July 03, 2011

Ikoku Meiro no Croisee -- ep 1

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this. I think it's an example of "healing anime", I think was the term. (I asked about that here once, and Pete provided the proper term, but it's lost somewhere in the comments and I stupidly didn't write it down in a more easily-accessible location.)

By which I mean a story that's slow, gentle, warm... Someday's Dreamers was an example of it. Everyone is nice. No one is evil. Nothing terrible happens. Everyone is happy, or at least they become happy in the end.

I can't say I disliked it; in fact it was really pretty nice. But maybe I'm evil; I couldn't watch it without fearing all kinds of things might happen, that eventually didn't.

I am not the audience for this show. That's the problem. For the audience for which it is intended, it's going to be a hit. I'm not among them, and I'm not sure I can adapt to it.

The show is based in Paris, nominally in the last half of the 19th Century, but more specifically probably around 1890. The main characters are an old man, Oscar, his grandson Claude, and a Japanese girl named Yune. And I do mean "girl"; she looks like she's about 8.

Oscar took a trip to Japan and brought back a lot of souvenirs. Yune seems to be one of them, and it isn't exactly clear how he got her. Maybe she's an orphan. Claude, the grandson, is really scandalized by this entire idea -- me, too -- but it looks like he's warming up to Yune by the end of the show.

The art in the show is fabulous. I'm sure that 1890 Paris wasn't really this clean and beautiful, but for a fantasy show like this one the fantasy version of the city is probably a better match. So there are horse-drawn trolleys, but no piles of horse manure in the streets. Things like that.

It's really well done, but I don't think I can watch any more of it.

UPDATE: The term is "iyashikei".

UPDATE: Divine loved it.

UPDATE: Aroduc hated it. But these days Aroduc hates damned near everything.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 07:31 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 Believe it or not I hadn't seen this post when I referenced Someday's Dreamers in my comment on your post above. The term is indeed iyashikei, and I am not a big fan of the genre, though I appreciate certain examples of it. I like the gentleness of some anime series, and I can take an episode of Aria, or two.

But in the end I want there to be a fight over something that matters, and serious consequences if the fight is lost. If I really want iyashikei I will reread "Emma."

I suppose the "iyashikei" thing is related to Japanese "amai" culture. While I can appreciate this as a concept I have never thought actual Japanese society was all that "amai."

Posted by: tds at July 04, 2011 10:09 PM (t00nv)

2 In addition to the art in this show, I thought the music was excellent as well.  It suited the atmosphere perfectly.  This is certainly something that I'll enjoy watching just for the look and feel alone, but I doubt there's going to be an excess of story or conflict here.

Posted by: wahsatchmo at July 05, 2011 10:41 AM (r4uXE)

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