Jouran: The Princess of Snow and Blood

Revenge, assassination, existence, repression and authoritharianism. All of those sound like ambitious topics for a 1920-ish ambientated anime with industrial fictional elements; sure, good things could come up from here. So then: what novelties does Jouran bring to the table while exploring those topics? Not many, or at least not enough to make itself remarkable over any other anime of its genre. Considering Jouran’s audience is already quite niche, I don’t think I would recommend anyone that is not completely passionate about all the revenge themes to go out of their way to watch it. If you are still interested though, let’s go on adeeper analysis of its pros and cons. Jouran: The Princess of Snow and Blood, was one of the titles that first caught my eye in this season. The trailer was absolutely gorgeous, and it seemed to have a great setting. So then, watching the first chapter surely was a disappointment; the world-building was messy, the animation was good, but a step down from the trailer and the moments that were supposed to be impacting were actually just confusing. Then once again the story changed completely in episode 4, and again in episode 9, in a way that was sometimes positive, sometimes negative. If you ask yourself about Jouran’s low rating on MAL, I would say that it’s not quite fair with the quality of the anime, but sure is truthful to all its letdowns and mislead expectations. But firstly, I’ll focus on Jouran’s biggest selling point, one that cannot be overstated: it’s artistic sense. Produced by a brand new studio, with a rather unspectacular staff and a director coming from the infamous studio GoHands, Jouran was likely doomed to be visually mediocre to say the least. Nonetheless, its trailers had already revealed that the staff knew exactly what they were doing, especially with the outstanding drawings of the transformations and battles, portrayed with thick lines of ink. Jouran, as I said previously, doesn’t have a top-notch staff nor incredible freelancer key animators (even though Hironori Tanaka animated the main scene of episode 4), but the production was conscious about its limitations and managed to produce a well-planned, quite consistent product. Even without insane fluidity, some strange filters on flashbacks and the character design getting quite big brain sometimes, Jouran is one of those animes that has a completely unique aesthetic. Impressing fights, gorgeous photography whit backgrounds that remind old japanese gravures are other parts of what I find to be a great planning overall. Going over the other technical aspects before talking about the story, I might remark that the direction is competent with the use of illumination and symbolisms. VA is fine, I guess, but I really want to highlight a certain scene involving a baby in episode 11, that was really well done. Moreover, sound design is mediocre and OST is good (actually, the op and ed, both from Raise a Suilen, are absolute bangers). And now, the main point here: Jouran’s plot. To further talk about it, I need to divide it into three parts, each one notably different from the others. I won’t spoil anything, but I might uncover the structure of the narrative. The first part is about revenge. The setting about assassins that work for an oppressive government and keep opposition in check is quite generic; the characters start being bland and there are some anachronisms, so this start is quite uncomfortable. Nonetheless, the animation sure is dope, there are stylish scenes and the cliffhangers are placed in the exact moments to make you interested in the next episode. Sure, I guess I will continue then… it’s not every day that you find such a bloody anime with good production values and 3 female leads. I guess it’s a 5 out of… man, episode 4 was complete fire wtf! Let’s keep watching then, I said. And then Jouran turned into something completely different. I didn’t know how to predict the plot anymore, the characters gained increasingly more depth and the anime started discussing a lot of existentialism about what is to live without a goal. Suddenly, Jouran was completely set apart from the similar other works I had seen until then, and a lot of potential emerged about what could come next… then I had hope Jouran could be among the best of the season, be a memorable tale about life… bleh (said the actual me) And finally, the conclusion. It was not easy to conclude in a satisfying way after all those questions that were raised in episodes 5-8, but Jouran somehow managed to do many of the difficult parts and still feel like it could have been much better. The ending has some questionable decisions here and there, that I won’t spoil, but at the same time the execution fulfilled almost every expectation I had by episode 8; so then, why do I find it underwhelming? Exactly because I could predict it from episode 8. Jouran, as I said, is far from being a bad show, or having a shitty plot, but it falls in the abyss of being irredeemably forgettable. With those great aesthetics and the potential unravelled by the 2nd part, Jouran could have been a remarkable story, but, far from being bad, it ended up being little more than generic.

