Utawarerumono ep.1

April 4, 2006 | 9 Comments

Opening Theme: 「夢想歌」 - Musuoka by Suara (16.3MB, for PSP/Quicktime) | Mirror

To be honest, I'm not that keen on the character design but the opening theme sounds really good. I think the refrain part of the song sounds a bit Okinawan in tone. In general, the animation is quite good and the background looks a bit Mononoke Hime-ish. Having said that, at the moment I'm still undecided whether or not I'll follow this. The cat ear is a bit amusing but also a bit of a turn-off for me. Story-wise, I'm quite surprised to know that the first episode actually presents a rather interesting mystery right off the bat. I'll have to wait and see if the story is right up my alley but so far I have to admit that this one is quite an interesting story.

A man has a dream of a beast in the midst of fire while the soothing voice of a girl can be heard telling him to sleep without any worry. The man then wakes up and finds out that the girl is called Eruru and they are currently inside her house. According to the Eruru, she found the man collapsed inside a forest with a lot of bad injury on his body. The man seems to be okay right now because apparently an old woman has taken care of these wounds. The man then realises that he doesn't have any memory about himself and asks Eruru to tell him about his identity. Unfortunately Eruru doesn't know either and when the man looks into a pond of water, he realises that he has a mask covering his face. The next morning, the man wakes up and realises that he can't take off his mask so he wonders why this is the case. An old woman called Tousukuru then arrives to check on him and advises him that if he can't take off the mask, then he shouldn't take it off.

Tousukuru believes there's probably a reason for it and right now the biggest priority for the man is to heal slowly. After the old woman left, Eruru appears to spoonfed the man but in before she can do this, the man realises that a little girl has been watching them. The girl is none other than Eruru's little sister, Aruru. Thanks to Eruru and Tousukuru's care, the man slowly regains his health so he and Eruru decide to take a walk throughout the village. Eruru seems to have a crush on the man but the man is a bit curious with the fact that Eruru seems to have a dog tail and a dog ear. When he grabs Eruru's tail, Eruru becomes embarassed then excited before eventually pushing the man aside. She tells the man that a man shouldn't touch a woman's tail. Despite this, the man can't help but wonder if the tail is a real thing much to Eruru's confusion. The two are then joined by a burly but kind man called Teoro. The two eventually also met Teoro's wife, Sepoko.

Sepoko doesn't waste time making fun of the fact that the man has his hand over Eruru's shoulder like the way a man holding his wife. So Eruru stutters and explains that he had to do this due to his injury. The two then tour around the village where the man seems to be accepted quite well by the villagers. The two then decide to take a break under a tree when the man becomes tired. In the middle of doing so, however, Eruru hears an animal sound so Eruru decides to find the source of the noise. It turns out the sound belongs to an animal that is used by a man called Nuwangi to come to collect tax from the village. Nuwangi also happens to be Eruru's childhood friend and he clearly has an unrequited crush on her. Nuwangi tries to take Eruru with him but thankfully the mysterious man appears to stop him. Nuwangi becomes jealous and tries to punch his opponent. Much to his surprise, however, the man can stop his punch quite easily.

Nuwangi has no choice but to go away and save his face. In order to channel his anger by destroying a shrine in the forest. He, however, becomes terrified when he hears an animal growl coming from the mountain's direction. Later on that night, the villagers gather at the old woman's house who tells them that the sound belongs to a creature called Mutikapa-sama. The villagers wonder who upset the creature and their first suspicion falls onto the new guy. However, Eruru defends him by telling them that the man has always been with her today. Because it's already late, the only thing the villagers can do is not to go out during the night. Later on, while getting bandaged by Eruru, the man gets another vision of a beast so Eruru tells him to take it easy. She believes that if he gets better, his memory should come back. After everyone goes to sleep, however, a giant black/white Lion can be seen growling on top of a mountain.

Impression:

The first thing that attracted my interest was the mystery surrounding the identity of the nameless man. I thought it was strange that he can't seem to take off his mask. It makes me wonder if he'll transform into the beast inside his dream if he does take it off. He also seems to be the only person around the village who doesn't have any animal-like feature while everyone else around him take these features for granted and act as if they are actually normal. It was rather amusing to see the man grabbing Eruru's tail and Eruru getting excited just like a dog getting pet by its owner. ^_^; This is going to be an unusual romance from the look of things. And judging from the opening, the main characters will also face some strange-looking villain. Last but not least, I must say that the background music used in this series is quite impressive. It seems to have been written in a way that it'll transition from a lighter tone to a darker one easily.

Ending Theme

Ending Theme: 「まどろみの輪廻」 - Madoromi no Rinne by Kawai Eri (17.1MB, for PSP/Quicktime)

The ending doesn't capture my immediate interest as the opening but it's not bad by any stretch of imagination. I think I just have a bit of a problem with the singer, who seems to be straining to reach a certain part of the note.

© memento 2003