Binchou-tan

I came to the conclusion that I hate reviews. Hate reading them and hate writing them, so for Binchou-tan I'll just throw a couple of notes in.



Binchou-tan is an anime for small children, first and foremost. Anime as a medium made great inroads outside of children's animation. Typical high profile shows these days have uncut sex in them (REC, Nana), incredibly violent (I avoid those, but I heard Cowboy Bebop was mild by today standards), touch upon (pseudo-)philosophical concepts like human identity (GiTS). The runner-up for Best Anime of 2005 is a subtle college soap opera. There's horror anime, political triller anime, and so on and so forth. Leading shows with universal appeal, such as Kamichu, are constructed with enormous depth in them. So, I forgot that children's anime existed, since it was completely invisible until Binchou-tan burst to the scene. Binchou-tan makes absolutely no excuses here, it's squarely aimed at 7-year-olds.



Binchou lives in horrible conditions reminiscent of 18-th century rural Japan. But I somehow do not want to use the word "poverty". She has a very un-povertysh outlook. It's not just that she's not sitting in her hut smoking crack and waiting for the next government cheque. It's more than she goes to work every day. I am not quite sure what "it" is, but probably one of the bigger parts of it is that Binchou has no stigma. One of her best friends, Kunugi, is rich and lives in opulence. The two are completely level. Binchou behaves like a functional member of a society, and is fully adjusted.

Liked: Very much
Rewatch: Not sure yet