Hidarikiki no Eren – 01

A bit late on the draw with this one (pun intended). Eren the Southpaw is another manga I don’t know much about, though in this instance it was a visual novel first. But it’s co-produced by Production I.G. and Signal MD and has a super-experienced director in Suzuki Toshimasa. It’s also themed around art and its creation, which can be an interesting canvas for fiction (pun intended).

Bottom line, I liked the premiere. It doesn’t look lavish in the full-on I.G. vein but it’s perfectly fine visually. I assume this is very much the prologue, as it takes the characters in high school and that’s not how the series’ premise is pitched. The two central figures seem to be Asakura Kouichi and the titular lefty, Yamagishi Eren. Kouichi is a somewhat childish and idealistic kid who dreams of becoming a graphic designer, because that’s the only way he can see to make a living as an artist. Eren is an angry and unlikable girl who happens to be a genius artist whose talent far exceeds his. Through a series of events she winds up drawing a graffiti mural in town, so good that it inspires Kouichi to try and to more with his own talent.

All the talk of Basquiat and Haring reveals that street art is very much the theme of Hidarikiki no Eren. In fact Eren’s work earns her the nickname “The Basquiat of Yokohama”. Eren’s dad seems to have been a failed artist, and died young. She apparently thinks becoming an artist would be betraying him, especially with the family’s modest financial means. Kouichi especially pisses her off because she assumes he’s larking about, but in fact he’s doing his best – he just has a pedestrian talent. This gulf between the haves and have-nots in the talent department – and in how they perceive each other – is an interesting theme.

With the bulk of the series presumably taking place more than a decade after the events here, we’ll see how the premise holds together. Eren is hardly a sympathetic figure as a teen, but it may well be Kouichi’s struggle to live with the knowledge that he’ll never be great that drives much of the story.

Awajima Hyakkei – 01

A Takako Shimura manga adaptation directed by Asaka Morio at Madhouse really should be higher up my anticipation rankings. But when you get under the hood, it sort of makes sense. I love Hourou Musuko, but apart from that nothing Takako has done (apart from her always-sublime character designs) has wowed me. And other than Chihayafuru there’s nothing on Asaka’s resume I’m that nuts for. Yes, there is an element of inverse “Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?” to that. Those are great series indeed. But the reality is what it is.

So as for Awajima Hyakkei, I would say it’s fine, more or less. It’s not ranked highly among Takako-sensei’s works, for whatever that’s worth (not much in itself). I do have a passing interest in Awajima, which I could see from the roof of my apartment building in Kobe. The story is set at a performing arts school on the island called the “Awajima Revue”. The A-part focuses on a first-year named Tabata Wakana, and her struggle to adjust to the cutthroat politics of such a school. The B-part on Takehara Kinue (who has the same family name as Tabata’s grandmother, which may be a Chekov’s Gun), who left her best friend (and possible love interest) behind to come to the school.

There should be at least one more pair of girls getting an intro, presumably next week. The manga only ran for five volumes (over 13 years) so a single cour should be plenty for a full treatment. I don’t know whether Awajima Hyakkei is expressly shoujo-ai (a rarely-heard term these days) but it does kind of play that way. It also seems to be set at some point in the past judging by the flip phones and generally dated look of the backgrounds. That contributes to an overall slightly retro feel to the piece. It’s very measured, slow, and quasi-dreamlike. All seen through Takako’s traditional soft watercolor visual palette.

I can’t say I found this premiere riveting to be honest, but it was atmospheric. The notion of “is it worth getting to the top by stepping on other people?” can be an interesting theme if Takako pursues it. A lot will depend on the characters too of course. I found Tabata’s story more involving than Takehara’s for example. I’ll watch one more episode at least, given the pedigree of the principals, but I’m a long way from being convinced.