Dear readers,
It is that time of the week again when I, Lady Strange, bring you the latest review of the anime I am following. As you may have noticed, this autumn/winter season seems to be playing host to quite a few supernaturally themed anime. So far, we have Rental Magica, Ghost Hound, Shugo Charat, and of course Mokke just to name a few. Yes, I know nothing much “seems” to happen in Mokke which is a slice-of-life anime. There is no spooky supernatural hauntings like those in Ghost Hound, no action sequences like that in Rental Magica, no cute fairies like those in Shugo Charat, but I like to think that Mokke and its very element of slice-of-life-ness (if I may use such an ill-sounding phrase) renders it unique. Once again, the things in it and its themes look deceptively simple, but it really is about deeper political and/or human things.
Enough on that, let’s see what happens in the second episode entitled, “Nagare Izuna” or “The Wandering Izuna” in English.
Synopsis: Remember what I said about the premise for Mokke? Our protagonists – two sisters, the elder named Shizuru has the ability to see spirits, whereas Mizuki (the younger sister) has the unfortunate ability to attract spirits to her. It should be noted that the younger sister does not have the ability to see all kinds of spirits. She was able to see the ‘mikoshi’ in episode one, but unable to see the ‘izuna’ in this episode.
First off, what is an ‘izuna’? Izuna are explained in this episode as kind youkai (often translated as demons because the Japanese use the same Chinese characters as ‘demon’ but youkai is actually a more powerful kind of spirit). As I was saying, the izuna (i) devote themselves to a master, and (ii) assist the master in various ways.
The episode opens with Mizuki falling asleep at the breakfast table as she had stayed up all night studying for a modern Japanese test. There is traditional Japanese and modern Japanese. Japanese school children have to learn both. Anyhow, Mizuki falls asleep at the breakfast table, elder sister Shizuru praises her for being hardworking but is concerned with Mizuki’s apparent exhaustion. Grandfather, we learn, has gone away for a few days to work. After advising Mizuki not to fall asleep during the test, Shizuru casually informs her sister that the offerings at the nearby Inari shrine are being eaten by spirits. In Japanese, Korean and Chinese Buddhist and Taoist religion, one makes offerings to the dead who then either use these offerings or eats them. Digression aside, Shizuru tells Mizuki to avoid passing the shrine as to not attract youkai.
Aki, Shizuru’s friend, pops up on the countryside road, and greets the girls while they are en route to school. Shizuru hands Aki a notebook filled with lecture notes taken from the days Aki was absent from having the flu (cf. episode 01). Aki is pleasantly surprised with this, as Mizuki muses about how she wants to be able to help others, and how this desire brought her to the spirit introduced in this episode, the izuna.
Mizuki, being the high spirited that she is, ignores her sister’s warnings and passes by the Inari shrine as she makes her way to school. Sure enough, the offerings are half-gone. She notices that only some of the food offered were eaten, and makes note that the culprit is probably not human (as humans would most likely consume all of it). Just as she wonders about this, a youkai jumps onto her back, as Mizuki regretfully thinks, “Good Lord, not again!”
The phantom spirit, invisible to Mizuki, introduces itself as Amenosumera ashuho no Mikoto (a deity that lives at the Inari shrine). It claims to have been drawn to Mizuki, and offers to provide the young girl with spiritual powers and guidance. Mizuki, having gone through what she did in episode 01 is sceptical of the youkai’s proposal and a little suspicious of its intentions. After the rather difficult modern Japanese language test (where Mizuki refuses to accept the youkai’s help to cheat) the class is presented with a research project concerned with their town’s (Kamimenecho) culture. The students are enthusiastic at the announcement, as one of the projects will be included in the local newspaper. Mizuki’s group decides to write about the town’s numerous kurayashiki or medieval storehouses. Mizuki looks around the library for reference books on the particular subject, and with the aid of the youkai finds several of them. By now, she is starting to trust the spirit sitting on her shoulders.
With school over, Shizuru notices the youkai, calling it kawaii (cute – and it is), likening it to a hamster. As Shizuru can see it, she makes a quick sketch of it and reveals thath the spirit on Mizuki’s shoulder is not actually a deity, but spirits collectively known as an izuna. The izuna thath had attached itself to Mizuki is not a malicious one. It had been wandering around looking for a new master. Mizuki quietly asks her sister if the izuna can remain at her side until their grandfather returns. Shizuru accedes to this. She tells Mizuki, however, that they should be wary of Mike-san (pronounced Mee-kay-san), their grandparents’ cat, or any other cat for that matter, as they have a disposition to repel or even eat these particular youkai.
