the anime you aren't watching... but should.

[kaigou]

I don't even know where I first came across a review of this anime -- it might've been on animenewsnetwork -- but out of curiousity for the description, I tracked it down. It's a short series, clocking in at only 12 or 13 episodes, and only 9 have been subbed so far. (There looks to be one group doing it, and they're releasing in batches.)

It's called Senkō no Night Raid, and frankly, by the 7th episode, I was wondering whether the broadcasting news station was picketed the day after the broadcast. No, really. I mean, really.

...err, let me revise that reaction. Turns out episode7 was, according to animenewsnetwork's notation, "streamed exclusively online and in its place, a special recap episode" was aired instead. GEE QUELLE SHOCK. *cough*

Here's the gist, per wiki: "Set in Shanghai in 1931, the Imperial Japanese Army has been dispatched to mainland China due to the relatively recent First Sino-Japanese War, Russo-Japanese War, and World War I. In this cosmopolitan city of intrigue, there is a special military spy organization called "Sakurai Kikan" that has since been buried in history."

Okay, first: Shanghai. 1931. If you're not aware of your Japanese early 20th century history -- and believe me, you WILL BE by the time you get to episode 8 -- the first half of 1931 was leading up to some pretty intense changes in the Asian landscape. In 1928, Japan successfully assassinated Zhang Zuolin, who had been a warlord in Manchuria who'd worked his way up to Governor of the region (simplifying, but basically it's roughly like that: very important guy with troops personally loyal to him). He was also an imperialist, loyal to the Chinese emperor, and had intentions of trying to restore the Qing dynasty.

(When Zuolin was murdered, the Japanese set in his place the puppet emperor of Manchuria, or Manchukuo, which was the dethroned Qing emperor, Pu Yi. The show does reflect what I see in historical summaries, that Pu Yi certainly appeared submissive/agreeable to his Japanese Overlords in public, but struggled against them in private. Getting into the details of his life, though, is a whole 'nother post. Or eighteen. The guy didn't have an easy life, for all that he was supposedly an emperor of heaven.)

Now, in mid-1931, we have the Mukoden incident. A lot of the issues in Manchuria revolved around a set of train tracks (as explained so, uhm, diplomatically in ep7). It benefited the Japanese goals if Manchuria were suffering unrest; by treaty after the Sino-Japanese war and the Russo-Japanese war, Japan had leased Manchuria in much the same way Britain 'leased' Hong Kong. So, if Manchuria were in upheaval, Japan would have reason to come in and take over with a much greater show of force... and the sole train line getting blown to smithereens is certainly a sign of upheaval, eh? ...even if it is the Japanese army that actually did the blowing-up.

[Note: my understanding is that for years the Japanese insisted they were not the perpetrators of the Mukoden incident, despite the general international consensus being otherwise. I'm not sure whether it was also investigated and proven, but setting aside the specific details, to really get the shocker of the first half of this series, keep this in mind: a lot of what you are watching is in direct contradiction to the school history textbooks used in Japan. As in, not just showing Japanese imperial army causing the Mukoden Incident, but also planning it. That's... well, not exactly small potatoes in the folder labeled Controversial Things To Show.] *

As I understand it -- only loosely speaking here, being aware of the controversy but not entirely knowledgeable as it's never been my area -- one of the biggest problems of the post-war era has been Japan's refusal to acknowledge, let alone apologize for, its actions before, during, and after its occupation of various other Asian territories, especially the things it did in pursuit of its Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere... which, from a semi-objective view by dint of distance and history, isn't really so much a co-prosperity thing as, well, a domination thing. CP's comment at one point was that the idea was each Asian nation would be like the upright of a pavilion, all working in tandem. (Except, as I replied, that someone still has to be the roof.)

Anyway, setting aside the fact that a storyline with the general timeframe of "1931" is just about one of the more explosive and critical moments in the 20th century when it comes to acts that have ramifications all the way down the line, Shanghai itself is a pretty amazing setting, anyway. Let's see. By the early '30s, it was the fifth-largest city in the world, had one of the largest Russian populations outside Russia, and had also become refuge for huge numbers of Jews. It was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, financial and trading center in the Far East, with international interests vying for power in its ports, from German to British to American to Japanese to Russian and so on. For all that Hollywood acts like Shanghai was just one crowded smoky nightclub with girls in cheomsangs, it had to have been an absolutely blisteringly modern and cosmopolitan place to be, for its time.

