Here’s one that may be of more interest to those of you who are fans of Rurouni Kenshin. Or at least of the era it depicts, the early days after the Boshin War when the Meiji Government was laboring to keep itself from becoming a footnote in Japanese history. Meiji Gekken 1874 is notable for being the first anime directly produced by Crunchyroll (though not Sony, their owner), with more set to follow. The staff is not too notable, though director Tamamura Jin is experienced and seemingly capable. As for the writer, I’ve never heard of them – or the studio, that I remember.
The setting here is Tokyo in – unsurprisingly – 1874, though there is a brief cold open set in 1868 (Meiji Year 1). For context, RuroKen begins in 1878, when the government was somewhat more established though by no means secure. The hero of the piece is a young rickshaw driver named Origasa Shizuma, who as a member of a pro-shogunate death squad in Aizu (the last Shogunate holdout) during the war. He survives in order to protect Sumie, the sister of his comrade, and she appears also to be his fiancée. But as of the opening stanza he still hasn’t located her or even verified that she’s still alive.
I confess I was a bit worried at the start, as it seemed as if the series was taking a pretty simplistic view of complicated events – heroic Shogunate loyalists trying to preserve the old ways against evil Imperialists doing the bidding of foreign devils. And to be sure, the British ambassador Harry Smith Parkes fills the role of cartoon villain in his cameo. But in the end the rebels trying to overthrow the government come off looking almost as bad – certainly corrupt and callous at the very least. And for now, Shizuma is basically caught in the middle.
In effect, Shizuma is framed for the attempted murder of Iwakura Tomomi, an important minister in the Meiji government, by pro-shogunate terrorists. In an attempt to clear his name he winds up having a run-in with a yakuza group running a gambling hall and ends up helping the police capture the men who attempted the murder (who also attempted to kill him). He gets asked to join the police force, which presents obvious conflicts given his background, but I suspect Shizuma will accept as a means to help find Sumie.
The wildcard is Shuragami Kyoushiurou, unlike most of the characters here a completely invented figure. He winds up taking down a bunch of the yakuza (well, his freaky acolytes do) but it’s not immediately clear whose side he’s on, if any. It’s a fairly interesting setup, and the episode is certainly competent in terms of execution. For my part I do find this era in Japan quite interesting, and I’m always interested in seeing a new anime perspective on it, even if I don’t get any sense that this one is especially penetrating or nuanced. I’ll certainly give Meiji Gekken 1874 a few episodes to prove it’s a worthy addition to the mythology.
Otcho_Shogun
January 15, 2024 at 11:18 pmI liked this first episode quite a bit. A fascinating time period and the groundworks for a good story have been laid here. Also, I was pleasantly suprised by the rock solid production values. Nothing extraordinary, but perfectly suited to a show like this. I expected way worse from a Crunchroll original to be honest (especially for a more niche series).
I reminds me a lot of Revengers from last Year. That one was more episodic and contained, though, which worked well for a 12 episode length. This here, seems to aim for something more narratively ambitious and broader in scope and we’ll have to see if they can pull that off in, what i assume, is a single cour.
I’m just glad, that we do still get original anime like this from time to time.
Nicc
January 16, 2024 at 2:56 pm“Shangri-La Frontier” is on recap this week and so that opened up a slot for this one. I’m still working out the lineup for Sunday and Monday. We’ve got historical fiction for this one and it’s also a CR original series. Let’s see how this one goes.
Yep, the title gives the date away, but it opens a bit further in the past during the Boshin War. Aizu is under siege, and we meet our MC, Origasa Shizuma. Defeat is only a matter of time, and he promises his dying friend to live on and to find his sister and our MC’s fiance. He does indeed live on to the current time and also now has a full head of hair. He’s working as a rickshaw driver and still has no clues about her.
His latest passenger, Takechi, lands him into big trouble as he’s framed for an attempted assassination of a minister. There were lots of names dropped in this episode and so it looks like it’s going to be a cast of substantial size. Right, there’s not a lot of subtlety when it comes to the opposing factions so far and there are certainly going to be some who will try to play both sides. He’s not interested in any of that right now and instead just wants to clear his name after the police come after him. He manages to track him down to a gambling den, where he sees a big mess that he missed by a few minutes or so.
That is courtesy of Shuragami Kyoushiurou, who decided to clean up the place. That one has a more fantastical fight sequence compared to the ones before and the one after. Shizuma then tracks down Takechi as the latter and their group attempt to ambush another minister, but the police set their own trap and their group is apprehended. Shizuma also clears his name and thus mission accomplished. Him joining the police is already spoiled in the promotional visuals and I’m thinking this is when the series really starts. It’s worth another episode as I’m interested in seeing where it goes.