Death’s Notes and Thoughts

The Yomota family is small and typical: father Kinekuni (42), mother Tamiko (38), and son Inumaru (17). One day, a beautiful girl appears at their front door, calling herself “Maroko Yomota,” granddaughter of Inumaru who travels back in time with a time machine to visit her ancestors. Even with Tamiko’s strong objection, Kinekuni and Inumaru welcome her to stay with them, and the structure of a happy family has begun to collapse. [coming from AnimeNewsNetwork] Well, where should I begin? It’s a really weird anime. The motivation to watch this OVA at first was that it features Kenji Kawaii aswell as Mamoru Oshii, both are people that brought us numerous great animes including Ghost In The Shell, Patlabor, Avalon, and more… But after the first episode it got me and I because curious how it goes on. Before it was looking really weird and I was kinda unsure but it dragged me into its world. It begins with that weird time machine storyline and then later envolve into some kind of family drama where the family falls apart. But later on as if this move was just to confuse the viewer they let the family merge again and live on until a point where Maruko vanish again. Its not done at that point and still goes on for a bit. So far I understand it as parody of some sort spice with some hints to think about the concept of family and bloodrelations that gets served with a drop randomness. I definitly think I have to watch this one serveral times to fully get it or at least get a further idea about the intent of the creator. Also intresting was the way they made it up, hence the title of the entry. They made it up like a theater piece, a piece with just a handful of actors. It’s not that much present in the first episode but later on it gets more clear, when u have scenes in a very theater like manner with spotlight on a character and the others around in the dark (or complete not visible). Also u have that songs inserts made up in a funny and sometimes dramatic made up, which also remind me much on a theater. Another fact the viewer might figure is that the characters seems to have “joints”, not fully drawn out but indicated as if they’re puppets. It gives an additional intresting feeling to the whole thing which develops pretty hasty but gains from the speed and the confusion it sometimes causes. Also people who knows Kenji Kawaii’s works from other animes can hear out very nice his “flavor” out of the background music pieces, it was something I noted with joy as I personally like Kenji Kawaii’s works very much, and this one is definitly a one of his. I probably stated this earlier but he has this great ability to deepen the mood the scene bring with his music and to give it a unique touch I dont find in other animes/movies/series. I wouldn’t go too much in the story and the chars as the description gave u a fair idea of them and to go into the story may spoil it. Also anothe r reason is to me that I’m not sure yet to have it fully understood, but if you like a animes that is a bit different with an intresting fully setup this is one for you. Also I was wondering alone with a friend (Marcus), if they got payed for the constant advertising of Coca Cola, since u have in every single episode multiple appearances of Cola cans, sign and other stuff. Also one can note other big brands. I think after all its meant as some parody on them, but I’m not entirly sure. Maybe it is just that we’re very used to them obfuscate the brands, like making McWonalds out of McDonalds or Risa out of Visa (through one still can figure the original most the times when its international stuff). Kinda reminds me on Black Lagoon, where they changed Heineken (a beer brand) to Heireken, but kept the original can design and all^^. Anyway, enough of those memorys, if u liked my description of it, or found it at least intresting, pay Frostii a visit and grab your copy to watch it. Just keep in mind that u should watch it when u have time so u can think about it afterwards.

Opening

Source: YouTube

I was lucky to find this one, the rest of the “videos” on tube just consists of the music from the individual episodes.

-Death