This is the face I have when I go “recruit” more lolis.”

A singing yokai with a metalic voice, a fox-faced historical character and an androgynal looking mysterious guys. Amatsuki really is as diverse as New York in rush hour….Or as #Animeblogger at Friday nights.

Episode Summary

Shamon warns Toki that he will have a visitor, and tells him to go out for a while. As he stepped out to the streets, a middle-aged lady and a young girl is trying to flirt with Toki, bringing him food. Toki’s easy personality makes them extremely happy, as he charms the two ladies by saying that such beautiful food will be wasted if it is not shared with everyone. Kon and Heihachi are grumbling over Toki’s attractiveness toward the ladies.

Toki’s attention is attracted toward a small figure who starts to sing a song about the “Shoten Doji”. It sings about an ogre and refers to Toki. It continues and calls Toki an abandoned child. The chase of the monster leads Toki back to Shamon’s temple, as he meets Sasaki. Sasaki seems to be here regarding the three samurai, and also to chat. His brothers are in charge of the political scene, the shadow world and him the mysterious world of the monsters.

Toki is trying to think about whether he has any success trying to convince Sasaki about the samurai incident. Kon warns him that outsiders like them have no chance of winning. Strangely, Toki freaks out and tells Sasaki the truth. However, Sasaki did not truly punish him but simply asks Toki to take care of his two children.

A few days later, he is asked to follow Sasaki in a carriage. Kuchina and Kon follows Toki, despite quarreling along the way. They make some excuse about preventing Toki from fouling up. Toki thought that they are asked by Shamon to follow, as they realize they could use that excuse. Along the way, they passed by a spirit road. Kuchina urges Toki to follow closely, if not he will never get out alive. At a T-junction, the carriage suddenly splits into three. However, Toki sees a feather and runs off in the direction as Kuchina and Kon closely followed.

Thoughts

The more I see, the more I get excited about Amatsuki. The anime is keeping a great job on animating all the small details that made the manga interesting, and the same happens with this episode. The first detail I should mention is the Shuten Douji song the small Yokai was singing.

To be short, he compares Toki refers to Momotarou and Minamoto Raikou (also known as Minamoto-no-Yorimitsu), both very famous demon slayers, but he also compares Toki to Shuten Douji, a very vicious Oni who Raikou has slayed. The manga scans also refer Shuten Douji as a abandoned child, although I can’t find any source that confirms it. Is the yokai hinting that Toki is both a hero and a demon?

But there is more to the song; he also refers to the kind of connection between Toki and his parents. It seems that he hates his father but has a strong attachment to his mother. Now what kind of attachment is that to be called a demon by the yokai?

Other detail to be mentioned is the introduction of Sasaki Tadajirou. While he is fairly unkwown, to the point I don’t even know if he really existed, his brothers are more famous, specially Sasaki Tadasaburou. He is one of the suspects of killing Sakamoto Ryoma, a important character of Japan’s history. (he was a anti-shogunate nationalist with progressive thinking and father of the modern Japanese Navy)

The last detail I will mention is Bonten, which appears inside the hole that Toki fell by the end of the episode. This individual who we had of him in the previous episode will be a fulcral point of the plot and will reveal that he knows a lot of what happened with Toki and the origins of the world they are living.

….. I swear that I’ve intended to post this ep review sooner, but a tragic thing happened…I have a new Nintendo Ds. Finally I was able to put it down and write this episode post, which reveal us more details about Toki and Kuchiha’s personalities. We could say this is the episode that really grabs hold of the viewers to see the rest of the season.

Episode summary

Kuchina brought Toki to the monk Shamon, who is a rather eccentric character. He does not have a way to bring Toki back to his world, but states that he will do anything to help him. He says that there is still a chance to catch the two monsters to understand more of the situation. However, they are rare and do not appear often. Kon is also shocked at Toki’s calmness.

A few samurai came to the temple and insulted Kuchina. Toki appears and tries to help her. However, he only makes things worse until Kuchina shows her inuki possession. The samurais are scared, and Kuchina blames Toki for trying to save her. She told Toki that he is 10 years too early to try and help her. At night, Toki discusses with Kon about punishing the samurai. Kon also meets up with Heihachi to discuss on their plan.

At night, one of the samurais is eating at a noodle place. He suddenly sees two animal spirits who are able to summon fire, scaring him witless. It is actually Heihachi and Toki in disguise, and the fire is summoned by using potato starch with an a wine spirit so that it does not burn. Later, the samurai comes to confront Shamon and is chased away easily when Shamon mentions about his “connections”. Despite Toki’s recklessness, Kuchina thanks him for his help.

Thoughts

Considering this episode and the first one, the trend seems to be 2 manga chapters per episode, which covers the currently released chapters nicely, along with a decent cliffhanger. About the episode itself, it was nice to see that they are adapting so well the manga plot. The studios even held back a scene about Toki’s eye which is best to be revealed later that the original timeline. Also, the scene with Kuchiha was altered; in the manga, Kuchiha comes to the rescue of Toki, which had knocked down the samurai’s by accident. I kinda prefer the manga version, since it depicts a more powerless Toki. Nevertheless, the result is the same. And I’ve melted with the sight ot Kuchiha’s moe face when Shamon was petting her…

It’s been a while since we had a Edo related anime, but Amatsuki is more than that. Being part of the list of mangas that I faithful read, the anime adaptation of Amatsuki was eagerly expected by me. Between the mix of sci-fi, slice of life, Edo time, yokai and psychological genre, what’s the final score for this first episode?

