Forum - View topicThe Story of Young Hanada
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DKL
 Posts: 1962 Location: California, USA |
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Hanada Shounen Shi
For the opener, I guess I’ll post its location in the ANN encyclopedia: anime#1823 I don’t know what’s up with the entry, but it was indeed Masayuki Kojima that handled direction (in accordance to posts I’ve seen about this series and the initial set of fansubs I’ve watch there were cool enough to translate the OP credits… Backstreet Boys Karaoke included… more on that later). Anyway, this came out around the time Abenobashi did (which was an okay show, but would’ve been better as a movie since Kojima would then have to focus on unifying the themes in according to what was happening in real life, as opposed to random parodies… and if you’re wondering, yes, I thought that the Osaka flashback episode was, by far, the best episode in the series). ANYWAY, to start off, I guess I’ll describe the plot (in better detail than what’s in the encyclopedia… I mean, I’ll try anyway) So, this 3rd-grader kid named Ichiro Hanada is some spoiled brat who causes trouble for everyone in his local village (I don’t know where the place is, but it looked authentic enough… if it was announced somewhere in the show, like on a billboard or something, I probably missed it… if it was made up, then it was probably based on a real place, like how Ruhenheim was based on a German town called “Oberstdorf” in Kojima’s other show, Monster… thanks to Hzoi from themanime.org for that one). On some random day, Ichiro goes on sort of a mischievous rampage and this eventually ends up with his mom getting real angry at him; a short chase ensues that eventually ends up in tragedy with Ichiro getting hit by an oncoming truck. Ichiro was on the verge of dying, but his soul is sent back to earth when it’s concluded that it “isn’t his time yet” by one of the spirits, a beautiful young woman, that he happened to follow on his way up to… heaven or some place. Young Ichiro wakes up in the hospital to a crowd of crying faces and it seems that all is well afterwards given that he walked away from the accident with nothing but nine stitches in the back of his head (well, that and he’s bald now). Here’s the thing: later on, he discovers that he has the ability to see ghosts and now they all go to him in order to have favors done that the ghosts can’t do now that they’re dead. Anyway, as all of you who happen to wander into this thread by accident may have surmised, I really like the show (given that I manage to get off my ass and actually talk about it, despite my awesome abilities of being lazy and unproductive). The simplest way to describe it is that it’s kinda like that show, Crayon Shin-chan, but with a much larger heart (and production budget… this looks so much better than Abenobashi that it isn’t even funny… but then, this is actually the funniest show I’ve seen in a while… almost as funny as FUNi’s Shin-chan dub). Yeah, despite its seemingly crude artistic design, there’s actually a lot of technical competence behind it; again, the key components of what I like about the best of Madhouse productions are here: weight, gravity and space. In fact, Kojima uses that neat effect from Monster he has during the part where Ichiro is hit by a truck… you know the one… where it looks like an object is getting pulled out of the TV screen (kinda like a super contra-zoom or something… I don’t really know what to call it). To some extent, I can imagine that the Shin-chan parallel could automatically kill it for the audience that enjoy more sophisticated shows like Master Keaton and Monster, but it really depends on what fascinated you the most about said shows. If you liked the adaptation of Urasawa’s eye for suspense, you won’t get that here. If you enjoyed Monster’s extremely meticulous plotting, you won’t get that here. If you were fascinated by the romance of meaningful human drama set in a real-world setting… then you’re likely hit the jackpot with this one. Another thing I really liked about the show was that it managed to utilize its gimmick in the most satisfying ways possible. Ichiro goes around meeting the most interesting characters and it makes for some surprisingly powerful drama even though it initially seems like they come back to the world to ask for the most inane of requests (such as a dead old man who doesn’t want his wife to find his stash of secret love letters from other women). Also, the setting itself is very realistic and natural… I can’t think of many shows that I’ve seen that have actually had a really neat look at rural life in Japan; while I can’t exactly vouch for its realism, it seems pretty realistic to me mainly because of its striking similarity to poor farm life back in the Philippines. I mean, Ichiro complaining about the lack of a colored TV didn’t seem all that “out there,” if anything. And the characters that we meet in the show are vast in range; heck, we actually meet a Yakuza (who’s actually a real nice guy when you get to know him). What’s more is that this little network of friends is created thanks to the referral system that happens when the ghosts figure out that young Ichiro is a reliable kid, despite his on-going reluctance to help the ghosts. So, I’m up to episode 8 and, so far, the best episode in the series has actually been the 2-parter about Ichiro’s wussy friend, Souta. I was especially fond of the featured female character here in the form of their co-3rd-grader, Kei; she was very grown up for her age and actually seems in command of her father as opposed to the other way around. And its ending was FANTASTIC drama. Anywho… I’m getting kinda lost in what I’m trying to say, so I guess I’ll just kill it here. It’s a great heart-warming drama that people might’ve overlooked and, because of this, I now want to see Masayuki Kojima’s Piano no Mori (Piano Forest) more than ever (also based on a Makoto Isshiki work... just too bad that we’ll never get it, despite Yasutaka Tsutsui’s anime stuff touching ground here). OH, if I haven’t caught your attention yet, then get this: The show actually uses, not one, but TWO BACKSTREET BOYS songs for its OP and ED credits. Yeah… if anything, you guys should check out the show, if simply for the sake of ascertaining as to whether or not I’m telling the truth. |
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