Hyouge Mono is by far the most unorthodox show of the season. It does just about everything that you shouldn’t do to get some commercial insurance: it’s full of old guys, there is hardly any moe, and you can’t really call the characters bishies either. There is no action as well, despite this being a series about feudal warfare, and the dialogue is the hardest to understand of the entire season as well.
It’s still a huge shame that receives so little attention, though. No subs whatsoever. Heck, I haven’t even able to find any decent raws of this second episode.And that even though this show has some of the best characterizations of the season, the best soundtrack of the season, and the best lead character of the season. Seriously, if there’s any show that deserves to be watched, it’s this one, for taking so many risks.
What’s also funny is that in a medium as anime that has heaps of moe and fanservice, the actual concept of sex hardly ever gets used, and when it does you often get outright porn like with Yosuga no Sora. Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi looked to be the first example in years to actually do this even remotely well. And here this series suddenly comes, with no fanservice whatsoever, and from out of nowhere we see the main character have sex with his wife. This show really continues to surprise me.
Also, that lead character is just amazing. This guy is completely out there: on one hand he is supposed to be this level-headed army commander, but on the other he is obsessed over tea and tea bowls. His inner monologues are all just wonderful, and especially his voice actor is amazing. Plus, this show has some unique facial expressions. I mean, anime is already known for its over exaggeration of faces, but this… I don’t think have ever seen facial expressions like this in series here.
If you’d see screenshots of these expressions, you’d probably think that they look incredibly silly, and yet for some strange reason, they do an amazing job of giving the lead character his unique personality. The acting here does not aim to be as outrageous as possible; in fact, all of the expressions here are weird, but all have some restraint to them, like the main character biting his lip, or looking really surprised while trying hold himself in at the same time.
Oh, and obviously, the music is just amazing here, leading to a wonderful atmosphere. Especially at that scene where the main character actually nearly cut off the head of his wife in order to get what he wanted was wonderfully done.
I mean, this season has a LOT of good stuff here. And still, Hyouge Mono stands out by being so damn unique. It has this completely unique feeling thanks to combining feudal warfare with such an obsessive and unique lead character, along with Bee-Train’s usual style. Heck, they actually moved away from all of their usual formulas here. This doesn’t even feel similar to Blade of the Immortal: that really was dedicated to very stylish action and a cool level headed protagonist. This… is completely different aside from being set around the same time.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
Why can’t we get subs of this :'(
Sigh…some shows get five subbers alone and this get overlooked. It is a shame.
Damn, I hope we get some subs for this.
So… it has hard dialogue, no action, no pretty people… yeah.. a REAL must-watch…
Dmonhiro: well, I happen to really like those kinds of series. 😉
I’d be all over this if there were subs…
Real shame that there’s no subs for this yet. This was one of my most anticipated shows alongside the two noitaminA and HanaIro.
I so wanna watch this. Someone really needs to sub Hyouge Mono! It’s awesome of you to blog it :), this is basically the only anime blog talking about it (apart from tsuki from emory who didn’t like ep1).
You want subs for anime that actually seems to be based on something more complicated than teenager’s panties? Forget. Or wait some years for miracle. How long and how many fansubbers it took to sub “Les Miserables”? Matsumoto’s and Tezuka’s works still are out of reach. Lack good will or skills?
Damn, I have to watch this now, but since there aren’t any subs I am out of luck it seems. 🙁
Who has done the OST for this, btw?
@PocariSweat
What are the 2 noitamina this season? I hardly ever watch much other anime these days…
@signorRossi
1. C – The Money of Soul and Possibility Control
2. Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai (commonly known as “AnoHana”
No subs, as I had feared ;_;. This was my most anticipated anime of the season, the scanlated manga chapters were very good (and it seems the pace is 1 episode/2 chapter so far, the intimate marital scene happened in chapter #2 if I remember correctly. The story chapters are quite meaty and long as well… there should be enough material for the animated series 🙂 ) .
Thanks PocariSweat!
@pgsels: Not what I meant. It’s just funny reading “it’s got no action, pretty people, etc”, right before “it’s a must watch”
This has been on my PtW ever since I saw it on the season chart, was disappointed that nobody subbed it. Still harboring hopes though, many animes got their subs delayed by 2 – 3 days. Sure, it’s been more than a week since then, but my anime-attained knowledge of Japanese is barely enough to understand half of the dialogue in simpler shonens, I dare not even try to watch a raw of this magnitude.
I’m also a Tea Otaku myself so this show is like a heavenly blessing for me! I rolled off my chair when Furata (do I get the name right?) drooled over a chawan…I do it from time to time…
Haha, thanks to Shogun 2 Total War I caught and understood “nanban”!
But in all serious I do hope this gets subbed. Perhaps a new subbing group is in order… one that subs only the most obscure, yet excellent animes called… Psgels subs?
The first episode also isn’t subbed yet? That sucks.. I’m curious about this one.
A group called Huzzah is subbing this anime in English. The way I got their torrent was to go to Rizon on IRC and they have the tracker for the torrent listed in their channel #huzzah.
Torrent and streams out. Huzzah is the subber. Just google for it.
So much props if English subbers can keep at it and finish all episodes of this. This show has me in stitches!
*Goes to search for ep 2 Chinese language sub, which always works better for shows set in ancient East Asia, for obvious reasons.*
I’ve seen four episodes subbed. Episode 9 is out Raw. Anyone know when 5 will be subbed?