Kemono no Souja Erin – 5/6/7/8 – Throwback Thursday

Welcome all, to week 2 of Kemono no Souja Erin! This week is the conclusion to what I view as our “prologue”. We’ve got mystery, tragedy, and mediocre comedy! Lots to talk about this week so lets dive in!

So before we get to far into it I want to talk about the music. 8 episodes is enough to get a feel for that I think. Composed by Masayuki Sakamoto, Erin’s OST is really interesting to me. Most of the time it doesn’t have much going on, it’s very much in the background and doesn’t announce its presence. But every now and then it switches to these folksy insert songs, from childhood lullabies like “Lalalila Lalila” to these more emotional, family oriented songs I have yet to find the name for. While the core stuff doesn’t wow me, these are really good! And every time they come up they leave an emotional impact I wasn’t expecting, really accentuating a scene. They aren’t meant to be diegetic, as Soyon is still talking to Erin over the song. Yet they feel diegetic, and that gives them this extra unexpected weight.

Moving on to the episodes, first up is episode 5 “Erin and the Egg Thieves”. This one sees us leave the town, start to expand out view beyond its borders and learn a bit more about the ecology of Touda. And while the name may imply some manner of threat, some kind of danger, it was really a rather chill episode all things considered. Most of it was spent learning about Wild Touda, how they lay their eggs, the best time to steal them, why they can’t be bred in captivity, etc. Erin used it to further expand our understanding of the world, to prepare us for when Erin inevitably leaves the village (SoonTm). And ultimately, I think it succeeded. This was a solid follow up that built on what Erin did during the 1st week of our watch.

Getting into specifics, there were 2 things I really liked about this episode. The first was Soyon’s explanation for why they steal wild eggs rather then simply breed their own. This idea that animals in captivity, especially large predators, become weaker is really interesting to me. Sure, their bodies become stronger. Kiba have tougher scales, large bodies, stronger bones, they become better war machines, exactly as humans want. But they also seem to become more fragile in a lot of ways. They become more susceptible to disease, requiring the beneotropic water and special rubs to keep them clean and healthy. They seem easier to set off, more aggressive, weakening mentally under their training for war. It’s all just a really cool look into the more concerning side of animal husbandry, and shows that while Soyon has accepted this as her reality she still doesn’t fully agree with it.

The bit I really liked was Erin’s continual development of Erin’s, god I need a new name for the show, view of beasts. Initially presented as being the perfect fit for a Beastinarian because of her love for the Touda, she’s quickly being shown to be to caring. That she loves animals to much. That she’s actually a terrible fit because, as Soyon puts it, Beastinarian’s don’t exist for the sake of the animal but for the humans who live with them. Their job isn’t to make the animals lives better, to love and care for them, to make them happy. It’s to use them to their utmost, to wring them dry until they have nothing left to give the community. It’s a much harsher, crueler job then initially presented as. And I think that’s a really awesome progression for Erin to make as it transitions out of the prologue.

Finally I want to take a short moment to talk about the egg thieves. This guys… really didn’t do much. More incompetent and useless then a child, they really just exist to show Erin’s skill in solving problems and to set them up as amusing party members down the line. There’s some Abbot and Costello style comedy going on between them which is alright. But this really feels more like a setup for them to reappear in the future and pay off a debt of gratitude towards Erin then as anything necessary for the episode itself. For now I’ll withhold judgement until we get deeper into the show, wait until we see how Erin uses them. As far as initial impressions go? They aren’t my favorite side characters.

Next up we come to episode 6, “Soyon’s Warmth”. This is the beginning of the end people, where shit starts to hit the fan. The Kiba, the greatest war Touda the Duke has, all died under mysterious circumstances. Murder or negligence, the punishment is the same: Death. And the one responsible for watching over and caring for the Kiba? Soyon. Overall this was pretty great. Erin laid it on a bit thick over the course of the episode, so much so that I half expected it to be a red herring and for Soyon to survive. She taught Erin to cook a meal to remember her by, told her about their people, and basically put up every death flag you can get. But no, by the end of the episode the Inspector comes for her, tears her from her home and sentences her to death. And that… kinda surprised me.

Not in a negative way, I think it’s really cool how Erin is turning this into an “Erin vs The Kingdom” sort of conflict. Where the growing corruption within the Queen’s court is starting to hurt the populace, probably culminating in a coup attempt by the clearly evil Damiya. Plus there were a lot of small moments throughout the episode that really added to it, like Soyon burning her whistle and telling Erin that she too was tired of how they had to treat the Touda. Or the Touda funeral cry, or even Wadan the asshole who I half suspected of being responsible and poisoning the Touda himself seeming to regret what is coming for Soyon. Overall it was just really nice that Erin focused more on Soyon’s relationship with Erin then it did the mystery of the poisoned Touda, knowing it come back to that in the future.

Beyond that, Erin also dropped a fair amount of lore about the Mist People this week. About how the Arryo, reading “Mist People”, isn’t actually their name but a bastardization of it. Their real name is the Aowrow, don’t ask me to pronounce that, and it means “Precedent Keepers”. A name chosen to ensure they remember the mistakes of the past, to ensure they never face extinction nor servitude to the Queen/Duke again. This is fucking cool. I love the amount of detail Erin continues to heap into it’s world, slowly expanding through cultural misunderstandings or language barriers. It’s something that happens in real life to, which helps make this world feel that much more authentic. It also introduces another secret for Erin to learn, another plot point for Erin to explore in the remaining… 42 freaking episodes. Good shit.

