Anime

So last week I yet again rewatched an unusual favorite - one that I rewatch fairly often, but have never seen discussed anywhere - Kemurikusa.

It was obviously made on a limited budget, and Wakaba is sort of tedious and annoying with his non-stop chatter about how interesting everything is, but still, there's just something about that series that really speaks to me.

A lot of it's the world. It's so bleak and such an odd combination of familiar and alien. And it's so well presented.

Mysterious settings are tough to do well. If they're too alien or too inconsistent, then they just end up weird and inexplicable, but if they're too familiar and logical, then it's too easy to figure out what they're all about and they lose that sense of alienness. The world of Kemurikusa is neatly balanced - it's thoroughly bizarre underneath the familiar trappings, but it always feels as if there is some underlying logic and order to it, even though we don't know what it is. Obviously at this point, I know its secrets, but I can still feel that sense of slowly unfolding mystery - that there is a logical explanation for all of it, just out of my grasp.

And a lot of it's the characters (except for the most part Wakaba). They're all anime archetypes, but... well, let's just say that even that is part of the underlying logic of that world. There are in-universe reasons why they're each who and what they are. And they are all appealing in their own ways.

And the story ultimately is very compelling. It retains most of its mystery right up until the final secrets are revealed, and then all the pieces fall into place.

I'd really like to see this get a remake some day. I like it already, but I can just imagine what it could be with a bigger budget and another episode or two (the last bit before the climax in particular was obviously rushed).

Anyway... I enjoyed it as much as I always do, and just wanted to say something about it...