It’s anime like Hozuki no Reitetsu that make me pleased that I have a blog that has a decent number of readers. Not because it’s super thrilling to write about, but because fucking nobody will watch this anime without someone selling them on it. Hozuki no Reitetsu is about a government middle manager who is competent at his job, dealing with problems, delegating issues, hiring staff and watching nature programmes during his lunch break. There. That was me selling you on it. Excited, right? You’re running off to check it out right now, right?
…you’re not making this easy for me Hozuki.
Hozoki no Reitetsu really is about a government worker. He just happens to be a government worker in hell. How they present this is pretty clever though. 7 circles of hell, which in turn are divided into 272 subdivisions. I’m not sure quite how its run. I doubt each subdivision has an elected council seeing as they run as a monarchy. However the monarch in question does a lot of administrative work himself and definitely acts more like a mayor than someone with the divine right of kings who lives a life of luxury. It’s more like a setting inside a multinational corporation, but the way its presented is its definitely trying to emulate the life of local political structures.
Which full points for originality on that one. The local politics of hell with a demon acting as councillor, treating heaven like some fussy neighbouring county council who can’t sort their own shit out but they have to work together to aid tourism in both sectors. It takes a lot of work to run the various circles of hell, which will inevitably come with a lot of administrative issues. The story focuses on Hozuki, this one demon who is very good at his job. He’s the middle manager that you would be very lucky to have starting a new job. He’s tough but fair. You don’t want to let him down, but if you have an issue he’s going to be able to sort it out. If someone is giving you a hard time and you can’t get them to fuck off, you can go to him with the problem and he will tell them to fuck off for you. If you’re moving divisions or leaving the job, he will get you that new job and give you a stellar reference.
That’s what makes Hozuki work as a character to focus a story around. He’s the boss you respect but can’t imagine getting any closer to. He’s weirdly distant, which is what makes the segment where he talks about his hobbies, preference in women and desires for a holiday so interesting. It’s like seeing your boss order a pint at a bar, but it ends up being some slightly strange local beer because he’s still weirdly distant from you. I think the show needs to be told from the perspective of someone below Hozuki though. That way the boss-image would come through much stronger. As it is though it’s still a pretty interesting and unique character and certainly something I’ve never really seen in anime before.
It’s also delightfully weird. Hozuki watering his bizarre fish plants, where it’s nothing more than a fish on the end of a stalk. Sending the animals to their new job as they chew a tortured soul for all eternity as if it was nothing more dramatic than giving them a job in advertising. I really like what Wit Studio has done with the show, particularly the watercolour-on-dirty-parchment backgrounds. It fits the show absolutely perfectly. Plus there’s that fantastic OP that is not just another crappy jpop thing but something actually relevant to the show (take note Kill la Kill). It feels like a Noitamina show without actually airing in Noitamina. It doesn’t all work. It’s pretty low-key with nothing much of a plot, and a few of the jokes are lost in translation. But it’s a fascinating little cultural oddity and very unique.
Have I sold you on it yet?
The Cart Driver 
I’m sold. Seriously. Anime and politics should dance more often. Will definitely be looking for this one.
Slice of death: The anime.
It’s odd, but I hope Wit aren’t banking on that to fill the gaps in humour. I almost want them to go full Aqua Teen with the characters though.
Yeah I dunno if oddness can keep it up, but for now it’s a cool oddity
Was it just me or did the pheasant pull a Jojo’s pose before being mildly insulted to the ground?
To me it looks like he’s just summoned from a Yu-Gi-Oh card, probably by Crow Hogan.
“I summon Lurio the Pheasant!”
That totally sounds like one of those crappy cards with 900 attack and no special abilities
yes yesss I can’t wait to get home and watch this. (Granted I intended to anyway because let me at that tasty tasty mythology.)
You did indeed kindle my interest.
I guess I don’t know enough about the Hell in Japanese mythology to really relate to this. What i understood was funny but much of it went over my head.
Circles sound more Dante to me, and I don’t think Shinto has a hell but these show is probably a mix of different ideas.
It’s the classic Japanese version of Buddhist Hell. The Eight Greater Hells and the Mountain of Needles and all that are pretty famous and part of the general layman understanding of the religion.
Actually, the whole thing reminds me of Touhou, which has the same sort of banal bureaucracy characterization of the afterlife. Well, that’s probably an even more common way of looking at it.
A lot went over my head too. Thankfully I know the Momotaro tale, but only because I took a glance at the manga first and the scanlators literally started the chapter by telling you Momotaro first
My question is: is this watchable and fully enjoyable by gaijin?
you’ll probably notice a couple bits and not know the reference, but still enjoyable. Find a version with the opening and ending subbed for extra credit, the lyrics seemed pretty hilarious from the ~50% I could make out.
The biggest joke of the episode was an obscure reference to a Japanese ad that I had to Google to understand. And half an episode was carried on a Japanese fairy tale that we have no clue of (again, had to pause the episode and check Wikipedia). Other than that the humour was deadpan but understandable.
To be fair, those Sofbank ads are totally worth watching in their own right.
I didn’t get the softbank ads either…
I’m sold. I always enjoy variety, and hell is a very fun place for things to happen.
I actually really like Kill la Kill’s OP, it’s very much a throwback to early J-Pop, and pretty good to boot.
Anyway, you have convinced me to check this out.
Booooo Kill la Kills OP is a travesty of both terrible song and terrible fit for the show. It is the reason why anime OPs suck in one single perfect 90 second capsule. Fuck that OP
You could have just said “Gintama in Hell” I think.
This is very different from Gintama I think. Hozuki rarely break the fourth wall, and it is more of a low key comedy than high one like Gintama.
Yeah it’s not very Gintama. Gintama is kinda manic, while Hozuki has a totally different style of humour
I’m sold. Never been in a rush to watch an anime after Mushishi Special until now.
This reminded me of the depiction of hell that we had – of all places – in Dragonball Z. The bureaucracy, King Enma, the various hells with torments like the mountain of spikes, I understand it all comes from a mix of Buddhism stories and Japanese folklore, but still, to me it’s a throwback to DBZ and Yu Yu Hakusho. Anyway, a very odd premiere. I hope the humour improves though, it didn’t make me laugh too much – it was either too obscure or too subtle for me, most of the times. Artistically impressive though, I love the style. And I think the screaming fish-plant was what entertained me the most.
Hah, I see what you’re going for with the DBZ comparison. They probably draw from the same mythology.
I just hope some other group picks this up, the CR/HS translation was horrifying. I kept having to pause the video because what I read in the subs made no sense with what I was hearing from the audio.
^truth.
Eh, it’s a difficult anime to translate. Not perfect but I prefer it to what they do with Gintama where they plaster TL notes on the screen every minutes
Oh which version is that? I watched on crunchyroll and I don’t think they did that. I”m curious whether such notes would reveal that I missed many things in Gintama.
Lucky for you I gave the show a shot before reading and was already sold.
I’m not sure what it is, but I like inventive slice of life stuff: the kind of show where the characters are already well-rounded and fun to just have talk all the time.
Then again, I love Monogatari and all those characters were pretty thin to begin with, but all seem to have great conversations. Also why I loved the commentary.
I suppose I just like watching people talk about things in a believable manner?
I’m certainly seeing the points you made, but I’m not buying it yet.
It was kind of boring and dull to me. In general I liked Hozuki as a character and what he did, but I also found myself browsing tumblr while the anime was still going.
Well, mabye it’s just not for me.