Sensou Douwa: Aoi Hitomi no Onnako no Ohanashu

Sensou Douwa (War Tales or War Fables) was a series of TV specials by Shin-Ei Animation that ran annually from 2002 to 2009. In chronological order:

• 2002    Umigame to Shounen (The Boy and The Sea Turtle)
• 2003    Tako ni Natta Okaasan (The Mother Who Became a Kite)
• 2004    Chiisai Sensuikau ni Koi wo Shita Dekasugira Kojira no Hanashi (The Tale of the Ginormous Whale That Fell in Love with a Little Submarine)
• 2005    Boku no Boukuugou (My Air Raid Shelter)
• 2006    Yakeato no, Okashi no Ki (The Cake Tree in the Ruins)
• 2007    Futatsu no Kurumi (Two Walnuts)
• 2008    Kiku-chan to Ookami  (Kiku-chan and the Wolf)
• 2009    Aoi Hitomi no Onnako no Ohanashu (The Tale of the Blue-Eyed Girl)

Orphan has already released The Boy and the Sea Turtle, The Cake Tree in the Ruins, The Mother Who Became a Kite, The Tale of the Ginormous Whale That Fell in Love with a Little Submarine, My Air Raid Shelter, and Kiku and the Wolf. Today, we're releasing Aoi Hitomi no Onnako no Ohanashu (The Tale of the Blue-Eyed Girl). Saizen has already done Two Walnuts, so the series is completely translated.

Aoi Hitomi no Onnako no Ohanashu is a departure from the most of the Sensou Douwa series, both in source material and in tone. It's not based on a short story by Nosaka Akiyuki. Instead, it's an original screenplay by Fujimoto Nobuyuki, who penned scripts for children's shows such as the original Doraemon and Bosco Adventure, as well as the adaptations of three earlier Sensou Douwa shows. As a result, it's a lighter episode than some of the previous specials, and it has a relatively happy ending.

Like the other episodes, Aoi Hitomi no Onnako no Ohanashu is set in World War II Japan. Although the time-frame isn't specified, the story is set after the firebombing of Yokohama (April, 1945) - the last five months of the war. Kudo Eiko, a grade-school girl, and her mother have fled to the relative safety of the countryside. When Eiko is introduced to her rural classmates, they are all struck by one thing. She has blue eyes, which most of them have never seen. (One asks, "Did she paint them?") They are horrified to discover the reason. Eiko is the daughter of an American man and a Japanese woman. Her father was sent back to the United States at the outbreak of the war. Eiko and her mother remained in Japan.

Most of the school kids have absorbed the lessons of Japanese propaganda - that Americans are savages - and they shun and bully Eiko. But one boy, Kenta, doesn't agree. He befriends Eiko and brings her into his group of friends, Norio, Tarou, and Shunsuke. This goes reasonably well until Norio's dad returns from the war, horribly wounded, with the news that Norio's older brother has been killed. Everyone except Kenta turns against Eiko. Then, Kenta and Eiko are both orphaned in an air raid. Kenta must go live with distant relatives, and Eiko will be interned by the Military Police as an enemy alien, even though she's a Japanese citizen. This terrible prospect brings the boys, and the rest of the class, to their senses. With help from his friends, Kenta hatches a plan to save Eiko and himself from their fates.

The show contrasts the attitude of Kenta, his sympathetic teacher, Miss Akiko, and eventually his friends, with the unthinking xenophobia of most of the children and the (male) teachers at the school. Miss Akiko, in particular, draws a distinction between the wars of adults and the universal friendship of children; that draws a sharp rebuke from her colleagues. In addition, the show contrasts the grim reality of wartime Japan with a (mythical?) island in the South Pacific, where the people are friendly to everyone and war is unknown. With the help of a friendly but drunken fishing boat captain, Kenta hopes to take Eiko to this utopia.

One irrelevant question kept nagging at me: could the daughter of a Japanese woman and an American man have blue eyes? As I was taught in high school genetics, blue eyes are recessive. For Eiko to have blue eyes, her mother would have to have one blue-eye gene. I thought blue eyes were unknown in pre-war Japan, but in fact, they were found in the north and in a few other parts of Japan.

