Uchouten Kazoku

Note: this is from a video review, look for links on my profile page.

Uchouten Kazoku is an attempt at having a social commentary while parodying familiar circumstances with chaos thrown in. It wonders whether different species might have inherently distinct hierarchies and methods at interacting. Do humans or oni only respond to the same visual representation? Might everyone be able to escape danger if, like the mythical tanuki, they were able to change that physicality? How did the skies unleash unfettered imagination for millennia, how different are winged creatures from other walking existences? Is this truly a natural flow among life, or is it merely ... a delusion seemingly attaching itself to reality? Is fun an inherent quality one should pursue? How common are presumptions made at face value? What do crows obscure in their midst? Can chaos give rise to animation? Do blue skies give shade to one's subjective state? Protagonist's sibling, with hindsight. He's a symbolic bridge between the species. Tanuki exist, but shapeshifting is likely just a legend.

It is art that leads into another world, one where even the fantastic characters seem to think is new for them, it is a mystery hiding wonders, one where nature is reflected even in artificial constructions. A realm permeating life up to the last moment. Who mirrors our externalities? Which normalities become eccentricities? These beclouded sighs, the sea a soil, these avian enshrouded rivulets. What is that spark, that aqueous mental substance, that hazy steam through which relations are processed? Is an age-old timely confusion perhaps the result of the ingrained irrationality? The mind halts just as fear takes over. Who is to say whether recklessness is sensible? Whether idiocy could be contextually advantageous? One could live the depths of the azure, one could swirl mists in the heavens. But the hedgehog's dilemma exists for a reason, despite the oceanic allure of connection.

Is the psychological counterpart of a collective's symbolic will, one's conscious shame, outwardly obvious whether of sane mind, animated, or not? Would one do whatever is physically possible, if there were no consequences? What if physicality was limitless? What if something is only to be understood from a relative context? What if chaos was unbound, reality not on track, the night a day for potentialities? But, is hedonism happiness? Could irrationality ever be positive? Does the short term hold more value than the future, or could it be a satisfying conclusion to the past? Is fun being specifically in the present?

Society at large is in the background in this anime, but what effect does it have on the narrative's characters? How does it go from day to night, how do those hills reflect the thrills of realistic fantasy? Now, since it was written by the same author, yet again (as with Tatami Galaxy) the large 'Daimonji' character is written on a mountain in Kyoto, this is regarded as a send-off of spirits in the Gozan no Okuribi festival, in the series' context the tanuki would presumably think of their father while feeding alcohol to their house's pot.

This story runs like clockwork, having a few constants: acting idiotically is perceived as being likely to lead to interesting outcomes, especially by Yasaburou and his Ebisugawa twin cousins, while the human world seems automated (except for the Friday Fellows who associate with a tengu-human, but even then are most traditional), lights are bright and water reflective, the atmosphere still hints towards the possibility of tanuki tricking others.

At times, their world seems a stage and them actors, but why do they entertain, to be entertained? From a zen calmness, to a furious rage can tengu muster, a tornado of relationships delivered to the skies above; river ever-present, in the direction of the convert, this Raijin fan. Busy society is oblivious to the coming menace, wind soft just there, but the berserked Akadama holds Fujin's fury. Do though, behold, the statuesque one combined with a phone. So the question is, how would supernatural entities, if they existed, interact with a conventional understanding of 'normal'? Notice that even for a tanuki's legendary shapeshifting, some of wind's mythical potency also renders them as helpless as humans.

Ultimately, what Uchouten Kazoku transforms into is an artfully slick, intentionally mad fable that combines fiction and what could happen in a society set within a certain context. It tries to conjure up this magical quality, sometimes literally, and that no matter what expectation is subverted it all still manages to make sense. It's one of P.A. Works' most fantastic anime.

Non-traditional and brief review:

Wow. I ran across this anime randomly and it was a bit slow to start till I figured out what kind of show I was watching. Someone in some forum post asked what this was, a 13 part movie? That really changed my outlook on it after the first couple of episodes. It really felt like a movie! I felt this show encapsulated the messiness of real life...enemies, friends, enemy family members but still in all family members, pride, ego, tragedy, love and the trappings of whether or not one is or should be ambitious in life.

