First off, I am a huge fan of Hetalia. I've been active in the fandom for four years, made great friends and learned a lot about history thanks to the wonderful experience that this show offered to me. The points I give it therefore are mostly for personal reasons, because the show itself? Well, let's dive into that.
So, the concept of nations personified as humans isn't new, actually this has been done since forever, and in caricatures you have popular characters like Uncle Sam, Marianne or Michel, who are known and well etablished enough that you don't even have to mention who they are most
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Aug 13, 2016
Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu
(Anime)
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For a very long time, I found no enjoyment in watching anime and reading manga – or just most lenghty shows or books - no more. As a young teen, I would binge on Bleach, Detective Conan and other multi-season shonen series and read 20 volumes of manga when I had the time and money, read every book series I could get my hands on – but as I grew older, I realized that I knew all the plot points and tropes to come, and many works just seemed predictable at this point. So that character has special abilities out of random? That dude probably
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has some sort of destiny to back this up. A portagonist has to conceal his true nature? Of course no one will find out no matter how poorly covered! Where's the appeal in fearing for detection or wondering about mysteries when they become so predictable? I think this is why exactly this anime grabbed my attention.
First off, I know the show has issues. It is by now means perfect, it does have its plot holes and worn-out story elements that we've seen plenty of. Though, considering it is an almost 100% faithful adaption from a sci-fi horror from the 1980s, you can't really say it is „copying“ other way more recent shows with its pattern (like Tokyo Ghoul). This brings me to the first point of my analysis: 1) The adaption As most anime, Kiseijuu is an adaption from a manga published in the late 1980s. I've rarely seen a story adapted so faithfully, especially if we consider that the anime is set in modern times. They had to change some scenes (in the manga, there are scenes where teachers harrass the students in ways that would be deemed inappropriate nowadays, thus those had to be changed). The character designs had to change too, because a typical nerdy goofball from the 80s looks different than he does today, and your average bully won't have his hair slicked back and wear a military-style school uniform. Also, in the Manga Shinichi (by some translators dubbed Shinji, but I am unsure wether the name change occured because of translation issues or because it was intentional) wears other clothes, doesn't wear glasses in the beginning and instead has a collection with weirdly specific clothing items which consists of sweaters with English words on them (each word reflects the current stage in the manga, such as „confusion“ „misery“ „delusion“ and „philosophy“). This was probably a funny subtle easter egg in the 80s where most japanese readers wouldn't understand English and manga wasn't read in English speaking countries, but as nowadays the audience is able to understand the hints, they didn't include them. Only in one very important key scene Shinichi wears one of those sweaters, which was probably a nod to the original work. As you can see, there's so little differences between manga and animethat it boils down to fashion changes. I was very pleased by how they handled it, I expected drastic changes but instead, it's almost word-by-word the same. 2) The story a) In general: I think, the story could be the weakest point of the whole. It's not bad, I really enjoyed it because it is full of twists and you never know what comes next. You get sucked in and want to know more, it really makes you sit through the whole thing within a day. This suspense comes at a price: It is very inconsistent. It is at if the author didn't really know where to go with it, so he included bits of everything. It is actually enjoyable because if you don't want too much action but you still like to see some bodies hit the floor, this is the right mix for you. It gives you a balance between battles, mystery, romance, gore, psychological challenges and dark humor. If you love seeing your protagonist facing all of those things, you'll be happy with this show. I must say, at times it feels like the creator just wrote fanfiction of his own work – fleshing out his character with actually unnecessary plot devices that don't drive the story forward, just to show sides of the the main char you wouldn't see normally. This is why I would call Kisejiuu a story that is very character-based, with little actual plot and lots of hints to psychology, morals, human behavior and trauma. Funnily, this is what I thought Tokyo Ghoul would go for, but found more strongly represented here. Is the show bad for going in multiple directions at once and not focusing on a single theme? It really is up to you to decide, I really liked it though. 3) Moral of the story: This is where many people have very varying opinions. Some say, the very end of the story was bad for having an overly pseudo-philosophical feeling to it, while others claim it is deep and meaningful. I must say, I don't think it's any of the two. As I already said, the story is very character-based, and the „pretentious“ monologues you get from Shinichi are actually part of his development as a person. I think at this point it really depends on if you like him or not. If you get attached to the guy, you'll find yourself liking the ending, if you're having a „meh“-approach to his struggles, you'll have the same to what happens in the last episodes. Personally, I do not agree with what was said (only to a certain degree), but from what Shinichi went through, it is just very likely that he would develop like that. You can watch this in many people recovering from trauma, actually. 