As we ponder the pantheon of Ikuhara anime, it’s interesting to ponder just where Sarazanmai might end up ranking. I tend to break down the early stuff and later stuff into separate brackets – Sailor Moon is obviously great if you’re a fan of the genre, but I don’t feel like there’s as much of Ikuhara in those shows as there is Takeuchi Naoko. Many people would probably place Utena atop the heap, which I get – it’s highly influential for good reason, but to me a bit overrated. I probably would have cited Mawaru Penguin Drum as my #1, flawed as it is – based on its ambition and the heights it achieved at its very best.
I’m not so sure now, though, because Sarazanmai seems to me the most consistent and structurally sound work Ikuhara has ever done. Do we reward MPD for its soaring ambition, or Sarazanmai for having a more modest scope but executing superbly? It’s easy to say that the one-cour format is too limiting for an imagination like Ikuni’s (Sakugabooru mused on that this week) but I’ve come to believe it’s imposed a self-discipline on him that’s been good for the end product. Maybe Yuri Kuma Arashi was Ikuhara’s time to totally botch the one-cour model and learn from it, and Sarazanmai the beneficiary of that experience.
Another element that’s really working for Sarazanmai is one of the things that keeps linking it in my mind to Tsuritama. Both shows reflect that their writers, Oono and Ikuhara, fundamentally get an essential truth – the widespread image of boys is a lie. Fact is, boys are no less emotionally fragile and vulnerable than girls – they’re just conditioned to hide that as much as possible (and I think that’s even more true in Japan than America). In these two series Oono and Ikuni are able to communicate this without resorting to fanbaiting or tropes (which is also true, I’d add, of how Sarazanmai handles the subject of male-male romance – at least where Enta and Kazuki are concerned).
Alas, Ikuni remains as ever obsessed with tragedy – and this, as much as anything, is a yawning gulf separating Sarazanmai from Tsuritama. Death is a constant companion in an Ikuhara show, though this one did a convincing job of pretending otherwise for a surprisingly long time. Enta is not dead yet, though things aren’t looking good for him – his sister tells Kazuki (who can’t understand why no one believes that it was Mabu and Reo who shot Enta) that he might not survive the night. After his freezing incident ends in disaster and Sara (poorly) puts him back together, Keppi shows up and transfers Enta into a kappa body – but the sense I get is that it doesn’t extend his life, and that when his real body dies he’ll be just as dead.
This situation is a mess, but relatively straightforward. Despite his garbage caper Enta has never had any deceit in him – he wants what he wants and loves who he loves. Kazuki blames himself for what’s happened (as he should, at least a little, though just a little) and resolves to get the wish dishes back to set Enta to rights. Enta is a teen in love, Kazuki is an emotional cyclone – very typical pubescent boys in the larger sense. It’s in Toi’s story where the real darkness and subtlety lies, I think – especially as it continually shows us that two seemingly contradictory things can seem equally true.
Toi is a complicated fellow, to be sure. He’s fundamentally a caring person, but absolutely willing to go to any lengths for his brother. Chikai is unquestionably a bad person by any conventional measure (both brothers acknowledge this) yet he is capable of good where Toi is concerned. Good as he sees it, that is – and that’s key, because when he thinks he’s doing his brother kindnesses he’s only dragging him deeper into despair. If there were any question of Chikai’s true stripes, the fact that he kills his young subordinate Masa in cold blood just to protect his trail dispels them.
No, the only kindness Chikai could ever really have done Toi was to drive him away for good – and Toi was never going to make it easy for him to do that. This latest involvement has already turned Toi killer again times two – and it’s all in vain, because his past finally catches up to Chikai in definitive fashion. What Toi has suffered because of Chikai’s choices will stay with him forever – he carries a huge emotional burden with him and always will. Even with Enta’s immediate mortal peril and Kazuki’s constant state of emotional unrest, it’s Toi who I most fear for out of this group – it’s hard to see a path forward for him that ends well.
TheYepMan
June 7, 2019 at 9:04 pmI’m a little bit annoyed that you didn’t touch on Mabu and Leo.
It sort of is pretty wonky, what happened in regards to them in this episode, but it’s interesting nonetheless. At different points in the show, each of the four main characters in this show have had the narrative question if their feelings are love or desire, with the sole exception of Leo. And we got the answer for all the questions raised in this very episode, with the sole exception of Leo.
Are Leo’s feelings love, or desire? He wants the Dishes of Hope to be able to get Mabu back to “normal” – more like, turn back the clock on Mabu so that he goes back to be the Mabu he used to love. And in the mean time, he’s turned “current Mabu” away and dismissively asked him to stop trying, even though Mabu is indeed going through horrible pain and suffering to try to be the Mabu that Leo *desires*.
