[Telmah]

I know this is a dead thread pretty much, but I just finished the show and was inspired to really think about it after reading Zaris's post. Another friend and I were talking about it, so I collected my thoughts hitting upon much of what Zaris said but also my own take on the show.

First, let me say, in the past I’ve had very high expectations of animes based on games because the games were so good…stuff like Final Fantasy Unlimited, Star Ocean Ex, Chronotrigger, and Xenosaga and was overall sorely disappointed in terms of story, animation, and a general job well done. Usually there’s too many characters and too much plot for too little space. Utawarerumono is too plagued by these problems, but manages to salvage a decent story overall and fair character development. In many ways, Utawarrumono could have used more space and cut some filler and been a much tighter and better story.

Plot General
One of the things I really liked about the show was how the interwove the stories together some. It is hard to tell where Oboro’s story ends and Benawi/Korou’s starts, the same true with Niwe and Touka or Kuuya’s and Karura’s. This makes the next story arc seem less like a randomly adventure after random adventure and more coherent. My biggest complaint was Karura’s story isn’t very related to the rest of the plot. In fact the only lasting thing I think that comes out of it is, is a clue for Eruruu’s character. The other thing I am sitting on the fence about was the almost obsession of not making this an original world but rather a post apocalyptic earth, and of course mecha. While I don’t know if I would have gone that route if I had been a writer, I will accept it grudgingly without further comment.

The show pulls no punches. Several semi-main characters die or are rendered mindless from the trauma. Unlike a show like Full Metal Alchemist, I feel the deaths are done better and are for a reason, rather than random killings. While that may make it less realistic, it makes it more of a work of art, in my opinion.

Hakuoro
Hakuoro is an interesting character despite is cliché not remembering amnesia. I still like how he is not the best warrior, but the best tactician. This makes him really stand out in anime…most leads are more like Oboro--young and wanting to be the “best” fighter, not the best leader. Time and time again, Hakuoro agonizes over his decisions, showing he has wisdom. In the beginning he even tells Benawi, that he feels he’ll go to hell for his rebellion--this is a very ancient idea of the Will of the Heaven, against the divine order of the world (in the Chinese novels/games Romance of Three Kingdoms this is mentioned often) He also has regrets and even nightmares after he kills Niwe’s death. He doubts himself constantly, if he is the best person to lead the kingdom and is willing to forfeit his own life on several occasions if he feels the kingdom will come off better for it.

While noble, he’s not perfect though. When he makes mistakes, his friends and countrymen die. When he rashly attacks Touka’s country after several villages and messengers being razed and killed, he ends up losing many more men in a needless and pointless battle. It gets more personal too. The Eruruu’s village was wiped out and he couldn’t prevent it…all he could do was drink afterwards and might have fallen into a vicious cycle of depression if not saved by Eruruu. He couldn’t save Kuuya despite his best efforts. Probably even worse to him emotionally, was his lack of power to protect Aruruu when she faced off against the nutcase Hauenkua--this very well might have been one of the most climatic scenes of the show--I‘ll cover it in depth later.

The thing I like about him most, is he is a dynamic character. Each encounter he has, he becomes a bit wiser and handles things in the future better. It’s not the normal, hero gains a new power which is critical to win his next challenge scenario which is all too common…and boring. In order to explain this growth though, I’ll have to first explain another character…

Eruruu
Eruruu like Hakuoro seems very generic at first--healer, kind, in love with the male lead from the very opening scenes, and loyal to the point of almost being subservient to his ever whim. I am aware this is a feudal story and that would be the norm, however, my mind rails against it to a degree as a boring character--however, I was mistaken from my initial impressions--she does make her own choices.

She is respected so much by Hakuoro he places many important decisions in her hands…Nuwangi’s fate, Hakuoro takes her side against Oboro when deciding Karura’s fate, or when he is troubled over whether or not he is Rak Shine, she forces him to rest against his first judgment, and so forth. She isn’t merely a yes-woman but rather a deciding force. In fact, she often acts like Hakuoro’s guide, as if she was a tiny angel sitting on his shoulder. It is her that presses him to grow. When he is doubting who he is over the Rak Shine business, it is her that comforts him and says “Hakuoro is Hakuoro”. Cliché and simple but very effective in saying, it doesn’t matter about your past, but rather who you are. The same was true with how she saved him from drinking after the destruction of their village.

