Hey guys Nitsuj here, welcome to another side blog. This is where I dive a little deeper into the anime I just reviewed, review extras from the anime such as OVAs, or talk about other important aspects of the anime I didn’t get a chance to talk about in the review. For this side blog I would like for everyone to welcome my assistant and the one who will be running the blogs with me Isis. (Isis): Greetings, I am Isis it is a pleasure to meet you. (Nitsju): Isis is a computer AI program I created to help me look deeper into the animes I’ve reviewed. The best way to describe her is imagine the appearance of Quorra from Tron Legacy with the voice of Elizabeth from the game Persona 3. With that being said Isis here will take a closer look at Okami-san and Her Seven Companions anime. If you’ve read the review already or just skipped it and came here first you should know that all of the characters are based off characters from classic fairy tales, Japanese folklores, and other fables from around the world. I skipped out on going deeper into their characters on purpose in the review because I felt the review would have gone on longer and I didn’t want to bore you. In this side blog Isis will give a brief explanation on all of the characters and dive a little into the history of the stories where it came from and how it relates to the character within the anime. Alright Isis, do your thing:
(Isis): Let’s start by looking at our main characters. Ringo, Ryoko and Ryoshi’s characters are based off the classic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood. The story you all know, a girl goes to her grandmother’s house and when she gets there a wolf has eaten her grandmother put on disguised to fool her and eats her as well. However at the end a hunter sees all of this, kills the wolf, and saves them both. Ringo is Red Riding Hood as you’ll see in the anime she’s always carrying a basket and wears a dress that has some resemblance to the character’s dress from the story. Ryoko is the wolf, pretty self-explanatory and Ryoshi is the hunter hunting the wolf and trying to make the wolf his.
The cousins Liszt and Alice Kiriki come from Aesop’s fable The Ant and the Grasshopper. For those of you who don’t know Aesop was a story-teller and slave believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC. He wrote a number of fables, some of his most popular ones are The Tortoise and the Hare, The Boy who Cried Wolf, and The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. The Ant and the Grasshopper is a tale I’m pretty sure everyone knows, the hard working ant works all through the warm months to store up food for the winter while the grasshopper spends his days being lazy and singing. When winter rolls around the ant has food to last him through the winter while the grasshopper has nothing. When the grasshopper asks for help he is denied and told to dance all winter. The moral of the story is don’t be lazy and work hard or you’ll end up like the grasshopper. There’s actually a Disney cartoon of this story that follows this same story except it’s a colony of ants instead of one and in the end they do help the grasshopper instead of toss him out. Warner Bros. cartoon Porky’s Bear Facts also tells the same story with Porky and his lazy neighbor a bear (dramatic lightning and choir) who begs Porky for food in which he ultimately gives in and help him, but when spring comes around the bear returns back to his lazy ways learning nothing. In the anime Liszt is believed to a parody of the grasshopper since in the anime’s opening he’s seen being lazy and playing a violin and Alice represents the ant as she is shown usually working, her hair actually resembles the antennae of an ant and the first two syllables of her name in Japan Arisu, Ari means “ant”.
The next three characters Taro, Otohime, Mimi come from two tales. First, Taro and Otohime come from the Japanese folklore Urashima Tarō (in fact this is actually Taro’s full name in the anime), the story centers around a fisherman who saves a turtle from a group of kids. As a reward the turtle takes him to the Palace of the Dragon God which is under sea, he stays there for 3 days and when he returns he finds out that 300 years have passed. Filled with grief he absent-mindedly opens up a box that was given to him from the turtle who is really a princess which contained his age and in an instant he becomes an old man. Taro in the anime is the fisherman while Otohime is the princess/turtle that fell in love with the fisherman. Mimi represents the rabbit from another one of Aesop’s famous fables The Tortoise and the Hare and in episode 3 we see her and Otohime (who represents the tortoise in this episode) square off in the beauty contest. In fact Mimi’s last name Usami roughly means rabbit in Japanese.
The next two characters Otsu and Majo come from two separate stories. Otsu’s character comes from another Japanese folklore called Tsuru no Ongaeshi (The crane’s return of a favor). The story centers around a crane who returns the favor to a man who saved her life. In the story the crane disguises herself as a young female, starts to live with the man and his wife as their adopted daughter, and weaves cloths for the couple to sell, made from her own feathers. When the couple found out about this the crane left because it had been discovered and the story ends with the couple sad that the crane had left. I guess the moral of the story if there is one is not to become too obsessed with returning a favor that it causes you to lose what’s important and valuable to you. This scenario is seen in episode 4 of the anime of how Otsu has an unhealthy obsession with returning favors. Majo’s character comes from the sorceress named Morgan le Fay from the Arthurian legend. There’s really not that much to say about this character on account of they don’t use her a lot in the anime or explore her past like they do the other characters. Although it is said that she also acts as the Fairy Godmother. I’m assuming that’s because she makes all of the inventions and gadgets for the group.
