[Anime] Aoi Bungaku Ep 9-10: Hashire Melos / 走れメロス
Has any of you seen it yet? It has been ages seen I saw something this mind-blowingly good. Wow, just wow. It is stylishly directed, full of angst and emotional tension – not to mention the beauty and sadness…
Anime adaptation of "Hashire Melos" produced by the studio Madhouse.
1) I was initially curious as to how they were going to stretch a story so short as Dazai Osamu’s Hashire Melos into two whole episodes when it could easily be told in under 10 minutes. Now I know – they have a character called Takada adapting Dazai’s story into a screenplay. In the course of that, he remembers his old friend Joujima (or Joushima?), who betrayed him 15 years ago.
2) I believe this is the first work that Nakamura Ryōsuke [中村亮介] directs after Mouryou no Hako. Not only does he use the soundtrack from his previous work and have the same voice actor who played Sekiguchi Tatsumi voicing Takada, the art style, the setting, the character design and the direction also combine to give the impression that the story takes place in the same fictional universe as Mouryou no Hako. So much so that I was half expecting Chūzenji Akihiko or Sekiguchi Tatsumi to make an appearance as Passerby A and Passerby B or something…
Sakura flowers falling all over Japan in "Hashire Melos".
3) Also, what with all the sakura petals falling beautifully and the rushing train in the midst of falling snow – I was nearly fooled into thinking that I was watching Byousoku 5 Centimeter. The falling sakura petals are beautifully done – more beautiful than anything you will see in real life.
Flowing water appears in various scenes, possibly as a motif for time flowing by irrevocably.
4) Special compliments to how they animate flowing water beautifully. I suspect they meant the flowing water to be a motif for time passing by irretrievably – that “you cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters are continually flowing in.”
The prison scene where Melos says goodbye to Selinuntius.
The prison scene where Selinuntius also gives Melos his locket.
5) I also like how they use dramatic lighting to contrast light and shadow in the screenplay. The prison scene before Melos’ departure is an example of this. It is also my favorite scene – very moving and intense. (If it were a real screenplay, we probably would not be able to see close-up shots of their faces like this.)
6) I admire how they manage to enrich the original story in the adaptation by adding a parallel story of friendship between Takada and Joujima. In the last storyarc Kokoro, they butchered away all the stuff about “dying honorably for the Meiji spirit” [明治の精神に殉死する]. I was initially curious as to how they would handle that part because you cannot get away with it without answering two basic questions: What is the Meiji spirit? What does it mean to die honorably for the Meiji spirit? As you can probably guess, these two questions are the stuff of controversy that literary scholars debate about and to which no satisfactory answer has ever emerged. That is why I was curious as to how they would handle it in the anime adaptation. As it is, they avoided answering those questions altogether.
That is all I have to say. I have nothing but praise for this storyarc – it is perfection itself. Please go see it if you have not already done so, and let me know what you think.
I have just finished the second episode.
I have not read the original story, but read the Wikipedia article beforehand, after being totally confused by Kokoro. I was expecting quite something else and the first quarter of the episode I was again rather confused….
It was however nicely made. From the summary of the original story itself, I was expecting something old-fashionedly “kitschy”, but the story built around it made some really nice parallels. Especially the alternatiting scenes of Melos running and Takada’s hasty return were full of suspense. Through I didn’t really get, what the reason of the “treason” was. There was something mentioned about him having troubles with his father or so I think I caught.
I agree with you, the setting is very reminiscent of Mouryou no Hako. But actually I had this impression in “Ningen Shikkaku” already… And “Kokoro” had a little bit of it, too.
But I think the character design wasn’t all to well chosen. I don’t know, but these Konomi-styled eyes didn’t seem to fit very well for me. I don’t really know why…
Perhaps it was confusing because you watched it raw?
I think with “Kokoro” their original intention was to “simplify” it, so they focused on a marginal part of the story instead of the main plot, which is controversial for the reasons I already mentioned.
“Ningen Shikaku” (the anime) took place before WWII but that was left vague until the very end. “Kokoro” was supposed to take place in the Meiji period, and in the timeframe of the story that they focused on I was surprised to see that many Japanese books printed in western binding. I kind of doubt that they existed in such number in the original story.
Both storyarcs were meant to take place at a time very different from the time “Mouryou no Hako” is set.
I just got around watching this arc and it was indeed excellent. On the animation front I was just glad to finally see some real, naturally flowing motions and body language (melodramatic as they usually were) that are so rare in anime. I also loved the way they animated the characters’ eyes, they were, I think, quite expressive (I think the last time I saw such expressive eyes was in Yukikaze, but emotions didn’t run quite this high in that one).