With the izuna’s help, Mizuki brings her group along to finish up the cultural report. They visit the several kurayashiki in their area and take photos and interview locals &ca. The group stops by one particular kurayashiki that lies ahead of a dark tunnel. Before they enter, however, an argument breaks out between Mizuki and the two boys in the group, who accuse her of being a control freak and depart. Upset and puzzled at why her willingness to be cooperative and helpful backfired, Mizuki mopes around the Inari shrine. The izuna attempts to cheer her up, but only makes her more irritated, until a sudden whirlwind blows and whips up the surrounding leaves. Wondering about what can possibly happen now, Mizuki looks ahead and spots Mike-san, their cat. With a few meows, it repels (or rather, blows away) the small spirit away into thin air. It thanks Mizuki for being a nice person before it is blown away.
After this sad event takes place, Mizuki cries on losing the kawaii izuna and regrets her bossiness. So, she apologises to her group and resumes working on their report. At last, we are treated to a peek in Mizuki’s notebook, and we are pleasantly surprised to discover that her group’s article was chosen for the newspaper.
Review:
We learn a great deal about Mizuki and human nature in this episode. So those who say slice-of-life doesn’t impart any values or information should not taunt the select group of us who do like these kinds of anime. The animation of the countryside is lovely in this episode and we see the children doing what children should be doing – frolicking in open spaces and gambolling like lambs across the countryside. Thankfully, the spirit of the week is not an evil thing like the mikoshi of episode 01. The izuna is not only kawaii, light, and err… squirrel-like, it is also rather helpful. It did not wish or seek to attack or trap Mizuki. Notice that the izuna is small enough to sit on Mizuki’s shoulder. Also note that the izuna is neither good nor bad, it just wants to help its mistress/master.
Well, first off – we see the development of Mizuki’s character. We see what she’s like in school and what she really is like. She’s a curious lass who is piqued by anything that is told to her. She is the kind of child who will want confirmation of whatever is told to her, and she confirms it by investigating into matter so as to see with her own eyes that what was told to her is the truth. Very high-spirited child that she is, she goes to the Inari shrine and while there, the Izuna picks her up so to speak. The Inari shrine is where one worships the autumnal harvest gods and spirits if I understand it correctly. Well, after the Izuna picks up Mizuki has a mistress, we see its zeal to assist her. Then things go wrong. Mizuki becomes over-enthused with the things she does, so much so that she thinks it is part of her natural ability and she becomes little Miss Bossy. Do you get Rousseauian vibes here? I do.
Let me explain – in helping Mizuki, the izuna makes her appear smarter, more capable &ca than she actually is. Not that she’s not a capable girl in her own right of course. But it leads her to become conceited with her abilities and herself. She becomes so conceited that she (a) quarrels with her friends while discussing the school project because she tries to order them to do what she wants done, and (b) she blames the izuna for causing the quarrel between herself and her friends. Her pride in her abilities leads this girl to be self-interested so self-interested that it becomes a vanity. This then is the moral of this episode.
Conceit, vanity, amour propre call it what you will is dangerous. It transforms one, it corrupts one. Remember amour propre is concern with how others sees one. And we know from Rousseau that amour propre has four consequences: (1) competition, (2) self-comparison with others, (3) hatred, and (4) urge for power. Amour propre needs a kind of social contract before it can occur. The social contract in this case is the izuna’s adoption of Mizuki as a mistress and Mizuki using it to help with her school project. So, in this short 24 min episode we learn about vanity, and vanity is essentially a social construct and is self-directed. Why? Because I want to feel good about myself, but my feeling good about myself really depends on how others look at me and perceive me. In other words, I require an audience. Vanity means you want people to say nice things about you. Why is this a dangerous passion? If you are saying nice things about me, then I must be better than you are – it means that I am nicer than you. Then, it means that we are nice and then we must be nicer than the people who praise us. My feeling good about your praise of me demeans you. And it makes me feel good that you are demeaned. See this corrupted social pattern! Mizuki’s friends tell her that she’s smart, and they flatter her vanity. Naturally, she feels good about it. By telling her that she’s capable and smart, her friends are indirectly telling her that they are not as smart or as capable as her. By telling her that she is smart and capable, they are demeaned straight away. But we need this sort of thing to reaffirm our superiority. In that way, Mizuki’s sense of superiority necessarily means that she thinks her friends inferior. That is why she quarrels with them over the project and the direction it should take. Her friends of course storm off after they come to points with her. She feels insulted because there is no longer anyone to pander to her vanity. And this is pernicious. Because the person who wants people to look up to him craves attention. And this is true as we can see in Mizuki. She is very sensitive to her perceived superiority and she gets offended very easily. When things go wrong, the vanity comes into play again and the blame is allocated to the izuna who encourages the growth of that sentiment in Mizuki by helping her out. Thus this amour propre is the thing that poisons modern human relations. This then is what this episode of Mokke is trying to say. Conveniently the izuna is blown away when confronted with the cat, but it manages to thank Mizuki for being a kind mistress who treated it like a friend. Mizuki then realises how horrid she has been with her amour propre and resolves to be more humble – lesson learnt. And it is a lesson we should learn.
Thus ends this review of episode 02 of Mokke.
*On a side note, the seiyuu for the Izuna sounds like Ryusei Nakao who voiced Kurotsuchi Mayuri-sama in Bleach.
