Heike Monogatari

The Taira clan, also known as the Heike, holds immense authority over Japan. When a young girl, gifted with an odd eye that allows her to see the future, foolishly disrespects the clan, her father pays the price of her crime with his life. Soon after, as fate would have it, Taira no Shigemori—the eldest son of the clan leader—stumbles upon the same unfortunate girl, who now calls herself "Biwa." Biwa informs him that the downfall of the Heike is imminent. After learning of the great injustice Biwa suffered at the Heike's hands, Shigemori vows to take her in and care for her rather than let her be killed.

In an era of rising military tension, the Heike are in the midst of a cunning struggle for power, and bloodstained war is on the horizon. Shigemori, whose eyes allow him to see spirits of the dead, is both anxious and hopeful to prevent his clan's demise. Biwa, however, is reluctant to reveal the future to him and must adapt to her new life filled with both happiness and sorrow in this pivotal chapter in Japanese history.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Biwa Main

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Taira no, Tokuko Supporting

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Taira no, Shigemori Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Taira no, Atsumori Supporting

Murase, Ayumu Japanese

Taira no, Sukemori Supporting

Okamoto, Nobuhiko Japanese

Minamoto no, Yoshitsune Supporting

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Taira no, Keishi Supporting

Honna, Youko Japanese

Fujiwara no, Tadakiyo Supporting

Kusunoki, Taiten Japanese

Gozu Supporting

Ihara, Masaaki Japanese

Saitou, Sanemori Supporting

Saitou, Shirou Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Choi, Eun-Young Producer, Production Manager

Nakamura, Shinichi Producer

Takeuchi, Fumie Producer

Reviews

Sep 30, 2024

SgtSalamander

Recommended

Heike Monogatari is a poignant tale that relates the tragedy of the Heike clan, and does so with lavish, effulgent beauty, wreathed in symbolism and saturated in a sense of humanity not usually granted to the Heike in the retelling of their story, that family that flew too close to the sun. This is a magnificent retelling of a classic story rooted in history, resulting in a profoundly moving work of art. The story is the strongest part of this anime, as it is a masterful example of tragic beauty- through the addition of a clairvoyant young girl, you learn ... the fates of the Heike, and even so, the story endears them to you. Even through all their pride and their sin, you are treated to these characters as people, and the Heike as a family. It is flawlessly constructed, and manages to imbue its characters with a rare level of interest, down to the most insignificant storylines. It feels arresting in a classic, theatrical sense, grand and Shakespearean with all the life and color that entails, but somehow more earnest, more grounded and genuine throughout. From the frantic glimpses of coming death, to quiet moments beneath the moon, the heated pitch of battle, or the simple joys of a lighthearted song, it all feels real, it feels like life in all the ways it should. The way the story handles its motifs of impermanence, of grief, of duty and destiny and fulfillment, feels mature and complex in every moment, striking in every symbol it presents. In short, it is totally enthralling, and I cannot possibly heap enough praises upon its construction.

The art is a close second, as it, too, possesses a rare excellence. On the face of it, it looks totally unique, completely unlike anything else I've seen thus far, and that alone is impressive in its own right. It employs the use of a traditional Japanese color palate, as well as soft gradients and a kind of visual texture to everything onscreen so as to invoke the actual works of art which first depicted them. In this way, it feels otherworldly, but also elegant, precise, and in a way, more prescient than if it had gone with a more standard or a more realistic style. It fits this anime perfectly, and acts as a visual medium for many of the symbols and motifs that the story conveys, like delicate flower petals blowing away in the wind, or the focus on water as the source of the Heike's power as well as the implications it has for their ultimate fate. even beyond this ethereal quality, it is also just technically very impressive, especially in the fluidity of its animation, like the choreography of its fight scenes, its portrayal of everyday life, and of course the incredibly detailed emotion that plays on the face of every single character, even down to the most minute creasing of the eyebrows. It's almost more heavy with symbolism and raw emotion than the story itself. One caveat here is that sometimes the faces of certain characters look a little too stylized, resulting in a rather unpleasant face, but these instances are thankfully limited to only a couple of characters, and by no means does this have a notable impact on the art direction as a whole, which is still absolutely stunning.

