Handa Seishu was sort-of banished by his father to a remote island of Goto after an incident in which the misunderstood Handa knocked the teeth out of some poor curator for criticizing his work as a prodigious calligrapher. On the island, he would discover what would be his second family, consisting of precocious children, nosy elders, and typical teenagers. He would learn about the meaning of life and hopefully, evolve into a better artist along the way. All right, here goes another syringe injection: the premise of Barakamon was good, the anime was not.
The biggest failure of Barakamon is the underdevelopment of Handa Seishu himself. Without betraying its manga origins, there should have been more subtle insights on the inner workings of an artist-- especially the young ones such as Handa Seishu. In reality, like it or not, true and talented artists are unusual and yes, sometimes they are off-putting but they are still far from being the village freak. The interactions between the hero and the so-called locals always suggest there be something broken about the hero and that a character fixation --and not character growth-- is necessary. His fragility is seen as an illness, his insecurity is seen as nonsensical, and when series finale comes about, the main hero seems to be getting worse both as an artist and as an adult.
Ultimately, coming-of-age stories always split up hairs especially among their hardcore enthusiasts. "Coming-of-age" literally means that the characters manage to get to know the truth in themselves and determine where to go forth from now on. I couldn't help but wonder: has Handa Seishu truly come of age by the end of the series? Or was it all just the after-effects of island breeze?
#felixlovesanime
