Forum - View topicFolktales from Japan (TV).
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ehh123
Posts: 31 |
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Folktales from Japan Genres: comedy Themes: folklore Plot Summary: Like in any culture, Japanese kids grow up listening to the stories repeatedly told by their parents and grandparents. The boy born from a peach; the princess from the moon who is discovered inside a bamboo; the old man who can make a dead cherry tree blossom, etc. These short stories that teach kids to see both the dark and bright sides of life have passed traditional moral values from generation to generation. ---------------------------------- I will admit that this show is not aimed at anime fans at all. It is for kids. That being said, I am glad that an anime distributor like Crunchyroll has decided to license a kid's anime that isn't meant to sell anything. There are some things you can admire about the show. While the animation and art is simplistic, I like how the art style changes for each story. I also like Akira Emoto and Yoneko Matsukane as the narrators. At their age, they sound like grandparents which is appropriate. I love folktales and Japanese culture. If you are not into either, this anime is not for you. Even then, as the case with some folktales, the stories will start to sound a little repetitive. (I get it! Don't be greedy!) I just hope they can get to "The Tongue Cut Sparrow" and/or "Momotaro". Also, the fact that they are dedicating this to the people of Tohoku who were most affected by last year's earthquake and tsunami (some of the folktales shown came from that region) is admirable to say the least. |
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SereneChaos
Posts: 384 Location: Middle of Nowhere, USA |
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I really enjoyed Folktales when it started, but I just kind of stopped watching after 7 episodes. I intend to catch back up, up I don't really feel much of a need to do so right now. How many episodes will it be in total?
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter
Exempt from Grammar Rules Posts: 4617 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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I'm guessing it's open ended. I started a slightly off-topic conversation about Folktales in another thread recently and EireformContinent mentioned that its precursor series that it seems to be emulating, Manga Nihon Mukashi Banashi, aired for almost 20 years. So... I wouldn't suggest waiting for it to end, they apparently have a lot to work with.
What I'm really starting to appreciate is how these tales show the values and character of Japan through these tales. Many western tales, especially the relatively youthful folktales of America focus on persevering and succeeding on self reliance and an unwavering determination. But the folktales told in this series focus mostly on the importance of humility and the folly of pride-- not exactly the stuff of Beowulf. It really runs counter to the common criticism that you heard early on, that all fairy tales are alike, so watching this won't show you anything you aren't familiar with. There were some really good ones recently. Both "Straw Headman" and "God of the Bathroom" were great ones from episode 16 and this week had "The Painted Wife". The season even began with a pretty good telling of "Orihime and Hikoboshi" in episode 14- neglecting only to tell us why people make wishes on bamboo leaves for them. |
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Errinundra
Moderator
Posts: 6535 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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I agree - The Painted Wife and Orihime and Hikoboshi really stood out for me. Interesting that both have love stories at their core. It gave them an emotional clout that many others lack. Perserverance and hard work are frequently portrayed as admirable qualities. There are also strong streaks of fatalism and irony.
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter
Exempt from Grammar Rules Posts: 4617 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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Just stumbled on this link while looking up this week's "The Listening Hood," which seemed like it must be a very local variation of the tale, considering that the Dragon King was a fish and his daughter apparently wasn't Otohime.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3830153/Japanese-Folk-Tales-by-Yanagita-Kunio-translated-by-Fanny-Hagin-Mayer Very different version about an old man who wants to worship his local god properly and is given the hood in gratitude. No Dragon Palace at all. In this version he poses as a fortune teller to relay the story about a snake who was trapped in the roof for years. There's no tale about the gold piece but there is one where he listens to trees to determine what to do about a Camphor tree stump under a house that can't die completely unless it's entirely dug up. I'm not surprised that there are variations of the tale but I was surprised at the large differences in that one. I'll have to spend some time reading more of that book later. |
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EireformContinent
Posts: 977 Location: Łódź/Poland (The Promised Land) |
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You know, Beowulf is a tale words apart- an epic for knights, not a folktale. For Western equivalents you should sears in collections of legends (Child's Ballads, Andersen or Grimm). I'd say that lots of them promote humility and some plots seem to be the same ones, just in different decorations, like the story of peasant who was granted the ability to speak animal language presented Manga Nihon Mukashi Banashi and recorded in my region about 200 years ago. Really, the more you know, the more they seem familiar- at least all people have the same needs. |
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hyojodoji
Posts: 585 |
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Yanagita Kunio himself also talked about the variation handed down in Amami Ōshima in which the man got a magical thing to understand birds' words from the god at the mythical place in the sea. In a radio programme, Yanagita Kunio said:
The variation included in Yanagita's Japanese Folk Tales is one which was collected in Kamihei-gun. Kamihei-gun once included Tōno, which is famous for Tōno Monogatari. |
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EricJ
Posts: 876 |
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I don't care, I've gotten hooked on it anyway. (I'm almost halfway through my free month of Crunchyroll, and SHOULD be catching up on my BSP and Sword Art Online while I have the chance, but I know what I keep sitting down with before bed...) I only know a handful of the classics--those which have already been parodied on UY--I've gotten a feel for the recurring rhythms that usually show up in Japanese tales, and can now move on to the more obscure and lesser-known ones that inevitably end up parodied on Sgt. Frog.
And don't foist cheap imitations on your market! Don't ask questions about free stuff!
The stories seem to follow a pattern from episode to episode: The first tale is always one of the "essential" classics, the second is a more obscure cultural one, and the third is usually a funny humor-punchline story--Which has some of the "cute" comic timing from the comfortable 90's old-school comedies for the younger kids. Basically for the Doraemon crowd, but what's wrong with a comparison like that?
Ah, so THAT'S what the "rebuilding" in the next-week promos refers to! Thought they were implying that the next preschool cellphone generation didn't know their classic hometown stories. |
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Snomaster1
Subscriber
Posts: 2819 |
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I hope "Folktales from Japan" is licensed and brought to America and dubbed into English. I'd love to see it and I think it would be fascinating to see folktales from another culture. It would be a great educational experience for both young and old alike. And,it's unique style makes it different from other anime brought to America.
And I also hope that hyojodoji would provide an English translation of what Yanagita Kunio said on that radio program. I have no idea what he said and I doubt that few here know Japanese. |
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter
Exempt from Grammar Rules Posts: 4617 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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Snomaster, I just want to make sure, you only watch dubbed anime, right?
If that's your choice, and there may be good reasons for not being able to watch subtitled anime, there's not a problem with it But after all, Crunchyroll makes it freely available, it has, technically, already been "brought to America," just not dubbed... and I see almost zero chance of it being dubbed professionally, the only slim chance would be if some open-minded children's programmer tried to do it, like PBS. It would at least be cheap to dub, if they kept the same two narrator set-up the original has. |
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