In that sense, the anime doesn't just not disappoint, it really tries hard to reflect this multicultural aspect of Shanghai. The opening dialogue of the very first episode, for instance, and I see subtitles... but I'm thinking, "wait, hold it, I understand what the guy's saying -- and I don't know Japanese!" Then it filtered into my brain at about the same point the voice actor says shhhurrrrrrr and I go OMG BEIJING ACCENT MY EARS.

And to my mix of delight and, uhm, not-so-delight (but some degree, I admit, of impressed-ness) at Hiroyuki Yoshino's mimicry skills. (Noticeably, I should add, he speaks without a Beijing accent, which may seem trivial to anyone not familiar but tickles me to no end, because that actually makes sense...) Although technically, as I understand it, if he were truly speaking Shanghai-inflected dialect of Mandarin, he'd be dropping most or all of his tones, which he doesn't. And his tones are crisp and clear even if it's patently obvious by lack of slurring that he's not a native Chinese speaker, but still, he gets major points for making the effort and for having the skill to inflect emotion even within a tonal language.

So that's the first episode, with several characters speaking Mandarin when it would actually freaking make sense that our Japanese spies would, well, speak Mandarin. (There's a Chinese restaurant owner who allegedly speaks fluent Japanese, so she's one of the few Chinese characters who rattles on in Japanese... probably because it's one thing to do some lines, but another thing to do nearly an entire episode in a language non-native to the majority of viewers.) The second episode involves Russians, so... the characters do speak Russian, but I'm no judge of whether they get it or not -- only that again, lack-of-slurring is the giveaway to non-native-ness, and I got the impression the Russian speaker isn't native, either. Third episode, we're hearing German, as well.

That is, in a multinational international port city like Shanghai, you would hear a variety of languages just walking down the street -- and the crowd voices are in a variety of languages: Japanese, Chinese mostly, but some Russian, some German, some English. Where people would be speaking Mandarin, the characters speak that; where they have privacy to speak Japanese, they do. It's not perfect, sure, but it's pretty amazing to get to see someone recognize and respect this international aspect of historical Shanghai.

There has to be a punchline, though: there are several Chinese names listed in the credits, who I bet are the Beijing-tinted speakers... and there's also one American, who does voices for four or five of the episodes. Again, the producers get credit for this much: during a political meeting amongst several pro-Asia (anti-colonial) activists, the common language used is English. I have no idea whether this would have already been the business language, but okay, sure, so it's English -- and when a character speaks in Chinese, you hear faint in the background someone repeating his words in English, per a translator's job.

They actually took the time and made the effort and included the audio background of a translator. Despite the fact that neither the main person NOR the translator are speaking in a language expected to be understood by the audience! That means the intended audience is hearing two foreign languages at once. That's some major linguistic attention to detail, you ask me.

Over there, we've got a guy from Burma, and here's a guy from Malaysia, and there's a Chinese guy, and a guy from India... and the guy from India speaks with an American accent. Now, ignoring the fact that it was massive cognitive dissonance for me to associate a flat midwestern accent with a character that I could reasonably assume was probably educated under the British system and whose English would therefore probably sound very much like private-school brit... that was blown away by the cringing. Because, honestly, that sole American voice actor in the crew is absolutely hands-down the worst-ever voice actor I have EVER heard in a Japanese drama, BAR NONE and I have heard many many many seiyuu over the past decade or so.

Yes. He really is THAT BAD.

Just think of the absolute worst voice over example you can think of, compounded with an insistence on diction over inflection, and delivered in an anchorman style ("the PLANE came down AT seven pm and THE") where it doesn't make any difference what's being emphasized (or why), only that at regular intervals there's a freaking emphasis whether you like it or not and THEN on top of all that add in someone who really does sound like the goddamn living impersonation of a CONCRETE BLOCK.

On the other hand, I shall never again complain about American voice actors because they may be generally pretty bad... but they are NOT, obviously, the truly EPIC SUCK I had thought they were.