"The Suffering Tale of a Sweet and Poisonous Young Girl" - Jouran can be defined simply by those words. As a new experimental work from 2021, Bakken Record Studio has the show as its second production and first broadcast weekly. The show begins with a perspective that intersperses underworld, government corruption, and work lurking and in the dark. Nue is a very strong and influential group in Japan, especially when it comes to their most important function: to ensure the security and political integrity of the country at any cost. In the same act we meet Sawa, the main character of the show, taking care ofAsahi, her "sister". In fact, the very coexistence of Asahi and Sawa is a matter to be considered as important for the construction of the show. It is interesting to realize that even though they appear to be good friends, the two hide a bloody past. Imagine that you are a very young child who lost your parents in a conflict. Asahi would be one of the thousands of children who would have this fate. Just as in reality, life is cruel and the anime does not hide this at any time. Even though Asahi internally seeks revenge, his immaturity and lack of experience is the cause of his failures. And even after his death, the show shows with a very impactful visual discomfort. Nowadays, there are few shows that can really have this creative freedom in using elements like these at every point in the story. Remember when I said that Jouran was a Tale? In fact, Jouran is a theater, composed of characters with exposed roles for the sake of the continuity of a drama that moves forward and reformulates itself over time. Our protagonist? A woman who, before the show even begins, has experienced immeasurable pain and loss, simply for her clan. In the anime, Sawa finds herself on a quest for revenge on her family, especially revenge on her brother. The drive that has driven Sawa since childhood is a prominent factor in the decent progression of the entire show. Even though Sawa fights and switches sides and opinions during her life, she always fights for justice and retribution of accounts. Tsukishiro is another important character within the show, in fact, a character to be better explained. He is the complete example of someone who has sold out to pursue a personal freedom. Even though we don't know his true intentions (for example, when he allies himself with Janome), Tsukishiro fulfills the role of a supporting villain as his role in revealing the mysteries and goals of the government are shown, based we treasures and by the blue blood of the Sawa Clan. Asahi is also a key player in Sawa's evolution as a character. In fact, Asahi is the main point that changes Sawa's perspective on the world. Since she entered Nue and was trained by Jin, she has had to suppress her more human emotions in order to perform her missions with prowess and precision, as a sign of trust and to further her own revenge. However, when reality is shown over Sawa's eyes, everything becomes a cataclysm and changes drastically. Throughout the show, Sawa has never cared about personal or loving relationships. Even the character in the first episode who teased her in the bookstore and the teacher who taught at the school where Asahi played with other children, all had trouble really effecting a change in Sawa's attitude. The perception of events and the trauma of suffering more prevented Sawa from still judging herself as a human. Many times the anime put her in a situation of internal conflict, where she made up her mind a few times to want to commit suicide, but without effect, because Jin would not allow it. All this exposition of happenings shows that Jouran exerts a depth both in the Japanese period in which it is told, and in the narrative function in which the show creates its plot. When Asahi's supposed death occurs, Sawa actually recognizes that he is still someone who can love and suffer and take someone in. And the word of the anime is: "betrayal". Jouran has taken up the proceedings with this word. Jin's past, Nue, the allies, the government... All the groups and people who represent the show have suffered or betrayed for their own benefit. The national corruption in Japan, in Jouran, allows for creating situations where the death of characters is the solution to end these pursuits. Hana and Asahi (again) and Tsukishiro are practical and obvious examples. The show has competently and objectively exercised the reasons why it set up the conclusion of the story, without leaving serious problems of plot composition. Of course, this whole applied situation can reach a peak of confusion, where everyone is against everyone else, which can really displease, but I believe Jouran knew how to fit positively into this. The episode director and storyboard creator are to be congratulated, they pushed the show forward. On the production side, Jouran stands out very well. Even with general inconsistencies, the show uses beautiful artistic elements, such as texture and morbid perspective. The use of placements, mainly blue, red, and black, produce a contrast, while complementing the environment and the night time period, where most of the anime takes place. Not to mention the music, which was well interspersed, with the Opening and Ending being great. The red flowers, the artwork in a watercolor-like portrait, and the culture of verisimilitude managed to stand out clearly within each episode. Finally, Jouran deserves more recognition. It is a different show from the others, of course, you may not like it. It is an anime that doesn't encompass many positive reviews, but this time I ask: give it a chance. I was a person who looked down on this show, today I want to forget everything negative I said in the past. Jouran is indeed a worthwhile show. - In the end, everything is a cycle, it will always repeat itself. I would like to see a sequel to Jouran, with Asahi as the protagonist. It would be nostalgic and fun, I think...