I also liked how melodramatic it was, in a good way. The frame story especially reminded me of classic shoujo manga (in fact, I kept imagining Takada and Joujima as girls).
It also reminded me just how dry Shakespeare can be in Japanese, at least to my ears (I don’t claim to hear the nuances…). This little piece of Romeo and Juliet was, well, the original word-by-word, but it was just so plain. (I once read a translation that was much nicer, though maybe I just felt so because the language was more archaic.) And it reminded me of the small culture shock I once had when I read sonnet XVIII. in Japanese… it was just so dry and unpoetic, it didn’t have the grace and elegance of either the original or “native” Japanese sonnets. (Obviously in this case plain translation is not enough, it would need to be adapted to Japanese… I wonder if such adaptations exist.) On the other hand, I think Old English poetry would be absolutely awesome in Japanese. I wish I could get a hold of a Japanese translation of Beowulf or something…
kuromitsu:
By body language, do you mean the scenes on stage? I think they had to be dramatic because the audience sits too far to be able to see the actors’ facial expressions.
By the way, did you hear “Joujima” or “Joushima” as the friend’s name? 城島 could be read either way, and they seem to be always so emotional when they speak that I cannot hear quite well. On rewatching it, I think it could be “Joushima” too…
Yes, I meant those gestures, but also some others, like Takada at Joujima(shima?)’s bedside. Mainly, I just like the way it was animated. In my experience not many anime have enough budget to produce fluid animation of such movements, or generally, more movements than absolutely necessary. (And of course it’s not a gesture but the screenwriter was sure very fond of tears. The characters suffered so beautifully. :) )
As for “Joujima” or “Joushima”… well, at first I thought it was “Joujima” but I just listened to it again and I think it was actually “Joushima”… At the beginning of the flashback when their friends barge into the room off-screen and a voice calls his name, it sounds more like “Joushima.”
this is definitely an anime i will be watching soon!! i think this is one of the only animes that seems to have stood out for me this year! ;D i’ll be watching it when it’s all been subbed! the animation looks great!
kuromitsu:
I think I would cry like that too, given the same situation. ^-^
susperia:
Since it has been a few days since you commented, have you seen it now?
not yet!! still waiting!! i’ll let you know what i think if it when i do though!!! :)
I finished Aoi Bungaku just recently (or last year? lol).
Of all the adaptations, I think this was the best. The animation was full of expression, and this is the only one with the sort of ‘happy’ ending. I was surprised that Osamu Dazai wrote actually wrote this, after my experience with No Longer Human.
Next favorite would be the one dealing with cherry blossoms (sorry the correct title is too long for me to remember). It was funny in a way.
As for Kokoro, I spoiled it because I read the translated source material immediately after watching the first part. I could no longer objectively judge because I found the adaptation lacking.
Least favorite is No Longer Human.
hayase:
I would call it a “bittersweet” ending.
“Hashire Melos” is my favorite and “Kokoro” is my least favorite. It’s hard for me to rank the rest as they all have different strengths and weaknesses.
I wonder what is Madhouse doing next after “Aoi Bungaku”. It seems that they are working on this:
ttp://noitamina.tv/yojouhan/
And yes, it is indeed the name Yuasa Masaaki [湯浅政明] that you see there!
Wow…just wow. The most beautiful cherry blossom-bathed episode. Although Under the Sakura had lots of sakura ,too. I loved that shot where Takada is remembering and feels heartache and shows the night sky, the moon and the sakura…
The series is awesome. 2 more episodes to eat (and I started it yesterday). I think that all of them were beautiful in their own way. I haven’t read the novels, but even like this, I believe that it’ll be like when I read Memoirs of a Geisha. I couldn’t say which one was the winner because each one gave me other equally beautiful things: the book the philosophy and deeper meanings and the movie the orgy of colours and sounds. Everything about the execution of this series was gorgeous.
One question: where the narrator speaks , before the episode begins, how is the correct translation of his saying? “They are evergreen, because they are masterpieces” or “They are masterpieces, because their essense is blue?”
I think they are all correct.
I asked because translating aoi into blue or evergreen might have different meaning. Perhaps it’s just my idea, but blue usually has to do with sadness and evergreen implies something with value through the ages. So aren’t they different?
Also, even if his friend had a heart disease, I stil don’t get what made him break his promise? Or did he lie in order not to see each other, since he knew he’d die?
It’s just one of those catchphrases that you can interpret in many ways, and they all look correct to me.