Utawarerumono (the one being sung) – episode 1

April 11, 2006 on 8:43 pm | In Utawarerumono | Comments Off on Utawarerumono (the one being sung) – episode 1

“Something uninvited”

Utawarerumono somehow manages to be presented in an utterly generic fashion on one level while offering an intriguing world on another. Personally I don’t agree with people who have animal ears and tails, yet I’m somewhat interested in the outcome of this program.

A masked man, whom I shall call “Jibun”, wakes up in a village, injured and amnesiac. He is tended to by Eruruu, an apprentice physician. As the two go for a walk, they are confronted by Nuwangi, Eruruu’s childhood friend turned money hungry tax collector, who goes mad with jealousy.
Nuwangi defiles a shrine in his anger, and thus Metapi, the forest’s guardian, is set loose.

Jibun is an outsider, but the village accepts him because Eruruu does. The fact that he has an immovable mask and normal ears and no tail does not seem to worry them in the slightest. At a town meeting there are embarrassed looks when prejudices are revealed, but because of Jibun’s inoffensive nature there’s no reason for anyone yet to worry.

The other interesting thing to note is that the people of Eruruu’s village choose not to kill the forest guardian out of some sort of piety but rather because it would be too strong for them to take on. I never really thought that the people would take such a pragmatic approach to religion – but I suppose that when it’s cold, hard, fatal fact, one can be less reverent around these things.

The character designs are this show’s biggest let down, but that’s mainly my bias in thinking that anyone who has non-human ears generally has a dull look about them. The fact that a tail can be used for sexual harrassment purposes is also somewhat disturbing.
The scenery, on the other end of production, is actually quite pretty, and the OP and ED give a real sense of the place that we might be going to.
The in-show music is very strong, perhaps to the point of overpowering some of the scenes, but it also seems to set a good atmosphere for the program.

It’s too early to guess what Utawarerumono might be about, but a world of forest guardians and amnesiac people who dream of teeth might just be worthwhile.

No Comments yet

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Powered by WordPress with Pool theme design by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds. Valid XHTML and CSS. ^Top^