Whenever I come across original anime, my first instinct is always to scrutinize the production staff team and see what are their past records, because that's always a very good indication if the anime could shoot for the moon, or in the case of Jouran: The Princess of Snow and Blood, be the sub-servience of another mediocre shot at hiring non-recognizable names and making generic stuff, just to waste all that money down the drain for some other anime or even mixed-media projects that could be made better and make all that effort worth its run. I'd swear: take a look at the staff team, andonly a minority have works to their name, albeit in varying degrees of success viable across the board. You have old-timer director Susumu Kudou, which aside from the terrifying work that is Dies Irae some years ago, has some impressive work under his belt, like the Mardock Scramble series...that is very dated to more than a decade ago. Sound director Yuuichi Imaizumi has also some notable works under his name (e.g. Jashin-chan Dropkick!, and one of my absolute favorite half-episode length shorts: Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-san) that is worth the apt, to even the music director Michiru (Given, Isekai Bookworm and many more). Alas, the other majority that covers the show are no-names, as in the case of the story and plot tremendously holding back due to it sounding like a child's play, and my long-time complaint of creating new studios that are only temporary solutions to a never-ceasing problem. With even a generic story, if the setting is unique enough, then it warrants some attention, and Jouran's settings are indeed just that: a Princess Princpal steampunk-like alternate Japan where both tradition (Shogunate) and modern (experimental) values meet, even down to the episode titles which are totally 100% like said show. However, unlike Princess Principal, the story while made original, it just feels like a ham-fisted sequence of events where said character(s) are tasked to do what they're told to do because it's a deadly world out there, and failure is not by choice or reasoning. Furthermore, given that the 3 monthly arcs (or books as they're categorized) are meant to showcase the timeline of events that happen in the show, it kinda defeats the purpose of trying to mimic the Princess Principal style of naming them as "Confidential File No. XXX", because they're meant to be unorthodoxies for the audience to watch back those episodes in a chronological order to get the feel for how everything started out with as opposed to the broadcast order. While Jouran managed to imitate that aspect with decency, it lost a lot of its unique appeal by conforming to the orthodox standard (the monthly Book arc pacing) with such a linear story that is easy to follow, yet at the behest of retaining watch values due to how sluggish the story and plot can be, which is much or less a heavily revenge-based show that has no redemption values whatsoever. Sadly, the characters in this story that are meant to tell that exact story, kinda goes wishy-washy over its convolutional methods of "Must I do this to get back my revenge and my enemies' just desserts?". The central female MC Sawa "Yuki" Karasumori, hailing from your typical family clan but with a cavier's level of caveat: their "blue blood Changeling transformation" power is infectiously powerful, for the one that wields it is able to overthrow enemies, to even being a catalyst of control for a big city like ancient 20th Century Meiji Era alternate Japan standards. Her reason of joining a group of executioners called the Nue is just to seek revenge of her past memories of her clan's annihilation, though the ambition of this secretly-formed organization has been solely made to aid the Yoshinobu Tokugawa faction against insurgents who are aiming to overthrow the Shogunate. From taking care of an abandoned child (Asahi Nakamura) to getting along with the Nue members (Elena, Makoto and leader Jin), the journey of the Princess of Snow and Blood is a deadly one, where personal feelings and emotions will not be tolerated in the face of missions to seek out the embodiments of life so tragic and predictable. Throughout the course of the show, I can get why Asahi is there to help Sawa progress with her character development, but for the Nue organization, its members, the subpar villains (Janome and the Shogunate) and the rest, it just feels like characters designed and monitored to trigger death flag events as and when the story development needs to get going, and that will always be a make-or-break point if the story isn't strong enough to channel back and forth. It sure took some convincing to do, but at a forced level to be put in their shoes. From the anime announcement to behind-the-scenes production and then full-on release, it only took less than 2 months to get this show done, which is insanely and redonculously fast for a show that mostly depends on the 2DCG computerized mish-mesh to dish out animation, especially on the aesthetic of what supposed to look like well-animated fight choreography, with all the flare and none of that hand-draw tradition work, which saves production costs but at the sacrficial cost of quality. I'd say that this is one of the most unique shows by animation levels alone, and how Bakken Record managed to channel that choreography like it went all-out with it is kinda nice, to not put a damper on delivering through animation (if all else falls apart). Just don't expect Ufotable's Demon Slayer levels of quality, even if there are similarities in its action-packed thematics. Music is just so-so, but it's RAISE A SUILEN for the OST, so BanG Dream! fans have enough to rejoice over new songs from the band. Otherwise, it's non-existent for the most part. I've often hear this heresay everywhere that "Why Aren't More Original Anime Made?", and it's a very good foundation and morale story behind people and studios who want to go on this extraordinary route, which is totally unlike the manga/LN adaptation landscape. Playing "safe" show concepts that uses existing tropes and clichés is almost a given, because at the end of the day, it's a business model that will evenutally have people sold on the idea. With that said, translating that to the audience is a totally different matter by itself, and like what I've said at the beginning, while heaps of money and resources has been spent on this mediocre show, there's no turning back even if the final product's good or not. Jouran falls in the latter space, and while it is not the worst anime of the season, it definitely comes off as either you love it or hate it. Good try to set expectations low, but please pan out a better story next time.

Jouran was a great watch, but I feel it had some short comings. It's story varied from episode to episode, with some being phenomenal, and others feeling very diluted and almost cheap compared to the overall story at work. The art for this show, the acting, the score, are all absolute pieces of art. I don't think they could've made them better if they tried. The story however, was above average in an overall sense, feeling interesting and unique, but moment to moment felt weak. at times it felt like the driving force was something akin to stereotype shonen 'The Power Of Friendship: TM'and at other points it felt very real and raw. The main character was at times lovable and relatable and at others felt weak and whiny. It almost feels as if half the anime was made by one set of people, and the other half another. It could have been direction issues or funding even, but there's no real way of knowing I suppose. Overall it was a great watch that had some issues along with it. I do have criticisms of course, but it was still a very enjoyable watch and one I would recommend in the future.

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