The sound, too, is very, very strong. The OST is deeply moving, combining the sounds of traditional Japanese music, like the Biwa and the Japanese flute, with deeply emotional elements like a meandering, contemplative piano, and a variety of string instruments. This creates a mystical, almost sacred atmosphere, a space in which the story and its visuals can more deeply affect you than would otherwise be the case. The sounds of life are also rich and detailed, and furthermore the voice work is lively and impassioned, carrying the full weight of emotion that they intend, which hits heavy each and every time, be it a final goodbye or a first hello, or getting to know a character's innermost thoughts and worries- through it all, it often feels like they are speaking directly to you.

Speaking of which, the characters are, like most everything else in this anime, simply incredible. They feel like the movers of the story rather than being subjects moved by it, like everything hangs on their actions, their doubts, their struggles, even when you are treated to a glimpse of the future, and a foreknowledge of where these actions will one day lead, it still feels like these things happen because of them rather than to them. At times, I'll admit, it can be difficult to keep track of all the characters, as the who's who of the story gets pretty crowded, but this doesn't end up detracting from the anime in the end, as the most important characters are ones you are sure to be familiar with throughout the entire show. Of them, my favorites are Biwa and Shigemori. I like Biwa for her unique place in the tale as a tragic storyteller, who can tell the future but do nothing about it, who can merely witness and later relate the story of these people who took her in and raised her. Her reticence to tell the future at all also ties into this, as her abilities conflict with her innate desire for companionship and belonging. She is the perfect addition to this classic story, and I feel is a stroke of narrative genius. Then, Shigemori earns his spot as his namesake implies, 'the conscience of the Heike'. He is a kind, honorable man, who nonetheless does everything in his power to do right by his family, their legacy, and most of all, their wellbeing. He gives everything towards this end, and in a way, blown along by the winds of fate set aloft by his father Kiyomori and his ravenous ambition, he is very much like that girl he took in, Biwa. Even though he can't see the future like her, he in a way feels the same about his family. he knows where it's heading, and he can't stop it. He is the archetypal embodiment of beautiful tragedy, a man of honor at the crossroads of conflicting duties and weighed down beneath the yolk of history. Overall, Heike Monogatari is a true work of art, a dramatic, tragic masterpiece that relates one of Japan's most striking historical periods with a narrative skill and visual mastery rarely seen in the medium. Watch this anime- it is worth every second of your time.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jan 4, 2024

Hydre_Ito

Mixed Feelings

This is an adaption of an ancient Japanese tale about a war between two great clans that ruled the country during the 12th century. The plot mainly entails the different battles that took place and the gradual downfall of one of the clans, with an anime original protagonist and supernatural aspects that didn’t add much to the story; her and another character inherit abilities to see into the future and see souls of the dead respectively.

After tragically parting with her biological father, Biwa, our protagonist (apparently) meets the compassionate leader of the Hieke (Taira) clan, Shigemori. He decides to take her in as he ... feels responsible over what she had to endure. In the first few episodes, we witness a wholesome relationship between him and Biwa where they both relate to eachother due to their supernatural abilities, or otherwise curses; she sees him as somewhat of a father figure, and in his case as a daughter. This development helps the viewer form some level of attachment to them. However, Biwa’s failure to actually age, both visually and mentally, does unfortunately reduce the impact: we do not see any further progression from her or in regards to Shigemori’s feelings towards her, or vice versa. Its quite vexing how this is never once explained or alluded to, especially considering both her parents look like normally developed adults. I could not help but think it was lolicon bait, moe fanatic bait, or both, because at least 50% of anime has to appease the pedophiles I guess, a trend that refuses to die.

I went into this excited to see how Biwa would grow up, what she would become as a young adult, the influence she would have and actions she would take, especially within an ancient culture where women had little to no influence. Only to realise that in fact, none of this was about her in the slightest.

Soon, its fairly clear that her role as a spectator within the show was intentional. However, this was executed pretty badly and we are left with a very strange situation that I have not witnessed in any other anime before: A situation where no single character is possible to form an attachment to because no one actually matters, seems important or receives much development. The only two characters that came close to refuting that, could be argued to have been Shigemori and his sister Tokuko. The sister is meant to embody strength, patience and kindness on behalf of others in the story, this is reiterated throughout and we see her go through different stages in life; you could even say she had more depth than Biwa.

