Ibun means "strange tale".
The kanji 妖 has the connotation of ghosts or monsters, but I can't find an entry for it on the WWWJDIC with the pronunciation ayakashi.
Ayashi is what the group of main cast is called. They fight supernatural beings from another dimension. The first part of that kanji, 奇, has the connotation of ghostliness or otherworldliness. The second part, 士, can mean "officer" (or soldier, I would assume).
So maybe "The Strange Tale of Tenpo Period Supernatural Fighters"? I don't know.
Regardless, I'm really enjoying the show so far. The historical references are great.
I also love that there's a guy who wears a tall hat, like Sai. (That he dresses like a woman the rest of the time is none of my business ;P) There's also a guy who looks like Gwendal.
The plot is really interesting. Somehow, fighting monsters from another dimension is the duty of people who have studied foreign countries. Because that's going to give you a leg up against monsters. Up until recently they've been able to kill the monsters without letting the general populace know of their existence, but things seem to be rapidly changing.
They recently introduced a character who is a direct descendant of the destroyed Aztec culture, and her supernatural companion, Quetzalcotl. :D
I'll leave you with a picture of my favorite not-quite-character, Kumoshichi.
2 comments:
I get the feeling that, since the people have done foreign studies that everything foreign must have been studied.
So the higher-ups were like "You know how you did that report on Europe? Well, we've got a bunch of horrible monsters all over the place. Those are from Europe, right? Get to work."
Fun show, though I was thrown off at the start by the character designs. Something about it looks really aged, but I'm not really complaining.
Probably my favorite part is the styles of combats the characters have. Yuki's letter-weapons are genius, and the background to the latest dance the samurai girl / Miko priestess did was particularly cool.
And of course when Quetzalcoatl went nuts, they linked it to actual reports of odd, supernatural events. How historically accurate they were is questionable, of course.
It's definitely a keeper, as far as animes this season. Though it does move a little slow, since they went straight into longer stories for each arc, as opposed to falling into the trap of a 'Youi per episode' kind of thing. I just can't wait until they explain exactly why everyone else is there, doing what they're doing.
Yeah, I was telling Hai that some of the characters look Leiji Matsumoto-ish, especially in the hair and eyes. The animation wasn't done by anyone affiliated with Matsumoto (as far as I can tell), so I'm thinking the style was chosen to give people a feeling that this is history, an older story. Maybe.
What threw me off was Yuki's lack of pants! I still get kind of "uhh..." here and there ;>
One thing that really impresses me about the show is the unflinching inclusion of the questionable. Yuki isn't your standard wrong-place-wrong-time out-of-luck hero; there's a reason he's a floater, and it's his own damn fault. And even the good guys who haven't murdered someone do things that don't sit right...like eating the youi they've just killed. Something about that just freaks me out.
I'm kind of sad that Kumoshichi's secret is already out. I liked having him around. Here's hoping that they'll manage to keep him in the show.
Post a Comment