This series is categorized as comedy/slice of life. The 4 friends, Chika, Miu, Matsuri, and Ana, are 11 or 12. Chika’s older sister, Nobue, is 20. While it’s easy to dismiss series of this type as fluff or “fuwa fuwa”, this series has a slightly dark undertone that makes it very worth watching.

The animation style is the first noticeable difference. Missing in this series is the “chibi” tone in many slice of life series that focus on the trials and tribulations of a group of silly girls. The colors are muted, almost watercolor, rather than lush bright pinks and blues. Also, the lines are limp and long, not rounded and light, like in the characters of Azumanga Daioh. The washed out colors also give a feeling of malaise. These girls are funny, interesting, and complex, but they are not bright, bouncy, or cheery.

Also, the tension between two of the girls, Ana and Miu, is also very unusual for this kind of girl clique. It starts traditionally enough when Ana can’t decide how best to make friends beings a girl of English descent. Figuring out how to be accepted and make friends is a pretty common issue facing characters in young girl slice-of-life series. Things become more complicated when Miu makes Ana the butt of her slightly scathing humor, becoming relentless when she sees how she can really push Ana’s emotional buttons. Ana becomes very close to Matsuri, and joins the group, but the tension is still present several episodes after Ana joins the group. Miu makes Ana cry by making fun of her name, and then attempts to pull up her skirt and embarrass her while the girls play doctor’s office. They seem to be part of the same group of friends but there is no acceptance despite differences, as usually is shown in animes with groups of diverse friends.

The ennui is most evident in the older sister, Nobue. She is a college junior with a smoking and drinking problem. She spends most of her days slumped at her desk in a pile of empty beer cans and overflowing ashtrays. Her employment status is always up for debate, and there are no details offered about her career ambitions or goals. She seems to be the adult figure for these girls, even though she is usually trying to shake the girls up for a loan to buy more cigarettes. Oddly, the only pep she shows is when she produces odd costumes to dress up the more gullible girls, such as a cat costume or nurses outfits. The girls are appropriately uncomfortable but forgive her once she joins in her games of imagination. She very closely resembles her sister, Chika, making it easy to assume that this is the future awaiting these girls. Episode 1, Birthday, shows Nobue as entirely alone and unrecognized on her birthday except for the girls. Nobue’s presence in this story really sets the tone as dark rather than just bored.

In general, there is a sense of “what’s the point?” and a bit of dark humor. This is a refreshing twist and if the general feeling of hopelessness is directly addressed, it’ll be an extremely interesting to see how it is resolved.

-S.G.

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Steelbound here …

I saved, what I thought, was the most interesting piece for last.  I know at one point this series was licensed for America but my sister had mentioned how almost all anime do not end happily  and I thought that I must broaden her horizons and decided to include Ichigo Mashimaro. When I gave the various series to my sister to watch I didn’t tell her anything about the series in question which included what I thought about them so  that I wouldn’t influence what she wrote.  I didn’t tell her this is on my top 10 favorites list for being a relaxing, mood-lifting series with some great comedy mixed in. So you can imagine my surprise when I first read this – there’s nothing about dark about Ichigo Mashimaro! However, thinking about it more, I see this interpretation of Ichigo Mashimaro as at least wroth a deeper look; though, I’m not the one with an English degree .

This the last post that my sister wrote-up; I’m hoping she’ll write more in the future because  I think she has an interesting and somewhat unique frame of reference in reviewing anime. I’m sure it’ll help convince her if she’d see some nice spoiler-free comments from people wanting more (and I’m not just saying this because it’s nice to have someone else write quality material for my blog ).

The initial idea of creating an anime series based on famous Japanese literature isn’t the kind of premise that usually generates intense interest. Probably, this series would appeal to people interested in the horror/psychological genre of anime. However, this series could be easily used to introduce someone to anime whom isn’t readily familiar with Japanese culture or the typical anime fare. Also, it is intensely interesting to someone with a literature background, such as myself.

Aoi Bungaku – aka Blue Literature

“No Longer Human”

The first work of classic modern Japanese literature animated in this series is “No Longer Human” by Osamu Dazai, the second-best selling novel in Japan. This is a great introduction to Japanese culture, particularly parts of the dark side of Japanese culture: suicide and fear of female sexuality. The main character is the son of a well-to-do businessman, who finds himself struggling with the stereotypical Japanese malaise. He feels detached from humanity and cold. He is unable to relate with people and especially not women, and considers suicide at many different points of his life.