ETA: when I say "that bad", I mean as in "suddenly makes the dub-actress for Kagome from Inuyasha look like freaking Meryl Streep". Hell, the ENTIRE CAST of He-Man rates higher than this guy. I would actually willingly watch an entire episode of the FMA dub -- and make no complaint about the horrendous and butchering job of the two main leads' paltry attempts at coming anywhere within ten miles' hailing distance of the skill of Paku or Kugimiya because those pathetic attempts are STILL miles beyond this guy -- and the tone of that extended left-handed compliment should tell you right there just how much I normally abhor many dubs.

I would even clip and upload a segment for you to hear, but I can't do that to myself. I watched it once, and that was enough of that guy. (And really, it's not like there aren't other voice actors available -- they used native speakers for Eden of the East that did a fine job, so why'd they go with this one guy?) Come on, even if you didn't speak the language, it's got to still be pretty obvious just how omg-the-suck he is.

Unless, of course, it's an attempt to make the Japanese audience feel better... which is possible, given how much the rest of the series seemed determined to take the entirety of Japanese post-war propaganda and shove it down your throat so far the production team will end up with its mitts on your shoelaces. Yes, THAT FAR.

(ETA again: I've tried to rationalize it several times, but I keep failing. I mean, I don't think you'd really need to be native in English to get that the guy makes WOOD sound lively. Rocks can emote more than he does! So, I have no idea. Maybe he's sleeping with someone, or came really cheap, or was a last-minute fill-in or... something. Maybe he put up money for the production costs and in return got to play all english-speaking parts. Uhm. IDEK.)

Getting back to the fist-to-shoelace issue: have a minimal example, in that it feels almost roundabout and circumspect and positively toned-down to me (as someone who wasn't raised with such propaganda, that is). When I rewatched with CP and noted that bit, CP's reply was that sure, it might be toned down, but it's positively incendiary to anyone who was raised with textbooks that completely distort Japan's actual role in pre-war events in the Asian areas.

To explain a bit more about the show to give you context, the series' premise is that this supposedly lost-to-history bunch were all people with paranormal/supernatural powers. Telekinesis, teleportation, remote viewing, telepathy, pre-cognition, and so on. The show's very clear that each of them have limits in some way, so it's not entirely superpowers against humans, plus the characters do try to stay on the down-low since, hello, spies and whatnot. However, the revealed antagonist turns out to be a pre-cog, so his role in the developing conflicts in Manchuria are given especial weight by the series, as being spoken by someone who really can 'see the future'.

So, we have this pre-cog shown explaining his motivation (or some part of them) to a potential ally. Paraphrasing roughly, his reasoning goes like this: Japan is on the brink of a number of very important and crucial moments in its history, and if it makes the wrong choices it will prompt by a devastating war for Asia overall, and near-annihilation of its own people. ...emphasis mine.

Dude.

That's, like, pretty much coming almost all the way out and saying: "from the point of view of someone with hindsight of history -- that is, looking back or being pre-cog to look forward -- the horrific events of the twentieth century that ripped scars into so much of Asia were, in fact, the result of Japan's own bad choices" ... and then yeah, you can see how CP would say that's some pretty incendiary commentary on the part of a freaking science-fiction-noir-espionage thirteen-episode anime.

And that's not even episode 7, which takes the previous episodes and blows them all out of the water. No wonder it didn't get broadcast -- but then, if it had, I suppose the series might've been shut down right then and we'd never find out what happened next.

Still. Worth watching. If nothing else, for both the marvelous history lessons, a delightful chemistry between Hiroyuki Yoshino and Daisuke Namikawa (not to mention some sharp conflicts between them about Japan's role as an Imperial and international military force). And, of course, the jaw-droppingly pointed, even blunt, criticisms of Japan's role as one of the major torch-bearers before the bonfire. For that alone, watch, because this isn't a common thing, though I can't help but wonder what might come of it if the upcoming generations start pushing more for such brutal historical honesty.

Plus, the images of Shanghai are so very very pretty.

