KAZE NO YOJIMBO
Loosely based on Kurosawa’s classic Yojimbo, this anime series is a
mystery/crime drama about a man of unclear origins named George Kodama who
comes to a sleepy little country town in search of a man from his past who
comes to discover the town isn’t as “sleepy” as it first appears. In fact,
there’s quite a lot of dirty little secrets behind the town’s insular
populace, that add up to a huge mystery that links everyone together
(including one seemingly random character that shoes up for one episode just
to get killed).
The high point of this series is the story. It’s very film noir: mystery,
intrigue and conspiracies abound. It’s got a lone tough guy protagonist,
bittersweet romantic elements and gritty action. The best part is the
pacing. The story is well drawn out across all 26 episodes, each one like
peeling off a layer of an onion. For every little detail that’s illuminated,
it leads to another mystery and builds at a constant pace to an almost
Shakespearean conclusion. Contrast this with many series that have one huge
reveal around episode 13 that tries to explain everything to that point, and
then another at the finale, with a lot of angst to fill the rest of the time
(not that that’s necessarily a bad thing).
KNY is refreshing in that aspect, as well as that it’s very understated as
anime go. Very down to earth. In fact, it could easily have been made as a
live action drama, so I wonder why the medium of animation was chosen.
Probably just cost. Or maybe subject matter too (there was a very brief
nude scene for a character who would be underage, being a high school
student…)
The cast of character’s is extensive and engaging. Everyone’s very well
developed with strong motivations for their actions, even though it’s
sometimes unclear until much later what those motives are.
For the most part, the visual quality is good with strong but realistic
character designs (important with such an large cast) and the crisp clean
line work and cell shading we’ve all become used to in this age of computer
aided animation production. It’s only occasionally marred by brief spans
where the production quality takes a nose dive and then comes back up again.
The visual style, however, is not my cup of tea. It’s mostly well rendered,
realistic, modern day scenes but they use a lot of double images, visual
effects/filters and bright two tone color scenes mixed in in an effort to be
avante’ garde (I guess). While it’s nowhere near the seizure inducing
texture orgy that is Gankutsuo, it’s a bit much at times. Though like
Gankutsuo, this anime’s strength is in it’s plot and characters. I’m sure
there are some out there who would think this kind of visual flair adds
gravity to the scenes, or something like that…
Some of the mechanical designs, particularly helicopters and the ubiquitous
trains are rendered in fully 3D CGI in cell-shaded style graphics composited
into the shots, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. But it gets the
job done.
Speaking of getting the job done, that’s what the sound design does as well.
The sound quality as well as the voice acting is very understated, down to
earth and realistic. So it fits with the plot and general feel of the show
very well. It goes largely unnoticed much of the time, which in a show like
this is precisely what it should do.
Overall a very enjoyable and satisfying bit of entertainment.
Recommended for all anime fans as a study in how the medium has no trouble
taking any genre even relatively mundane ones. Highly recommended for fans
of noir style intrigues and deep narratives.
-Timothy W. Leard
