Customer Reviews

Animated Classics of Japanese Literature - Botchan

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The "Animated Classics of Japanese Literature" DVDs coming from Central Park Media put three episodes on a disc, as opposed to the two offered per VHS tape on the series' initial release, and try to link them thematically. Here the two-part "Botchan" is joined by "Student Days," both stories about education in Japan at the end of the 19th century. "Botchan" is a condensation of a famous novel by Natsume Soseki (written in 1906 and available in English) that details the experiences of Botchan, a young man from Tokyo who takes a job teaching physics in a middle school in a small mountain town. "Student Days," by Kume Masao, follows the efforts of a young man to study for a college entrance exam in the face of distractions provided by a budding romance.

The initial scenes in "Botchan" show the young teacher facing boorish behavior from his "imbecile" students who make fun of his innocuous extracurricular activities such as eating noodles at a local restaurant and traveling regularly to the hot springs a half-hour's walk from town. But his biggest problems come from school administrators who turn out to be backstabbing, mildly corrupt and not terribly supportive. He initially distrusts a fellow teacher (whom he dubs "Porcupine" for the way his hair sticks up), but they soon become allies and work out a plan to embarrass the administrators.

In "Student Days," young Kenkichi stays with his married sister so he can study for the upcoming entrance exam to a prestigious nearby college (after failing the year before), but is soon distracted by the initially supportive presence of the beautiful Eiko, whom he quickly falls in love with. However, the arrival of his more studious younger brother, Kenji, who also plans to take the exam, soon complicates matters, both academically and romantically.

Both tales are unmistakably downbeat. "Botchan" is not terribly deep and doesn't have much in the way of emotional highs and lows. The young man has bad experiences at a teaching job in a small town and that's basically all that happens. "Student Days" is a little more interesting because of the romantic angle, the suspense over whether Kenkichi will pass the test, and the genuine sexual tension that results when a sort of love triangle develops. The characters are more compelling and we do care what happens to them.

"Botchan" does offer a highly evocative portrait of small-town life at the end of the 19th century when modern schools and commuter railroads are plunked down in a small Japanese town that seems traditional in every other way. The backgrounds are beautifully rendered and punch up the proceedings with a visual artistry that keeps viewers interested even if the story doesn't. "Student Days" has much stronger character design than "Botchan" and shows a much more bustling, urban environment of roughly the same era.

While the material here is not as strong as that in the other three DVDs released so far in the "Animated Classics" series, fans should see this volume anyway for the way it manages to paint a delicate portrait of how ordinary Japanese once lived not so very long ago in that period of upheaval when Japan was seeking to modernize, divest itself of feudal ways, and join the new world it had shut out for so long.