Anime Review: Otogizōshi, Complete Series

Otogizōshi isn’t just an anime, it’s also a type of medieval Japanese literature. In Wikipedia, the term is described that: “…otogi literally means “companion,” with the full name of the genre translating to “companion tale.” Otogizōshi, the anime, is a piece of animated prose that tells the tale of the “Legend of the Magatama”. It begins in Heian Era Kyoto and ends in modern day Tokyo. The Heian chapter unfolds with a disruption in Yin- Yang:

Ying and Yang. Two forces that keep the universe balanced and in harmony. When either one is too strong or too weak, havoc ensues and unless rebalanced, the very fabric of reality will be threatened. So it is in Otogizōshi’s Heian period, while under the rule of powerful onimyoji, that Ying and Yang are fearfully out of balance.

Young feudal lord, Minamoto no Reiko, and his retainer, Wantanabe no Tsunu, are on a quest to retrieve Kyoto’s missing magatama. Magatama are mystical stones, imbued with elemental forces, which keep the harmony of Yin and Yang in the capital of Kyoto and its surrounding area. The powerful, and legendary, onmiyoji, Abe no Seimei has sent them on their journey so that peace may be restored to the land.

Onmiyoji are skilled masters of the art of Yin and Yang. No endeavor at the time was undertaken without the advice and suggestion of an omniyoji. Fortunes were cast, land was surveyed and marriages made, all at the whim of these powerful figures.
Reiko, faithful to his emperor and country is fearless in his journey, although he’s not all that he seems. Reiko is actually Hikaru; sister to the man she’s impersonating. She’s taken on his burden while he recovers from a serious illness. Tsunu is privy to this secret and guards Hikaru with a passion that borders on crazy.

Hikaru and Tsunu recover one of the magatama and collect a companion, Usui Sadamitsu. Upon returning to Kyoto with the magatama, they’re rewarded with the task of recovering another of the missing stones.

Once again, they journey to recover a missing stone, once again they gather another companion, Urabe no Suetake. This repeats twice more (picking up Kintaro on round three), sans extra companion on round four, but each time the situation in Kyoto grows more dire. Crops are dying, women and children are starving and pestilence walks the streets. All these disasters are due to the ever increasing imbalance in Yin-Yang.

Yet, with each magatama recovered, Hikaru uncovers bits and pieces of a more disturbing plot masterminded by an unknown but malicious force. She and her companions discover this diabolical plot to end mankind almost too late to stop it. At the end of the Heian chapter, all is revealed to the detriment and dismay of Hikaru and her band.

Chapter two starts with reincarnation and modern day Tokyo. Hikaru is a high school student in the center of supernatural events. All she cares about, however, is finding her missing brother Reiko, who disappeared while investigating these same occurrences a year previously. Tsunu once again plays Hikaru’s guardian, but isn’t as zealous as his previous incarnation. The rest of the cast also show up as tenants in the building that Reiko and Hikaru are landlords of.

It seems that history is repeating itself and Hikaru and crew are once again involved with putting the balance of Yin-Yang to rights.

The characters in Otogizōshi are extremely well developed and are one of the main reasons this anime was so good. Hikaru is such a strong and vibrant character in her Heian incarnation. Her fearlessness is nothing short of miraculous. In a time when women bowed to convention and were little more than porcelain dolls, she took on a burden worthy of any man. Her love for her brother was strong, but her loyalty to her country was stronger and while I sympathized with her struggle, I admired her for it.

However, Hikaru’s Tokyo incarnation was weak, borderline moe, at times. Her single-minded searching for her brother was annoying at best. Her, at times, lazy outlook on life confused me. Whatever happened to my strong persevering gal with the can-do attitude? But I guess that can happen when things get mixed up in the whole reincarnation process.

The other reason Otogizōshi was such a great anime was the story. Most of Otogizōshi is historically accurate. No, there’s no such thing as magic (sorry). No, Yin-yang masters don’t actually dictate the order of the universe, but there was an Abe no Seimei, there was a Minamoto no Reiko (aka, Raiko, aka, Yorimitsu) and people did believe that the onmiyoji could affect nature.

While there was a teeny-tiny bit of creative license with the period clothing, I won’t go off on a rant about it for once. The designs for Otogizōshi were excellent, although, I was a little thrown off by Production IG’s character designs.

The faces on some characters were a bit off, along with some of the proportions for the bodies. But, I was thrilled that the characters’ bodies were fairly realistically designed; no gi-normous boobs or crazy muscles. Villains and monsters were creatively designed and that’s the way I prefer my baddies.

The animation was unique and, I’d have to say, overall, good. If you look closely at the background in some of the scenes, you’ll notice a hazy grain. To me, this use of grain resembles paper, which is apt since otogizoshi were illustrated. The colors for the anime were also appropriate to this connection with Japanese illustration since the pallete used was similar to the ones used for ukiyo-e.

We watched Otogizōshi with the English dub and we weren’t disappointed with the voice actors. Hikaru came through as really annoying and whiny during the Tokyo chapter, however. The score was decent, although, I wasn’t digging the opening theme song for the Heinana chapter. I thought the Op for the Tokyo chapter was cute. I loved the traditional flute music that floated throughout the Heian Chapter since it was a pleasant change from the usual beat heavy electronic music that usually accompanies action anime.

Sadly, Otogizōshi didn’t nail the dismount when it came to wrapping up a superb story. The story kind of fizzled out and I was left with a feeling that I was short changed. Instead of using all 26 episodes to explain a few loose ends, the studio used the last two episodes to make one charming side story and one esoteric tale. The former was adorable (cats always save the day!) and the latter was long and boring (ironically, it was about time). But I was irked that they didn’t use those two episodes to flesh out the ending more.

Even though Hikaru’s Tokyo-self was annoying and the ending was lackluster, Otogizoshi was a magnificent piece of storytelling. This epic anime should definitely make it onto the “Must Watch” list of any historical anime fans and any fan of good anime, period.

Otogizoshi gets out of a possible four gummies.