Shouwa Monogatari

Even though series like Madoka or Suzumiya Haruhi made a great hit all over the world, one should bearing in mind that JAPANESE ANIME is a products of Japanese Culture, especially in this case.

Shouwa Monogatari is a story about post war Japan's most glorious days in 1964, when Shinkansen started rolling throughout Japan, and Tetsuka Osamu's Astro Boy first broadcasted on TV. If you have read Urasawa Naoki's manga 20th Century Boys, you should familiar with the Shouwa era, though 20th happened in the 70s.

After achieving a remarkable recovery from WWII, Tokyo was going to hold its 1964 Olympic Games and ready to join the ... group called "developed countries". Sounds similar? Yes, just like what the Chinese done in 2008, although it still claims itself "developing".

The Shouwa Monogatari take a look in the daily life of Yamazaki family, a typical core family - grandma, parents and 3 children - in the Shouwa era. You can see how two generations of Japanese living in the changing times. Like father Youzou - a veteran turned small factory owner - argued with his eldest son Taichi - a engineering university student - over the prospect of the family business while the factory automation is under process in those days.

Fairly speaking, Shouwa Monogatari is something specially presented for Japanese over 50. But it is also a good history guide for the post war Japan, and should help you learn more about Japan.

For those who have been to Japan, you may find some familiar scene in Shouwa Monogatari, like Ginza, Haneda Airport (though foreigner usually use Narita), and something never heard before, like Gatsby CM song (covered in Kimura Takuya's recent CM). For those who never been to Japan, you may still enjoy a great time in discovering the romantic Shouwa era by watching this "Televi Manga", Shouwa Monogatari.

For as much as Showa Era Story's premise seemed to interest me with its historical premise and the Olympics, I found myself disappointed and underwhelmed in how the anime chose to convey itself. The series is mostly a historical slice-of-life title focused on the everyday lives of the Yamazaki family leading up to the 1964 Olympics taking place at the time. The Olympics, for the most part, only serve as a backdrop on the everyday ordeals faced by the family from Kouhei's mischievous behavior to Yuko's complicated matters in love as a teen to the heavy ordeals that their craftsman of a father puts up ... with in maintaining his business. From my understanding, this anime was supposed to be made in mind for a much older audience who lived through and experienced the times in 1960s Japan and it certainly shows with the title's simple approach in the exploration of the Yamazaki family and their everyday lives. The anime does believably depict the cultural norms, technologies, major events and trends that were commonplace in 1964 Japan, which would be a plus for fans of historical-based anime.

However, the show's major issue for me is that it lacks a major hook to engage wider audiences considering the audience this was made in mind for. Kids on the Slope takes place in the same time period as Showa Era Story and had its engaging musical elements and complicated romantic developments to keep me hooked on the show throughout its run. Showa Era Story, however, is too mundane with its tone, which makes it kind of hard to engage me into caring for what takes place at many points of the series, making it somewhat dull for me to see throughout its run.

Visually, Showa Era Story is of standard quality for an animated title having vivid color and plenty of visual detail in the designs of its settings and characters. The animation is decent in moments of character movements and there weren't many occasions I recall still frames being used, though animation certainly wasn't the highest priority in the making of this series. Music in the series mostly consists of light piano pieces and popular music of the time period which were catchy to listen to throughout the show's run.

Overall, I found Showa Era Story to be a bit too much of an acquired taste for me, even with my interest in looking into obscure and not-so-popular anime titles. This was an anime that seemed to be geared too heavily towards its intended older audience as the lack of engaging elements and too mundane feel did make the series a test of tolerance for me at a number of points. Unless you have a huge interest in historical-based anime such as this, you may find yourself having difficulty in enjoying Showa Era Story.

Shouwa Monogatari is a sedate slice of life story about a multigenerational family living in 1960s Tokyo. Your enjoyment is largely going to depend on whether you can connect with the specific sense of nostalgia that it's trying to cultivate. While there are some bits that are culturally specific to Japan and not easy for westerners to relate to, I think it does a good job overall of building a general atmosphere of "the good days gone by" that most will connect with, the vibe of your gruff dad sending you to the corner store to buy a pack of smokes for him, playing baseball ... in the vacant lot after school with your schoolyard friends, that sort of thing.

The music and visuals do a good job in giving it that hazy nostalgic feel as well. The use of period music and commercial jingles feels authentic, and a post-credits scene after each episode showcases the real life locations they were based on and includes some old photographs from the time period as well to give it a strong sense of place. The art and animation are merely functional, but look nice enough aside from one or two bits of questionable CGI usage, and the character designs are pretty strong.

One area where it falls short, however, is the voice acting. It is often stiff at best, and sometimes bad enough to break immersion. The main culprit here is Chiba Shouya as the elementary school aged son of the family, Kouhei. It's tough to blame him fully since this appears to have been his first main role and he was only 15 or 16 years old at the time, but his acting here is completely flat and affectless. It becomes distracting when Kouhei is meant to be jumping for joy or shouting mad, but all of his lines are still being delivered in the same emotionless monotone. This was a poor casting choice and he was plainly not ready for the role at this point, though he has gone on to have an excellent career since then.

In the end, how you feel about this series is going to depend a lot on your patience for slice of life material and your ability or desire to feel nostalgic. If you can let yourself get lost in its golden-era "remember when everything cost a nickel?" vibe, there's a nice enough show here. However, if you're someone that typically gets bored by low stakes slice of life shows, this isn't going to be the one that breaks the streak for you. Likewise if you're not the type of person that gets warm fuzzy feelings for a bygone era that you never actually lived in.