Apart
from watching much less anime these days than I used to, I also tend to watch
trash. Trash is relaxing, enjoyable and brainless. If it’s not trash, it’s
mostly light shounen fare that’s only slightly above trash, or sequels to
series I began ages ago. Beyond that, well, what have I watched recently and
finished? There are a couple of shows I haven’t quite finished yet, but discounting
those, probably nothing since Boku dakega Inai Machi, over a year ago.
So
this show was if anything a pleasant contrast to the rest of my anime fare. And
very enjoyable it was too: a supernatural story with a slow pace, strong
characters, a British setting and some really iconic visuals. It put me in mind
of several strong series – Natsume Yuujincho,
for the whimsical feeling and the supernatural influence on everyday life, only
the introverted main character who attracts supernatural beings and slowly
opens up thanks to getting close to them is female rather than male, and the
mythology is British rather than Japanese. Kuroshitsuji
for the British setting and strong but dark deuteragonist, only with less
abrasive humour and without that unpleasant taste in the mouth recent manga
chapters of that series have left me with. And Fullmetal Alchemist, for the physical presence of the
deuteragonist, snappy but tasteful humorous style changes and strong supporting
cast. Pretty impressive company to be in.
Mahoutsukai no Yome follows a young Japanese woman called Chise has a
difficult and traumatic childhood, compounded by terrifying experiences with
supernatural beings (expanded in the rather slow OVA prelude episodes), as she
sells herself into slavery and is bought by Elias, a strange combination of
fairy and human who appears like a huge man wearing the skull of a wolf with
the horns of a ram. A pretty fantastic design. Elias buys Chise for two reasons
– because he wants to understand humanity better, and because she is a sleigh
beggy, which in this world is not a little fairy from the Isle of Man, but a
kind of human spiritual conduit, able to draw magic from all around it and from
within.
The
show has a rather charming approach to British folklore and culture that
occasionally shows fantastic research and precision (I used to feed ducks at
that exact spot in Regent’s Park!) and sometimes just makes up its own systems
or seems to take vaguely British images and throw them together in what seems
right to a Japanese sensibility (was that…fish and chips served as a side dish
to a proper meal in an upper middle-class household?!). The episode titles are
taken from what seems to be a very dated book of British idioms (I doubt anyone
has said ‘What is bred in the bone will not [come] out of the flesh’ in a
hundred years, especially when we have ‘The apple never falls far from the tree’).
But
uneven as it may be, it’s always a thrill to see England represented in anime,
whether it’s K-On girls running
around Camden or aerial battles between dolls in Rozen Maiden, or even the first arc of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. They don’t have to get every detail
right, and it’s always enjoyable to see things like Anteros at Piccadilly
Circus made the location of an exciting climactic showdown. There’s some fun
mythological elements, too – Shakespeare seems to have been heavily referenced,
for we not only get Titania and Oberon as king and queen of the fairies, but a helpful
little spirit called Ariel. Otherwise, we have a cute Selkie – though not as
cute as the one in Song of the Sea –
and of course some mighty dragons who are unless they lose control somewhat less
fearsome than the ones in Arthurian or Christian mythology.
Probably
the most interesting element of Western mythology is the use of the
Cartaphilius character. Thankfully the term is never used, but this is the
Wandering Jew, who was cursed by Christ never to die in response to jeers on
the way to Golgotha. I don’t know whether the mangaka changed this to ‘The
Wandering Sorcerer’ for politically correct reasons or simply thought the
audience wouldn’t understand if the term was left unchanged, but either way he
generally goes by the names Cartaphilius or Joseph, two names that have been
given to the legendary figure over the years. The show creates a new an
interesting backstory for the character, implying there was an original cursed
figure and that Joseph was an (adorable) innocent whose body and identity were
essentially stolen while the memories and suffering remained, but he is the
primary antagonist, is capable of extreme cruelty and yet still evokes
sympathy. An intriguing and compelling enemy, I wonder if we’ll see more of him
in the future and whether he’ll be properly punished for what he’ll do. The
characters may forget his crimes, but there was one scene where the voice-over,
delivered by a very sweet-sounding seiyuu, was pretty devastating to hear. One
of the darkest moments in anime I’ve seen since Bokurano, and rather surprising from what was a generally pretty
safe and harmless anime – excepting where Cartaphilius was concerned.
Well-made,
well-acted, pleasant to look at, intriguing conceptually and occasionally
emotionally resonant, I really enjoyed this show and want to see more. I believe
it was quite a hit, and certainly the visual impression Elias makes will stick
with most people, so hopefully we’ll see a fair bit more.
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