Mouryou no Hako (The Box of Goblins) Episode 1 - The Decay of the Angel
The early 50s. Yoriko Kusumoto, the daughter of a dollmaker, is befriended by the mysterious, intellectual (and slightly delinquent) Kanako Yuzuki. Kanako offers Yoriko freedom from her cramped, impoverished lifestyle by taking her to swanky cafés and talking Buddhist mythology at her, filling her head with stories of celestial beings and reincarnation (including the rather creepy idea that they are concurrent reincarnations of each other, and that when one dies she “becomes” the other). Whilst their friendship deepens and drives a wedge between Yoriko and her mother (not helped by the strange moving doll that Sadegawa, their lodger, gives Yoriko), Kanako herself becomes creepier and creepier, strangling Yoriko to prove their faith in each other and tying a string to her that will cement their bond after death.
Kanako asks Yoriko to meet her at a train station one night, and is strangely distant and melancholy - so melancholy, in fact, that she jumps in front of a train as Yoriko notices a strange mark on the back of her neck. The train carries a Detective Kiba, haunted by memories of the war, and he begins to question an inconsolable Yoriko - but Kanako may not be as dead as she should be. And what of the bizarre singing head in a box we see before the credits sequence, and the bespectacled man that knows Kanako who looks at it?
Mouryou no Hako has appeared with next to no hype whatsoever, which I find a slightly odd situation. Based on the second of the popular “Kyogokudo” novels and made into a live action film last year, it seems bizarre that before this episode aired the only promotion we had was some line art, a couple of double page spreads in Newtype et al and a five second long teaser trailer of people’s heads turning. With CLAMP character designs and Madhouse animating, plus a spot on NTV on Tuesday nights, I thought there’d be some buzz around this show but it’s sunk into oblivion. Which is a pity, because (if the length of this entry wasn’t a clue) it’s my favourite show of the new season so far, and the only one that’s inspired me to a full length post.
Firstly, it’s a massive relief to discover that the first episode is decently animated. Madhouse have their usual ludicrous number of shows airing this season and I always worry that they’ll churn out something a bit crap (I had thought this show might get the same treatment as, say, Himitsu did earlier this year), but the inbetweening is very smoothly done and there’s some rather nice detailed work for the girls. More impressively, the atmosphere of the photography and colouring is brilliant - with so much of this episode taking place at night the way the use of light in particular is impressive. This is the first time as series director for Ryosuke Nakamura, but on the evidence of this first episode it seems he’s got a good sense of how to ratchet up the creepiness of the show and keep us interested in the rather wordy dialogue.
So with the technical aspects of the show out the way (oh, the music is nice and the acting is very good - nothing that really makes me froth with excitement but it’s fitting and appropriate), the plot is what’s really got me interested. I love a good mystery, and with so much unexplained in this first episode there’s a lot for me to sink my teeth into - and we haven’t even met three of the four main characters yet. We’ve got heads in boxes, freaky dolls, lesbians coming back to life after being hit by trains, freaky dreams of dead soldiers… it’s intriguingly weird without being horrifying or overly pretentious, and essentially I’m fascinated to see where the story goes.
Of course my opinion may well change over the course of the series (I don’t know how long this is scheduled to run for) and no doubt the show only looks this good because it’s the first episode - with SIX other shows starting this October season there’s no way Madhouse has enough cash to support them all properly. But in the spirit of underdogs everywhere I’m championing Mouryou no Hako as a show you should keep an eye out for if you weren’t planning to watch it already.
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