Friday 21 July 2006

Pic of the day: "World peace starts at the dining table." Words of wisdom from the mother of our main character.

Kyou Kara Maou again

This week I have returned to the anime Kyou Kara Maou. I watched a bit of it when it was new, and liked it. I even wrote about it. I particularly enjoyed the opening song, Hateshinaku tooi sora ni, which is cheerful and energetic and also deeply meaningful. I have been listening to it now and then during the week. I got myself a copy of the song at work, and play it there when the desire for it grows strong. I don't mindlessly play it over and over. It is too valuable for that. I must enjoy it, to do less would be disrespectful to such a great work of art. Or that's how I feel. After listening to it again, I am satisfied for a few more hours before I start missing it again.

I also enjoy the anime for its magic wish-fulfillment parts, where the ordinary boy unleashes awesome magic powers when his emotions become strong enough. Such as causing a storm almost immediately. It reminds me of my memories of times in my own life when I have felt really really down and the black clouds and the thunder and the hail have come and cheered me up. Of course, since I don't have magic, it is just synchronicity when it happens to me. Still, it does cheer me up at those times.

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The anime is set mostly in a fantasy world where there are two races of human... yes, you guessed it, there is a connection to my current fantasy worldbuilding. But as usual, the connection is no more than you could put in a short paragraph. The two races of Shin Makoku are close enough to interbreed, and hard to tell apart except for some who have unusual hair and eye colors. They can both use magic, but not the same magic and not in the same way. The humans use magic that is external to them, found by prayer in churches or most commonly by mining magic crystals. In contrast, the mazoku ("demons" or perhaps more literally "unnatural ones") are born with a certain degree of magic as part of their soul, and usually an affinity for an element or for healing or some such special talent.

To this magical world comes a 15 year old Japanese boy, Yuuri Shibuya, who is then recognized as king of the demon race, much to his own surprise. He sets out in his own bumbling way to stop the conflict between humans and mazoku, so everyone can live in peace. The underlying message of the anime is the importance of trust and friendship. The characters are all distinct but without becoming caricatures, well perhaps a little, but not irritatingly so. As the anime is something like 78 episodes, there is plenty of time for both plot and character development, and this also comes to pass. The mix of humor and action is quite good, the two of them alternate in such a way that they don't completely cancel out. Although for as far as I have seen, there is a strong undertone of optimism. You can't really think these good guys will lose in the end.

The series is popular among boys because of the awesome swordplay shown in many of the episodes, and the even more awesome magic effects shown occasionally. It is popular among girls because the main characters are unusually pretty men, at least two of whom seem to have feelings for Yuuri that exceed friendship as we know it. Not that anything un-Republican happens, well except a young man sleeping in a pink nightgown in another guy's bed. ^^; I think we can live with that. It is a comedy, after all.

This anime is gradually being translated into English, and I recommend renting it if you find it. Buying it might be prohibitively expensive though, because of the length. But at least the intro and end songs are fairly affordable, and I have ordered the CD with them from my usual pusher, cdjapan.co.jp.