While the initial reception has been relatively subdued, many will no doubt look back on Heike Monogatari both for what it is and for what it represents; a significant work of animated cinema which…
Dec 25, 2021 • Subscribe
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Heike Monogatari: Humanity in War
Possible spoilers for an 800 year old story Heike Monogatari (The Tale of the Heike) is a historical epic chronicling the struggle between the Taira/Heike and Minamoto clans…
Flower language in Heike Monogatari
“The color of the sāla flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline.” -The Tale of the Heike During her time at Kyoto Animation it was a…
Heike Monogatari – 09
Watching this has literally become a physically painful experience for me. Read more
Heike Monogatari – 09
「平家流るる」 (Heike Nagaruru) "Heike Flowing" The real carnage here is the butchery the script-writers do to the characterization and epic action of the original story.
Heike Monogatari – 10
The tragedy of the Taira really comes through here, carried on the source material's wings of glory. Read more
Heike Monogatari – 09
The year is 1184. Having fled Fukuhara to escape Genji troops, the Heike are forced to undergo several further relocations in order to avoid their pursuers. In the…
Heike Monogatari – 10
「壇ノ浦」 (Dan-no-ura) "Dan-no-ura" The sunset of the Taira.
Heike Monogatari – 10
Episode 10 of Heike Monogatari felt slightly more measured than last week’s blitz of character deaths, family reunions, and political/military developments, but upon closer inspection, the two installments…
Heike Monogatari – 08
「 都落ち」 (Miyako Ochi) "Leaving the Capital" The Taira scrape a final spoonful out of their now almost finished bowl of victories
Heike Monogatari – 04
I think there's an inherent paradox at work here Read more
Heike Monogatari – 06
「都遷り」 (Miyako Utsuri) "City Transition" This adaptation is all about portraying the characters as living, breathing humans enjoying every-day moments rather than focusing on them purely as giants of history
Heike Monogatari – 07
「清盛、死す」 (Kiyomori, Shisu) "Kiyomori, Dies" “Because I could not stop for Death He kindly stopped for me”. Or in Kiyomori’s case, not so kindly.
Heike Monogatari – 03
This episode was a tale of two very different halves, but I loved them both. The first was a restrained catchup session that softened the blow of a…
Heike Monogatari – 04
Heike Monogatari has dealt with intergenerational themes since its premiere, but this episode cemented them as its cornerstone. Now that we’re safely past the ‘continue reading’ tag,…
Heike Monogatari – 08
If one was going to punt on preserving the moral ambiguity of the original, it's much easier to make the Minamoto non-people than the Taira. Read more
Heike Monogatari – 05
Through factors partly beyond its control and partly controllable, the anime is losing most of what makes Heike Monogatari so special. Read more
Heike Monogatari – 08
Biwa’s role in Heike Monogatari is a strange thing. Despite having been introduced as our main character, she’s operated mostly as an observer since the third episode, and…
Heike Monogatari – 06
Heike Monogatari returned this week to the more character-oriented stories of its first two episodes. The renewed focus on Shigemori’s children saw Biwa come back in a major…
Heike Monogatari – 05
For all its beautiful imagery and symbolism, this episode exposed a weakness that Heike Monogatari may struggle to overcome. Where are we situated in The Tale of…
Heike Monogatari – 07
The burning of Kofukuji and Todaiji Temples in Nara was in many ways the single most important event of the entire Genpei War, so I hope you didn't…
Heike Monogatari – 07
The year is 1181. Not long after achieving political dominance in western Japan, the Taira clan’s power has already begun to fade. Their move to Fukuhara is short-lived,…
Heike Monogatari – 06
If nothing else something of the pathos of this series can be salvaged if the narration slows down enough to give it a chance to express itself. Read…
First Impressions – Heike Monogatari
This is certainly something special, something important, and something unique in anime. Read more
Heike Monogatari – 11 (END)
Heike Monogatari’s TV finale contained just its second substantial portrayal of armed conflict, following episode 5’s Battle of Uji Bridge. One might think it a bit strange that…
Heike Monogatari – 11 (END)
「諸行無常」 (Shogyō Mujō) "The Impermanence of Worldly Things" Like the shrike that impales its prey upon branches, I feel as if this adaptation has impaled my heart upon its sharp…
Sakuga Espresso – Heike Monogatari
A visual analysis of the climax scene to the ninth episode of Heike Monogatari through the lens of cinematography.