And thus, we get the fake Leo (kawa *uso* Leo). If real Leo’s feelings are still in doubt, otter Leo is basically a reflection of those feelings are “desire, not love”. Mabu having both real Leo and otter Leo face to face and staying bound to otter Leo serves not only as a plot device, but as a good continuation of the metaphor: regardless of what it is that Leo feels for past Mabu, *this* Mabu is suffering from the actions Leo takes because of those feelings, actions that definitely come through as abusive.
I don’t know what Ikuhara will do with their part of the story. Mabu and Leo are, after all, the antagonists of this show; but is Leo still able to repent and redeem himself?
Guardian Enzo
June 7, 2019 at 10:20 pmFrankly, I don’t find Mabu and Reo very interesting. Their story just hasn’t engaged me either emotionally or intellectually.
animealex
June 8, 2019 at 3:08 am“You’re a little too good to be my little brother!” Despite the sentimental after credits scene, that sentence and the collateral act of threatening his brother is what I will remember about Chikai. All my sympathies lie with Toi and his tragedies. After Chikai kicked Enta in front of the onrushing Yakuza, I suspected how rotten he was, but this episode made it explicit to all who were still on the fence.
I confess the last few episodes have soured the anime as a whole to me. I hoped for a whacky, but deep show. I didn’t want a full blown suffering train full of tragedies when I embarked on this mad ride, but I guess I have to take the good with the bad, just like in real life.
My only hope is that in the end, the first scene of Kazuki jogging alone in the night while remembering those connected closest to him who he has lost (Enta, Toi and Harukapa) will not be the conclusion of this show. That would be depressing and also go against the deeper message I envisioned for this show.
Random thought: Reo, Mabu and Chiaki may serve as cautionary tales to the three boys where their paths may lead, if they don’t change and are able to connect on a deeper level. One is driven mad by desire, one wants to please and destroys himself and the last lost everything by trying to independent. (Hey, it sounded more clever in my head when I had this thought in the shower.)
Scampi
June 8, 2019 at 4:06 amI think despite his threats Chikai doesn’t have it in him to hurt Toi, not because of the tender flashbacks, but because of his line “it’s a pain trying to keep connection.” He’s absolutely rotten in killing Masa, and it’s not the first time he’s done something like that too, but it also shows that he can’t form any connection with people, except a strenuous one with his little brother. So despite leaving Toi alone being the best course of action he can’t sever his one and only connection voluntarily.
animealex
June 8, 2019 at 5:27 amI guess whether Chikai would’ve harmed Toi is one of the questions for the ages. In one moment I think: “Nah, he had still his picture with everybody else blacked out, so no.” and then I think about how such a crass gangster would realistically act in situations of extreme stress and I see another outcome.
But imo the point isn’t if Chikai would’ve harmed Toi in that situation, but how far gone in terms of humanity he already ways. And when you’re past a certain point, it only becomes a question of when, not if. It’s difficult to try to explain, but my general feeling with this character was that nobody around him would be safe, even if he liked you and didn’t want to actively harm you.
I agree, severing his one and only human connection with his brother would’ve been the best course of action (for Toi), but Chikai was too afraid or perhaps too selfish to let go of his last link to a normal life.
Guardian Enzo
June 8, 2019 at 8:52 amThe irony is strong here. Chikai is unable to form any human connections but one, and the one he is able to form is the one where the most human thing to do would be to sever it for Toi’s own good.
TheYepMan
June 8, 2019 at 8:28 am“My only hope is that in the end, the first scene of Kazuki jogging alone in the night while remembering those connected closest to him who he has lost (Enta, Toi and Harukapa) will not be the conclusion of this show. That would be depressing and also go against the deeper message I envisioned for this show. ”
I don’t think the show’s going there. From what I recall, that setup is about to be paid off – that beginning sequence represents Kazuki’s trauma in regards to Haruka’s accident, and that was addressed in episodes 5 and 6 (Haruka’s side), in this one (Enta’s side), and Toi’s side is yet to be resolved (though Kazuki now remembered his first meeting with Toi, so we’re close to that one).
If I fear a bad end, is Leo’s (though as the antagonist, I wouldn’t be surprised if he meets a tragic end).
Scampi
June 8, 2019 at 4:28 amhttps://imgur.com/a/vZGurOf Kitty Nyantaro cameo made me feel much better about this episode so thought I’d share. Here’s to hopes of Reo and Mabu getting past the dramatics in the finales and a good ending for the boys.