#225: Ayakashi – Samurai Apprehension Tales (2006)

Studio: Toei Animation

Administrators: Hidehiko Kadota and
Kouzou Nagayama (Tenshu Monogatari); Tetsuo Imazawa (Yotsuya Kaidan); Kenji
Nakamura (Bakeneko)

Screenplays: Yuuji Sakamoto
(Tenshu Monogatari); Chiaki J. Konaka (Yotsuya Kaidan); Michiko Yokote
(Bakeneko)

Tenshu Monogatari tailored from the drama by Kyōka Izumi; Yotsuya Kaidan tailored from the play by Nanboku Tsuruya IV

Say Actors:

a) Tenshu Monogatari

Hikaru Midorikawa / Kirby Morrow as
Zushonosuke Himekawa; Houko Kuwashima / Willow Johnson as Tomi Hime;  Saeko Chiba / Tracey Energy as Oshizu;  Yui Kano / Anna Cummer as Ominaeshi; Kappei
Yamaguchi / Alec Willows as Kaikaimaru; Masaya Onosaka / Samuel Vincent as Kikimaru

Yotsuya Kaidan

Hiroaki Hirata / Brian Dobson as
Iemon Tamiya; Mami Koyama / Nicole Oliver as Oiwa Tamiya;  Yūko Nagashima / Rebecca Shoichet as Osode
Yotsuya; Keiichi Sonobe / Samuel Vincent as Gonbei Naosuke; Ryō Hirohashi /
Lalainia Lindbjerg as Oume Ito; Wataru Takagi / Michael Adamthwaite as Yomoshichi
Sato

Bake Neko

Takahiro Sakurai / Andrew Francis
as Kusuriuri the Medications Vendor; Yukana / Kelly Sheridan as Kayo;  Tetsu Inada / Trevor Devall as Odajima; Chikao
Ohtsuka / Scott McNeil as Clan Lord Yoshiyuki; Naoki Tatsuta / Paul Dobson as Lord
Yoshikuni; Seiji Sasaki / John Novak as Lord Yoshiaki; Yōko Sōmi / Alison
Matthews as Lady Mizue; Kozue Kamada / Tabitha St. Germain as Lady Mao; Yuu
Shimaka / Ken Kramer as Katsuyama; Eiji Takemoto / Andrew Kavadas as Sasaoka; Yurika
Hino / Tabitha St. Germain as Omit Sato; Kiyonobu Suzuki / Trevor Devall as Yahei

Considered in Eastern with English Subtitles

Commissioned for Fuji TV’s Noitamina block, very popular for its artistically and
narratively diversified anime shows – the keep Masaaki
Yuasa’s The Tatami Galaxy (2010) or
Princess Jellyfish (2010) came from –
Ayakashi: Samurai Apprehension Tales befits the slot early in its existence, as
it is far three diversified terror tales between three to four episodes, of length
self-discipline folktales and yōkai I am occupied with. Two of the three are adapting
classic authors for his or her tales too, adding to this an air of artistry, and
even when the Noitamina started over
the a long time, from their 2005 inception to step far flung from a stereotypical younger
male target target market, to have extra circulate and pulpier productions, this became no longer
a wrong thing both. This has led to shows like Samurai Flamenco (2013-14), and  with well regarded productions like The Promised Neverland (2019-2020)
getting new, the block can peaceable train respect for producing one of the most most
greatest and most difficult in difficult television sequence. My hobby in Samurai Apprehension Tales previous objective terror
anime would have been cemented by its connection to Mononoke (2007), any other Noitamina
block member and definitely one of many most uncommon looking sequence of any vogue, having
been a walk-off from of the Ayakashi
tales itself no longer primarily primarily based mostly on a classic myth.

The three tales are very easy
in what they are about, every taking very diversified directions to how to uncover
them nonetheless. Reckoning on the vogue you investigate cross-take a look at this, the Discotek Blu Ray liberate, launched on October Twenty ninth 2019¹,
oddly has it that you just would possibly per chance be ready to investigate cross-take a look at the 2d legend’s episodes, for Tenshu Monogatari, first sooner than the
others, however the structure became self-discipline up for broadcast as Yotsuya Kaidan (four episodes), Tenshu Monogatari (four
episodes), and Bakeneko (three
episodes). Going by how I had watched this, Tenshu Monogatari because the first watched is a supernatural melodrama,
tailored from a drama by Kyōka Izumi. Izumi became a prolific novelist, dramatist
and writer, who I am attentive to for Demon
Pond. It’s far a play even definitely one of my favourite filmmakers Takashi Miike, in definitely one of his many idiosyncratic leaps into any variety
of filmmaking he has desired to investigate cross-take a look at, tried his hand at filming, in a extremely objective
2005 theatrical production he recorded, primarily primarily based mostly on a Keishi Nagatsuka re-adaptation of the source subject subject. It’s far a work
too also tailored to cinema by Masahiro Shinoda
in 1979.

