Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Is The Heike Story Accessible for Newcomers?
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Neko-sensei
Posts: 286 |
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Yup, expect to see me continue commenting on this show every chance I get. It's incredible. During Shigemori's death scene, I actually shed a single tear in perfect time with the cut to the falling flower (which is a claim I wouldn't believe if I heard someone else make it, but is honestly true).
However, the answer to the question in the title seems to be "no," as Shigemori is consistently referred to as "Sugemori" in this article, and Shigemori's son Sukemori is called Kiyomori's son (he's Kiyomori's grandson)... |
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Electric Wooloo
Posts: 314 |
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I feel like this anime was made exclusively for me. An historical anime, based on an 800 year old classic, revolving around court intrigue and politicking, Science Saru, Naoko Yamada? I can hardly think of a better premise to pull me in.
So far the series has been enchanting, both visually and especially audibly (fitting for a story that was traditionally told vocally with music accompaniment). Unfortunately I find it very hard to recommend to friends. As someone who has some knowledge of the time period and Genpei war, but hasn't read Heike Monogatari itself, I find myself having to do an hour's worth of research every episode to understand everything going on. Mind you I'm happy to do that research and it's somewhat refreshing to enjoy a series so much that I'll put in that effort, but it's a tall ask for a lot of people. I also appreciate the grim view of war that episodes 5 and 6 in particular have shown with Koremori suffering immensely from the battles. The original has been described as glorifying war, but this adaptation seems to be purposefully showing another perspective and I appreciate that. Even knowing where this is all going to end up (Dan-no-ura) I find myself very attached to all of the characters. For example watching Atsumori be introduced this episode and speak about how he "Admired Shigemori for his battle prowess and cannot wait to fight himself" gave me the shivers. Biwa is truly an audience surrogate for I felt I could see the Key Frames of what will be happening in about 3 episodes right there and then. Small note. In the article you refer to Biwa's adopted father and nominal head of the Taira as Sugemori when his name is Shigemori. Perhaps a small mixup with his son Sukemori's name. Understandable since there's soooo many characters. |
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Piglet the Grate
 Posts: 758 Location: North America |
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Yahallo, Do you believe that following the story would be easier on a weekly basis, or binge watching once the series is done? ---- Do heterochromatic eyes have any particular significance in Japanese culture? Only other anime character with that trait that comes to mind is Urumi Kanzaki from GTO. ----
Not ultimate little sister caretaker Komachi Hikigaya, too stupid to live Yoshiko Hanabatake, ambiguous gender Tsugumi Aozora, or mean girl Mami Nanami (OK, the last three shows may have been too trashy for many viewers)?
The licensing would be a nightmare, but we should have an annotated version with Miku Nakano explaining things. 
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Electric Wooloo
Posts: 314 |
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Personally I never binge anime so I'd basically always recommend a weekly viewing. Being reminded of, and doing research on, the original every week will also help reinforce character names and events. |
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Sven Viking
Posts: 1041 |
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Betteridge's law of headlines: "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no." I like it, though. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24122 |
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I am completely unfamiliar with the source material and I can't claim that I keep track of every new character that gets thrown at us, but I still super love this show. I get the broad strokes. Did take me a few episodes to figure out that the bald dude with bushy eyebrows was Lord Kiyomori (the real head of the Heike clan) and that the bald dude with no eyebrows and a love of singing was Emperor Go-Shirakawa.
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Sven Viking
Posts: 1041 |
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Confusion between bald characters was my main stumbling block also, together with some confusing translation choices.
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timber
Posts: 141 |
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As someone who have no knowledge, it is indeed hard to follow what's happening but following the story from Biwa's perspective keeps you interested in the characters. I must say my ears perked up when they mentioned the Fujiwara clan. I told myself "Ah! we are in the time period where my beloved Go addicted ghost 'Fujiwara Sai' was originally living." |
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Hiroki not Takuya
 Posts: 2652 |
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I appreciate the commentators for bringing the visibility of Heiki Monogatari up a notch here, it is a beautiful show with equally beautiful music (Ep6 flute trio!!). As a practical ignoramus on Japanese feudal history and personages, I did not find it too opaque to understand most of what was happening. Whether something is "accessible" I think depends as much on the interest level of the viewer as to how much effort they are willing to dedicate to figuring things out as the story progresses.
There is a lot presented early but I love that the show doesn't "spoon feed" the audience to keep them "caught up" as things happen but it respects people enough to present what they need to figure things out if they want. As for me, like Ms. Silverman, this show is my "cup of tea" and I was always ready and interested to put in some effort to do so. The only way this would have failed is if the storytelling was so poor that it lost the continuity among the side-lines and main story events. It integrates both masterfully and so I'd recommend any thoughtful person to check this Monogatari out! |
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Denys Lalande
Posts: 88 |
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I'm just waiting to see who gets her ears ripped off....
(Not only am I familiar with the Genpei War, I am familiar with the tale of Mimi-nashi Hoichi.... >:) ) |
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CrowLia
 Posts: 5528 Location: Mexico |
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Not necessarily. The Fujiwara clan was puppeteering the imperial court for centuries and is already in decline at the time of the Genpei war -hence why the Taira/Heike were able to amass so much power-. The real golden age for the Fujiwaras was during around the 9th-10th century -incidentally, the time period where the Tale of Genji was written-. I don't remember what specific period Sai mentions being from -if any- so this might be taking place hundreds of years past his time. |
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NeverConvex
 Subscriber Posts: 2508 |
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As someone who's never seriously studied this period in history, I'm following about 80% of the show, I think, although that might drop to 60% or so if I didn't also occasionally skim summaries of the then court politics here at ANN. I think the show's fantastic even when it's difficult to follow; the individual character arcs are quite touching, and the art's lovely. But, it probably could have been strictly improved (i.e., without sacrificing anything) while spending a bit more time fleshing out the characters and their political roles; as is, I often found myself, especially in the early episodes, struggling to remember which of the several similar-looking political leaders I was looking at, and how they related to one another.
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Fluwm
 Posts: 1004 |
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It occurs to me that difficulty following the "plot" and identify characters may be deliberate--as it means the audience perspective is similar to Biwa's. As a Child, she most likely does not have a firm understanding of everything that's going on (nevermind the broader historical context) and may have difficulty distinguishing between certain characters to overlap.
I've not yet started this series, so I'm just spitballing here, but I don't think it's necessary to be familiar with the "history" to enjoy something like this, or anything else, really--stories live or die by their characters. |
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Sven Viking
Posts: 1041 |
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There’s no indication Biwa has any sort of trouble telling characters apart. The plot and political machinations could make sense, but Biwa’s perspective isn’t actually all that pervasive in the episodes I’ve seen so far — many scenes aren’t witnessed by or even known to her. Also some of the confusion relates to translation choices that wouldn’t have been planned by the original staff. |
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