This novel demonstrates that the psychologically dark story has been alive and well in the Japanese consciousness for over a half-century. There is a very interesting chicken-egg debate: did he become a sociopath because of his trauma from early sexual experiences, or was he a sociopath prior to those experiences. Each of the female characters embodies an archetypal woman: mother, girlfriend, wife, or daughter. Each time, he ultimately rejects this relationship out of disgust, cowardice, disconnect, or fear. It seems almost that this story comes from a time in history when Japanese psychology has not yet learned the effects of sexual abuse, since his sociopathy is described as a form of inhumanity.

The success of this series will depend on the quality of the future novels being converted to anime form, since “No Longer Human” is such a strong story it will be hard to follow if the next stories are not equally complex.

-S.G.

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Steelbound here …

I somehow got derailed and failed to post the other two entries that my sister wrote about a month ago. Luckily, she’s been too busy with  getting Chibi (a very large purebred Rottweiler) moved into her house and finished with guard dog training to notice . If you missed the introduction of  my sister as a guest writer, you can check it out here. 

This series ran back in the Fall 2009 season and at the time I was really impressed with Madhouse trying something like this and then  impressed with the quality of the stories. I would have liked a better mix of stories adapted – is all of Japanese literature really that depressing? However, when I was thinking of my initial batch of shows that I wanted my sister to watch, I realized this anime series would be perfect for her. It wasn’t a series that would ever get licensed for America and it’s a series that aligns with her interests. Hopefully I can convince her to watch the rest of the series.

This is a pretty straightforward Aesop’s Fables kind of story – a wealthy man learns to walk in the shoes of the less fortunate and sees the world in a whole new way. The premise is just that simple. It’s also a satisfying story that appeals to people across cultures and generations.

Kou Ichinomiya is a young man who has been groomed his whole life as the heir of a large corporation and even larger fortune. He has an entire philosophy and ambition wrapped around the belief that “made men” make themselves, never relying on anyone for anything. When he finds himself beholden to a homeless girl living under a bridge, he feels indebted and feels compelled to repay the favor by granting her request of living with her as a companion and lover. Whereupon, he learns that money doesn’t buy love. Yes, it’s such a simple and clichéd story, with a simple and clichéd protagonist.

However, about halfway through the second episode, I realized why this series is still so engaging and fun. Every single homeless person living under the bridge is a stereotypical character often seen in anime! There is the little girl with epic fighting skills (similar to any of the girls featured in Gunslinger Girl type shows), there is a mysterious girl of quiet virtue and understated sexiness (similar to Belldandy), there is a femme fatale women with crazy colored hair and a figure reminiscent of a Barbie doll (what anime doesn’t have one of that??), a weird looking “creature” passing at a normal human (again, how many time has anime fans scratched their head at that?), and even the main protagonist that is the “typical Japanese male thrust into a crazy situations” stereotype (Haruhi Suzumiya, anyone?).

The idea of mixing a regular guy with crazy characters is definitely not new in anime, it’s about as original as the overall premise. An easy prediction would be that he learns about the error in his ways and becomes a sage wise person through his journey with these characters. However, this journey isn’t boring as long as this particular series has a creative reimagining. In the case of Arakawa, there is definitely something unique. Let’s be honest, we’ve all wondered from time to time if some of these anime stereotypes could even function in the real world, and have wondered what it would be like if these characters really existed. Apparently, we now have at least one possible answer… all these characters would wind up homeless in Arakawa, living under a bridge, teaching life lessons to the “real” people.

-S.G.

————

Steelbound here …

One of the growing disconnects between general American anime fans and the more hardcore American anime fans/Japanese anime fans is  an exposure to and appreciation of Akiyuki Shinbou, the animation studio Shaft and the types of series that they do.  I knew, therefore, that I had to pick something of his for my sister, S.G., to watch. I wanted to choose an anime that was easier to pick up – not Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei – featuring a more toned down Shaft-being-Shaft feel to it – once again not Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei but something that she’d like – Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei might have worked but it already had two strikes.

I’m hoping she likes the rest of series (if I can convince her to finish watching it) because there’s several series of Shinbou/Shaft that I want to spring on her. 

This is a pretty straightforward Aesop’s Fables kind of story – a wealthy man learns to walk in the shoes of the less fortunate and sees the world in a whole new way. The premise is just that simple. It’s also a satisfying story that appeals to people across cultures and generations.