In Tenshu Monogatari, a
falconer named Zushonosuke, due to the his disagreeable feudal lord, has to retrieve a
prized falcon handiest to search out a mansion of forgotten gods, housing all ladies folks who
as immortal beings, figures who succumb to starvation and exhaust the life force of
any mortals who streak there. One, Tomi Hime, begins to tumble for him, which has
the self-discipline that the extra she is drawn to humanity, that can mean she loses her
immortality, which is sadly also infectious to everybody else there in the
mansion. The disagreeable lord in the end catches wind of this, which outcomes in him
sending his infantrymen to rob the mansion by the final episode, a tragedy of
figures doomed to love every other despite them being diversified entities, or
that at house Zushonosuke has a fiancée named Oshizu who is clearly
heartbroken by all of this, becoming involved. Right here is the most used of
the three narratives, but as a bittersweet legend, that in itself is a
curveball. It peaceable has a ghoulish edge, and there could be the fact that there are
two monsters as a comedy duo and Greek chorus, two thieves who handiest help Zushonosuke
out to rob from the mansion in the occasion that they’ll. 

The total tales have their have
sure looks to be. Also of show is that, for the length of the sequence, they’ve their
have opening credit, with their have visual motifs and designs, even in the occasion that all of them
have the identical opening theme tune. It’s potentially the least anticipated in the kind of
context, HEAT ISLAND by Rhymester, a hip hop tune with backing
by a koto, a worn Eastern string instrument, which is as uncommon as
that songs but is yet an inspired resolution, befitting a production which is
idiosyncratic. It befits how, while Tenshu
Monogatari is a extremely emotional drama at its heart, even the worn
ghost legend, Yotsuya Kaidan, just isn’t any longer
conventionally informed the least bit, the total narratives right here standing out with their
idiosyncrasies. The total tales have their have authors, Tenshu Monogatari’s Yuuji
Sakamoto, who handiest has that one
credit of their profession strangely, Michiko
Yokote for Bakeneko any individual we
will web to for that legend later in the overview, and a resolve I do know very well
for Yotsuya Kaidan, Chiaki J. Konaka.

Konaka, any individual I admired for his work, sadly must be taken now
by me as a fan with a pinch of salt in present years. A divisive screenwriter
for how obtuse he can be, from Serial
Experiments Lain (1998) to definitely one of many strangest story arches of Mononoke itself, I love how esoteric
and experimental his work is, even when, such as a live circulate movie like Unhealthy Unnecessary Entice 2 (1992), figuring out
what is transpiring and in what truth would perchance per chance very well be misplaced entirely even on a pair of
viewings. For a live reading of a script for Digimon Tamers, a conference
as a lot as the camouflage that loads of us (including myself) observed episodes of as a baby, he
had a villain, which took on the build of “Political Correctness,”
that threatens the sigh and digital worlds, and had a diversified attack called “Execute
Culture”¹. Thankfully nothing from this raised concerns of far
better and extra problematic ideas he has had, but at a time the keep his have
private weblog expressed questioning views on COVID-19’s reporting in worldwide
news², sadly it did paint an image for me of any individual undermining
himself when, if brutal to insist, his work in screenwriting in overall, despite the indisputable truth that
frustrated viewers, became loads extra nuanced even with some of his hardest the
rob scripts in anime storytelling. When observing Yotsuya Kaidan even this
came up right here, as this is a extremely meta and suave retelling of the titular
myth, which feels alien in comparability, initially written as a kabuki play by Tsuruya Nanboku IV, as Tōkaidō
Yotsiya Kaidan, which turns into a story in itself as this model tells.

Nanboku himself is the narrator, and the play itself, as grand as a
novel retelling right here, is the subject. The legend itself is set a girl Oiwa who,
when her husband, Iemon Tamiya, is complicit in a poison she is given, which
disfigures half of her face, and the disposal of her physique after her death,
taking revenge on him from the grave Iemon Tamiya is already established as a
unscrupulous rōnin, who even killed Oiwa’s father, pretending bandits had performed
so, to acquire her hand in marraige, sooner than any other girl wished him for her have
and concocted the understanding to disfigure and disgrace her. Right here’s a morbid
melodrama, the keep there could be also her sister-in-regulations, lied to in a deceit by
any other man who kills her suitor and pretends bandits also did it, and the
legend takes on additional angst and wrought drama with its betrayals, seductions
and heartbreaks. Konaka’s rob goes
extra in how the finale turns into Kaidan’s
lasting legacy, Tsuruya Nanboku IV printed
to have handed his mortal build and existing in an afterlife on the Earth,
thinking about his legend and how it has lasted in Eastern new custom, even
rising a curse around the understanding the keep americans adapting it have been maimed or
even killed. Were it no longer for a clear myth coming afterwards which is clearly
the gem of this complete anthology, I’d preserve this as a splendid half in
itself rate seeing. All three are, and Yotsuya
Kaidan does primarily feel like a splendid retelling of folklore in dissecting the
text, one thing also for me to camouflage Chiaki
J. Konaka as a proficient writer despite the indisputable truth that the sigh man stumbles in some wrong
ideas too in his thought process.

