Jun 20, 2015
Review Summary: Humans live in the city, tanuki crawl the earth, and tengu fly the skies. But this show carves out a place in your heart.
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"Take a moment and enjoy."
Ever heard someone tell you that in some fashion? The idea of savoring the act of simply living, experiencing life. It was pounded into my brain in the last year of my high school life. "Enjoy this," they would say. "Things like this cease to happen when you get older."
It seems common to have that sentiment. The teen years stand at the threshold between childhood and adulthood, the conceptual juxtaposition of freedom
...
and responsibility. It's where the two realities collide, and anime as a medium is drawn to exploring the balancing act that occurs. In particular, the medium examines how a character finds himself -- how a character pairs what he gained in his freedom with what he will gain with responsibility. From that, his identity is gained.
But Uchouten Kazoku is astute enough to recognize that this process is not as conveniently placed in the teen years as most anime seem to display. It continues on from there, and it is not relegated into only occurring within those few years of your life. It happens in every moment: the small lessons, the big lessons; the acquisition of a new friendship, the loss of an old one; each one, as tiny and as large as they may be, accumulate to an identity.
Consider the protagonist of this story: Shimogamo Yasaborou. He is a tanuki in this Kyoto that humans, tanuki, and tengu occupy, and he is hellbent on making his life interesting. A world in which these three are commonplace may seem interesting, but to the characters, who have known this and only this, it is nothing but normal. And in the face of this, he looks to the interaction between these three communities to cure his curiosity.
It is here where the show allures its audience. Not in sensational action sequences, carefully laid out drama, or over-the-top comedy. The show was not made to cater to the masses. Not one character was made to fit a trope that the audience would recognize. The characters are, simply, themselves. This is how Uchouten Kazoku casts its spell. Works about specific characters in detailed words are mesmerizing because the audience can examine how they react to certain situations and, in turn, reflect upon themselves.
And the situations in the show range from the mundane to absurd. Bottled up in this fantastical iteration of Kyoto, the wondrous atmosphere the show creates is fully realized. The woods bloom with shades of green, orange, blue and purple. The moon and stars glitter, reflected on the windows in the buildings. The seemingly opposite ambiances of the city and the forest are in harmony; the two do not fight for dominance as much as they do respect the reality of their existence. Each environment is allowed to shine.
Naturally is the best word to describe how the show develops. There is no feeling of artificial boosts to push the plot, no forced drama or misunderstandings. Things just happen. And as things happen, the show is confident enough to show emptiness. Silence.
Throughout each episode, this emptiness shows itself, sprinkled in with the movement of the plot. It can be described as gratuitous movement -- characters moving themselves without being dictated by the story, or scenes scattered to show the world. Animations being there just for the sake of being there: running streams, faraway looks from characters, a shot of the moon. They give a sense of presence to the experience. Too many times shows focus only on engaging the audience directly, bombarding them with noise and distraction. Fearing the loss of attention, many shows pack only the loudest and most distracting peaks into a show, and little attention to the silence.
Conversely, Uchouten Kazoku revels in this silence. It respects its audience enough to know that they will be able gather what the silence means:
"Take a moment and enjoy."
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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