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Shounen Onmyouji
4/6/08 21:35So I'm dipping into my collection of unfinished novels, and I came up with the first volume of "Young Onmyouji," the anime of which is partially available in English but which I haven't seen.
The plot concerns Abe no Masahiro (everyone groan), who is the thirteen-year-old grandson of the legendary onmyouji Abe no Seimei. Abe no Seimei, somewhat like Robin Hood or King Arthur, is an actual historical person around whom a lot of apocryphal stories and folklore have accreted; his real life, from what I've read, was probably quite boring, but in the movies he gets to fight demons and do all kinds of cool mystical stuff.
In the "Young Onmyouji" series, though, Masahiro resents Seimei and yearns to be seen as an onmyouji in his own right, not just as Seimei's grandson. Which is kind of hard because he's only thirteen years old.
To tell the truth, I have a very difficult time imagining Seimei ever having children, but I just have the movie characterization to go on, and it was admittedly a cheesy movie. (But I love it. I really do.)
"Young Onmyouji" is incredibly fluffy. There is a cute animal mascot, for heaven's sakes. And I have a feeling that it is teeming with anachronisms; if nothing else, everyone's speech is extremely modern (or I wouldn't be able to get through it). It's not even the cod-anachronistic dialogue you see in historical anime that at least gives a flavor of long ago.
I think I bought this one to give me a fluffy, user-friendly introduction to some Heian-era vocabulary and details, or simply because I will buy anything that's about an onmyouji. I wouldn't necessarily trust it for even the most cursory period details, but it is pretty entertaining, if formulaically shounen.
The plot concerns Abe no Masahiro (everyone groan), who is the thirteen-year-old grandson of the legendary onmyouji Abe no Seimei. Abe no Seimei, somewhat like Robin Hood or King Arthur, is an actual historical person around whom a lot of apocryphal stories and folklore have accreted; his real life, from what I've read, was probably quite boring, but in the movies he gets to fight demons and do all kinds of cool mystical stuff.
In the "Young Onmyouji" series, though, Masahiro resents Seimei and yearns to be seen as an onmyouji in his own right, not just as Seimei's grandson. Which is kind of hard because he's only thirteen years old.
To tell the truth, I have a very difficult time imagining Seimei ever having children, but I just have the movie characterization to go on, and it was admittedly a cheesy movie. (But I love it. I really do.)
"Young Onmyouji" is incredibly fluffy. There is a cute animal mascot, for heaven's sakes. And I have a feeling that it is teeming with anachronisms; if nothing else, everyone's speech is extremely modern (or I wouldn't be able to get through it). It's not even the cod-anachronistic dialogue you see in historical anime that at least gives a flavor of long ago.
I think I bought this one to give me a fluffy, user-friendly introduction to some Heian-era vocabulary and details, or simply because I will buy anything that's about an onmyouji. I wouldn't necessarily trust it for even the most cursory period details, but it is pretty entertaining, if formulaically shounen.