the heike story
(find out what namespace to place this in. i would say Anime/ as it's different enough from the original tale
The Heike Story
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The Heike Story is an anime series based on The Tale Of The Heike note , an epic suite of prose compiled in the 13th century detailing the rise and fall of the Taira clan (or Heike) in the Genpei War during Japan's late Heian period. This adaptation works from Hideo Furukawa's modern Japanese translation. It was animated by Science SARU and directed by Naoko Yamada; Kensuke Ushio composed its score and the ED. Fuji TV first released it on their streaming service and Funimation's from 16 September to 25 November 2021. Fuji TV's +Ultra programming block later aired it from 13 January to 17 March, 2022.
Unlike its source material, The Heike Story centers the tale around a young traveling minstrel known only by the name of the instrument she plays so masterfully—the biwa, a kind of lute struck with a long plectrum. Frightening premonitions of war and bloodshed haunt the girl on a regular basis. After her blind minstrel father dies at the hands of Taira thugs, Taira no Shigemori—the kind heir to the Taira clan who shares her ability to see the future—invites her to live with his own children, in the hope that her abilities can prevent the crushing end he foresees. The viewer bears witness through Biwa's eyes to the imperial clan's downfall from within and without as she, now much older and blind herself, relates the tale in song.
The original tale was documented and kept alive by biwa hōshi note like Biwa and her unnamed father, whose names, like the authors of many other great historical epics, have been lost to time. It is still performed today as a chant set to biwa music.
The Heike Story provides examples of:
- The Ageless: Sukemori and Tokuko point out that Biwa doesn't seem to age.
- Answer to Prayers: Shigemori makes a pilgrimage to Kumano and prays for a swift end to his life if the Taira clan is to fall. Upon returning, he sickens and dies within weeks.
- Audience Surrogate: Biwa herself, in the interests of humanizing the members of the Taira clan with whom she interacts. Many of the Taira confide in her, in the process providing the audience with exposition.
- Big Eater: Biwa downs several bowls of rice upon the Taira clan taking her in. Shigemori's attendants wonder aloud where it's going.
- Compressed Adaptation: The original tale comprises 12 long chapters intended for nightly performance; the anime adaptation boils this down to 11 episodes. Left out is most of the original's focus on the Minamoto clan and the suffering shared by all involved in the Genpei War, a civil war that led to the rise of military dictatorship in Japan—the shogunate—and stripped the emperor of much of his political power.
- Despair Event Horizon:
- Shigemori loses hope in his ability to reign in his father Kiyomori's worst excesses and prays for a quick death. He gets his wish.
- Shunkan, the Enryakuji monk and temple administrator whose estate serves as the seat of a plot to take down the Taira clan, is exiled with two Taira co-conspirators on Kikaigashima. When the other two men are pardoned and brought back to the mainland, in order to appease the spirits threatening Taira no Kiyomori's daughter (and Shigemori's younger sister) Tokuko's pregnancy, Shunkan is left behind alone to flail uselessly in the ocean after the boat, tears flooding his eyes. He starves himself to death.
- Hitodama Light: Biwa and Koremori observe a blue flame flaring up and departing Shigemori's body as he concludes his prayer at the shrine in Kumano. It is his life force leaving him.
- Japanese Honorifics: Biwa alone refuses to address anyone with honorifics, a practice called yobisute that can be quite disrespectful. It's both a sign of her extreme intimacy with the Taira clan and her not truly being part of the nobility.
- Magical Eye: One of Biwa's eyes is a bright Caribbean blue; she covers up her brown eye to peek into other characters' futures. Shigemori shares this trait, though his future-seeing eye is a muted dark blue.
- No Name Given: Biwa's father is never named in the story. She herself mentions that he never called her by her name, so she does not know it. Biwa takes the name of her instrument as her own.
- Say My Name: First Biwa, then Shigemori's sons upon discovering his death.
- Shared Unusual Trait: Both Biwa and Taira no Shigemori have heterochromia iridum, and both are psychics who can predict the future, covering up the normal-colored eye for a clearer view thereof. The real-life Shigemori was not known to possess heterochromia.
- Warrior Monk: Fujiwara no Morotsune, from one of the three clans that historically supplied emperors for the throne of Japan, demands to bathe at an Enryaku-ji temple on his travels. When the monks deny him, Morotsune bids his soldiers raze the temple to the ground. An army of thousands of Enryaku-ji monks march on the imperial palace in protest, burning the court's estates after the emperor dismisses their legitimate grievances with force.
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- Wholesome Crossdresser: Biwa's father dressed her in boy's clothes for protection during their travels. She comes to prefer them after his death, even when other characters wonder why out loud. No one ever presses the issue further, allowing her to live as she wishes.
mp100 onsen OVA
[Description WIP]
モブサイコ100 第一回霊とか相談所慰安旅行〜ココロ満たす癒やしの旅〜Mob Psycho 100: Dai-ikkai Rei toka Soudanjo Ianryokou ~Kokoro Mitasu Iyashi no Tabi~
Original Air Date:
25 September 2019
Mob Psycho 100: The First Spirits and Such Company Trip provides examples of:
- Bilingual Bonus: 'Ibo' (疣) in Ibogami means 'wart'. The onsen's innkeeper has one in her nose that resembles the boulder at Ibogami's base.
