2012-05-20, 08:04
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Mmmm....
Join Date: Sep 2006
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Nice episode seven, get the feeling Yuuko's not perhaps as ready for love as she thought she was, and her father's nonplussed that his little girl is growing up.
Way to redeem your reputation, Hosokawa! The leisurely walk sequence highlighted a museum which looked really interesting. One day I will have the spare dosh to visit Japan, dammit!!! |
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2012-05-20, 22:07
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Link #42 |
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AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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I bet the anime designers spent quite some hours at that museum.
I actually expected oto-san to erupt in this episode after watching the teaser in episode six. He was remarkably calm; I loved how he tried to push it all on his poor wife. "She's a teen-aged girl; she's your problem!" No one does a very good job of expressing themselves in this story. Yuuko has a secret job, a secret lover, and a not-so-secret necklace. I expected the father to explode when he saw the necklace, but he rather meekly stepped aside and let her head to the bath without any questions asked. Mom later asks Yuuko if "anything is wrong," which Yuuko quickly denies. End of conversation between them on what's up with Yuuko. I absolutely loved the song. I don't recall American pop songs of that or earlier eras that had women proposing to take men to the beach and take off their clothes. I felt sorry for Yuuko coming of age with that song on the radio. Look how they were all sitting around the table with a song reminding them that she might want to have a sex life.
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2012-05-22, 19:45
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Link #44 |
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formerly ogon bat
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Mexico
Age: 53
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Yuukos father kind of reminds me of my grandfather, I am told he was quick to anger with his sons but never laid a hand on anger on his daughters, I dislike that kind of bahaviour but I suppose people in the future might be disgusted by some of the habits seen as common nowadays.
Also, the family granmother, although she is far from a sweet old lady, I feel bad for her, no doubt her husband or many close people died in the war and later on had to live very hard times, many people become bitter after too many hardships. |
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2012-05-30, 13:42
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Link #46 | |
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Blooming on the mountain
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light....
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 AM so glad that GotWoot is finishing this wonderful series up....
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2012-06-08, 21:01
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Link #47 |
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AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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I didn't get around to watching this episode until tonight. It was cute, but I'm more interested in what's up with Yuuko and her romance.
This week's song is a derivative of the 1962 Connie Francis hit "V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N." The original doesn't have any references to snow skiing though. The Wiki article mentions that both Francis's version and a cover by a Japanese artist, presumably the version heard in Showa Monogatari, both reached #1 in Japan in December of 1962. Seems an odd time to promote a song about summer vacations, but there you go.
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Last edited by SeijiSensei; 2012-06-08 at 21:11. |
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2012-06-18, 16:00
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Link #48 |
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Mmmm....
Join Date: Sep 2006
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Episode 9 amidst the drought conditions we see an inkling of the student protest of the sixties that's been also touched upon in some other anime shows. For a show set in its period it would have been surprising not to see some reflection of that.
I can't help thinking I'd love to have a collection of all the end title songs... |
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2012-06-19, 19:47
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Link #49 |
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AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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This was an "action-packed" episode by the standards of Showa Monogatari, don't you think? A lot transpired this time around.
Throughout the drought sequence I kept wondering how Tokyo would be able to handle the influx of tourists for the Olympics. Doing a little research i see that the "Summer" Olympics took place quite a bit later then than they do today, with the Opening Ceremonies on October 10th. If the anniversary of the end of the War they spoke of meant the day that Japan officially surrendered, that occurred on September 2, 1945, so there must be about a month ahead of us before the Games begin. About a million households in Tokyo had their water usage restricted that summer. I can't find a good public source on when the shortage ended though. It's hard to believe that just the one rainstorm that appears at the end of the episode would have been sufficient. Oh, well, there's always sake and beer. Apparently the shortages in 1964 stimulated the development of wastewater reuse facilities in the Tokyo region. Spoiler for The preview, Yuuko and Yurika in Sakamichi no Apollon:
That elderly friend of the oba-san must dye her hair! The contrast between her and the two gray-haired ladies was funny. By the way, I happened upon this informative piece on recent scholarship about whether the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the events that led the Japanese to surrender. There's good evidence to believe that the Soviet entry into the War soon after the bombings might instead have played the pivotal role. Like Dop, I'm loving the music choices in this show. To me they buttress the show's portrayal of the transition from traditional to modern Japan with their mix of more classical Japanese melodies and more modern, American-influenced pop and jazz.
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Last edited by SeijiSensei; 2012-06-19 at 20:38. |
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2012-06-19, 21:17
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Link #50 |
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Seishu's Ace
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Kobe, Japan
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Couples Cafes are definitely unambiguous in what their purpose is (some were even set up so others could watch) - he was letting her know exactly what he expected. My feeling is that she should be the one dumping him, not the other way around - he's been giving off wolf vibes for a while.
I think this show is deeper than you might think. It touches on some edgy issues - child abuse, pacifism during WW II, the student protest movement - but because the focus is very much on the daily struggles of working class Edoites, it doesn't pass any judgement. It just depicts this events strictly in terms of how they impact daily life. This episode was the first time the series has touched directly on WW II, as far as I remember - right down to showing the American bombers - but as usual, didn't editorialize one way or the other. The firebombing was simply a fact - what was important was how it impacted Grandma's life.
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2012-06-19, 23:30
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Link #51 | ||
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AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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Quote:
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I felt bad for Kouhei in this episode because I know how easy it is for kids to imagine that they're the cause of adults' problems. The preview suggests Kouhei may find himself in the same position again in the next episode. I happened to re-watch the episode of Usagi Drop where Daikichi and Rin visit his parents a few months after her father's death. Daikichi understood how Rin saw herself as the cause for the family's conflict after the funeral. (In some ways that wasn't an incorrect perception, either.) Episode two of Bartender portrays how this kind of internalized self-blame can persist into adulthood. Though she's in her twenties, Miwa feels personally responsible for the fact that her father and grandfather never reconciled because she broke a present her father bought for his father when she was four.
