So what is it about that new series by Shinichiro Watanabe that makes my inner fangirl go off the hook? Is it the delightfully quirky character designs and animation? The fact that the whole premise is something along the lines of "Edo meets Hip-Hop?" The guarantee of at least one random and inappropriate homoerotic moment per episode?
Well, yes, it is all of those things. It's also the characters, of course, but I can assure you it isn't the plot, since there really isn't much of one.
The premise, like I said, is Edo meets Hip-Hop. All style and no substance, baby. You thought Cowboy Bebop was bad, but Bebop has nothing on this. The show is very episodic in nature, though there is an actual plot that loosely binds each episode together. The three main characters are searching for a samurai who smells like sunflowers; thusfar the episodes have had them wandering across Japan, fighting things and trying not to starve. Most episodes don't even mention the sunflower samurai, aside from some brief whining about how they aren't looking hard enough; it'll be interesting to see how the series wraps up in the last nine episodes once they release them.
It's a lot like Bebop- some episodes were lifted straight out of Bebop, in fact (Waltz for Venus, Jupiter Jazz). I'm hoping it'll have a happier ending than Bebop; even the more serious episodes aren't quite as dark as Bebop's plot-related episodes were, so I'm hoping everyone won't die.
There are three main characters; Mugen, Jin, and Fuu. Mugen is a break-dancing, foul-mouthed lowlife from Okinawa; Jin is a badass samurai with glasses who never smiles but cares more than he should; Fuu is not as cute as she thinks she is, has a stomach connected to the universe, and gets kidnapped more than she ought to. Fuu is also the only one who is actually looking for the sunflower samurai; Mugen and Jin are her bodyguards, paying her back for saving their lives in the first episode.
I absolutely adore all three of them, even Fuu. She's pretty annoying and more than a little dense at times, but she can also be quite clever. She did save Jin and Mugen in the first episode- but she then proceeded to get kidnapped in every episode until they got to Edo. *sweatdrop* After episode seven, however, she stops getting snatched all the time, and she stops having as much to say, as the episodes become much more Jin and Mugen-centric. I think the reason I actually like Fuu is because she isn't anywhere near as much of a main character as the boys are; Watanabe didn't make the mistake of turning this into Fushiigi Yuugi, and kept her as a plot device. (She does have her good points- the dice throwing, for instance, and the eating. Oh, the eating.)
I also like Fuu because she does her best to take care of herself; when she gets kidnapped, she knows that Jin and Mugen aren't automatically going to come to her rescue, so she doesn't just scream for help. Whenever she gets stuck in a bind, she does her best to get out of things on her own- but she is just a fifteen year old girl, so, endless stomach or not, she can't really be expected to do much. She's a surprisingly strong character, for all that she's just a stereotypical "cute little girl." Her cheerfulness provides a nice contrast to Jin's inability to smile and Mugen's tendency to sulk. Fuu is also protected by Momo-san, a flying squirrel. Where did it come from? No one knows. Why is it there? No one knows. But it's saved Fuu's ass on several occasions, so we all like Momo-san.
Mugen could very well be my favorite character, but it's so hard to tell when I love Jin so much, too. He's another one of those sterotypical "And now I'm going to fight because I like to fight and I'm really good at fighting and I'm going to get better at fighting because I like to fight and now I'm going to fight" kind of characters. Aside from the fact that he's from Okinawa and fights with a Chinese sword and uses break dance moves (he also has iron shod sandals, which are awesome), you know absolutely nothing about him. He's the least attached to their little group, although he does remain loyal anyway, out of some sense of obligation to Fuu and because he still feels the need to defeat Jin.
I like Mugen because he doesn't try to hide anything; he's an arrogant, loud mouthed bastard who likes wenching and fighting, and that's it. He's awesome.
Jin is the quiet one with the dark past; you eventually learn that he killed his master, since all the other students at his dojo are now out looking for him. The thing that irritates me the most about Jin is that he never smiles. ...Okay, so he smiled twice- he smiled at Shino, and he smiled at Yukimaru, but that's it.
Jin is everyone's bitch. He's one of the most skilled samurai around, but when he has to sneak into a brothel in episode 3, he's the one who ends up dressing like a whore, (A very tall whore, but still. Oh, Jin.) and in episode 10, when Mugen and Fuu go off to look for the samurai killer, he's the one stuck behind at the temple, cleaning and repairing things. Whenever they need to pawn something to buy food, its either his swords or his glasses, and whe he protests, Fuu and Mugen ignore him. Most of the random and inappropriate homeoerotic moments are centered around him, too- people keep hitting on him, or appearing to hit on him.
I like Jin, not only because he's everyone's bitch, but because he really does care about Fuu and Mugen; in episode 10, he tells Mugen, "Don't forget, I'm the only one who gets to kill you," and in episode 17 he holds on to Fuu's shoe so he can put it with her body. He's the most mature of the three of them, but underneath the serious, stony exterior he's also very young. Episode 11 is one of my favorites because it really tells you all you need to know about Jin; he cares too much, and he's enough of an idealist to think he can save the people he cares about. He just needs to fucking smile more, and then I'll absolutely love him.
So, yes. All three of them are wonderful in their own way, and the dynamics between the three of them are just delicious. But even if I didn't love the characters, I'd still love the show- because where else are you going to see someone beatboxing into a katana?
No comments:
Post a Comment