It’s hard not to compare Jouran: The Princess of Snow and Blood with Mars Red.  Not as hard as it would be if this series actually was set in 1923 (as is Mars Red) like the early promotional info said it was – it’s actually 1931 here – but still hard.  You have two overtly stylized atmospheric period pieces with supernatural horror elements set in pre-WW II Tokyo, releasing only a day apart.  But in truth I don’t think there’s that much in common between the two series beyond the superficial, at least as best I can tell after one episode.

To what extent Jouran is a remake of the beloved 1973 film “Lady Snowblood” I’m not certain.  I haven’t seen mention of any official links, but boy, if this is an homage it’s pretty blatant about it.  The movie itself was based on a manga, and has already spawned a well-known homage in the form of Kill Bill. Like in Lady Snowblood, you have a young woman (Yukimura here, Yuki in the movie) becoming an assassin as a means of getting revenge for the murder of her family when she was a child.  You’ve got umbrellas as weapons (though it isn’t Yukimura who wields it here).  One major difference, of course, is the supernatural focus with Jouran.

The aforementioned Yukimura Sawa lives above a bookstore she appears to manage, with a young girl named Asahi who isn’t her sister.  The assassinations and other covert operation seem to be channeled through a courtesan service used as a front, which is where the gun-brella wielding Hanakaze Elena works.  The one is charge looks to be Tsukishiro Makoto, who isn’t above getting his hands dirty himself.

The hook here is that in this 1931 the Tokugawa Shogunate is still in power, thanks to a mystical commodity called “ryumyaku”.  In fact Tsukishiro’s organization seems to be working for the shogunate, which has grown increasingly unpopular.  There’s also the matter of changelings, something like werewolves, which the opposition is using to foment disorder in the country.  My assumption is that Sawa doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the politics, she’s just using the organization as a means to get at the ones responsible for her personal tragedy (which is more or less what was going on in the movie).

So does it work?  For me, kind of.  This isn’t a great premiere by any stretch of the imagination, and I did find my attention wandering at certain moments.  It’s not as visually accomplished as Mars Red, nor is the music anywhere near as compelling.  But Jouran is a fairly interesting 22 minutes nonetheless.  The action sequences are fine, and the premise itself (chestnut that it is) certainly has the potential to drive a good story.  My feelings on the whole are pretty indifferent but I’m certainly game to give this series a couple more episodes to level up.