Tonari no Youkai-san
Tonari no Yokai-san
となりの妖怪さん
In the town of Engamori, supernatural beings known as yokai, gods, and humans have been living amongst each other for centuries, each striving to lead ordinary, peaceful lives. One day Buchio, a 20-year-old cat, mysteriously evolves into a nekomata, a feline yokai, near the end of his life. Although this allows him to stay with his human family longer, it also makes him question the reason behind his evolution, along with the special abilities that have recently manifested in himl. Meanwhile, an elementary school girl named Mutsumi "Muu-chan" Sugimoto begins to feel more attached to Jirou, a tengu—a crow-like yokai—and Jirou begins to fill the void left by her late father. While both are unable to properly communicate their intentions at first, they gradually form a companionship where they protect each other. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
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In the town of Engamori, supernatural beings known as yokai, gods, and humans have been living amongst each other for centuries, each striving to lead ordinary, peaceful lives. One day Buchio, a 20-year-old cat, mysteriously evolves into a nekomata, a feline yokai, near the end of his life. Although this allows him to stay with his human family longer, it also makes him question the reason behind his evolution, along with the special abilities that have recently manifested in himl. Meanwhile, an elementary school girl named Mutsumi "Muu-chan" Sugimoto begins to feel more attached to Jirou, a tengu—a crow-like yokai—and Jirou begins to fill the void left by her late father. While both are unable to properly communicate their intentions at first, they gradually form a companionship where they protect each other. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Gsarthotegga
June 29, 2024
Browsing through slice of life titles can be tricky, and it's easy to incorrectly stereotype SoL, thinking certain trends are representative of the genre. The older film and literary SoL (say, Yasujiro Ozu for film) was more traditional in style, then you have the later atmosphere-focused ones, with anime examples being Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou or Mushishi, and quite a few of them being iyashikei. Finally, there's the podiatrist-pandering brand of slime of life that you will find with the current deluge of CGDCT's patented cupcake and tea philosophy. Tonari no Youkai-san is in the atmospheric camp, for the most part, though it has the sentimentalitycommon to the more traditional SoL, and a touch of introspection that spills onto the scenes with blush-inducing blunt dialogue in what can sometimes come across as multiple interconnected therapy sessions, even spanning across multiple dimensions. The series resembles a cross between the SoL and family films of Keiichi Hara and the folklore-oriented fantasy and mysticism common to Natsume Yuujinchou or Ghibli but with a fraction of the budget, for the animation is proficient for what's needed but rarely anything amazing, and there are even some slideshows here and there. In the first episode alone, this is closer to the essence of what I expect from the genre. This is SoL in the truer sense of having fractured vignettes of a village community, living an ordinary existence with the ayakashi that the departed gods have left behind. There's actually a concern with atmosphere and setting and a magical and fantastical sense to the surroundings as we're slowly introduced to the essence of the world. There's a surprising amount of content crammed into episodes, with darker and lighter moods that are shifted around gracefully, and there are a few clear overarching plot points to act as hooks, as well as oni to add a light amount of tension (while thankfully not becoming a shonen). There's something new and fascinating to be found in every episode, much of which isn't over-explained and maintains an aura of mystery, giving a sense of wonder to the world that is sorely lacking in most popular SoL titles. Most SoL follows a menagerie of moeblobs or assorted oddballs nowadays, and it's rare to see the characters really feel rooted in a living, breathing community at all. Thankfully, that's not the case here, even if the integration of the yokai going to school with humans and entering standard career paths feels a touch odd, if not inorganic at times. Quite a few of the yokai have lifespans significantly longer than humans, and there are many elderly characters, so there is a heavy emphasis on the grief of losing loved ones and knowing they'll die and you'll have to continue without them. It's not just a pity party either, as the characters are tightly knit and the surroundings are warm. Pretty much all of them find ways to cope and grow, and there's a solid amount of character development to be found here. As a downside, the pacing of how various character arcs are handled is not always ideal, and it feels as if many characters are swallowed into a black hole for long stretches of episodes. Or