Some people just have it rough. I mean, one day you're walking along in a history museum trying to make up for your bad grades when all of a sudden, you're in the era of the Bakumatsu, running for your life from a crazed and possibly rabid monster who just injured you grievously. As if that wasn't bad enough, you have no way of going home, and even if you have been given the ultimate game-breaking power, you have no idea how to use it, much less stop everyone around you from trying to kill each other... if you happen to be Tokidoki Rikugou, then things probably can't get much worse. (As if having your first name being the Japanese word for "Sometimes" wasn't bad enough.) But at least the rest of us can still see properly out of both eyes. So strap on your virtual goggles and watch out for the Yakou as you go, today, we're taking a walk around Amatsuki.
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Tokidoki: Hmm... this wasn't on the exhibit map...
And why is that animal looking at me like I'm it's dinner?... |
Our story begins with the introduction of our main character, who goes by the name of Tokidoki Rikugou. After having horribly failed history, he is required to go to a local museum to see a new high-tech virtual reality exhibit that focuses on Bakumatsu-era Edo as an assignment for summer school. After running into a fellow classmate, by the name of Kon Shinonome, he finds himself inexplicably attacked by a strange pair of monsters, one of which seems quite beastly in nature, while the other one seems somewhat humanoid but has claws and appears to be covered completely in bandages. In the ensuing fight, Tokidoki's VR goggles are torn off and his left eye is blinded, and at this moment he finds that he is no longer at the exhibit, and the Edo he had previously only seen through the goggles has become real. As he tries to comprehend this new turn of events, a girl with a katana shows up and fights off the monsters before Tokidoki loses consciousness. When he comes to, he finds himself reunited with Kon, who has apparently been trapped here for two years longer (due to the eccentricities of time travel allegedly) after also being attacked and losing the use of his right arm to the same monsters, and the two boys spend the rest of the series, along with Kuchiha, the girl who rescued Tokidoki, trying to fit into this strange version of Edo (called Amatsuki by the populous) while getting into plenty of trouble along the way.
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In this universe, demons and spirits have their own ways too,
just like humans. All it takes is one bad step, and someone
might go on a rampage, like this poor fox who is soon to lose the tree
she cares about to a couple of wood cutters. |
The world of Amatsuki is an interesting place. While the basic culture is definitely indicative of Edo during Japan's feudal period there are a significant number of differences that make it not quite like the history books, mostly related to the spiritual and demon-related aspects of the scenario. It seems that spirits such as the inari, and the traditionally more malevolent tengu have their own community alongside the human one, and while many of them are definitely troublemakers in the human realm not all of them necessarily hate humans or even really have anything against them. The more mundane ones seem to act like powerful, though mostly benign neighbors, and those that do have a beef with the mortals only seem to get angry because they feel like their being encroached on (not unlike how a lot of fights and wars start between normal human opponents in real life). Most of the demons that the characters have to face along the way seem more likely to be exceptions rather than the rule and even they seem to practice restraint as it appears to be common knowledge that hurting, killing and eating humans can drive a spirit totally crazy. Aside from that last caveat, it's really not unlike a more urbanized Feudal Era from the universe of
Inuyasha. Except perhaps a bit more complicated because there doesn't seem to be a real villain in this this series until we get to the very last episodes.
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A group meeting of the conspirators.
They sooo pranked that samurai. ^^ |
The three main characters seem to be reasonably complex and believable given the circumstances that they've been thrust into. Tokidoki is a go-along to get-along kind of person for the most part, but it's interesting that because he's from modern day Japan (and failed history) he knows virtually nothing about the social ins and outs of feudal Japanese society and therefore he gets himself into quite a bit of trouble over his own ideas about how people should be treated. This made for some fun altercations with some local samurai that really ballooned out of control early in the plot. The first one had a samurai who was bullying Kuchiha at the temple where Tokidoki was staying and because he didn't know that samurai could make your life miserable in a very real way during this time in history, he started a fight and was nearly skewered on a katana for his trouble. This resulted in a very funny prank later involving a primitive fire suit and ethanol. Kon serves as a mentor especially early on because not only was he studious in present day, he was also interested in history, and since he landed here two years ahead of Tokidoki, he's capable of providing wisdom gleaned from his own experiences getting familiar with everything the hard way. It's a good strategy from a plot oriented perspective. With Tokidoki serving as the viewer surrogate who knows nothing about the era he's landed in, Kon serves as a bridging character who can reasonably explain things without stretching the fourth wall too much. Finally, there's Kuchiha, a highly skilled swords-woman who fought off the monsters that attacked Tokidoki. She has an interesting back story as it turns out there is and inukami (basically a dog spirit/god) living in her body. Naturally, her personality incorporates a lot of dog-like tendencies, such as a healthy appetite, a strong loyalty to her friends, and a nearly wolfish tendency to protect them when their lives are in danger. However, being more or less possessed by a spirit of any kind has its drawbacks. For instance, most normal humans who don't know her treat her like dirt, or are afraid of her.
