Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Kemono Jihen
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blahmoomoo
Posts: 460 |
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I thought the dialog made it clear the imprisoned male was the previous male of the village. Which implies to me that once the next male is born, they don't need the previous male anymore, so he's left to waste away. And maybe he's allowed to barely live just in case they need a backup, though since another male won't be born for 100 years, I dunno if that's necessary. |
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RenRen94
 Posts: 223 |
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After the Shiki Family Arc, the whole "mother dies after giving birth to boys without a doubt" thing sound kinda sus. I'm thinking murder might be at play here: if she learns that her son(s) would become a breeding tool for the village in the future, she would try to protect them and hide them away, effectively endangering the survival of the yuki-onna. To safeguard the village's survival, they would do away with the mother and raise the boys to carry on the "tradition." No parents = no interference.
...My goodness, I'm already hoping for a second season. This show is fascinating, kinda dark, and I just want Kon to be happy and for Kabane to find his family. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4079 |
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Why do I have to keep saying this? The legend of the Golden Web is that the spider came up with the web in an empty room, Aya is the direct image of her mother with golden web in place of hair and Shiki's uncle was more worried about losing Aya's mother than Aya once he figured out how to produce the web, that is literally Aya, in the first place. Human father was the first thing both I and Shiki's uncle knew wouldn't create the golden web. The real leap would thinking that it would be both unbelievably rare but also as simple as combining human and human spider. But I'm not quite ready to start talking about Akira yet though I am amused that Akira as he is opposite of what I thought the situation to be, not to protect Akira but to protect Akira's brother. Me right from the start: "It's the story of the Snow Woman so why..." |
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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I don’t know what the most disturbing implication of this episode was: that the previous Yuki-Onoko was kept prisoner and forced to breed with all the Yuki-Onna, or that since they don’t breed with outsiders, their whole village is incestuous, with generations of young women breeding *with their own father.* *Who is also their brother* Ew, ew, ew, ew. That is some Game of Thrones sh**!
And poor Yui and Akira! Their mother died because of their birth, they never got to meet their father, they weren’t allowed love or affection or to even *see the faces* of the women who raised them (maybe to make it easier to breed with their *aunt-sisters* later? Again EWWW!) and they were treated cruelly with physical abuse. I just felt so bad for them. It’s amazing that Akira ended up as loving and emotionally healthy as he is. Just thinking back to the episode featuring the cat-kemono/human man couple, Akira was so sure in the concept of love and romance, and insisted that both Shiki and Kabane were products of loving relationships, despite the fact that poor Akira is definitely not. (Worth noting that he was confirmed right in Shiki’s case. Shiki’s parents truly loved each other and things only got bad after his father’s “accident” which I still think wasn’t accidental at all). Akira deserves all the admiration for being such a sweet, loving child and friend despite his family of origin and early childhood. I’m rooting for him to go full Disney Princess (glad I’m not the only one who thought of Frozen!) and bring his brother back from the brink of (justified) anger and grief (and desire to “protect” his brother by locking him up!) |
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wolf10
 Posts: 903 |
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I'd say it's pretty likely the classic X-Files episode "Home" left a strong impression on a young Sho Aimoto. That show was pretty big in Japan, too, back in the day. |
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Yuvelir
 Posts: 1558 |
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When screwing your own father/brother/uncle/grampa/son/niece is literally the only option and the only thing you've known, there's probably not that much of a moral issue or trauma for the yuki onna.
For the imprisoned yuki onoko though...
I mean, Akira pretty much spoke out his inspiration.
Just read the summary. Huh, it's even more fucked up than The Lurking Fear. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4079 |
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Less like "Home", more like She if the...
No, the better example would be ants; It's a matriarchal species that uses its males as breeding drones. "But they're all inbreed!" So are ants but no one ever talks about it. If the negative genes are already taken out then it's not likely you'll end up in the "Home" situation. Still, shout out to "Home", one of the most extreme moments in broadcast television. I was there live, it was awesome. |
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wolf10
Posts: 903 |
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Ugh. I know Japan has some really nuts regulations around discussing certain biological functions on TV, but the way they rewrote Yui's dialogue spoiler[makes it sound like the yuki-onna were simply using sex as a bribe, when the manga is quite clear that they were molesting Yui, sometimes forcefully, with the aim of getting pregnant. "Earning the chief's favor" had nothing to do with it, since the role of "chief" had no actual power to begin with, and he never enjoyed anything they did to him. I guess the intent could have been to express how the yuki-onna perceived their own actions: "it's not rape because boys always like it," but the source material didn't even waste time on that harmful stereotype.]
