Series: Bamboo Blade: Series 1 - Part 2
Release date: 31st January 2011
Certificate: PG
Running time: 170 mins
Director: Hisashi Saito
Starring: N/a
Genre: Anime
Studio: Manga
Format: DVD
Country: Japan
The second half of Bamboo Blade Series 1 offers more in the way of surreal comedy and outrageous action. After an impressive first half, does the anime adaptation of Masahiro Totsuka’s manga maintain the quality?
Sensei Toraji’s all-girl kendo team are chasing the goal of reaching the national championships. But the road to glory is paved with injuries, treachery, deceit, protective fathers, quiz game shows and threats of disbandment.
Facing conflict on and off the mat, can the Muroe High kendo girls maintain their focus and team unity?
When the doors of Muroe High open up, a viewer feels like he or she has attended there themselves, such is the vividness with which Saito and his writers bring to life their quirky cast of characters, and their equally quirky dramatic precinct. The series balances recognisable teen conflicts and trials with exciting action, and the cast of characters ensures that what could have been a one-joke, rather high concept simply never runs out of steam.
The juxtaposition of sweet looking and sounding teenage girls indulging a love for kendo never gets old. The series maintains a consistent level of fun that makes the episodes breeze by, as well as an impressive balance between action and surrealism. Saito doesn’t just break the fourth wall in this series - he bulldozes right through it, pulling out seemingly every trick from the animation bag. Characters shrink and de-age to reflect inferior status in conversation; comedic asides are almost bewildering non-sequiturs (think Family Guy, or even the classic 1980s British sitcom The Young Ones - only madder); and subtexts of scenes are given visible metaphorical treatment.
While the experience is initially overwhelming, the series settles into a delightful groove, with occasional knowing, deadpan winks to its outrageous happenings (“Did you hear something go boom?”/“There’s something black coming from that direction…” ). The quieter moments are just as, if not more, effective (such as Tamaki’s adorable panic about DVR-ing her favourite TV programmes over the weekend she’ll be at training camp). The filmmakers are clearly having fun, and want to share that fun with their viewer, but the efforts they make to flesh out the characters ensures audience empathy is high.
It is the surrealism that remains the most effective element of the series. ‘It’ girl Miya-miya is perhaps the embodiment of the series’ fascinating contradictions/juxtapositions. In a series that could very easily get by as a classroom comedy about plucky young heroines we can root for, Miya-miya occasionally seems like she’s walked in from another (darker) series entirely - her manipulative acts accompanied by a black aura and asides to a giant snake, the audience is momentarily almost convinced that this schemer has magical powers.
In its high school setting, the series is extremely well observed, and consistently witty. Boy team-members Yuji and Dan-kun are reliable sources of humour. The latter especially, in his odd couple romantic pairing with Miya-miya (the sight of them together is a subtle visual gag that the filmmakers refrain from overplaying), and perennial position on the sidelines, is a delight. The relationships between the girls rings true, and the mixture of high-action and -farce with recognisable teenage/high school problems gives the series its continual momentum, where it could so easily have run out of steam. In addition, the bigness of the characters creates opportunities for the writers to throw out silly lines like “The sliminess is the best part of pool cleaning!” - the fun is infectious for older viewers, and the silliness of the comedy is pitched just right for younger ones. Bamboo Blade has genuine appeal across age-ranges and gender.
These characters are the cornerstone of the whole series. Tamaki, perhaps the closest to an actual heroine, is an endearing character with an intriguing home-life and relationship with her suspicious, overprotective father. Miya-miya strikes an enticing balance between loved-up and calculating. Then there’s the sensei character, Toraji. He is an interesting mentor figure in the sports/high school genre in that he’s a bit of a sad sack, with very little in the way of genuine wisdom or insight. In fact, most memorable about him is his nerdy outlook (such as his abhorrence of 3D gaming - “Long live sprites” being one of the funnier lines in the series). On the surface, the series is a rather simple one, but the filmmakers wisely eschew making caricatures of any of their characters.
And herein lies the key to the success of Bamboo Blade as a series: a cast of characters with lives and backstories gently fleshed out over the course of the series. Episode by episode, we come to care about them all. An audience never has any trouble cheering for the Muroe High kendo team.
Freely mixing styles and tone with characters that are alternately over-the-top and understated, Bamboo Blade should not work, and yet somehow does. Consistently funny, and often touching, it is a delight from start-to-finish. A second series is a highly desirable prospect. JN
No comments:
Post a Comment