Completed Series: Hyouge Mono

[catystorm]

Series: Hyouge Mono (へうげもの)
Episodes: 39
Year: 2011
Animation Production:  Bee Train, NHK, Sogo Vision

Official Summary:  The story is set during Japan's Sengoku Jidai (Era of the Warring States) and centers on Furuta Sasuke, a vassal of the great warlord Oda Nobunaga and a man obsessed with tea ceremony and material desires in his pursuit of a fortuitous life. Having learned from Oda and the legendary tea master Sen no Soueki, Furuta walks the way of the Hyouge Mono. ( - MAL )  

Catie's Thoughts: This series is, hm. Interesting. It's not a typical anime, shonen affair. It's a very political show, heavily entrenched in samurai feudalism and aesthetic sense. Wabisabi is the name of the game, the pursuit of the imperfect, the flawed and the transient.

I honestly don't know what to think of this show. It is slow-moving, occasionally ridiculous, but at the same time it feels far more realistic than not. In fact, it's fairly easy to see this as a J-drama instead of an anime. The series is framed by tea ceremony, by the political games of the daimyo, and of course the pursuit of wabisabi. What's really interesting to see is Japanese society at large here, the mark of how bushi and aesthete could be rolled into the same package, the interactions of the difference classes and the very strict social cues observed at all times.

I think, overall, I enjoyed it. It was certainly different, and in a good sense.

Would I buy it? I honestly doubt it would ever get licensed in the first place, it is such a niche show in a niche genre. But I don't think I would mind having it on my shelf, even if I don't know I would sit through it again. It is certainly an acquired taste.