Biwa doesn’t get any meaningful character development beyond episode 4 and she is essentially a side character. Even as a spectator or future storyteller, she still could’ve had more of a presence rather than only being in the backdrop. It didnt quite feel like the story was being told from her perspective, she felt almost completely out of place, so I was left wondering: what was the point of her existence in this at all? it made no difference; she did nothing, had nothing done to her, no one bothered her, no one interfered with her, she says nothing meaningful ect. Yes, the anime was trying to capture the feeling of helplessness, but she could have gone through certain events or treatment to illustrate that even further. Is not that im asking for her to change the future, not at all, in fact, reinforcing the tragedy of her ability is a good thing, but its low impact when shes completely passive and practically invisible.

Most of the battles were very redundant, rushed and quite boring; despite getting the most screen time, they had less effort put into them than low-tier battle-shounen series. There was also too many long titles and names that came as fast as they went; this is another aspect that made the series feel more like reading a summarised history textbook re-telling with ADHD than watching an animation project with creative storytelling. While these battles took place, there are glimpses of a grown-up version Biwa narrating the events as she plays her instrument; you could argue that this way, she had some presence, especially since those shots roused mysteriousness and interest, but as it became apparent that we weren’t going to learn any more about her, those scenes started to lose impact.

Despite all of that, this show certainly has a strong Iyashikei factor sprinkled throughout several scenes in every episode, it is very aesthetic and sometimes very calming. It had some beautiful messages pertaining to forgiveness, prayer, hedonism and so on.

Buddhism is a prevalent theme in this anime with several characters choosing to become monks or nuns to either escape hardships or cope with losses. I found this to be quite interesting. Sadly, we do not get much depiction of any character’s life after they’ve made that decision or how it really makes them feel.

This anime had the potential to be great, seeing as how its a rarely represented sub-genre within anime, I so badly wanted it to be. It could have been emotionally impactful and even thought-provoking, but ultimately, it was too short and therefore did not have enough time. Due to the clutches of overproduction within late-stage capitalism, this is the final product that we are presented with.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 5, 2021

grr_mal

Not Recommended

A beautiful anime, wasted on a crap story. And no, I don't care for the excuse that it's a "documentary" for actual history or whatever. Keep it in the history textbooks instead of putting it on my screen if you don't want me to be critical of it. It simply does not work as an anime, or any form of entertainment for that matter. It is full of stupid people following stupid leaders and doing stupid and illogical things. For a while I thought it was a bearable amount of stupid, but the last episode pushed the limits beyond the acceptable.

There is no character whom ... you can empathize or root for, or at least understand their situation and reasoning. The minute you may start to think there is, they go off doing something stupid and leave the story. Even the "main character" is just a "storyteller" or rather "story seer" and never does anything, despite having paranormal superpowers. It's clear she was not part of the story but just made up addition. There are plenty of other obviously made up elements - probably not by the anime authors but by the people of Japan in the form of legends and such - but they can not help the otherwise bland story become interesting.

The only way in which this anime may be interesting is for studying that part of history, or studying that folklore and legends - though if that's your goal then the given content will be insufficient, and mixing the two certainly does not help either. Its definitely no good as a story.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: dub or sub OrcMeiser - Jul 30	22 replies	by billybub »» Nov 30, 12:58 PM
	Poll: Heike Monogatari Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 ) KANLen09 - Nov 24, 2021	90 replies	by GlacioD »» Apr 27, 6:14 AM
	Why have the dates when this series aired been changed from the autumn of 2021 to the winter of 2022? WatchTillTandava - Nov 16, 2022	5 replies	by Rexnihilo »» Apr 19, 7:22 PM
	Poll: Heike Monogatari Episode 5 Discussion KANLen09 - Oct 13, 2021	34 replies	by Andrzej2 »» Apr 10, 5:07 PM
	Poll: Heike Monogatari Episode 7 Discussion KANLen09 - Oct 27, 2021	26 replies	by L01MK »» Jan 14, 11:16 AM