This isn’t a one sided influence though. He wields great influence over her as well. There’s no clearer point when Eruruu is making the hangover tonic for Oboro and he praises her on how skilled she’s become. While her words don’t say much, it is obviously from looking at her ears and rapid movements of her tail and hands, she is thrilled beyond belief.

Oboro
Oboro is unique among the minor characters in that he develops the most. He starts off again like a main character in most shows--powerful and with the desire to grow stronger in martial combat. Throughout the beginning of the show he has many qualities but the one the sticks out the most is the fact he is a loose cannon. He puts emotion before logic and reason and gets himself and his allies into all kinds of trouble. As the series goes on, he reluctantly is willing to be more precise and cunning and less and less easily swayed by emotion. The ending is a perfect capstone to his growth…he realizes that he is not the best candidate for leader, while his previous ego would have not allowed him to step down. So he declines the position in favor of his rival.

Of Kamyu, Aruruu, Genjimaru, Karura, Dori and Gura, Urutori, Benawi, Tuskuru/Teoro, Sakuya, Touka, Yuzuha, and Kurou, most of this characters are only developed when the plots requires them to change and not a bit more. Most of these characters change in subtle ways if at all. Take Kurou for example, throughout the show is stubbornly loyal to Benawi and his country, and enjoys fighting. However, even he changes a tiny bit when Teoro dies and doesn’t want to announce it in front of the sisters. Touka is the overprotective, noble samurai warrior and the only thing I can gather about her personal character is she likes cute things…Aruruu’s second pet or the doll from the omake episodes. Yes, some of the characters change during their story lines, like Touka’s choice to change sides, but after that point her character growth stops--compared to Orobo who changes and there isn’t a reason for it in the plot line, but rather it is showing growth of character. While Aruruu is a static character after her initial entrance, I am giving her special attention simply because she acts like a child, while most anime characters of her age would not.

The villains as a group I feel they were poorly done. Inkara and his brother are the same character, both indulgent and idiotic rulers, Nuwangi, Niew, Suwonkas, and Hauenkua are all psychopaths, especially the later three, and Dii is the cold manipulator. None of them are realistic at all, none invoke any empathy. Hein receives a very small amount since he at least tries to follow a code of honor. Kuuya is the truly tragic villain, but even she makes her own decisions.

I think the villain is easily as important as a hero. While I wouldn’t have liked one to completely overshadow the entire show, I think the problem is none of them are developed quite enough to make us care or really understand them? Why is Hauenkua a reject from the mad pilots of Gundam or why is Suwonkas so obsessed with Karura. We just don’t know…or really care. A good villain has reasons for doing what he does. A great villain makes us agree with them, even if only a little. Rarely are people clear cut in life as good or evil.

Aruruu’s death.
Aruruu being struck down is overwhelming touching and dramatic. I could sense it was going to happen because Hakuoro tells her twice in a short span to fall back. There was just something about the scene that held me spellbound…with each pass I knew it was going to happen, but I didn’t know when it was going to happen. I couldn’t help but flinch when she got knocked off her tiger. I am pretty sure Freewind heard me grasp from across the room. It didn’t register that they could kill off the cute, innocent mascot almost--Full Metal Alchemist did that, but she‘d only been around two episodes, while Aruruu was a main character.. When he sister raced to her side, I kept telling myself she was going to be ok. And then Eruruu announced she was dead. I’ve never felt so empathic towards Hakuoro in wanting to demand the blood of another character. The following scene of Haunkua’s mecha being torn to rubble was immensely satisfying. It is rare for an anime to really emotionally tug at the heartstrings of the viewer like that.
And then she is ok again. What gives? Did that just cheapen the intensity of the scene? Won’t their be long terms effects on Aruruu after such a horrible event? Like Hakuoro we are surprised to seen such a tranquil scene of her playing in the courtyard with Mukuru, without a care in the world. This is repeated at the end of episode 22 and then again in 23, with Aruruu playing in the laundry. Also in both, we clearly do see Eruruu is much more troubled because of the pact.