The villains
Shiro is our main antagonist in the series and he represents the wolf in sheep’s clothing in the anime. As my master said in his review he acts like a sheep following the herd and doing what he’s told but in truth he’s actually a wolf in disguise waiting to attack and hiding his true nature. We see this in his relationship with Ryoko on how he tried to rape her in middle school and spread a lie about Ryoko in order to keep himself safe. So we could also say that he represents the wolf from The Boy who Cried Wolf. Or in this case the Wolf who Cried Rape. As for the thugs in this anime I assume they represent oni who are always causing trouble for anyone and need to be exorcised from the city.
Side Characters
Much like the main characters and villains the side characters also come from other stories. Momo-chan-senpai comes from the Japanese folklore Momotaro. In the story the character Momotaro comes to earth from a giant peach which is discovered by an old couple. The couple takes it in as their own child and years later the child goes off to fight oni on a distant island. Along the way Momotaro befriends a talking dog, monkey, and pheasant (think like a cross between a peacock and roaster) who help him on his journey. In the anime Momotaro is actually a girl with huge peaches (truly the act of a man) who is often accompanied by 3 guys (sometimes Taro) whose faces and hairstyle resemble a dog, monkey, and pheasant.
Ami Jizo from episode 7 represents the Jizo from the Japanese folklore Kasajizo. In Japan Jizo is respectfully known as one of the most loved of all Japanese divinities. You can see his statues on the roadside and in graveyards commonly in Japan. He’s basically seen as the guardian of children (particularly those who have died before their parents) protecting and saving them from illness. In the anime I guess we can assume that Ami is protecting the object of her affection by cleaning his house to keep germs from infecting him and cooking him a well balance meal to keep him healthy for his baseball games. Perhaps I shall acquire one of these Jizo statues of my own, to help ward off viruses. (Nitsuj): Why? You’re not a child Isis; I created you to look like a woman in her early 20’s late teens. (Isis): True, but I am roughly a week old so I do count as a child. (Nitsuj): *looks at Isis from top to bottom* Well I suppose girls do mature faster than boys. (Isis): You are a troll. You are a troll. Where? He is under the bridge. There is the troll. (Nitsuj): My apologies please continue. (Isis): You are forgiven.
In episode 8 the troll said in his review that the episode centers on a boy who looks like a mouse trying to find a bride. I did some research and I too have no idea what story he comes from or even if he comes from a story. However, the girl he chooses in the end I’m assuming is based off a Zashiki-warashi. Zashiki-warashi are spirits who have the appearance of a 5 or 6 year old child that inhabit well-maintained houses (preferably large ones) and can only be seen by the residents of the house or it’s children. It’s said that they bring great fortune to the residence of the house they’re in and often play harmless childish pranks on them.
In episode 9 Shirayuki Himeno (her first name actually translates into white snow) and her siblings represent Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. If you haven’t read, watch, or heard of the story then you seriously had no childhood. However she does have a connection with her half-sister Ringo. In Japan Ringo actually means apple and some aspects of her such as her schemes and manipulative personality resemble that of a poison apple which are actually noted and reference by the narrator and other characters.
Neko-san as said by the troll (Nitsuj: Can you let that go) before is based off of Puss in Boots from the story under the same name. Thanks to Dreamworks and the Shrek movies everybody knows who this character is but I doubt a lot of people know the story. Puss in Boots is a French fairy tale from the 17th century about a cat who uses trickery and deceit to gain power, wealth, and the hand of a princess in marriage for his penniless and low-born master. There are a lot of questions behind the authorship of this story but Charles Perrault is often credited for being the author of this story. In the anime Neko-san is seen as Puss in Boots since he helps Ryoshi become stronger to protect Ryoko.
In the final episode, Machiko Himura represents the girl from The Little Match Girl a short story by the Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen. The story centers around a girl living in poverty trying to sell matches in the street while freezing; she’s afraid to go home because her dad is abusive and takes shelter in a nook and lights the matches to keep warm. As she lights them she sees visions of a Christmas tree, holiday feast, and her grandmother. When she runs out she dies in the street and her soul is carried off to Heaven by her grandmother. In the anime Machiko lives in poverty, has a dead-beat father who abandons her and is shown kindness by Ryoshi. However, unlike the original story, Machiko has a happy ending. Another bit of trivia, the “Machi” in Machiko actually sounds like match in English.
(Nitsuj): So there you have it. A deeper look at the characters of Okami-san and Her Seven Companions I hope you enjoyed it, thanks for reading, and tune in next week when I review Highschool DxD. And thank you Isis for filling in the gaps for me. (Isis): Of course master, I look forward to working with you on more projects and keeping your troll-like demeanor in check *disappears*. (Nitsuj): Isn’t she sweet?
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