Third Impressions – Heike Monogatari
If you're not familiar with the source material, I'm having a hard time imagining anyone keeping up with this. Read more
Second Impressions – Heike Monogatari
Turn it into an anime and not even Heike Monogatari is immune to the curse of filler. Read more
Heike Monogatari Review — A-
They shall be as mere dust before the wind.
Heike Monogatari – 1-2
The Tale of the Heike is a classical Japanese epic detailing a war fought for control of the country near the end of the 12th century. It has…
Stranger in the Shogun’s City is Masterful History and Storytelling
In Stranger in the Shogun's City, Dr. Amy Stanley brings the story of one 19th-century Japanese woman to life.
Heike Monogatari – 11 (End) and Series Review
It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. Read more
Storytelling in Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Many people criticized The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild for its lack of storytelling. As I revisit the game, I struggle to understand their viewpoints. After…
Fear of the Future in The Heike Story
Have you ever been afraid of the future? Have you ever looked at the horizon and worried about what lay ahead, hidden just beyond sight? The hardships to…
Heike Monogatari’s Approach To Visual Storytelling | GITM Podcast Ep. 105
Heike Monogatari kind of came out of nowhere and already there’s so much to unpack from a visual perspective. In this episode, I attempt to break down this…
Reflections on Sasurai-kun
I’ve typically never been highly enthused by any anime created by either of the Fujiko Fujio team. Typically their manga and subsequent anime adaptations have either felt redundant,…
21 Emon, Doraemon, Doraemon, Pro Golfer Saru, Umeboshi Denka
The Tale of the Heike in Text and Animation
Rebecca Silverman looks at the original classic story that inspired Science Saru and Naoko Yamada's beautiful, historical anime series.
Reflections of the Mind
detective fiction, 推理小説、games, mystery, murder, locked room, Japanese, translations,
Reflections on Calligraphy in Japan: Part, Present & Future
Out of all the forms of art to come from Japan one of the most influential – if not the most influential – has got to be calligraphy.…
The Five Commandments of Storytelling
1. Inciting Incident The inciting incident destabilizes the protagonist by upsetting the balance of their life for good or for ill. Every inciting incident is either causal (the…
The Intrusive Storytelling of Isekai
Intrusion is a central element of isekai stories. They are fundamentally about characters being injected into a world that is not their own.
The Case Study of Vanitas, or Eroticism in Storytelling
I don’t like discussing online trends in these sort of essays. It feels like I’m attacking something nebulous, that I could be blowing a couple of Tweets out…
Storytelling In Video Games
Video Game storytelling and narrative has progressed immensely, games nowadays can rival movies with their cutscenes, characters, plots, cinematics. Games like Witcher 3, God of War Ragnarock,…
Podcast: The Tale of the Heike
A 19th century woodblock print of Tomoe from The Mirror of Beauties Past and Present via Wikimedia Commons Check out the Read Japanese Literature podcast. Episode 3: The…
One Year Out—Reflections on the Industry
It’s been a year since my last post on antiotaku, and while I still think it was wise to end the blog when I did, I had a…
Reflections of an old anime fan: On gatekeeping
For the last couple weeks I’ve been thinking about gatekeeping, inspired mostly be Irina’s post about why she doesn’t participate in it. Here’s the thing. There was a…
Reflections on Dark Hero Party
(This article is intended to be read after the full completion of the game in question, as it assumes viewer’s knowledge of the events of the game in…
The DISTURBING History of Made in Abyss
The disturbing history of made in abyss's 6th layer, this episode was absolutely insane. I can't believe how badly irumyuui was treated throughout this episode. If you enjoyed the…