Episode summary

In class, a boy named Tokidoki wonders about an alternate world and the current world, as he sees a blond figure walking out of school. Due to his poor grades, Toki is required to do a report on a theme park about the Edo era. Through the special googles, he can see CG images of the Edo era. Kon, the blond student, is here as well and informs Toki that his kimono is worn wrongly. Toki is surprised how Kon knows so much about kimonos, and asks Kon to walk with him since they both did badly. Kon says that he is here as a punishment due to attendance. Toki proudly proclaims he scores 5 points in the exam.

Toki begs Kon for help in his report, and asks about a bright spot on the ceiling. Kon answers that it is the position of the sun. Toki also wonders about danger with samurais, but Kon says samurais are not dangerous as they have a ethic code. During the Edo era, diseases, fire and natural disasters are more scary. There are also monsters and gods that people fear. Toki says that such things do not exist, but Kon says that no one cannot be sure of things you cannot see.

Just when Toki wants to ask more, Kon disappears. Toki tries to ask for directions from an old man, but it’s just a CG. An actor informs him to use the ceiling to find his direction. He reaches a bridge, but meets a miniature man on a monster at the center of the bridge. He thinks that it is just an “event” but the lion-like monster attacks him. He is nearly killed, only for a katana-wielding girl to save him. He realizes that he is somehow not in the virtual world, as the bridge crumbles. He faints while drowning in the water

Toki dreams about the same miniature man asking him about virtual and reality, and adds that the five senses are merely transmitted by weak brain waves that are controlled by the frail brain. When he wakes up, he finds himself lying in a room. He is told that he is now in the Edo era by Kon. Toki is surprised about the hair change of Kon. Kon says that to Toki, their meeting happens recently, but Kon is here for already two years. As an old female doctor comes in, he realizes that his left eye has lost its sight. He is told by the female doctor to find a monk for help.

Toki does not seem to be too troubled, considering this to be a vacation. Kon says that his right hand is taken away by the same monster that assaulted Toki. Kon adds that he only recovers after one month, and gets training from the old lady. Kon reminds him about the 250 years of peace in the Edo era until the foreigners came in with guns blazing. He says the current situation is similar to the history books, except for the existence of monsters. Kon takes one of the monster leeching on someone’s box and explains.

It seems that the monster is someone’s tool for a living. The man attacks Kon, only to be downed easily. Kuchiha then attacks him from behind, stomping on him while apologizing to the man. Kuchiha brings Toki along, and realizes that Toki is different. However, she seems to take offence at Toki’s almost non-chalant and happy-go-lucky attitude toward life. She adds that even though she is annoyed at Kon’s antics, Toki’s attitude angers her. Kon explains that he hit her weak spot, and warns Toki not to ask further about the darkness in Kuchiha’s heart. Toki, in his mind, realizes the challenges to conform and fit in this place.

Audio

The OP is “Casting Dice” by Yuuki Kanno, a very light song adequate for the kind of anime this is. The soundtrack during the anime relies on piano and violin arrangements and as far as I can tell, there isn’t character songs yet. But Amatsuki has his strenght in another place: the seiyuus. Just mentioning the main characters , we have Jun Fukuyama (Lelouc in Code Geass, Watanuki in xxxHOLiC) voicing Toki, Koji Yusa (Ichimaru Gin in Bleach) voicing Kon Shinonome and Romi Paku (Edward Elric in Full Metal Alchemist) doing Kuchiha. I’m specially surprised with Paku’s perfomance, since I’m more used to her perfomances as male characters; Paku’s delivers the needed touch of toughness that Kuchiha conveys.

Animation

I don’t have many complaints on this matter: Amatsuki is inside the normal standards of quality these days, although the color palette seems to be a bit too pale for my taste, giving it a older style look (or maybe my Raw quality just plain sucks…). the conversion from manga to anime was well made and they’ve kept some of the manga unique style details in it, so anyone who’ve read the manga will recognize it instantly.

The oddest thing is the OP animation: while it isn’t something we could call bad, the scene sequence is a bit too forced for my taste. I would have appreciated something with more character individual focus and less of an attempt of a summary of the anime.

Vibe

I am extremely biased about Amatsuki, since I’ve read it since the release of chapter 1, but even with that handicap, I think I can say this first episode will convert alot of folks who thought this was “just another Edo anime”. The first ep looks like a modern version of Fushigi Yuugi, but that only is true for the premisse. The unusual elements like the slight inclusion of futuristic technology and yokais makes a nice clash between the past and the future.

Final thoughts

The first episode already raises several questions which will be the focus of Amatsuki main plot. How Toki and Kon were translocated from a virtual reality Edo to the real past? Why there is a 2 year discrepancy between Kon and Toki’s arrival? What is the role of the Nue and why did he stole “parts” of their bodies? It will be interesting to see if they will keep with the manga plot (which means there will be a second season) or if they will try to answer these questions and many more in the 13 episodes this anime will last. Either way, I’m excited by the overall good performance of episode one.