Naoko Yamada Spotlight: Heikemonogatari
Special edition of the Anime Spotlight series in the backdrop of upcoming release of "The Colors Within" movie!
This is the last of a five part series of retrospectives looking at anime industry legend Naoko Yamada's directorial career, in the lead-up to the Indian theatrical release of her latest work The Colours Within.
There comes a point in every person’s life where one starts to wonder about the end. The end of this paragraph, the end of this post, the end of the Naoko Yamada retrospective, the end of my current job, the end of my life — always inviting feelings of melancholy, dissatisfaction, and terror. The opening lines of Heikemonogatari embody this absolute truth:
“The sound of the Gion shōja bells echoes the impermanence of all things”
The shadow of the Kyoto Animation arson attack looms heavily on the industry. The loss of several talents — veterans and youngsters alike — led to the end of an era for KyoAni. Naoko Yamada has mentioned on several occasions that she had no intention of ever leaving the studio. Still, there’s no overstating the blow this dealt to her given this was the only studio she ever knew. The kind of blow that would make one want to start afresh. At the time, I found the thought of Yamada working at a Science Saru laughable. The upstart studio was fresh off the heels of producing Keep your Hands off Eizouken!, Masaaki Yuasa’s latest gem with a decidedly different directorial vision to that of Yamada, who prefers delicate character work compared with the former’s love for representing the subtleties of a work using striking visuals.
Heike marks Yamada’s return to TV anime after a string of movies and showcases her experience. I would describe Yamada as a master of capturing the fleeting moments of life, and while most of her earlier work is characterized by looking ahead on the journey from adolescence to adulthood, this has a much more sordid tone, tinged with the nostalgic longing for the past. Her voice is confident and clear not only in the work’s visuals but its perspective; tackling a story so entrenched in tragedy given the circumstances demonstrates an inseparable connection between art and artist, as heartbreaking as it is inspiring.
Heikemonogatari speaks about the most universal of all human experiences — suffering. Given the complexities of life and the relationships we’ve built, the transience of it all can be hard to grapple with. However, in grief, we come closest to death. Through Biwa, a character not present in the original work, we experience the story through the eyes of an observer. We attempt to deal with the powerlessness and anger felt when experiencing the tragic tale unfold.
Despite the downer beginning I just wrote, Heikemonogatari does not fall into the same trap as some of its contemporaries. Throughout the viewing experience, there permeates a single theme across the show: one of hope, faith, and life. The survivors carry on the grief and dreams of those not as fortunate through memory and story. The work perfectly demonstrates the oft repeated parable: the beauty of life lies in its impermanence. It caused me to re-examine the grief I experienced and look at it in a more positive light. The person I am today is a factor of both the positive and negative experiences that formed my past. The people I’ve lost along the way live within me in spirit.
Heikemonogatari isn't an easy watch, owing to the fact it is an 11-episode adaption of a very long epic. Kensuke Ushio, the show’s composer, joked that even Japanese viewers familiar with the source material would need Wikipedia to keep their understanding of the characters and conflicts straight. But if you put in the work, you will find a representation of the human experience that will stick with you for a long, long time.
— HKS
Japanese Name: 平家物語 (Heikemonogatari, The Heike Story)
Length: 11 Episodes
Year: 2021
Studio: Science SARU
Screenplay: Reiko Yoshida
Music: Kensuke Ushio
Director: Naoko Yamada (Episodes 1, 4 and 11)
Adapted from: Hideo Furukawa's 2016 translation into modern Japanese of The Tale of the Heike
Today's Question
The opening stanzas of the original Heike Monogatari reference the flower of a tree with religious significance to Buddhists and Hindus. However, the true identity of this tree has been obscured by impostors mistaken for it, with two of these impostors pictured here in scenes from the anime. Which tree are we talking about?
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