Japanese Cuteness.

There are three things I love about Japan and its people. Firstly, it is the country itself. I have been there two times, the last time in 2005 with some high school friends. We visited almost every famous place except for Hokkaido in the north. Easily one of the best holidays in my life. Secondly, it is their great traditions of philosophy and spirituality, especially Shintoism and Buddhism. With a few exceptions, Japanese spirituality is extremely deep, fluid, and adaptable. What is it these days for the average Japanese: “Have a Shinto birth ceremony, marry in a Christian church, have a Buddhist monk perform the last rites.” When we were at the Shinto temples I highly enjoyed the way the people invoked the gods at the shrine: you have to close your eyes and clap your hands once “to obtain the resident god’s attention”. Then you murmur or think about a wish you want the god to grant you, and bow. Your audience with the listening god is then concluded. Superstitious? Perhaps. Unpretentious? Most certainly.

Thirdly, it is their creativity, especially with entertainment. They have everything: PRIDE Fighting Championships (go Takanori Gomi, bane of all Brazilian fighters!!), impressive music, and most familiar to the West: anime or Japanese cartoons. Last night I rewatched a short anime series called Someday’s Dreamers. When it aired, reviews were generally good. The most negative reviews came from those who were expecting action/fighting. I don’t know why they bothered with this series then; it’s a kid’s show. The story’s set in a Japan with an established population of mages, who possess magical powers aptly named Special Power, and can grant it to normal people who file legal requests to the Bureau of Mage Labour. The protagonist is a shy and altruistic teen mage from the country, Yume, who comes to Tokyo to train under her handsome male teacher Oyamada. Aside from Oyamada’s own personal demons, Yume’s own insecurity, and these other side-stories which are fairly elaborate, the series is only 12 episodes long. Which is a real, true, pity, because while it was a great series, it could have been even grander.

This cartoon, and its characters, are so damn cute. But there’s not a single silly expression that you usually see in anime (sweatdropping, bulging eyes, etc.); it is totally realistic in the sense that it plays out like an average teenager’s everyday life. Even the locations, such as Shibuya station, the underground railways, are exactly like I remember them. I swear they just took photos of those places and animated them on the drawing board. The artwork of this cartoon series is beautiful. Use of CGI is probably among the best I’ve ever seen. The music is even better (mainly quiet piano or guitar background music). Watching this at 11:00pm is like being treated to a visual, audio, and emotional lullaby at the same time. Not that I fell asleep. This series has a strong story done subtlety and elegantly.

Cuteness permeates every episode. I guess such unpretentious and sincere cuteness is why I genuinely like Someday’s Dreamers. The entire premise of the series is cute, the protagonist is painfully cute, and the whole series is saturated in cuteness. Don’t take my word for it. Download some episodes via BitTorrent and see for yourself. =)

7/10