The Heike Story

The Tale of the Heike is an extraordinary anime series that caught my attention with its aesthetic, animation style, and soundtrack. It almost gave me the impression at times that I was watching a strange combination of a television series and a theatrical performance. There is much Japanese mysticism and tradition, some interesting historical characters, and a reasonably simplistic narrative concerning the fall of a great dynasty and an epic power struggle. The epic account is all told from the perspective of a young girl. Personally speaking, I saw it as an effort to bring more people closer to the Japanese classics. Getting folk to read those books would explain why a lot of the politics and plotting is so simplistic and comes across as slightly truncated to make it easier and more accessible for the audience to follow. However, it does have its own undeniable charm, and I immensely enjoyed Aoi Yuki's performance in the lead role and admired her singing in particular. It was a unique experience - a very interesting show, even though it was probably worth only one viewing. This show hopefully educated me a little, enriched me culturally, and was certainly not boring. On the other hand, I wonder if this is an anime series I would recommend to the average anime viewer, and something tells me that a lot of the people I know would find it too weird or boring. It is simply that this show is definitely not going to be for everyone, even though I did enjoy it quite a bit. 6.9/10. (24/11/2021)