That said, the overall quality of the adaptation is still quite high, and the decisions made for structure and pacing are excellent, so there's plenty of time left to course-correct. It's not the worst possible direction I had imagined them going in, at least. |
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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I don't think it came across the way at all. Yes, things were toned down because right from the start there was no way they could've done it the same way as in the manga (this is not Japan being nuts about sex, this is spoiler[rape of a minor], in a show that is geared toward a younger audience - it would've been toned down in any show in any country, really). But overall I think the point came across fairly clearly, with no implication other than what it was in the original, and definitely spoiler[no "it's not really rape" - it was very obvious that Yui was deeply traumatized by the whole thing. What the anime was leaning into was the aspect of the women using the sole male(s) in their interpersonal fights, as they scrambled to get more sex and so get pregnant sooner/more often than their rivals. It wasn't using sex as a bribe for favors, it was coercing sex to advance their position in society and whatnot. Sure, it wasn't put so bluntly, but the euphemisms were quite clear I think.] That said, the translation was pretty weird at times. At one point they mistranslated Akira thinking that Yui was strangely cruel to Kabane & Co. but still gentle with Akira, then they mistranslated Hisame's name as if Yui said "kisama", etc... |
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wolf10
Posts: 903 |
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It was some 15 years ago now, but Sumomomo Momomo ran into a similar problem when it was adapted for TV. A lot of Momoko's dialogue was very... frank about the baby-making process, so they had to rewrite everything into awkward euphemisms. I wasn't sure how much has changed in Japan in that area, but the answer appears to be "not much."
And so we're clear about what I mean by nuts, spoiler[they manage to avoid directly bringing up pregnancy at all, when it's literally their primary motivation, and even skirted around the subject of Akira's nocturnal emission (a function I hadn't thought about in more than a decade until I went through the manga last week).] You're right that subtext is still overwhelmingly strong, but I maintain the euphemism (that was indeed present in the Japanese script), was just wrong. I can't pretend it didn't put me off in the moment as I was watching, but I was also on edge the entire time expecting bigger problems so that may have been inevitable. It's probably a good thing in the long run, honestly. (The simulsubs were also off a bit this week, for sure, and they tend to flub on complex particle usage ("boku ni wa sugoku amai"), but Yui did at least actually say "Hisame, kisama." We can be reasonably sure that Funi's BD subs will be better. They generally are.) |
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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I don't know about the other show, but in this particular case even mentioning pregnancy would have so glaringly obvious implications involving a child that I think they might have avoided it simply for that reason... Generally, I think they were trying to find a balance where viewers who are too young to understand the actual situation can easily interpret it as "Yui was used as a pawn in the women's infighting and rivalry, everything crashing down on him", and older viewers can read between the lines and understand what actually was happening. It didn't work perfectly even if we disregard the manga - the thing that bothered me was the scene of Yui talking about uncleanness which tried to work both ways but it didn't quite hit the mark. spoiler[(Yui is supposed to be talking about he himself being unclean, but here it was as if he was talking about being the target of disgusting things like hatred, jealousy, etc. But then they kept the part about Yui feeling like his body is rotting away piece by piece, which again has implications about what actually was going on.)] But overall I think they got the point across. |
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Maidenoftheredhand
 Posts: 2633 |
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Um I never read the manga and I can assure you that the anime made it very clear that it was spoiler[ongoing rape to produce offsprings for the village. He is 14 what else could it be? ] I heard it was more explicit in the manga but I think what they implied was disturbing enough. |
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wolf10
Posts: 903 |
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There's quite a bit of dancing around censors, I'm sure, which is why I'm still giving them the benefit of the doubt. Used to be anime directors could outright change parts of source material they disagreed with, but that's not what's happening here. And just to be clear, I'm grumbling because I'm invested. I enjoyed the crap out of this episode otherwise, and I'm so glad spoiler[we're getting more Inari].
spoiler["I've waited ten years for this."] |
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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I really don't think they're trying to shift any blame, or to change any plot points for whatever reason. They're just trying to avoid being explicit, for obvious reasons, but everything that should be there too convey what was happening is still there. |
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wolf10
Posts: 903 |
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Honestly running out of ways to rephrase "I know this wasn't intended, but this is how it made me feel."
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