* this is not to say that everyone believes everything they read in textbooks. well, let's hope not. I think it goes without saying that access to the internet has played a major role in my generation and younger being exposed to alternate, non-nationalistic points of view, whatever country we're from. And I suspect this external influence may also be the reason a show like Senko no Night Raid was even able to get funding, given its content and context; that is, that it's not quite as controversial now as it might've been, say, twenty years ago. Maybe even only ten years ago.

All the same, textbooks written under heavy political influence probably still should not be allowed to operate heavy machinery or make important legal decisions. I'm just sayin'.

Comments

[billie]

Well, damn. Looks like here's another series I'll have to look at. After Durarara! and Oofuri and several others.

I guess it's a good thing that technically, summer break has started.

[phoebe_zeitgeist]

Wow, thank you. I'm going to have to track this down and watch it, and I would never, ever have even heard of it without your recommendation. I take it there's an easy way to find it?

[(Anonymous)]

Japan's involvement in the war is almost as heavily redacted in US textbooks. Pearl Harbor...Bomb = good way to save lives...the End. That was probably the first time I was aware of a textbook looking edited for content and not for space. If fact, asking classmates what *Japan* thought it was doing at the time is the easiest way I've found to get them to see something was missing in our curriculum.

What really struck me about the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere is that if they'd genuinely cared about a partnership the way they said, they would have very likely had their empire. And an empire that now would have a strangle hold on international manufacturing. They effectively shot themselves in the foot by being as bad or worse than the colonial powers they displaced.

[hollyberries]

It sounds awesome! But I wonder if the people involved in it have effectively ruined their careers? I mean, this sort of thing probably isn't great for the resume...

On the subject of textbooks, the American/Canadian ones almost uniformly ignore Asia when discussing World War II. And a large chunk of the Russian involvement is, I dare say, redacted also. It's mostly, 'We fought, the Americans came swooping in to save our collective asses, nuclear bombs, end."

It's not heinous like the Japanese propaganda effort, but it should be noted.

[kaigou]

As someone mentioned above about the same thing, I'm wondering if that might be related to who our allies are. I mean, yes, as American, in history the "other side" was Germany, Italy, Russia (sometimes), Japan... but now, Germany and Japan are most definitely strong (well, qualified but compared to WWII, certainly strong) allies. In that context, Germany -- which has most definitely made both reparations and apologies and assumed responsibility for what it did -- probably would not, therefore, have an issue with any other country's textbooks that say as much, plainly.

Granted, countries don't necessarily have clout over other countries' textbooks, but that doesn't stop them from trying, like when Japan really pissed off several of its neighbors by totally whitewashing the entirety of its involvement in, and behavior during, its Korean occupation, I think it was. (I think it was connected to basically ignoring completely the atrocities it'd enacted, and presenting it as "Japan liberates Korea" or some such.) And in turn, I seem to recall that at some point in the past fifteen or so years, Japan did complain on the international platform about one of the other countries having a textbook that portrayed Japan as not just the aggressor but deserving everything it got. (Ouch.)

I would not be surprised if the US' Dept of Education's guidelines for history books have gentle nudges towards not being quite so blunt about Japan's involvement... but I'm not really sure. My understanding is that when it comes to textbooks, the US states have a lot of leeway over the content -- frex, Texas' latest nuttery-vote to remove details about Thomas Jefferson from American History textbooks (among other things any average American would figure are kinda, well, basic required American history knowledge). While it's possible that Japan-as-ally exerts some quiet pressure on the contents of textbooks, I doubt it's actually a concerted effort, simply because (at least in the US) textbooks do not originate from a monolithic source.

I suspect, instead, that the continued sparseness (in US textbooks) is more a result of Japan's continued refusal to accept guilt even has it's become a staunch ally -- and (possibly more importantly, seeing how money talks) one of the major economic and financial powers. I wouldn't be surprised if that puts textbook writers in a bind. Do you come right out and, uhm, say: that country was committing atrocities that, well... the massacre at Wounded Knee was horrendous, but it's not even a blip on the radar compared to the earth-shattering scale of Nanjing. But it's okay! They're our friends, now! Even if they've never admitted to what they did or tried to make up for it! (I can see teachers trying to parse that lesson. A laugh a minute, I'm sure.)