I thought this show was ... going to be the typical sort of fantasy anime that has some action, and characters powering up in big battles, a touch of romance and comedy, coming of age intertwined with the story, and generally a feel good "we defeated the evil dark arts" payoff by the final episode. But it was basically none of that in the end. Well...on paper maybe it was, but there was a lot more.

Now, if you start watching the show from that perspective (typical modern day magic/fantasy anime), as I did, and you keep that perspective until the end of the show, in its entirety, you might walk away feeling the show was mediocre at best. I'm telling you, watch it like it was a 13-part movie (pay attention, enjoy the subtext). This show has layers, it IS theatrical in many respects. I might have to watch it again soon!

The animation was great. And the backgrounds??!!! Absolutely amazing!! Oh and look, it has the best OST that I have heard in a LONG time. The insert music during the episodes was top production, really added to the theatrical nature of the show in its entirety. This damn show was basically a 5 hour movie, it was wonderful!! I think the ratings aren't higher because people couldn't reconcile their expectations going into the show with what they actually saw in the end, probably not enough payoff for people. Wonderful and hidden gem! And there is a season 2!

Put eyeballs on this show. And some ears too. Manage your expectations and you won't regret it.

I haven’t experienced a true case of post-anime depression in a while, but this one really hit me. Based on the novel by Tomihiko Morimi (who was also the author for the book which The Tatami Galaxy was adapted from), it’s a bizarre 13-episode anime, set in a world where tengu fly through the skies, shapeshifting tanuki wander the earth, and humans, as always seems to be the case, don’t appear to be aware of it.

The story focuses around the Shimogamo family of Tanuki, particularly from that of the carefree third son Yasaburo, who is a past student of the proud tengu Akamada, whose other ... student, a human, joined the Friday Fellows, a small cult-like group who have a tradition of making an annual tanuki hot pot, one of which Yasaburo’s was tragically boiled in. Despite the seeming oddity of it, it’s accepted by the tanuki as just one of the risks of life.

The dialogue is brilliantly written. There are a million-and-one quotes that could be taken away from this show, which just goes to show how important and unique each line spoken is. I can’t say much for the original language, but Crunchyroll did a incredibly good job of subtitling this one. It skirts back and forth between comedy and drama near-seamlessly, bringing a well-rounded feel to everything and making both far more effective than they would have been on their own. When it’s having an emotional moment, it excels at hitting you right where it needs to, from the visuals to sound for full effect. Don’t be mislead by the first look, this show will have you tearing up on several occasions.

It takes this ridiculous, crazy premise, and makes it come alive. Despite it’s visual style and somewhat misleading name and thumbnail, much like The Tatami Galaxy, it presents itself in a very mature way. Not that it’s directly explicit, but through the events and dialogue of the characters, and the way this is displayed it feels very real and much darker than I would have expected. The story itself does get a tad bit slow about a third of the way in, but it quickly picks up again for a phenomenal conclusion.

If you recall from an earlier review of mine, I mentioned how Barakamon brilliantly portrayed a sense of community. This show does similarly for the sense of family ties and brotherly bonds. Within the family, they all have good chemistry with each other, and every family member has something compelling to love about them. From the responsible eldest to the shy youngest they were all very enjoyable. Even outside of the family there were plenty of good characters.

Man, I really loved Kaisei. Out of all the characters within the show, she was probably my favorite. Her bold yet innocent behavior, along with her occasionally humorous actions, and her dynamic with Yasaburo was great. That said, looking at it more objectively, arguably the best character in the show is Benten. Every word from her mouth, every action, even her character design and the music that plays when she’s around contributes to this sense of dangerous beauty. She emits an aura of intrigue and mystery, and feels very layered. You never really know what she’ll do next, nor why exactly she does anything, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It feels much more like it’s you who doesn’t know it, rather than the motivations and reasonings not being there whatsoever.

From the lesser side of things, we have the rest of the Ebisugawa family. They’re malicious, but there’s not much explanation as to why. It’s just sort of evil for the sake of evil-ness, and though there was a few reasons given later on, the way we were presented with the information was in passing and didn’t really do well to contribute to the believability of it. The same goes for most of the Friday Fellows, whom of which it was never really explained whether or not they understand of the Tanuki’s sentience, whether that makes a difference, and if they didn’t why exactly the Tanuki keep this secret.

