Cinnamon Ass - Reborn Like a Zombie

Victorian Romance Emma Episode 1 - The Present

OP - Silhouette of a Breeze (Kunihiko Ryo) - lovely strings/piano combo (but why the sleigh bells?). I'm not sure if the opening animation is permanent, so no comment really.

ED - Menuet for Emma (Kunihiko Ryo/Tokyo Recorder Orchestra) - RECORDERS! As a recorder player myself, this fills me with inordinate glee, despite the fact that it's totally inappropriate to the era (the music is baroque in style, and thus completely wrong for Victorian times - try the Tudors, maybe).

Emma is a maid in Victorian London working for a retired governess, Kelly Stoner. When one of her former pupils, William Jones, comes to visit, there is an instant chemistry between the two. When William finds out she has eye problems, he offers to buy her a new pair of glasses, but Emma's old pair have sentimental value - instead, he buys her a handkerchief. Romance ensues.

Wow, it actually looks and feels vaguely like London! Well, admittedly, I wasn't around in Victorian-era London, not being over 100 years old myself, but it doesn't come across like the usual anime versions of England. The attention to detail is really quite special here - the background artwork is incredible, and little nuances like the cat stealing William's hat and the crowd scenes add so much to the evocative atmosphere of the show.
Production quality is pretty damn good all round (as to be expected, given that most of the production team worked on Twelve Kingdoms), and special mention has to go to the music, which is really quite excellent indeed. Plus it has recorders in, always a plus point.

That said, Emma is rather slow, and probably not ideal for following raw if (like me) you don't understand very much Japanese. The characters are eminently watchable as it is, and the long segments with no dialogue where you just watch Emma are very well done indeed, but I think to get the most out of the nuances that Emma looks to offer I (at least) will have to watch it subtitled. Based on this first episode, however, I'm definitely looking forward to doing so, since much like the manga Emma appears to be a rather sweet little period romance. Don't be put off by the maid angle!

(incidentally, Tempy posted a fantastic little manga which entirely sums up why I hate the maid genre so much...)

Posted by BluWacky at April 4, 2005 04:50 PM | TrackBack