Review the Second: Windy Tales

Why Windy Tales?

Because it is good and because we just finished watching it. Because we have been lax in our update schedule. Because otherwise you may never have heard of it. Because anime is increasingly "in" these days. But mostly because it is good.

Windy Tales is technically a fantasy story, about a pair of girls who discover the secret of how to control the wind. But instead of taking off posthaste for the realm of cliche of epic over-narrated competitions between daring teens and cute animal sidekicks, the story pulls back from the whole "magical wind control" angle. Instead, it focuses on things like the main character's love of photography, her relationship with her parents, and the cute first-love relationship between two of her friends.

Style: [5/7 stars]

The staff of Nu are casual but enduring fans of a number of anime shows. While American animation is still largely constrained to satire or cartoons, the Japanese have made the medium a vehicle for as many different styles of storytelling as one might find in live action shows. Recently, there has been a trend -- of which we do not particularly approve -- toward a shiny, computer-assisted "smooth plastic" look and feel. It's pretty, and when it first came into use it must have been a real paradigm shift, but by now it's grown a little stale.

Enter Windy Tales. The style is simple, almost sketchy, and often halfway abstracted. Yet in its way, it depicts contemporary Japan far more realistically than any other show you're likely to see. For example, the eyes are proportioned normally instead of taking up half of each character's face. We understand that this sort of art is not to everyone's taste. But it suits the show, and what more can you ask for?

If there's anything to complain about here, it's the animation itself: Windy Tales feels at times like a low-budget piece because of its heavy reliance on short, repeated motions to give its scenes life. That and the simple dialog make me suspect that the target audience was schoolchildren.

Substance: [6/7 stars]

Windy Tales is a quiet, simple, slow-paced slice-of-life story. Sure, it features motorcycle accidents, deadly hurricanes, wind-control magic, an audition and several catstorms, but don't let that fool you. The meat, the bread and drink of this story are ordinary people and the ordinary feelings that move us on ordinary days. This is a show about simple pleasures, about love, about nostalgia and loss, about the bonds between family and friends. It is about all the little things in life that are important.

Quantity: [5/7 stars]

There are thirteen episodes of Windy Tales and we have yet to see signs of any supplementary material. This may even be one of those rare shows that isn't based on a manga, game, or novel. Thirteen is a half- season; a normal full-season show in Japan would run to twenty-six. The thing is, Windy Tales is episodic, with recurring characters and themes, but no major plot threads. It's a year in the life of a girl, and while by the end you may not find yourself satiated with catharsis, the story is still sufficient.

Quality: [6/7 stars]

It's not a perfect show. The last episode especially seems a little haphazard, showing us random flashes of Nao (the main character) apparently as a college student, but the meaning is unclear. Is the whole series just a handful of her memories from her junior high days? There's no real framing story to give this theory depth, though. Why is the show full of cats? They're a motif as omnipresent as the wind itself, but we can't see any particular significance to them.

That said, it really is a slice-of-life show. The days are filled with minor conflicts and minor resolutions. Some issues never see a resolution at all; that too is part of life. Having worked in a Japanese junior high school, the reviewer is also very favorably inclined toward the show's depiction of the true Japan. Including the magic flying cats? Maybe.

Analysis

Any and all Western Japanophiles whose entire knowledge of Japanese culture consists of the usual insane/dramatic fare should be forced to watch this show until it clicks. Everyone else should just see it because it offers the same understated pleasures as going to the park with your friends and stopping for ice cream. Anyone who remains unconvinced can just watch it for the catstorms.

Final Score:
[22/28 stars]

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