Alternatively it became Bakeneko which became a walk-off camouflage
in itself have gentle, and alongside that walk-off Mononoke, no anime looks to be and feels tonally like this these tales
about a mysterious “Medications Vendor” the least bit. Bakeneko, alongside its
sure art vogue and personality designs by Takashi
Hashimoto, looks prefer it became illustrated on gleaming waxed paper, performed with
digital animation as I attentive to with Mononoke,
but fully sure in its composition. It’s far a terror legend which yet uses
intellectual colours, has a honest exercise of atmosphere assemble (patterns,
illustrations, even environment out areas), and the keep, clearly indebted to art
kinds from Eastern ancient previous, such as Eastern woodblock prints, it brings it
into the brand new era as a digitally difficult production in circulate. Even in
mind that the sequence bought Yoshitaka Amano
to attain the fashioned personality designs for Yotsuya
Kaidan, and have his illustrations on the opening credit for that myth,
definitely one of many most iconic designers in anime and gentle-weight novels who an acclaimed
artist out of doors of the mediums, Bakeneko
is an creative masterpiece objective in look, even in mind that this is a
prototype to what became Mononoke
the sequence.

It’s far also, with gentle warning, a
bleaker story than Mononoke
would perchance per chance web, allowing for that the later sequence tackled heavy topics, its
first arch surrounding the ghosts of aborted foetuses of brothel workers. It
says loads in context nonetheless that Bakeneko
manages to have the bleakest story of this world, introducing us right here to
the Medications Vendor, a resolve right here and in the later sequence whose job is exorcise
demons, a magic sword on his person (alongside other tools) which is able to handiest be
launch when three criteria explaining the entity’s existence technique to gentle. A
bride is killed on her wedding day in a proud samurai clan, and while
suspicion comes on him, the Medications Vendor is readily the most handy person ready to
take care of the subject, the Bekeneko. Right here’s a “goblin cat”, cats of
supernatural build in Eastern mythology which could be no longer primarily as low as
this, a monster claiming vengeance, but symbolically meaningful right here with the
context. This legend will be downhearted for some, so gentle warning is
instructed, as this is the case as became in Mononoke
that, because the fact and motive in the help of the demon is printed, it entails showing up the
wrongs of human beings, alongside this explicitly coping with how americans lie,
forget particulars or investigate cross-take a look at it in a definite standpoint. Michiko Yokote became the screenwriter for this legend, and while
a pair of writers all contributed objective work to Mononoke, Chiaki J. Konaka,
this is a gargantuan time, with the virtues she shows right here, to praise Yokote. She just isn’t any longer any individual I’ve
commonly encountered, but I am attentive to her, while no longer the most handy screenwriting
contributor, for sequence composition, the person hanging everything narratively
together, for Princess Tutu (2002-3),
an distinctive and uncommon delusion myth about around ballet and fairy tales
that, yet again with Konaka getting mercurial
involved, became a meta-text on fairy tales which became also a resplendent gem. Right here,
coping with an extremely umcomfortable subject exceptionally on the center of
this myth, the most handy no longer tailored from any other source, I leer any other example of
her talent.

And that’s staunch as a warning for
any individual hobby. [Major Spoiler Warning]
The motive in the help of the bekeneko right here is that the samurai patriarch kidnapped a
girl, saved her in a cage as a sexual object, a peasant girl who became raped,
crushed and left to starve to death, which is as grim a story point to, too
steady for some, to rob into myth. [Major
Spoiler Warning]. All three tales to their virtue, but namely Bekeneko, camouflage why I came to love these
build of terror anime about folklore and figures like the Medications Vendor,
stepping in to web to the bottom of supernatural entities, as they was morality tales and
dramas with one-off characters, examinations of human beings which the Bekeneko pulls no punches in. Among
them, for its creative improvements, and how impactful the story in its
centre is, clearly Bakeneko is the masterpiece
of the total self-discipline, despite the indisputable truth that it is far to the credit of the three tales altogether
that all of them succeed.

====

1) Discotek Media’s announcement of Ayakashi:
Samurai Apprehension Tales, dated on Fb
on August Thirteenth 2019.

2) Digimon
Tamers Creator Chiaki J. Konaka Responds to Abroad Backlash Over Twentieth
Anniversary Stage Play, written by Kim
Morrissy for Anime Knowledge Network,
dated August ninth 2021.