In fact, despite the mostly satisfying ending, unanswered questions were a pretty major problem. A lot of big plot points are left only somewhat or even completely unresolved or unexplained, and there is so much room for a second season that despite the unlikelihood, I really hope for it. Just enough events are left unresolved to leave you really wanting more and slightly disappointed, but not enough as to significantly hurt my score for it, though it would be higher if these had been fixed.

The animation’s done by P.A. Works, the studio behind Nagi no Asukara, Hanasaku Iroha, Another, and more. While this was pretty surprising at first, as it went on I noticed bits and pieces of PA’s style seep through, from the shining eyes, to the intricate, beautiful backgrounds. If I could buy high resolution prints of some of these frames, I certainly would.

Because of the highly detailed, visually stunning backgrounds, however, the character art can be a bit jarring as it’s very different from the norm, and the simplistic, cartoony, character designs can feel a bit out of place in the foreground to the detailed artwork. From a character animation perspective, it’s not the best. There were a couple times where I noticed some frames that just looked a bit ‘off’, not wholly in proportion or something along those lines, and the animation had a very freehand-feel to it, often making one frame look just ever so slightly off from the next, and most of the time the animation was on the choppier side. Not that it couldn’t look nice, because without a doubt there are plenty of scenes and moments where it shines. From the visually impactful scene with Yajiro and the water droplets to the almost whimsical moments of Benten’s flight through the air, it certainly excels when it needs to.

All of this is assisted by the brilliant soundtrack. We have an upbeat, incredibly fun and (if I say so myself) rather interesting Opening song, and a surprisingly emotional Ending song. Every song does unbelievably well to accompany it’s scenes. I dare say the emotional moments wouldn’t be near as impactful without this score. Not that the scenes are poor on their own, but it just gives credit to how good it really is. A lot of OSTs nowadays all sound the same, with similar repetitive instruments and themes, yet this one really stands out, making use of a variety of instruments and styles to convey different moods. Much like The Tatami Galaxy’s it’s simply a really great soundtrack. It may not have quite as much power to stand on it’s own as some other OSTs do, but in it’s main task, contributing and adding to the effectiveness of the show and it’s emotions, It goes above and beyond the call of duty, and is yet another thing making this anime as brilliant as it is.

Overall a utterly euphoric experience, with unique characters, witty dialogue, an emotional soundtrack, beautiful art, and a very memorable feel to it. My few complaints were some unresolved plot points and questionable character motivations, but the good far outshines the bad in this situation. I give The Eccentric Family a 9/10, and my recommendation: a Must Watch. I don’t regret the 4 and a half hours I spent on this show in the slightest, and I doubt you will either. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you all next time. Peace out.

(Originally Written November 26, 2014)

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I loved this show for a number of reasons. Firstly i think the premise is great, a show about tanuki but in which there mostly portrayed as human, or human-ish. What i really like is that this isnt just about mythology is in modern day, about being a tanuki in a human world, its about growing up, living with death, being a big brother, childhood rivalries and loyalty. Its a quite deep show, despite the fact for the most part it is a comedy, and it is great at fulfilling that purpose its both wacky, zany and hilarious, but we also really explore the characters ... as we try to understand the death of their farther. The story arc over the course of the 12 episodes is well paced and timed, nothing to complex but it is good fun and did have me wanting to watch more without a doubt. My favourite part of this show is the artwork though, the animation style is fantastic, just beautiful and really suits the tone of the show, when you watch it you will understand. This is nothing to intense, but neither is it to light that it could lose your attention, another great work from P.A. Works!

Uchouten Kazoku is a story playing out about the lives of tanuki and tengu behind the scenes of an every day human life. You follow Yasaburou through out his daily routines until he meets Benten, a human girl taught the powers of a tengu. Life gets hectic.

First things first, The Original Sound Track (OST) is amazing for this anime. Probably the most outstanding in and of itself. I will elaborate below!

Story - Four boys born of their tanuki parents go about town and cause mischief because that's what tanuki do. The scariest thing in the eyes of a tanuki is being eaten in a hot ... pot by the Friday Club. While they dodge this dilemma, Yasaburou finds himself opening every door to that life. Doing so leads to The two families butting heads, the revealing of his fathers death, and a subtle romantic entanglement.

Art - I loved the art. However, the ears played tricks on me throughout the whole story. I couldn't stop staring at them. I loved the background scenes and everything else was lovely to look at.