one seemingly important character will have a few fleeting scenes and there's the impression that the studio forgot to continue that story. I'm even surprised that this series is apparently covering the entire manga because there's plenty of potential left to explore both the world and characters, but the ending is satisfactory. In a sense, the world feels a bit... off, which is probably to be expected for a fantasy weaving together humanity and yokai so closely. Throughout, there are numerous points where the plot pivots to discussions of alternate dimensions and their potential to affect the world we're invested in, creating a sense that the world could be a possible aberration or has a degree of instability, heightening the emphasis on mono no aware, which has to do with an empathy toward things (and with the animism of shintoism this can very literally mean just about any "thing") and impermanence, and there is a fragility to the world we're presented with, like it could be ripped apart at any moment, adding a bittersweet sensibility that leaves the warmth of the series with a foreboding feeling of heartbreak. The scale of the fantastical elements and the alternative universe sci-fi backdrop presents many ideas that suggest a limitless amount of possibilities existing "between the lines" of what we're presented with, giving the series a fair amount of depth. Broadly speaking, the series is solid, but, when looking at individual scenes, there's more of a mixture. Many moments are handled well, even for the majority of the series, but certain delicate scenes are handled poorly. While I'd occasionally have issues with melodramatic delivery, it has become unsavory in scenes such as those of Chiaki and Kazuhiko, with lots of crying and sappy music. I was laughing during many of these "tearjerker" scenes because Chiaki looks ridiculous to begin with, and it's hysterical when he's angry or upset, then pulls a "YOU'RE NOT MY DAD" and slams the door, followed by Kazuhiko coming in with his best ultra-high EQ sensitive routine to defuse the issue. Then we'll cut to crybaby Buchio's wavering waterspout for eyes like the hyper-expressive visual humor you'd find during the '90s, except this is meant to be serious. This example can be generalized to apply to the occasional overbaked scene. A number of scenes can even be summarized as "I know I worried you. I'm really sorry." "I'm sorry too." "How dare you apologize! I'm way sorrier than you could ever be." While it could sometimes be a case of following the source material too closely, the direction is sometimes weak when it comes to conveying emotion, going too hard and overplaying their hand, and I can't stress enough that some scenes are too melodramatic and use sappy music as a crutch. The score is decent enough for most purposes, but sometimes it's hard to do sad parts justice, and I suspect the manga version handles these parts better because there isn't any music to muck it up. Other parts are much better, such as the twisty conclusion with Jiro's backstory that involves Mutsumi's great grandmother, reinforcing and building upon what is occurring in the present between Mutsumi and Jiro; or Yuri's family drama, exploiting a sci-fi concept to wonderful effect. Probably the greatest difficulty in embracing Tonari's world is how much of a furry festival it resembles. You've got birbman Jirou, who looks like he flew in from DeviantArt and could audition for Sesame Street, and his underdeveloped—despite her seeming importance—catwolfwhatever sidekick with fuzzy eyebrows (who appears to have a blind boyfriend; it's tough being blind, man), a guffawing camel in a T-shirt, as well as other assorted critters yiffing up the scenery. It's so pervasive that I had to wear my Don't Yiff on Me T-shirt for each episode. The large web of relationships often remains vague and implied, but I'm pretty sure the one guy who lives with Yuri, the talking fox, is ignoring the "don't feed the animals" sign and giving her sausage, if you catch my drift; is it really any consolation that this fox can turn into a girl? Spice and Wolf can get away with it, but this series has one too many paws in woof world to be ignored. Old man Kazuhiko, who has the anthropomorphic car Chiaki for a caretaker, is shown being dumped in his twenties by a blue-haired manbull that was pulled by its nose ring out of Tumblr, which led to a chill running down my spine when I realized that was a potential premonition for grandpa to get shipped with his talking car! PLEASE STOP! There's even an intense moeification of the kappa females, yet daddy kappa is an ugly bastard (all of the male kappas as well). I've always taken a medieval kill-it-with-fire approach in these cases, but the female ones are actually kind of cute, I loathe to admit... There are even vibes that the young FMC might have romantic thoughts in her head about our noble birbman, and the spirits in the OP look like sperm... So there's more than a dash of latent fetish fuel (mostly the bad kind) in an otherwise "cozy and wholesome" SoL.