The Pact
Eruruu’s pact actually has one extremely interesting consequence. Is she in love with Hakuoro because of the pact and is nothing more than a puppet or does she have freewill? This is an almost quasi-religious question, should humans love God merely because God wills it or do we really have a choice? Is love by obligation less meaningful than that of choice? Can she even tell the difference?

This is an interesting junction because it makes Eruruu question her feelings for Hakuoro. Most anime is filled with characters that plow ahead with their love, without any doubt except caused by situations or characters. In fact, in no other show I’ve seen to date, save Cardcaptor Sakura, does a character doubt their feelings for the potential other. In reality, I know I have in the past, and this gives it a touch of realism. Thankfully Urutori is wise enough to say guide Eruruu with her feelings.

And we know Eruruu has feelings for him, that are genuine. After all, very early in the series, she visible deflates when she is introduced to Urutori as like a sister after the later suggests she might be a queen. Urutori, Karura, and Yuzuha all realize it and talk to her about it in their own ways With the business of Rak Shine and Hakuoro drinking to escape his guilt, she tells him no matter what he has done, she’ll always be near him.

There’s lots of little things (this could be said of Eruruu as well), but when Hakuoro uses the medicine to put her to sleep after the destruction of their village, he is doing so compassionately, in such a way that I can’t see it as being anything else but love, especially when they follow up the scene with him watching her sleep, covering her up in a blanket, and then holding her hand. Towards the end, after the pact is revealed, he admits that he couldn’t live without her, that it was her holding his heart together. And that he wants her to remain with him always--again I like her doubt here, because it makes it seem realistic. During the flashback scene about the Iceman, he mistakes Eruruu mistaken for Mikoto, the vertigo effects breaking the flashback shows Mikoto change to Eruruu, and finally in the last episode realizes the connection, to a past love--almost a soul mate, reincarnation type of thing. And of course they kiss sealing the deal, because she forces it to happen. To me that makes the conclusion of the series apparent.

Like most love stories, it is hard to pin down a single defining moment. The critical scene for me is in episode 13...the very middle of the series. Like many scenes, Eruruu is supporting Hakuoro while he is drinking after losing so many friends and wondering who he is, and Eruruu says that “Hakuoro is Hakuoro” and then touches his hand. Perhaps the drink, lowered his moral threshold and he actually held her hand back and embraced her. She was startled and pulled away, only to return in a more peaceful embrace. That’s the clearest sign they love each other, but of course there’s a lot of dancing around the F word.

Yes the F word…family. It is a way of explaining their closeness without making the other uncomfortable. In short it is an excuse. (Speaking of which, I’ll fight tooth and nail any claim of incest, simply because there’s no proof of it…we don’t know how many generations have paced from the time of the Icemen to the present. We’d assume quite a few since there are tribes of people…and the genetic diversity issue is a non issue…from that distance--otherwise you could claim everyone is related to well everyone.)

Hakuoro is Hakuoro
But anyway, the reason I thought that scene was so important was because it touches not only upon physical intimacy but the “Hakuoro is Hakuoro” idea. Most heroes without a memory are obsessed with recovering it and Hakuoro was beginning to fall into that trap because he felt that he didn’t know who he was and could be an evil person--very fitting a masked man--it is like he had covered up his previous identity. The symbolism beats us again later over the head with Eruruu’s choice to save the old ruins in the capital is likewise interesting. She proves to Hakuoro, that there can be new growth of ashen, burnt soil. This is clearly a metaphor for Hakoro himself. The past of the city and for him…neither are important. What does matter is who he is now and if he has the resolve to push free of past that holds him down. And he does find new growth. Again Eruruu services as his guardian angel, helping him find his way--much like a lighthouse for his dark soul.

These are a taste of the lessons that one can take away and actually live a better life knowing. Yes, they are nothing new to most people. But sometimes we need reminders to refresh and inspire us. And that is what art, yes art, like Utawareumono does and why I enjoy it so much.