Tsukikage Ran: Carried by the Wind

Director
Akitaro Daichi
Production
Bandai, Madhouse, WOWOW
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Year
2000

Tsukikage Ran: Carried by the Wind

By Frank Orville
23rd May 04

Where America has the Western Cowboy, Japan has the Edo-era Ronin. The Tokugawa Shogunate, which lasted from about 1600 to about 1860, is the most romanticized era of Japanese history, and the Samurai of that time period have the same allure in Japan's popular culture as the cowboy once had in America.

The idea of an honorable Ronin (masterless samurai) with great sword skill wandering around the landscape during the Edo-era of history is the biggest cliche on Japanese TV. And rather than just remake the cliche, the anime Tsukikage Ran has a bit of fun with it.

For starters, the main hero and the sidekick in these shows are always men, of course. Well, the ronin Ran is a woman, as is Meow, her sidekick. The people they meet in their adventures take an almost perverse pleasure in pointing this out. "Hey! It's a woman!" is uttered at least once an episode.

The character of Tsukikage Ran is an interesting one, if not too original. She has a noble heart, but over it she maintains a careful appearance of self-absorbed indifference. And she is more-or-less obsessed with finding good sake wherever she goes.

Meanwhile, Meow ("Lady Meow of the Iron Cat Fist Style!!!") is a rather hyperactive innocent who keeps getting herself in situations where she should be in over her head. But she always manages to get out again through sheer bloody-minded refusal to stop. Even if she is surrounded by people telling her that she should. Ran steadfastly refuses to acknowledge that Meow really is her sidekick, though the two quickly become inseparable.

The show is run by a very tight episodic schedule, where problems crop up and get resolved within a twenty-minute timeframe. Events and characters never carry over from one episode to the next. The only constant is Ran and Meow showing up in a new town or city and getting mixed up in the local trouble. The two of them are never changed by their experiences. Some people might like this kind of stability, but I generally find it annoying. I like a show where the characters grow and develop, and that never happens here.

Another complaint I have is how sanitized the violence is. People get slashed with swords and *die* quite often in this show, but there is never any blood. I have no problem with violence in and of itself, but the results of violence are much too clean in this show. Clean violence belongs in Warner Brothers cartoons or Uresai Yatsura. Tsukikage Ran may be something of a tongue-in-cheek parody, but it is serious enough that the violence should be taken seriously as well.

With that said, the action scenes really are top-notch. In most samurai anime, the sword fighting has a Matrix-style overblown feel, with slow-motion strikes and dramatic camera angles and the whole bit. In Tsukikage Ran, the sword fighting is fast, furious, brutal, and short. If a single duel lasts even ten seconds, it went quite long by this show's standards. Anyone who has ever been to a fencing match could attest to the realism of the sword fights in Tsukikage Ran.

"Run With the Wind, Tsukikage Ran" is not very deep. It is a straightforward adventure show that plays for laughs, but which still manages to take itself seriously. Think "The Seven Samurai" meets "Xena: Warrior Princess" and you'll have a good handle on this anime.

7/10

-- Frank Orville 23rd May 04

Tsukikage Ran: Carried by the Wind Images