Finally I want to return to the final family moments of the episode. I said it before but I’ll say it again here, this was just cute. Soyon teaching Erin how to cook a dish to remember her by, taking a bath together, passing on the bracelet. Even the way the bracelet is to big for Erin’s wrist, showing she will have to grow into it as a measurable form of growth, was nice. It made for a very poignant end to the episode, really wrapping up their relationship and allowing the next one to dive right in to the actual fallout of what was happening. No split attention, no trying to balance a mystery on top of the family moments. Just focus on one, knock it out, move on.

This brings me to episode 7, “Mother’s Whistle”. They did it y’all. They killed Soyon. And it was absolutely brutal. Not in a bloody, gory way. More just the circumstances around it and how Erin was made to watch. Feeding her alive to wild Touda after ringing them away early in the morning. Preparing to shoot Erin with an arrow before deciding she was already doomed. The Chief saying maybe this is for the best so Erin doesn’t have to live without her mother, with the knowledge everyone let her die. Even the Mist Person, Nassan we later learn, was present and watching. I’m just really impressed with how much gravity Erin managed to give to this scene, though part of that was no doubt due to how good the previous episode was.

One thing in particular that surprised me though was just how shaken Wadan was. I mentioned it before, but he was surprisingly regretful about it all. This is the guy who’s been giving Soyon shit for like 6 episodes. Hell I half suspected he was the one to poison the Kiba, trying to get Soyon in trouble. But over the course of her execution and the walk out? He seemed legitimately troubled. Now maybe he still did poison them and he just started having regrets, something he will have to live with. That or maybe Soyon herself did it after being fed up with the Duke using them for war. I don’t know. But either way he clearly took this hard and I’m really hoping this comes back in the future. Maybe he meets Erin, all grown up, and tries to help her to set things right. Who knows.

Beyond that we also learned of a super secret power, something only the Mist People apparently know how to do: Finger Whistle. Ok I joke, but it’s a specific kind of finger whistling. Something called a “Renditioner” skill. My initial impression was that she was whistling to petrify them, not unlike the whistle used by the Beastinarians. But when watching it back it seems more like she’s… communicating with them? Whistling in their language? It’s possible that the Touda react to different pitches different ways, with the Beastinarian’s whistles being tuned specifically to petrify. This could also be the source of the “Spells” the Mist People are said to be able to cast. The question is though, are these skills specific to the Touda? Or do they have more, pertaining to other, stronger/more mystical animals? Only time will tell, but I think it’s pretty cool.

Finally I want to talk about Nassan. This was the Mist Person watching Soyon’s execution and, I suspect, the one who traded the medicine for the hairpin a few episodes back. Based on his reaction, he knew Soyon. Like on a personal level. Was he her brother? An extended family member perhaps? Or is it just one of those “Mist People stick together” sort of things? Whatever the case, he still seemed to have a lot of respect for Soyon despite her apparently having been exiled from the clan. Is it possible she was on better terms with them then she implied? I don’t know, and this is just another thing I’m really curious about. I suspect we will get an answer when Nassan inevitably finds Erin and takes her in. Regardless though, I found this to be a great episode.

Last up we have episode 8, “Jone the Honey Man”. This was a really slow, but really necessary, sort of cool-down episode. It exists to give Erin time to come to terms with what happened to her mother, to recover. And in that sense I found it to be alright. Not super exciting, but that’s fine. We need to relax a bit. Sadly the way Erin chooses to relax might not be for me. Simply put, I couldn’t stand Jone’s fart jokes. I get it, it’s disarming and down to earth, it helped Erin relax. But it’s just not my kind of humor. I don’t find it funny, I don’t think it’s clever, it’s just a crude joke they think they can slam into any scene because it’s sudden and something everyone does. Aside from that though? He’s not bad.

My issues with humor aside, I do think Jone is a fitting character for Erin. He’s a man so loving and caring that he regretted even pulling the stinger out of a few bees to treat Erin’s wounds. Sounds like the perfect kind of guy to help Erin get better and teach her a bit more about caring for other creatures. What really makes him interesting to me though is how apparently different his culture is to hers. He has weird bread instead of rice, along with honey and milk to eat it with. Just how far did Erin wash down the river? Is this a completely different country, perhaps the one the Queen is at war with? Or is that just how culturally different the Touda villages are to everyone else’s? I don’t know, but I really hope we get some answers to some of those.

So with that all out of the way the question then becomes: Where do we go from here? Is Erin going to spend a few years with Jone, growing up and living a new life before setting out on her own as an adult? Or will Nassan find her quickly and take her to live with the Mist People? Either one could be interesting, I have faith in Erin’s ability to make it’s slowly expanding world interesting as Erin learns to care for bees. And it’s not like nothing would happen, it has this slowly building background plot with Damiya winning over the younger son Nugan for some kind of probable coup. It’s more a question of which direction Erin wants to take and how much time it wants to spend before Erin becomes a proactive actor in her story.

All in all though I think this was another good week for Erin. While I love learning about the world, Erin does a fantastic job of building it out, I’m glad some kind of momentous event happened. Something to change the status quo. While it may not feel like a long time since it’s only 2 weeks, 8 episodes should be plenty of time for any show to really get itself started. Had Erin meandered through these 4 episodes I would have started to wonder if it really needed all 50 for the story it’s trying to tell. Instead this week it dropped hook after hook, lore bomb after lore bomb on us, until we had so many hooks I’m actually not sure it will be able to get to them all satisfactorily. While a small problem sure, it’s a good problem to have. And if Erin can pull it off? Then it’s going to be awesome!