4) [Slight Spoilers because I talk about literature tropes] Characters: In my opinion, Shinichi's character development was amazing. I've seen a lot of protagonists change through a series because of what they go through, but in Kiseijuu, you can literally feel the cold radiating from a guy who used to be an awkard dork. In many works, I deem character development very rushed or too slow, but here it feels just right and follows Campbell's „The Hero's Journey“ pattern very closely, while not being too predictable and offering the reader many new twists and sides of the protagonist to explore. Ironically, Migi also follows The Hero's journey, but this time it is David Adams Leeming's version, where the individual is born under mysterious circumstances, studies hard to understand the world, is tested by enemy forces, then goes into the „underworld“, comes back and finally „ascends“. Shinichi is confronted with lots of difficulties in those three years, and by the end, all he knows is that he simply doesn't understand. Many people saw this last part of the story as either deep or pretentious, but in my opinion, it's just well done development. A 16-year-old who has a very clear view of the world to an 18-year-old whose only certainty is that ultimately, humans just really hate being lonely, and just try to get what they desire, and protect themselves. Despite having only this much information on his hands, he seems lucid and content. Unlike many say, this isn't an edgy „humans are evil egomaniacs!!!“ story that we're all sick of. It just showcases how a teen struggles with being human, tries too hard to be it because he fears becoming a monster, and finds that humanity is nuanced and cannot be generalized. Funnily enough, there is even a character who is the „humans are evil“ trope personified, and it clashes wonderfully with Shinichi's newfound clarity. The others are though a bit....meeeeh. I loved Reiko, she has a wonderful feeling to her, every scene she was in felt engaging and interesting. Murano felt a wee flat and stereotypical, I liked her better in the Manga where she was more of a weirdo. Kana....I am not entirely sure about her, but I deem the hate she gets from many fans exaggerated. I think she's pretty okay. 5) [Slight spoilers because I talk about visualisation of emotional turmoil] Cinematography and Sound: The animation in Kiseijuu at times is very very nice. You get wonderful, fluid motions, expressive faces and the gestures and camera work show that the producers know what they're doing – but well, it's madhouse, we all know they're good at their job! At other times though....well, let's say, they really gotta work on CGI crowds and aerial perspective shots. I was a bit sad that they changed the manga's unique art style to something very generic, the show could have worked really well with a Steins:Gate-esque approach, where unique style choices carry meaning in itself. In the manga, many parts are drawn very realistically, which would also allow a form of realism you see in shows like Death Note. I must admit though, that the first episodes who are very comedic wouldn't have been as funny if the style was more grim, so I guess it all has its positive and negative sides. What I really liked was how they changed camera shots with Shinichi's change. At first, you have wild camera work, dramatic views and epic tracking shots, lots of perspective work and zooms to show the confusion the protagonist experiences, while in his emotionally numb times, the camera barely moves even when there's threat. It feels mechanic. When he's calmer and more balanced, so is the view. In the last episodes, shots are wider and even when stress and panic ensues, rarely you'll get a dramatic closeup or zoom, but it's more peaceful and grounded than the life-less monotone shots during Shinichi's grieving. During that time, cuts are sharp between scenes, and the camera usually steadily moves left-right or up-down, without much change in speed. Music-wise.....well, this one REALLY depends on personal taste. I like dupstep, glitch and electronic, thus I didn't mind too much (even though during the first two episodes it came so unexpected that I thought I left my spotify playlist on and just later realized it's part of the show). It's good with fighting scenes, it really buys into the Rule Of Cool approach the show has regarding action. Sometimes it seems oddly misplaced though. The Opening is really nice though, it really has one hyped up every time you hear it, and some main theme songs are emotional and well put. All in all, I'd say it's quite good. So, this was my analysis/review of the show and I tried to keep it as spoiler-free as possible so you can enjoy watching it! All in all, I found it very very good because I love character building and just fleshing out protagonists in every possible way. It may be dissapointing to people who prefer story-based plots who spend more time on building up to the climax instead of having unnecessary distracting elements that are more about the psyche of the involved individuals. Though if you want an anime dealing with inner turmoil, trauma, morals and humans as a whole, you'll love this!
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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