Uchoten Kazoku: When You Got Sauce in Your Wasabi

By that I mean when you got saudade in your wabi-sabi.

Or when you got anime in your Kyoto-style life.

Or when you got moe in your tanuki.

I see why they like Kaisei.

More seriously, while there’s nothing particularly problematic about Uchouten Kazoku as a whole, the more I watch the show slowly unravel itself in typical Asian familial tragedy manners, the less I feel compelled by its narrative. Maybe it is partly due to the whole PA Works animation angle. Maybe it has to do with the relatively contemporary setting. Maybe it’s because Yuasa’s Tatami Galaxy set a false and unrealistic standard/tone to what I thought this sort of a story could be. It’s kind of like falling in love with somebody only to realize that person is not who you think it is, in a good, “hey I can live with this” sort of way. It’s fine and practical but largely devoid of glamour.

I guess this is the ultimate problem when every other show you get hyped about has to do with some social taboo like Twincest for the Win or A Little Sister Is Fine Too or Oh Man That Pig Is So Cute And I Want to Eat Him. And I’m not even talking about Silver Spoon. Fantastical Tanuki Family Bickering Foolishness has a tall wall to climb. But then again Kaisei is close enough for incest in some jurisdictions, assuming if she and her mate are human. I guess this is where Uchouten Kazoku could’ve really played things up. Let the tanuki be tanuki.

Which is to say, 8Ken will never make it as a Friday Fellow because what defines true love for him is some shallow shadow of its true nature.