[Orphan] Animated Classics of Japanese Literature E14 - Growing Up (DVD)

Orphan is redoing as many of the stories from the 1986 anthology series Seishun Anime Zenshuu (translated as Animated Classics of Japanese Literature for its English release) as we can find sources for, starting with the twelve episodes released in North America on DVD. We’ll be releasing the show as individual stories; today’s is Growing Up, based on the novella Takekurabe (Comparing Heights) by Higuchi Ichiyou. See this blog entry for more details.

The story concerns four young teens growing up in the Yoshiwara red-light district in late-Meiji Japan. Midori is a playful 14-year-old girl, who is supposed to become a Yoshiwara courtesan, like her older sister. Shin is a shy and morose 15-year-old priest in training, who is supposed to follow in the footsteps of his father, the corrupt head priest of the local temple. Chokichi is a violent street punk, head of the "back-street" gang. Shota is the son of local pawnbrokers and leader of the "front-street" gang. The four bounce off each other as they attempt to navigate the treacherous paths of growing up, but none can really escape the pressures of the hierarchical society they live in.

The artwork is very nice and redolent of the Edo era, but the story is distressingly downbeat.