As some of you may know, I tend to put off watching and blogging OVAs which represent the final anime expressions of their respective series.  If it’s a series I really like, anyway.  I just find it a rather sad thing, you know, and Hoozuki no Reitetsu certainly qualifies as a series I really like – it’s one of my all-time favorite anime comedies, in fact.  There’s also the fact that the OVAs for this series have taken an awfully long time to find themselves subbed, and even then only unofficially.  If it sounds like I’m making excuses, maybe I am, but they’re good enough for me.

Happily though, this week saw the announcement of a new series of 3 OVAs for Hoozuki no Reitetsu – it may be a year or more before they’re subbed, but they’ll exist and that makes this one safe for me to cover.  It’s also worth noting that Hoozuki is getting yet another new studio, making the switch to Pine Jam this time.  It’s sort of odd that a series this popular keeps bouncing around, but I certainly have no beef with Pine Jam – I think they’re a young studio trying not to be a mass-produced model, and I’m happy to see them get more work.  The most important thing is probably that outstanding director Yoneda Kazuhiro is following the series to the new digs, so Hoozuki no Reitetsu remains in good hands.

Hoozuki no Reitetsu’s third season was its weakest in my view.  I can only speculate on the reasons why, but the most logical explanation to me is that the chapters available to adapt simply weren’t as good.  We tended not to see much of the best supporting characters – Karauri and Nasubi, the Zashiki Warashi twins, and of course Enma-sama – and the comedy (and feels) really suffered for it.  It was still among the best anime comedies of the year, but more of a second 10 than top 10 season for me.

The flip side of that is that this series is ideally suited to the OVA format both due to its narrative style and tone, and has always tended to produce excellent specials as a result.  So something had to give here, I suppose, and I think the results were generally in line with prior OVA successes.  We still got way too little of those core characters, but the two chapters – both straight out of the “Folktales From Japan” catalog – were definitely rock-solid Hoozuki no Reitetsu “B” material.

First off was the tale of the blossom man, “Hanasaka Jiisan“.  A kindly old fellow whose dog, Pochi, showed him where to dig up gold and treasures.  His greedy neighbor tried to get the dog to do the same for him but got only garbage, so killed the dog in his frustration.  Karma does its thing and the blossom man winds up in Heaven, where he eventually puts his green thumb to use and discovers the blossoming nature of Hoozuki-sama’s favorite, the goldfish flower.  He mistakes Shiro for his Pochi, which sets off a bit of an inferiority complex for Shiro once the two actually do meet at a hanami party in Heaven (ironically, I saw the first sakura of the season today in Kyoto).

Next up is the tale of Kintarou, the legendary strong boy who’s still held up as a model for Boy’s Day in Japan, so profound a model is he thought to be.  Kintarou was supposedly based on a real person, Kintoki Sakata, and he too wound up in Heaven (in a fundoshi, much to Momotarou’s chagrin).  Most of this segment is taken with the ongoing feud (which is really rather one-sided in terms of results) between Hoozuki and Hakutaku, but the most interesting moment for me was when Hakutaku explained that heroes generally don’t spend much time in Heaven because they get bored with the peacefulness (and like to disrupt the status quo).  There’s something rather profound in there, if you ask me.

Now the wait begins anew, but at least it’s a wait with a specific endgame in mind, and that makes a world of difference.  My hope is that having bothered to transfer the property to another new studio, the production committee has a larger commitment in mind than the three OVAs – perhaps another season will be coming down the pike eventually. Hoozuki is certainly still popular enough – I just hope there’s enough A-list material to power another season if we do get one.  If that means waiting a little longer for Eguchi-sensei to produce it, so be it.