Sound - Amazing. From opening to ending i fell in love with the OST. I had to have it at episode 12 during the cliff hanger, I knew. This OST is amazing, it covers a multi-sku of genres. Infusing these together you get something amazing like a Classical Jazz Electronica. So worth it.

Character - This was just as good as the story. The fact that they kept it up throughout the whole 13 episodes helped as well. Everyone developed, even the side characters.

Enjoyment - was highly rated because I would re-watch this series over and over again.

It's hard to believe I haven't heard about this anime from anyone else because after watching this, I'm just so thoroughly impressed. Uchouten Kazoku must have one of my favorite story and characters pretty much ever. To start, the storyline is kind of run-of-the-mill, but the absurdity and quirkiness throughout the show is really well done, and it reminds me of those mystical yet well-grounded stories I read in Mushishi. It's just a really good and entertaining setting to unravel a story with. Next, each of the brothers are well made, unique, and complete characters. There's lots of nuance and history behind each character, and ... the way each of their stories unravel is well done, like in Baccano, or Monogatari series. You know it's good when it feels like any of them could have been the main character. And I loved the interactions between them and how it plays out. Although sometimes I kinda don't get it.
My favorite component of the show is honestly the romance. I've never felt like a show was so nuanced and had so many hints towards the dynamic between each character, and yet it never felt like romance was even a part of the show. In other words, it just felt so natural I could really feel like this would be something I'd see in real life. And there's definitely some notions in my own head about the characters which I couldn't even explicitly say are really there. But that makes it feel even more life like.
Probably my biggest gripe was in the end, I didn't get that "legendary" feeling you sometimes get, like at the end of Evangelion. Like was there another season on standby? Or was it all so casual it wasn't meant to be anything left after all? In the end, I guess I didn't really feel like I had much to take away from the show. But in terms of watchability, this was to me peak entertainment.

Uchoten Kazoku is a good anime that is worth a watch.

It uses the unique setting of the existence of tanuki, humans and tengu to present its view upon the world. At first I thought, doesn't look very good, where is this going, what the heck. But after I had seen the first 3-4 episodes, I was thinking hmm this is actually quite nice and it was quite nice.

Aside from the slow start in which it sketches the unique setting (including characters), all episodes are really enjoyable. Sometimes there is a short arc, other times it could be seen as stand alone, but actually from ... the very first episode onward it is building up a climax for the end.
In conclusion, I am happy that I kept watching beyond the first couple of episodes and that I was able to experience this enjoyable anime.

The Eccentric Family could be described as a modern fairytale, since it has this fantasy plot set into a city-life installment.

This anime is nothing more or less than a fun ride. It's a pretty laid-back series, in a good sense, because it allows you to immerse in this fun world without being too attached to it. In this universe, there are three kinds of creatures that roam through Kyoto: tengu, tanuki and humans. The story is centered around the Shimogamo family, with a special focus on Yasaburo, the third son and the most laid back one of the family, and his weird adventures. Even though ... this unusual family tries to live a peaceful life, the death of their father still affects them up to this day.

The first 10 episodes do a great job at fleshing out the characters and their relationships. We get an in depth perspective at what drives the characters to do the things that they do and why do they act in a certain manner. Some characters, such as Benten or Kaisei, are still keeping a mysterious aura around them, which enhances, more than anything, their appeal to the audience.

I have to say that the last episodes, which are more tense, fell a bit flat to me, since I had never had the feeling that there was a real danger for the characters. Even though the laid-back and fun atmosphere fits the first couple of episodes perfectly, this atmosphere doesn't go well with the rest of episodes, which posed a major drawback. Nonetheless, I still found those episodes to be highly enjoyable, but I would have liked something more mature and dark.

In conclusion, The Eccentric Family is a great anime series if you want something light and enjoyable, and I definitely recommend it to anyone who has time for it.

I first found this anime by coming across the opening by chance and thinking 'this looks interesting', so I decided to give it a go. And I am glad I did, this anime was a thoroughly enjoyable watch.

In a nutshell, well it is a touching but strange anime about a world where Humans, Tanuki and Tengu live. It mainly follows from the perspective of the Tanuki and their way of life as they try and live peacefully in human society, sometimes causing mischief, and sometimes trying to avoid being boiled in a hot pot. Although the first impression you may get would be that it ... is overly a silly little anime, and this isn't exactly wrong as the anime is odd, if you take the time to sit through it you will find it to be a very sweet story as you learn more about the characters, their stories, and the world they live in.