Kou Ichinomiya is a young man who has been groomed his whole life as the heir of a large corporation and even larger fortune. He has an entire philosophy and ambition wrapped around the belief that “made men” make themselves, never relying on anyone for anything. When he finds himself beholden to a homeless girl living under a bridge, he feels indebted and feels compelled to repay the favor by granting her request of living with her as a companion and lover. Whereupon, he learns that money doesn’t buy love. Yes, it’s such a simple and clichéd story, with a simple and clichéd protagonist.

However, about halfway through the second episode, I realized why this series is still so engaging and fun. Every single homeless person living under the bridge is a stereotypical character often seen in anime! There is the little girl with epic fighting skills (similar to any of the girls featured in Gunslinger Girl type shows), there is a mysterious girl of quiet virtue and understated sexiness (similar to Belldandy), there is a femme fatale women with crazy colored hair and a figure reminiscent of a Barbie doll (what anime doesn’t have one of that??), a weird looking “creature” passing at a normal human (again, how many time has anime fans scratched their head at that?), and even the main protagonist that is the “typical Japanese male thrust into a crazy situations” stereotype (Haruhi Suzumiya, anyone?).

The idea of mixing a regular guy with crazy characters is definitely not new in anime, it’s about as original as the overall premise. An easy prediction would be that he learns about the error in his ways and becomes a sage wise person through his journey with these characters. However, this journey isn’t boring as long as this particular series has a creative reimagining. In the case of Arakawa, there is definitely something unique. Let’s be honest, we’ve all wondered from time to time if some of these anime stereotypes could even function in the real world, and have wondered what it would be like if these characters really existed. Apparently, we now have at least one possible answer… all these characters would wind up homeless in Arakawa, living under a bridge, teaching life lessons to the “real” people.

-S.G.

————

Steelbound here …

One of the growing disconnects between general American anime fans and the more hardcore American anime fans/Japanese anime fans is  an exposure to and appreciation of Akiyuki Shinbou, the animation studio Shaft and the types of series that they do.  I knew, therefore, that I had to pick something of his for my sister, S.G., to watch. I wanted to choose an anime that was easier to pick up – not Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei – featuring a more toned down Shaft-being-Shaft feel to it – once again not Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei but something that she’d like – Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei might have worked but it already had two strikes.

I’m hoping she likes the rest of series (if I can convince her to finish watching it) because there’s several series of Shinbou/Shaft that I want to spring on her. 

During the dreary times of year that is winter in NE Ohio, my one younger sister (henceforth to be known as S.G.) gets bored because she can’t kayak, hike and do other outside stuff. This last winter I had a brilliant idea – see if she’d write some guest posts for my anime blog. She was agreeable to doing so and to my idea for her writings; namely, as a more standard general American anime fan – dub-preferring, DVD-preferring and one who doesn’t read anime blogs or anime forums – what she would think of anime shows that don’t normally get licensed in America (or if they are, it’s an obscure treatment that dubless). I picked several anime that I thought she’d like and gave her four episodes to watch at first and the rest of the series if she wanted to finish.

Of course, right after this RL stuff came up and she was no longer bored and only finished a few pieces and the intro that’s below. I held onto these for the last couple of months waiting for the perfect time to publish them and also to see if she’d write some more. (After-all, one of my aims is to bring her to the dark side .)  I missed the “perfect” time which was when I recently was on vacation for a week and she’s probably too busy now to watch and write until next winter – unless, maybe, she gets lots of nice comments about her posts and gets inspired  . As mentioned, below is an introduction that I asked her to write about herself and I plan to have her first impressions post up within the day.

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Guest Writer: S.G.

S.G. is an anime fan with a background in literature. Unlike the standard anime blog writer, S.G.’s anime history is only moderately long (approximately 8 years) and is comprised solely of a dubbed American-released anime, both modern and classic. Instead, S.G.’s point of review focuses around academic concepts of storytelling and writing. She’s done extensive research and writing on graphic novels as literature, and is particularly interested in how visual media impacts storytelling.

Her favorite anime includes: Rurouni Kenshin, Cowboy Bebop, Berserk, Samurai 7, Azumanga Daioh, and Fullmetal Alchemist (original and Brotherhood). Outside of anime, her favorite works of writing are “Beowulf”, the “Sin City” series by Frank Miller, and “On Walden Pond” by Henry David Thoreau. Favorite movies range from Shawshank Redemption, Green Mile, and Dark Knight to guilty pleasures such as Transformers.

S.G. is looking forward to watch non-imported anime to learn more about Japanese pop culture and modern society. She can be contacted for comments or suggestions at sagartland@yahoo.com.