But what about your students of Japanese descent? Do you want their classmates to look at them like they come from monsters? It's at least a little easier with Germany -- and Russia, too, at least post-perestroika -- because a textbook can draw a clear line between the "then" (which has been atoned for) and the "now" (the newer generation allowed to be less guilty thanks to former generations accepting that guilt).

And lest we forget, the US also has a murky issue already given that during the history books' chapters about the Pacific Theater, that there's also the US' own actions regarding the Japanese internment camps. I can definitely see some touchy-feely teachers/textbook-authors arguing that it's bad enough to tell Japanese-ancestry (or even Asian-ancestry, in general) that the US would do this to its own immigrant-citizens. Going into what those immigrants' countries of origin were doing might be too much for the poor widdle sensahtuhv school kiddies feeeelings.

Or something.

But it's certainly not as clear-cut on this side of the pond, since AFAIK neither the US nor Canada has monolithic hand-me-down textbooks that come from and are okay'd by a central authority -- and correct me if I'm wrong, but I've never gotten the impression that the US or Canada are a citizenry that would even accept such. So I'm guessing there's a lot more going on that's considerably more complex, in terms of how we present things.

Then again, if we're talking textbooks, I'm just glad whenever I hear an American textbook comes bluntly clean about the atrocities committed upon the indigenous peoples of this land, instead of whitewashing it (literally) into just a paragraph on how 'happy' the Cherokee were to be given land in Oklahoma. Trail of Tears, why, that's just an expression!

*snort*

[(Anonymous)]

Texas as a state are the largest textbook market, so whatever they ask for generally becomes the accepted reality taught throughout the US. No text manufacturer in it for the $$ wants to risk alienating that market. So in this particular case, Capitalism acts more or less the same as a monolithic central authority...which is Texas. And, as a government, Texas is not known for its sensitivity toward non-white students.

I would guess that the actual POV in this case is selfish. Dropping Russia and China from the list of Allies, means we don't have to talk about helping Communists *and* we don't have to talk about the atrocities Japan committed. We also don't have to talk about what the Western Allies were up to that led to the anti-colonial sentiment that gave both the Japanese and the Communists an in.

[(Anonymous)]

Would also like to say I am really pleased with the way Yukina has been portrayed so far (I am as far as trying to find the Special Episode).

Given her character was set up as Sheltered Tragic Heroine, I was pleasantly surprised at how no-nonsense she is and how much her coworkers respect that. I'm thinking specifically of the bomb defusing, and later her reaction to Sakurai excluding her and to Aoi's surprise when it doesn't work.

Again, thanks for the rec. Here's hoping it gets licensed.

[starlady]

Oh, so it's good? I had waffled about it, but if you say it's good I'm there. (Not reading your post atm because it will suck me in and I have to sleep tonight.)

[kaigou]

Fortunately for you, it's a short series -- only 13 episodes. Unfortunately, it may take you an hour to get through ep7 because the fansubbers did the kindness of adding in-story notes about the historical points. I know you're fluent, but you might want to get the english fansub for that reason alone, because the notes of where, what, and who were really valuable. Unless, of course, you know your early 20th cen Japanese history backwards and forwards... which I don't!

[kaigou]

Do a search on tokyotosho.info -- it's already been completely broadcast, and I suspect it may be one of those things where someone fluent said, "this really should be fansubbed, even if it did go by so fast it barely blipped on the fansub radar." So now they're trying to catch up, but at least all the releases are relatively recent, so the speed's up decently on the torrents.

[kaigou]

But I wonder if the people involved in it have effectively ruined their careers? I mean, this sort of thing probably isn't great for the resume...

I was thinking about your comment when watching ep8, last night... Hiroyuki Yoshino is not exactly a small name now -- he's done a number of big-name roles in the past few years -- and he's also won several awards that are supposedly like the equivalent to oscars for seiyuu, or something. I wouldn't be surprised if he might've wanted the role because of the incredible challenge -- not just Japanese, after all, but English, Russian, German, and Mandarin in any given episode! Some of the rest of the cast have some credits under their belts, and then some of them are literally on their second or third voice-acting role ever, so maybe for them this was a chance to get noticed, as better than not being noticed at all?