The Story

The story, as mentioned is a odd one. In a world where Humans, Tanuki and Tengu live, the Tanuki, Yasaburou just wishes to live a fun and fulfilling life with nothing to tie him down. The story follows him and his family and friends as they live their everyday life. But perhaps Yasaburou got a bit more 'fun life' that he had planned for, as he has to deal with many trials, from silly squabbles with his cousins to serious problems such as avoiding becoming a meal for the "Friday Fellows", a group of Humans who eat a Tenuki hot pot each year. The story itself is strange but really not overly complicated.

8

The Characters

The characters are all very interesting in their own ways. Yasaburou who inherited the 'idiot blood' and his father the legendary Souichirou. His fellow 'idiot' brothers Yashirou, Yajirou and Yaichirou all with their own unique 'idiotic' personalities. His proud and stubborn Tenguu mentor Akadama-sensei and the mysterious Human turned Tengu, Benton. All the characters are well developed and are in my opinion what make the anime really shine.

9

The Animation and Sound

Both the animation and sound are excellent. The animation really expresses some of the beautiful settings of the anime well. The soundtrack is laid back and relaxing fitting the feel of the anime perfectly.

9

Overall

Overall I really enjoyed this anime, for all its silliness, it was a sit back and relax anime which was sweet and very very touching. It is a very refreshing change from a lot of the action filled anime you see taking all the popularity of late.

Overall I would give this a solid 9/10.

But for my own personal enjoyment I would give it a 10/10.

I hope for another season some time in the future :).

Watching Uchouten Kazoku was nourishing, like a good stew (which is a major piece of the plot!). The world is enchanting and very Totoro like (there's definitely a catbus parallel). The sacred and profane whirl around together in the city where humans, tengu, and tanuki exist side by side. The characters are likable and multifaceted- even those that 'shouldn't be', like Benten, who is both terrifying and childlike, existing between and outside all worlds. The mythical Friday Fellows, a secret group that feasts on tanuki at every year's end, pose a great danger, yet their meetings are oddly mundane- an old men's drinking club. I ... was so pleasantly surprised by this one- it's one of a kind.

A show so well written and so masterfully crafted, that unholy bobduh gave it 10/10, but also a show that didn't really articulate my media preferences. I could appreciate a lot of it's mastery of the craft through reading bobduh's reviews as I went, and it definitely mattered, and enabled me to further study the craft on this level. I'm not saying I didn't like it. By understanding most of what's great about it, I kinda had to like it. And by having such great writing, direction and production, show itself feels great to watch, even if it's not something that suits your tastes. What ... I'm saying is that personally a magical realism as a genre and slight lack of spotlighting at places, as well as thematic, made this not as enjoyable as titles I rated 9 or 10.

Down in spoiler section, I'll address what exactly annoyed me. Though note that I'm not saying anything of that is bad or show's fault. It's a further breakdown of why exactly this genre and/or type and setting didn't suit my tastes and annoyed me. Though I did my best not to let myself be too annoyed, and enjoy and understand what the show was really about. What I especially loved about it was the way all plot threads came together in the end to provide a great ending arc and resolution. Really great example of great writing. I also enjoyed the beautiful artistic environments and the way they were presented, OP (especially lyrics), as well as characterisations of protagonist and the grandpa, who were really amazing characters. To see why this show is technically a 10/10, see bobduh's review at wrongeverytime.com. Note that by giving it an 8/10, I'm not disagreeing with him. My score is merely a measure of how much I personally enjoyed something.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

Things that annoyed me personally were things like someone deciding to be a frog in the well for the rest of his life, trapping shapeshifters in barred cages (and the lame excuse that was offered to justify it), a lack of clear definition of how humans view the whole thing with tanukis and tengu existing (it becomes clear much too late, and up until that point feels confusing and annoying), the idea that their father would go to death willingly like that, his philosophy with doing that and lack of clarity if he really willingly died or not willingly. Lack of gender-shifting later on. It was such a unique thing at the beginning, yet was a plot thread rarely used again, and didn't have significance later. Pretty much everything about Benten, I just didn't like her much, as she seemed to have the power to resolve anything at any time but decided to not really do anything at all, other then interfere when she feels like it. Dunno it just felt dickish to me, the way she behaved for most of the time. And the fact their mother fears thunder, I just found that to be too unbelievable.