Animated Classics of Japanese Literature
1986. TV series. (37 X 30 min.) Drama. org Lafcadio Hearn, Yukio Mishima, Edogawa Rampo, Natsume Soseki, Shintaro Ishihara, others (novels). dir Noboru Ishiguro, Fumio Kurokawa, Akiko Matsushima, Eiji Okabe, Isamu Kumada, Hidehito Ueda, others. scr Kenji Yoshida, Shizuo Kuriyama, Ryuzo Nakanishi, Akira Miyazaki, Masahiro Yamada, others. des Yasuji Mori. -bc
This series adapted novels and short stories by Japanese writers from the 19th and 20th centuries into half-hour animated episodes for the TV audience. The original authors include such renowned names as Yukio Mishima, Edogawa Rampo, Natsume Soseki, and Shintaro Ishihara. As an introduction to Japanese literature for American audiences, the series boasts considerable educational value, but it’s also richly done, emotionally involving, and quite rewarding, and the fact that it’s “good for you” should not put off potential viewers.
The material chosen for this series ranges from such celebrated novels as The Harp of Burma, Sanshiro Sugata, Theatre of Life, and The Sound of Waves to coming-of-age tales and stories of young love, including “Season of the Sun,” “Wandering Days,” “The Dancing Girl,” “Growing Up,” and “The Grave of the Wild Chrysanthemum.” The historical settings range, approximately, from the Meiji era (post-1868) to the postwar era (1950s), although at least one episode, “Ghost Story,” goes back even further.
Many of the stories are very downbeat, staying true to their literary origins as they chronicle the difficulties faced by young Japanese, especially women, in the rigid class-based societies of their respective eras. Occasionally there is a moment of triumph as characters break free of their destinies and see dreams come true, as when a boy strikes out on his own for Tokyo to free himself from life as an indentured servant, or when a girl with a knack for writing gets encouragement from a sensitive teacher. More often, however, the characters live out their preordained fates as dictated by class and social station; for example, a young girl leaves school to be trained as a geisha, while another is forced to abandon the boy she loves and marry a much older man.
Highlights of the series include a trio of multipart episodes, including a two-part condensation of Yukio Mishima’s 1954 novel, The Sound of Waves, set in a Japanese fishing village; the two-part “Harp of Burma,” about the experiences of a battalion of Japanese soldiers held prisoner in a Burmese work camp at the end of World War II; and the one three-parter in the series, “Sanshiro the Judoist,” which charts the rise of Sanshiro, a judo disciple in 1880s Japan, from naïve student to disciplined judo master.
Given that this was a 1986 TV series, the character design is overly simplified and the character animation somewhat stiff. A little more detail in the faces would have enhanced the serious nature of the stories and made the series an easier sell overseas in later years. However, the design does change from episode to episode and some stories are stronger in this regard than others. “The Dancing Girl,” for instance, is set in Berlin and features a wider range of facial types than most of the other stories.
Many episodes boast background art and set design that recall specific Japanese art traditions. “The Izu Dancer” and “Wandering Days” both offer lush watercolor backgrounds depicting their respective settings, the beautiful Izu countryside and a small seacoast town, both in the early 20th century. One episode, “Ghost Story,” is so beautifully designed and executed it’s like watching traditional Japanese art unfold in motion across the screen. The artwork draws on paintings of occult lore and includes a scene of a Buddhist monk writing holy sutras in ink all over the body of a blind musician in order to ward off ghosts.
“Growing Up,” about a girl and boy living in the red-light Yoshiwara district of Tokyo in the early Meiji era, is also worth singling out. The design and animation style favor bolder lines, simpler forms, less shading, brighter colors, and more of an illustrative look. The effect is quite stunning and especially evocative of the time and place, as if artists in the 1880s had been given the tools to create manga and anime.
The series collects the kind of dramatic, realistic human stories we don’t often see in animation. Although the stories are often greatly condensed, the makers were eager to get to their essence, pinpoint their emotional highs and lows, and show characters either triumphing over great adversity or resigning themselves to their destiny. There is a distinct literary tone to the way the stories are laid out, particularly in the use of narration and music, and also in the types of stories chosen. The artwork employed to render the backgrounds and settings is as beautiful as that of almost any period work in anime, short of Princess Mononoke.
For non-Japanese audiences, these episodes offer valuable insights into Japanese history, traditions, sex roles, and the lives of ordinary people from eras that are rarely dramatized in anime seen in the U.S. If there had ever been true equivalents of this series in America, they would be animated versions of stories by the likes of Sherwood Anderson, Richard Wright, and Katherine Anne Porter.
Series director Fumio Kurokawa directed several other animated literary adaptations including The Arabian Nights: The Adventures of Sinbad (1975), A Little Princess (1985), Little Women (1987), and The Jungle Book: The Adventures of Mowgli (1989), and contributed to others, including Swiss Family Robinson (1981), Aesop’s Fables (1983), and Grimm Masterpiece Theatre (1987).
Some stories may already be familiar to viewers because of earlier live-action film versions that have circulated in the West. “Ghost Story” is based on one of the occult tales by Lafcadio Hearn (a Greek-American writer who lived in Japan) found in Masaki Kobayashi’s 1964 anthology film, Kwaidan (which also re-creates the scene of the monk writing sutras on the blind musician’s body). The Harp of Burma was made by Kon Ichikawa as the Japanese antiwar live-action classic The Burmese Harp (1956). “Sanshiro the Judoist” is based on the same work that formed the basis for Akira Kurosawa’s debut feature, Sanshiro Sugata (Judo Saga, 1943). Told in three parts, it is comparable in running time and narrative structure to Kurosawa’s film. Theatre of Life, The Sound of Waves, and “Growing Up” were also previously made as live-action films, although they are not as well known in the U.S. or as easy to see.
nudity “Season of the Sun” has a surprisingly graphic sex scene between its two young lovers. In “The Sound of Waves,” there is a bit of nudity in a scene between its young lovers also. Otherwise the episodes would not be inappropriate for classroom showings to youngsters ten and up.