What strikes me as most cognitive dissonance is being able to identify that a lot of the seiyuu doing the military voices are seiyuu who have got to be in their mid-forties or older. (You just don't get that timbre of wear on a voice that's only 20, if you know what I mean.) That puts them in the generation that was, undoubtedly, spoon-fed on the very mythos that the series is so carefully skewering, and somehow, that startles (or pleases?) me even more than what some newbie seiyuu in his early twenties thinks of it, seeing how he's had the internet for most his life as potential counter to the worst of the propaganda.

[kaigou]

From what I can tell, the special episode is nothing but recaps of the previous six episodes... so if you've seen 1-6, you've seen the broadcasted 7, and why bother, when the non-broadcasted version is so much more worth the time?

I agree on Yukina -- that was a majorly pleasant surprise that she revealed nerves of steel with the bomb. For that matter, she pretty much has nerves of steel all the way around, even if she can't fall gracefully from a tree. (And her cloche hats are both adorable and crack me up. Someone's been scanning the old fashion magazines for Yukina!)

One thing that's of particular note with Yukina is the fact that she uses keigo with her manservant. He uses it to her (as would be expected) but she uses it back to him, which historically (from what I've gathered) would not have been okay, and would've raised major eyebrows if anyone overheard them, because she's being as politely formal as he is. It's an intriguing way to indicate the equality of their private relationship, not by making him treat her with informal but by having her treat him with formal. It makes her the active person, the one refusing to talk down, instead of making her the recipient of his speech. If that makes sense.

[kaigou]

Well, I wouldn't say it's a Last Exile or Eureka Seven in terms of major epic scale and grandeur and animation quality, but it's fairly up there for a little animation house that's pretty small and new, comparatively -- not to mention incredibly gutsy for even tackling the storyline. It's decent in all the ways that matter, or better than decent, and the worse-than-decent (like the sole American voice actor) isn't so regular that it becomes unbearable or unwatchable. But what really makes it stand out is its chosen genre: when was the last time you saw a dark noir historical/paranormal that did more than just handwave at historical accuracy, let alone give you an entire history lesson in three short episodes?

[drich]

It looks like there's several groups subbing: Phantom, Rumbel, Animanda, Pretentious, and some others. Which is your recommended? Or should I just try a couple of ep 7s as a test?

[(Anonymous)]

The copy I found of 6 referred to the online as the Special and the recap as the real 7.
It makes looking for it difficult. So far everything i've found labeled seven is just the rehash.

[kaigou]

Really? Hunh. I didn't even know a rehash episode existed until I finally saw that note on ANN. Hmm, try Phantom-subs (mkv and avi), who are the only english group I can find that's done ep7, so far:

http://www.phantom-subs.net/

[kaigou]

I would strongly recommend you start with ep1, regardless -- ep7 otherwise will seem incredibly dry and boring and make even less sense, possibly! From what I can tell, most of the subs I've got are either from Phantom (http://www.phantom-subs.net/) or from SGKK-Doki, and neither have prompted the Japanese-student in the house to cringe at mistranslations or widely divergent translations ("why would do the subtitles say, 'we'd better go' when what he actually said was, 'oh, thank goodness!'? who the hell did this sub!?"). So far, at least, the quality is sturdy from both of them, though Phantom's coding isn't the most graceful, which does make ep7 hard to watch because easily every fourth or fifth line of dialogue comes with a screen-eating note that explains the historical reference. Cripes. (It had to have been hell to sub, honestly -- I can't think of any other show I've ever watched that came with that many freaking in-show notes.)

[drich]

Yeah, I'd figured on Phantom-KAW after reading some of their website blog notes on their translator having to consult history books.

And KAW is also doing Kindaichi. Major win for me!

[(Anonymous)]

Yay, thanks!

I guess if they are the only ones that have gotten that far, it may explain why i was having so much trouble.

[kaigou]

They must've been consulting some rather old history books, then, considering so many of the names are in Wade-Giles and not Pinyin (ie the Kwantung army instead of ... drat, right outta my head. In modern/pinyin I think it's something like Guandong). But otherwise, man. By the time you get to ep8, they're saying outright that Japan was at fault for not just a growing aggression but also for purposeful sabotage solely for the purpose of moving into the territory with military justification. Harsh, man.