins.
Overall, this one offers a decided charm, and simple rules which still necessitate just enough planning to push Hanami towards the top shelf of ‘filler’ games. Find it via jmspace.stores.jp