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| (Uncomfortable pause)......That's a guy?! |
The supporting characters are fun in their own way though they aren't quite free from a number of traditional Japanese stereotypes, like Shamon, the head of the local Buddhist temple is a bit of a heavy drinker (though apparently not a lecher, surprisingly), and Kon's friend in Heihachi would probably count as the typically playful unskilled worker. There are apparently a couple of other nakamas wandering around, including the government's squad of special demon hunters, of which we only get to see a couple of members, and the priestesses and monks at the local Shinto shrine, out of whom we learn a lot more about what's going on. Interestingly, Ginshu, the head priestess is not actually a woman, but apparently, prior to taking the position, was actually a man. (Which definitely makes things awkward when Tokidoki and Kon are summoned to meet her er... him... er... Goodness, even I'm confused! ><;) Not unlike
Princess Mononoke, Nabari no Ou, and a number of well known Gundam series, this anime can almost be said to not have a true villain. At least at first. While there are clearly antagonists to the main party, such as the Yakou (that strange monster thing with the bell and bandages that attacks Tokidoki at the start of the story), and at first even the demons and spirits under the Tengu, Bonten's leadership might have seemed like they were going to be antagonistic, but at the end of the series, it's really, really hard to say.
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The demon Nakama, made up of Tsuyukusa, Bonten,
and Utsubushi, are actually quite funny.
Especially in the last episode, which makes
the blatant cutoff even less pleasing. >< |
After causing all the trouble with the samurai, the government sends a representative to escort Tokidoki who by this time has discovered he can see spirits with his bad eye, to the nearby Shinto shrine. Once there, after a major altercation with the local priestesses, and an ominous offer to Tokidoki, made by Bonten, to take their side in some argument, the party meets Ginshu, and he reveals that Tokidoki is possessed of an incredible and potentially
game-breaking power. If he'd just learn how to use it at will, he could alter the space-time continuum of this world, called heavens net by the locals, which basically amounts to being able to summon items from nowhere, change the fate of other characters and completely alter events that were already established to happen. The reason Ginshu is so helpful on this point is that he/she/? wants to use his powers for some as of yet unexplained reason. After hanging out at the shrine for a little while, the rest of the series involves Tokidoki and Kuchiha gathering information in the neighborhood of Nihonbashi while Shamon the monk, and one of Bonten's followers, a tree spirit called Tsuyukusa, attempts to help a fox spirit who was servant to another tree spirit until the tree was cut down. After some serious drama trying to pull the fox out of revenge mode, it looks like we're finally getting to the meat of the story and it's only just revealed that Ginshu and Bonten both are looking to destroy God, or the Gods so that fate isn't so unchangeable, when all of a sudden... Hang on, where's the rest of it?!... Nooo!!!!!
Yes, that's right, they stopped the show right in the middle of the series. Didn't even bother to offer an apology or a closing statement. They just left this apple to rot on the branch, not unlike Kuchiha's family tried to do with her so that the inukami would no longer be passed on to anyone. I really hate it when a show does this. Especially if they weren't doing such a bad job getting you to care about the characters in the first place. I mean, there were times where I was even cheering for some of the minor characters like Shamon and Heihachi. I really wanted this one to keep going! Aside from that, the show wasn't doing a bad job. There were one or two dialog slip-ups. Like there was one point where a person who was an Amtsuki native used the word "robot" in a sentence which kind of threw me for a loop (as that is definitely a western loan word that had not even existed as we know it until 1920 so there's no way a Japanese person from this time period should know what that means), but mostly that's just me nitpicking. In terms of presentation, I think the anime studio did a pretty good job. The opening theme, "Casting Dice" by Yuuki Kanno (no, that is not a typo), and the ending theme, "Namae no Nai Michi" by Kaori Hikita, are both very nice to listen to and I enjoyed them very much. The artwork and animation aren't particularly notable in being excellent or horrible but they do their job, and they do it well. Unfortunately for the English-only fans there is no licensed English dub out there, but those who are okay with subs should do just fine since the dub-work isn't half bad in Japanese. The cast is led by Jun Fukuyama (Lelouche in Code Geass) as Tokidoki, Koji Yusa (Gin Ichimaru from Bleach) as Kon, and Romi Park (Teresa from Claymore) as Kuchiha. If it weren't for the ending that wasn't an ending, I would have been able to give this one some decently high marks unless they used the missing half of the series to royally screw up. It was doing what it was supposed to do in terms of being entertaining and keeping the information rolling. It's a real shame that it ended in such a disappointingly abrupt manner. But I guess, if I were really desperate, I could have just hunted up the manga. And that's the tiger's two cents.
Images taken from Amatsuki.
