I can already kind of tell that Ao no Miburo is going to be one of those series I want to like more than I actually do. The premise is an A+ for me. Shinsengumi, new recruits, trying to make sense of the good vs. evil dynamic in a time where – as Nio says – good people are killing each other until it rains blood. But the execution leaves a lot to be desired. It’s not terrible, just perceptibly mediocre. Pretty much any anime is a question of premise and execution and how they add up – if they’re both great you obviously have a classic but just as obviously that’s rare as hen’s teeth.
More than anything, the bugaboo here is exactly what I would have feared knowing this was the same mangaka as Days. In both of the first two episodes the so-called “climactic” moment has been a dramatic speech by Nio where he says things no 12 year-old kid in his sandals would ever say. In fact we got two of those this week. The soaring “cry now” music accompanying them doesn’t help either, though we can only blame the anime for that part. Push-button emotions never cut it for me, and neither does exposition by explanation. Especially when it comes to larger themes which should be a function of the storytelling itself.
Now, for all that, I still more or less liked the first two episodes when that stuff wasn’t happening. The animation and narrative style is fun in a retro way. I like Nio well enough when he’s allowed to act like a little boy in his position would, and his introduction to the Shinsengumi and their boisterousness was entertaining. At this point in their history the Shinsengumi – still the Roushigumi at this stage – were headquartered in the mansion of a sympathizer named Yagi (still standing, you can visit it), only later to move into Mibu-dera.
For a boy his age, a bunch of young guys acting like this probably would seem incredibly fun. I don’t know about being a proxy in a sumo match but Nio seems up for it. HIs opponent in fact is none other than Saitou Hajime, though not yet remotely the chain smoking anti-hero of his more famous anime incarnation. We get a sort of cattle call introduction to the main figures of what will be the Shinsengumi, with Kondou Isami naturally standing out. Nio is smart enough to sense the truth of it, that this frathouse atmosphere can’t totally hide the true nature of the “work” these young men are engaged in.
The essence of this story seems to be Nio trying to cut past the black and white and figure out what the deal is as Japan heads into another civil war. This is a complex situation with those on all sides believing they’re in the right, and that could certainly be fruitful ground for an interesting interpretation of the Shinsengumi. But so far that subtle dynamic is playing out in very broad terms, and I don’t know that The Blue Wolves of Miburo is going to have the chops to get past that. With a setup this promising I’m certainly going to give it every chance, but I suspect we may know sooner than you’d think.
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