The voice cast includes:

• Kuwashima Houko (Eiko) played the title role in Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne and Arete-Hime and starred as Sango in Inuyasha, Aoi in Infinite Ryvius, Marlene in Blue Gender, Margaret in Madlax, Kou Shuurei in the Saiunkoku Monogatari series, Yuuko in Dennou Coil, Chizuru in the Hakuoiki properties, and Warp in Kaiba. She appeared in Yume Tsukai, an Orphan release.
• Komatsu Rika (Kenta) appeared in Animation Runner Kumori, Boys Be..., Kuromajyo-san ga Tooru!, Nessa no Ha-ou Gandalla, On-chan, and Shin Hakkenden, among other featured roles.
• Kobayashi Yumiko (Norio) played the title role in Crayon Shin-chan, Poemi in Puni Puni Poemi and Excel Saga, Souchi in ex-Driver, Mamoru in Sister Princess, Shoubu in the Duel Masters franchise, and Shiro the demon dog in the Hoozuki no Reitetsou properties.
  
• Shimamoto Sumi (Miss Akiko) debuted as Clarisse in The Castle of Cagliostro. She starred as Sara in Princess Sara, Nausicaa in Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Otonashi Kyouko in Maison Ikkoku, and Dayan in Neko no Dayan. She also played Shokupanman in the Soreike! Anpanman franchise, Tinkerbell in Peter Pan no Bouken, Antoinette in Reporter Blues, Big Mama in Bakuretsu Hunter, Sue in Maris the Choujo, Elice in Fire Emblem, and the mother in Kiku and the Wolf. The last three are Orphan releases.
• Mine Atsuko (Tarou) played Miwa, the artist's wife, in Lunn Flies into the Wind and Maris' mother in Maris the Choujo, both Orphan release, as well as Tohdoh Yuki in Yawara!
• Nagasako Takashi (the principal) played King Enma in the Hoozuki no Reitetsu properties and Bill Atkin in Alice in Cyberland 2, an Orphan release.
• Isobe Masako (Tomie, Kenta's mother) played Tilda Miller in Gozdilla S.P. She appeared in Ear of the Golden Dragon, an Orphan release, Letter Bee, and Koi Sento.
• Nakagi Ryuji (old Captain) played Lot in Tezuka Osamu's Tales from the Old Testament, an Orphan release, and Coach Yuutenji in Yawara!, among other featured roles.
  

The director, Yasumi Tetsuo, wrote the screenplay for Kiku and the Wolf and storyboards for numerous series.

As he's done for all the other Sensou Douwa releases, kokujin-kun translated Aoi Hitomi no Onnako no Ohanashu. Yogicat timed. I edited and typeset. Nemesis and Uchuu QCed. The raw is a 1080p webrip from UNEXT, rather bit-starved. (It would be nice to have better raws, but the R2J DVDs are hard to find.) Honorifics have been omitted.

Now that the series is completely translated, I can look back on all the episodes and sum them up simply, using Lorraine Schneider's classic poster:

Three of the shows (The Boy and the Sea Turtle, The Mother Who Became a Kite, The Cake Tree in the Ruins) portray the deaths of children in war in straightforward and devastating ways. As a parent (and now grandparent), I found them extremely upsetting and very difficult to watch. The rest are more indirect in their approach, and I had a sense that the series was pulling its punches in the later episodes. Kiku and the Wolf deviates from Nosaka Akiyuki's story to provide a more upbeat ending. The Tale of the Blue-Eyed Girl is downright optimistic, compared to the rest; Kenta and Eiko's escape from the MPs has a lyrical, almost fairy-tale quality. Nonetheless, the shows collectively demonstrate the cruel mindlessness of war in ways impossible to ignore. Did they have an impact on their intended audience? I simply don't know.

You can get Aoi Hitomi no Onnako no Ohanashu from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net. Peace.