- Blush Stickers:
- The human characters all sport these when soaking in the onsen waters. Mob and Ritsu lose theirs at the shock of Teru joining them.
- Mob picks them up after sampling some baked apples.
- Butt-Monkey: Reigen cannot leave the cursed train—not even by jumping out of it. He assumes Serizawa is stuck there with him, but eventually realizes the psychic can leave at his leisure (and actually enjoy the onsen's fine accomodations).
- Cabin Fever: Reigen goes a bit mad from being isolated on the train for what he perceives as well over a month.
- Call-Back: Reigen claps a hand on Serizawa's shoulder as he reminds the psychic of the importance of thinking for himself. The scene, in which Serizawa sits seiza
and Reigen stoops to his level, directly recalls the one in which the phony psychic gives Mob the advice that changes his life forever.- This scene also mirrors Serizawa's first meeting with Suzuki, when the latter offered his umbrella and promised to teach Serizawa how to use his powers. With Suzuki, Serizawa was still sitting while Suzuki remained standing; the background is dark except for the light cast under the umbrella, emphasizing the abusive power dynamic to come for the next three years. In contrast, Reigen makes sure to be on the same level with Serizawa; the background is sunnier, all to show that Serizawa has truly found the right place for him, just like Mob.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Reigen takes Serizawa to task for leaving the train car repeatedly and not bringing him along. The whole story would have been over much sooner had Serizawa been explicit about his ability to leave.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: At his lowest point, Reigen pens a will apologizing to his parents for disappointing them and bequeathing Spirits and Such to Mob. He kicks it away when Serizawa returns with the other psychics in tow.
- Hot Springs Episode: The Spirits and Such crew have been invited to solve the mystery of strange happenings driving away the Ibogami onsen's patrons in exchange for a night's stay, meals and travel there on the house. Hilarity ensues.
- Just Following Orders: Serizawa, uncertain of proper comportment in a legitimate workplace, consults a book on business etiquette before the events of this episode. Why didn't he tell Reigen that he could leave the cursed train car hellscape? His book said to 'follow boss's orders'.
- Judging from his sleeve notes from this book (among its most questionable advice: 'Make sure you don't wound [your boss's] pride'), it's also heavily implied that Serizawa fears courting verbal abuse for insubordination by speaking up. Reigen kindly reminds him that he is no longer anyone's slave or a shut-in: Serizawa's honest opinions and observations are not only welcome, but necessary.
- Modesty Towel: For the top of Teru’s head, presumably still much shorter than the rest of his hair.
- Mr. Fanservice: Played straight and parodied.
- A bathing, blushing Serizawa, shown from the chest up, marveling at the snowflakes falling from the heavens as he soaks outside.
- The camera lingers on Teru's defined chest muscles and biceps as he slips into the same hot spring Mob and Ritsu are sharing. A very embarrassed Mob blanches and averts his eyes at the sight.
- Parodied, as we're treated to the sight of Teru's hairy buttocks in the previous scene.
- Sanity Slippage: Reigen goes through hell in this episode: trapped in the train car, he can no longer keep up his normal façade of breezy competence for Serizawa as he runs out of food and options (though none of this stops him from trying). At the absolute end of his rope, he writes a will leaving Spirits and Such to Mob and attempts to end his torment by jumping out of the train.
- Tally Marks on the Prison Wall: Reigen etches the Japanese equivalent of tally marks (正, the five-stroke kanji for 'correct' or 'right') on one of the train's bulkheads to mark how long he's been stuck there.
- Trapped in Another World:
- Played for Horror: The isekai in this story is a train with no exits, running on a perpetual track through a forsaken landscape dotted with gnarled, dead trees and a dark mountain looming on the horizon. Reigen nearly starves and is unable to escape despite all his best efforts. Time seems to move much slower here...
- Parodied and subverted: The OVA story is a gentle ribbing of many isekai light novel/anime tropes.
- The OVA's excessively long appellation, 'The First Spirits and Such Company Trip - A Journey that Mends the Heart and Heals the Soul' is a jab at overlong isekai titles.
- While Reigen fills the role of the standard isekai anime protagonist note , he is completely helpless in this world he's been sucked into, which is usually not the case. He's also fortunate enough to be traveling with four psychics (one of whom is the most powerful in the world) and one 'high-level evil spirit'... all of whom can easily cross between this cursed place and the Ibogami onsen to get him the hell out of there. If only Serizawa had spoken up sooner...
- Unnaturally Looping Location: No matter which direction Reigen walks through the train, he invariably ends up in the same place.
- Unsound Effect: Mob, abashed, says nothing but 'パクパク' (paku paku) for some time after Teru asks him outright if there is anyone he fancies. パクパク is a Japanese mimetic word meant to evoke the kind of mortification that might make someone gasp like an oxygen-starved fish.
