Year in Review: The Immortal Kurenai
There is a particular joy in working on multiple posts simultaneously. There is also a perversion in reveling in the fact that working ahead of schedule I can actually choose which post to go ahead first. At the same time it’s a cheerful dilemma in choosing. Only if I am guided by such simple pleasures at work.
One thing I sort of left out in my last Year in Review post is the nature of such things. I am in no way marking 12 moments (although that could be a fun exercise…ufufufufufu) of 2008. I’m just writing about things–places, people, ideas. Although one at a time. It’s a vehicle for introspection, and at the same time the proof that you’ve done your homework.
Introspection, in summary, yields different results as the thing changes, but you always ask the same question: Why.
And you do the same for the anime you like.
Like why didn’t Red Garden work.
But if upon the corpse of a mediocre almost-failure can bloom a field of roses, I can deal with the same butterflies that are reanimated yet again. (Or is it the very awesome Red Garden OAV? Which is now in stores?!)
Is this why we have totally irrelevant but totally awesome filler episode(s) involving spontaneous singing?
I have little left to say about this matter. I suppose I can name drop Miyuki Sawashiro (again) and say her performance was terrible? Well, it was better than terrible. It’s so remarkably odd? But I think it just made this year more memorable under that imaginary file folder of my Sawashiro memories, in my mind.
For the uninitiated, Red Garden was made the same way as Kurenai–same core creative team (sans the source material, naturally), plus the unusual voice recording process where the voice acting is recorded before the animation process. It created a very different flow in the show; it’s more like an old fashion radio drama or stage improv than the typical line-by-line recording we see in animated films, games and even many anime.
The problem or failure (harsh word) of Red Garden is that the genre is this modern-day, “hey we’re hip New York teenagers” Gothic horror piece. When the acting is loose like that, it takes the pacing out of the story’s hand and into the actor’s. In the end the product is more annoying, filled with crying whines and intense vocals rather than calculated monsters and tricks jumping out at you. The voice actors gave their best but it just wasn’t fitting outside the casual moments of the story and when Kate wasn’t emo-ing in the throes of angst.
On the flip side, it works great for a situational-comedy by day, action-packed-drama by night sort of story. Mainly because people don’t talk a whole lot when it’s action packed. And Kurenai has some decent action scenes to boot.
Even if I am divorced entirely of that lolicon influence (you can be the judge of that), I still think there’s something about Kurenai that is marvelous, original, and coherent. That even includes pulling off the Murasaki character as cute and dignified rather than annoying and common. I know that is not the main reason why a lot of people enjoyed Kurenai (y helo thar Wildarms), and there are still some easily notable flaws to the show. But to hell with them. This is the kind of shows that people who’ve been closely following anime for many years should note, because it’s truly something different done right.
But I suppose, in necromancy, not everything is perfect. The hard part is in the actual raising of the dead!
Year in Review 2008:
- Introduction
- Kurenai
- Miyuki Sawashiro
- JAM Project & others
- 12 lists of randomness
- Type-Moon
- 9 TV series of 2008
- Conclusion
I really didn’t care for the ending, not that I had a better idea of how it should have ended. All in all, I didn’t see it as remarkable, but definitely better than average.
Interesting about the voices being recorded first — as I recall reading, that’s one of the things about Akira that caught peoples’ attention. Kurenai definitely benefited from it, I think the VA was the best part about the show.
I wouldn’t say recording voices before the animation is an unusual process, well maybe only in Japan. It is pretty much standard practice for most western animation productions, the exceptions being foreign imports.
I wish Kou Matsuo had more freedom in his choice of directorial pursuits. That way he could do more work like Kure-nai and less like Yozakura Quartet.
Oh, so ADV did release Dead Girls? This puts the Red Garden set’s priority up a bunch of notches after the holiday season.
If there was one main thing that I like about Kurenai, it was how things seemed to “flow” in terms of how the characters interacted and things like that. I think a large part of that had to do with the recording order, so I give props for that.
And I think Sawashiro did a good job as Shinkurou, but that’s because my bias is showing again. :V
primeparadigm: it’s unusual for anime, but not unusual for games and stuff. What is interesting is the way it was recorded as well. In the west people do it line by line by character, so one actor does all his or her takes in a booth by him/herself. In anime, the takes are done all together, just like how it’s done in a radio drama, so there’s more chemistry going on between the actors.
Kurenai just combines the two, and that is actually quite rare.
I have little else to add, but Kurenai had great supporting characters, from the devilish neighbors to meganekko informers to lonely bodyguards.
Murasaki’s characterization in the show was amazing too. She’s more of DOTTA than WAIFU.
As for Sawashiro’s work here, I didn’t pay much attention because it was completely overshadowed by her stellar role in Library War. XD
I don’t get your complaints about Red Garden, but any love for Kurenai is good love.
I agree with TheBigN here (as I so often do!) - it has a ‘flow’ to it that made it stand out. The best way I could describe it is ‘organic’; I didn’t get more than one ep into Red Garden for a number of reasons, but the techniques you highlight fit the content and approach of the Kurenai story like a glove.
It was very character-driven in the sense that the relationships made the plot and premise take a back seat, which is fine by me as long as it’s done as well as it was here. Yeah, I’d call it a highlight of the year too and just to clarify on the show’s appeal outside of the lolicon fanboys, my sexual preferences run on a strict ‘over 18s’ policy! I recall there being a bit of a shitstorm over the “is this a lolicon anime?”, and that argument sounds as stupid now as it did then.
It’s always/often stupid, but that’s how it works on the internet :)
Yeah, the flow is the thing that worked out so well, and I hope we see more anime like this.