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Last edited by SeijiSensei; 2012-08-13 at 00:44. |
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2012-06-19, 23:57
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Link #52 |
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Seishu's Ace
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Kobe, Japan
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Just curious, Sensei - do you have any older sisters? Mine are six and eight years older than me, and I can vouch for just how cruel Yuuko can be to Kouhei at times as being very realistic. Let's say it colors my view of her a bit!
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2012-06-20, 00:30
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Link #53 |
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AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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Nope, I'm an only child as is my daughter. I had friends with older sisters while growing up and saw how they treated their younger brothers. I find Yuuko's behavior quite realistic from what little experience I have.
Yes, she torments Kouhei, but she obviously loves him very much, too. C'mon now, be honest. I bet your sisters doted on you at times, too. Maybe you can't remember back that far?
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2012-06-20, 01:42
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Link #54 |
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Seishu's Ace
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Kobe, Japan
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Is doted synonymous with "pounded"? Otherwise, no!
And it hasn't been all that far, either - I still have enough brain cells to remember. I forgot both their names, but the abuse I remember. The best upbeat anime depiction of this kind of relationship is probably Soredemo Machi Wa Matteru - it's realistic while accenting the happier side of the typical older sister/younger brother dynamic. In RL, however, it's usually like it is in Shouwa a lot more often. It might seem harmless and cute, unless you happen to be the one on the receiving end.
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2012-06-20, 08:21
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Link #55 |
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AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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One other thing that seems so odd about scenes like the one in the couples' cafe is that we don't see any evidence of growing physical closeness between Yuuko and her boyfriend. It's rather like, "okay, now that we've held hands, let's have intercourse." Maybe that's the way things were in 1964 Japan, though I doubt it, but that certainly wasn't my experience in the US just a couple years later. My adolescent sexual experiences stretched over three or four years between the time when I started necking and petting with girls during high school and eventually having intercourse in college. I don't think my history was especially unusual for the times either. The whole image of my sixties generation having adolescent sex right and left is the creation of fertile imaginations and wistful media portrayals of a time before HIV. Remember that, in most parts of the US during the 1960s, birth control pills could not be dispensed legally to unmarried minors (and in many states even to married adults), and racks of condoms were not on display in the aisles of the local drugstore. Boys would have to ask the pharmacist to get them "rubbers" from behind the counter. In many smaller communities, the druggist might well have been a family friend or acquaintance and thus an unreliable co-conspirator if you wanted to conceal your sexual exploits from your parents.
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Last edited by SeijiSensei; 2012-06-20 at 08:33. |
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2012-07-13, 01:17
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Link #56 |
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Mmmm....
Join Date: Sep 2006
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Heads up! A wild episode 10 appears!
Watching this show is kind of surreal in a way, as it's set in the run up to an Olympics which was closer to the sporting ideal of what the Olympics was supposed to be about. In those days it was about amateur sportspersons competing for pride and honor - no drug testing, no sponsorship deals, just good honest sport. Here in London, in 2012, it seems like the Olympics are about bending over backwards to please the corporate sponsors, setting up 'zil lanes' to speed the transport of the elite while inconveniencing the general public, all presided over by an idiot mayor. Most people I know are sick and tired of it already, and they've not even started yet. But I digress, Spoiler for To episode 10!:
And I'd still love a soundtrack album of the end credit songs. This one had a very 'fifties' feel to it. Great to see another 'new' episode, I shall miss this show when it's done. What with this show, Sakamichi no Apollon, and From Up On Poppy Hill I get the feeling that the era would be a good setting for more shows, given the amount of upheaval that was going on in those days. Last edited by Dop; 2012-07-13 at 17:28. |
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2012-07-15, 11:33
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Link #57 | |
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AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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Quote:
This one had a lot in common with "doo wop" girl groups like The Crystals, here singing "Then He Kissed Me" from 1963. It was penned by Phil Spector and produced in his signature "wall-of-sound" style. Another Crystals song, "Da Doo Ron Ron," has the use of nonsense lyrics that we hear in the ED for this episode. Finally I'll throw in The Chiffons singing "He's So Fine" as another example from the period (1962, in this case). This is an interesting period in American pop music. It marks the transition between the residual country-and-western stylings of the late 1950's and the full-scale acceptance of African-American music and performers that happened in the early 1960s. Elvis Presley and Bobby Darin were protypical representative of the earlier period, despite their radically different styles. Motown took American airwaves by force in the early 1960s until the Beatles and the British Invasion arrived in 1963 and 1964. Groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones owed a lot to black R&B music, and you can hear those influences quite strongly on their early albums. Motown was hardly finished either, of course, and continued to compete for airtime against the new wave of white musicians, or in some cases, like The Chambers Brothers 1966 hit, "Time Has Come Today," adapt the new types of music to their own purposes.
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Last edited by SeijiSensei; 2012-07-15 at 11:53. |
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2012-07-15, 23:28
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Link #59 |
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Seishu's Ace
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Kobe, Japan
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You know, I wish someone would come out and say it: Yuuzou is a miserable bastard. His family lives in terror of him, he makes them miserable, and his wife does nothing but apologize for him. He's supposed to be a Saint because he didn't beat up his daughter - but it's perfectly OK for him to closed-fist punch his 11 year-old son?
I really do like this show a lot, and this may well be a realistic portrait of working-class family life in Tokyo in 1964. But since the show - admirably, I guess - is very non-judgmental about what happens in it, that means I'm free to hate Yuuzou's guts.
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