Shows like this are anime’s little miracles.

Miira no Kaikata is, in some respects, the very definition of an under-the-radar anime.  The production committee didn’t even bother with a Blu-ray release (DVD-only) so certain were they it would be a commercial blip.  The manga isn’t hugely popular, and the show has received almost no notoriety on either side of the world as far as I can tell.  It was here for 12 weeks, now it’s gone, and for most of even the tiny sliver of the world we call anime fandom, it will be as if it had never existed.

But that, as some of us know, doesn’t tell the whole story.  Hell, it doesn’t really tell any of it.  Because all of those things – disc sales, web chatter, doujinshi traffic – tell us almost nothing about the true worth of a series.  And as terrible as things have gotten for anime in many respects (starving animators working 100-hour weeks, ever-increasing thematic homogeneity) somehow, some way, series like Miira no Kaikata still get produced.  I have no idea how (or why) but I’m heartily glad of it.  They’re what keep me going, every bit as much as the high-profile can’t miss adaptations that tentpole the schedule.

I had a great season for sleeper picks, no doubt – Miira no Kaikata, Koi wa Ameagari and Kokkoku is as close to a sleeper sweep as I could ever get.  All of those shows (and the expected winners, like Gakuen Babysitters) are wonderful in their own ways.  What makes Miira no Kaikata unique, I think, is the sheer amount of good feeling it inspired in me every week.  “Healing” is a sub-genre that’s sort of become vogue to talk about in the last couple of years, but it really fits with this series – I could go to it at any time, no matter what else was going on in my world, and it would always take me to a positive place.  It’s hard to put a price tag on that.

This final arc may have been the darkest of the series’ run, but even here, there was plenty of room for warmth – and always, a sense that things would work out.  And it got resolved in plenty of time for the finale to finish on the ground Miira no Kaikata is most sure-footed on.  As for the Mii-napping, turns out that was indeed a collector – apparently there’s a black market for magical beasts (as one assumes there would be) and Mii-kun represents a financial opportunity and nothing more.  Small and defenseless and very odd – I would imagine that’s about as good a target as a collector could ask for.

Fortunately, there’s the matter of the Shikigami the Shrine Goddess has placed on Mii-kun (now that’s a good daycare provider) which allows the others to track him after he’s been abducted.  Since the collector has taken him to the top of the waterfall, time is off the essence – and while Tazuki and Asa use their powers (more on that shortly) to help Sora-kun climb it, it’s A and Un who end up saving the day.  They, and the Land God – who’s none too pleased to have a mercenary human crash his party.  Between a lightning strike and punishment (a hundred lashes and burning) it’s a safe bet the collector has seen better days.

As I said, for me at least there was never really any question that Mii-kun wouldn’t be saved – this just isn’t that sort of show.  No, the real point of all this is the gifts the Land God gives to Sora and team for helping catch the intruder – we never do see what was in the box Sora gave to the Shrine Goddess, but the bigger box (despite Sora’s paranoia) ends up being quite the winner.  It’s a “Matsuri-in-a-Box” (where can I get one of those?).  And that’s a good thing, because the other youkai kids are sulking (including Anubis) for not being invited to go to the festival themselves.

This part is just good, classic Miira no Kaikata cleansing silliness – a scaled-down version of a classic Shinto festival perfect for Mii-kun, Conny, Isao and Mukumuku to lose themselves in.  Once again we see evidence that Tazuki-kun has eerily good vision – then there’s Asa-chan’s strength, and there’s something obviously weird about Daichi which drew Mukumuku to him.  It seems likely to me that all these children have some special powers, some connection to the other world – though that’s one of those elements that will have to be left to the manga (we’re used to that with adaptations like this one).

The list of positives with this show is so long.  I mean, you can start with the kawaii factor – Miira no Kaikata is literally one of the cutest series I’eve ever seen, and it manages to be so without ever being cloying.  Much tribute to the (as far as I know uncredited) voices of Mii-kun and the other youkai kids for that – their running soundtrack of barks and peeps is one of the sheer delights of this series.  But the cuteness goes much deeper than that – it’s the human kids too, and the openness and decency in their relationships to each other and their mythical partners.  And the relationship between Sora and Tazuki is genuinely deep – it’s to Tazuki that Sora can let the pain of his loneliness show, and no one else.  Tazuki has to be the best male tsundere in recent anime, bar none.

This is a dance we know all too well – Udon no Kuni, Kono Bijutsubu, Nana Mara San Batsu, ad nauseum – we grow to love these quirky and funny little series, they go their 12 eps and disappear, and we turn to the manga (if we’re lucky and it’s translated).  I wouldn’t trade any of those experiences, though – even one cour is much better than nothing, and because I don’t know the financial calculus well enough to understand why these kinds of manga ever (if rarely) get adapted, I live in fear that the industry will wake up one day and say “never again”.  Until then, I’ll always be on the lookout for the next Miira no Kaikata – and it can’t come a day too soon.

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