天下制覇

It’s closer to Ellison’s Invisble Man, but then I wouldn’t be able to make the pun.

I have no idea what was up with the raws yesterday. Normally they’re out on the Japanese streams within an hour or two. This (and Inuyasha if you want to be thorough) didn’t show up for almost 24 hours, by which time I was too engrossed in conquering the great Taoist empire of the Zulu/Dutch to pay attention.

Season Premier Disclaimer:

I like to check almost every new show out. The value of a show is in its execution, not its premise. That said, my tastes are mine and mine alone. Some things bother me, some things don’t. I will attempt to be as cogent as possible as to my complaints or compliments for each show, but be aware that my views skew heavily towards the center. Nothing is perfect, nothing is irredeemable. That said, my tastes and my opinions are mine and mine alone and should not be construed as fact or, god help us, some kind of erudite critical analysis of the entire series based on the show’s first 20 minutes. Feel free to leave your own thoughts on the show if you’d like, but invective and similar will be mocked or deleted depending on which amuses me more at the time.

Impressions:

The first part of the Blue Literature series, covering a number of classical Japanese novels. This is well made at least, and maybe people who have read and are fans of the original novel might get a lot more enjoyment out of it, but I had the feeling that there was a lot of internal monologue that we were just missing here. It seems a little strange to say that, but it was really hard to understand practically anything about the characters in this episode, especially the main one and they deliver a lot of conflicting messages. For example, right after having a flashback to being abused (sexual molestation implied) in his youth, he kisses the prostitute he’s just met, has sex with her, and then they have a philosophical discussion about the meaning of life, whereupon he has a flashback to being scared to death of his father. Not much exposition, mind you, since I do like that it’s taking a very light touch, but it does need something more to make the characters a little more accessible to the audience.

Like I said, the music and production at the very least was surprisingly well done, and I get the feeling that if you’ve read the original book, you’ll probably be better geared to understand this, let alone appreciate it. The music was especially evocative of the era and really felt pretty western instead of the usual generic light pop they try to slip in. I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt though, as it does verge into some more incomprehensible imagery on occasion, so I can easily imagine the director being some French guy in a beret that will proceed to go on a lecture circuit just to explain this show to the unwashed masses.

This is really really really heavy drama though, so unless you’re into that, I’d steer far clear. Even if you are, this could have done a far far far better job of making the characters or plot understandable to people not terribly familiar with the novel, so be forewarned of that as well. I may check this out again in a month when this story is over and they move onto the next, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. Even western classical literature is something more suited for academia than entertainment, and this really is no exception. At least it looks a hell of a lot better than Japan’s Masterpiece collection.

Edit: And if you’re curious about Heaven’s Lost Property, the second episode was all about Mitsuki’s panties, which isn’t quite the step up that would have made me interested in following it.