Nijuushi no Hitomi

Nijuushi no Hitomi (Twelve Sets of Eyes) is a 1980 TV special based on a perennially popular novel by Tsuboi Sakae. In addition to this anime, it has been made into a movie twice (1954, 1987) and into a TV drama no less than eight times. This is quite remarkable, considering its clear anti-war and anti-military views, which reflect the author's experiences before, during, and after World War II.

Ooishi Hisako is a newly graduated teacher. She comes to Shoudoshima, a small island in the Seto Inland Sea, to teach at an elementary school in a small village on an isolated cape. (It is called the Detached Classroom because it is separate from the main school complex on the island.) 

Despite encountering resistance from the conservative villagers - she rides a bicycle and wears Western clothes - she soon wins over her twelve first-year pupils with her cheerful demeanor and caring interest in them.

Over the course of six months, she becomes a favorite of the children and their parents. However, she is injured in a student prank and is unable to commute to the Detached Classroom. She transfers to the main school and promises her pupils that she will see them all again when they enter fifth grade.

Fast forward four years. Ooishi is reunited with her now fifth-year students. But the joy of seeing them grow and of taking them on a field trip to the wider world is shadowed by the darkening clouds of war. Japanese adventurism in China and military unrest at home is threatening a new global conflict. Ooishi, now married with a child, makes her distaste for war and the military clear.

This outspokenness brings her into conflict with the authorities, and for her own protection, she retires to be a homemaker, to the regret of her once-again bereft students.

The war has terrible consequences, for Ooishi and her students. Her husband is killed, and her youngest child dies in the deprivation and hunger of the war years. Half her students are killed, maimed, or driven to despair. But all is not lost. Post-war, one of her female students has become a teacher in her own right. She invites Ooishi to return to the Detached Classroom as a substitute teacher for a new generation of students. The concluding segment shows Ooishi, supported by her now teenage sons, reuniting with her surviving students to remember the past and look forward to better times.

The show combines animation and live-action. The segments in the post-war era are live-action, but everything else is animation. This helps to stylize the past; the animation has simple, child-like character designs which suggest happier times.

A few translation notes:

• The title translates literally as 24 Eyes. This sounds too much like a monster movie, so the translator used Twelve Sets of Eyes, per AnimeNewsNetwork.
  
• The "Mukden Incident" was a September, 1931 Japanese false-flag operation that provided the pretext for invading Manchuria and establishing the puppet state of Manchukuo in 1932.
• The "Shanghai Incident" was a January, 1932 clash in the Shanghai International Settlement, provoked by the Japanese military. It was intended to start a war with China, but after fierce fighting, a peace settlement was brokered by the Western powers.
• Inukai assassination. Following the "Shanghai Incident," Japan's Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi tried to reign in the Japanese military and stop further deployment of troops to China. He was then assassinated by a cabal of military officers, all of whom received light sentences for their crime.
• Ooishi is referred to as onago, a dated term for a woman, or onago-sensei, Woman Teacher.
  
• The students nickname Ooishi "Koishi," a pun on her name: koishi (小石) means small pebbles, ooishi (大石) means big stone.
• On their school trip to Shikoku, the fifth-years visit Kompira Shrine, the island's most popular shrine, and have lunch in Ritsurin Garden, which was built in 1745.
  

The voice cast includes:

• Baishou Chieko (Ooishi) starred as Sophie (young and old) in Howl's Moving Castle. She also played Sonya in Inochi no Chikyuu: Natsu no Dioxin, an Orphan release. She has mostly worked as a film actress, appearing in many of Yamada Youji's films since the 1960s.
• Naraoka Tomoko (Narrator) also narrated Oishin and played Yoshie in Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.
• Takahata Atsuko (Sanae, a student who becomes a teacher herself) played Kanoe in X the movie and had featured roles in Beyblade: Metal Fusion, Imaginary, and Psycho Driver: Soul Siren.
• Toda Keiko (Masuno, aka Macchan, another studnet) played the title roles in Fushigi ga Koala Blinky, Gegege no Kitarou (1985), and the Anpanman franchise, Hitomi in Cat's Eye, Iczer-2 in Iczer-One, Nina in High School Agent, Kiki in the Kiki no Lala series, Karara in Space Runaway Ideon, and Sophia in A Wind Named Amnesia. She also played Kate Jackson in Bavi Stock, Non in Karuizawa Syndrome, Kaoru in Ai to Ken no Camelot, and Eterna in Hoshi Neko Full House, all Orphan releases.
• Okamoto Mari (Misako, another student) played the title role in Hana no Ko Lunlun, Ai-chan in  Time Bokan Series: Yatterman, and aDorothy in The Wizard of Oz movie. She played Tomoko in Makoto-chan the Movie, Coda in Bremen 4, Prime Rose in Time Slip Ichimannen Prime Rose, Rococco in Fumoon, and Haruka's mother in both Ultra Nyan OVAs, all Orphan releases.
• Mitsuki Kiyotaka (Sonki, the smallest student in the class) also played Jim Hawkins in the Treasure Island TV series.
• Nagai Ichirou starred in numerous shows, playing grandfather Jigoro in Yawara!, the off-the-wall narrator in Gosenzosama Banbanzai!, Professor Hajime in Queen Millennia, and Happosai in the Ranma 1/2 franchise. He appeared in Ore no Sora, Nayuta, One Pound Gospel, Rain Boy, Manxmouse, Nora, Hidamari no Ki, Yuukan Club, Amon Saga, Botchan, Ipponbouchou Mantaraou, Tengai Makyou, and Yamato 2520, all Orphan releases
• Kimotsuki Kaneta played Yasu the bat in Don Dracula, and Sharaku in Marine Express and Bander Book, all Orphan releases. She also had recurring roles in the Doraemon, Soreike! Anpanman, and Galaxy Express 999 franchises.

The animated segments were directed by Yoshida Shigetsugu; he also directed the Lady Georgie TV series. The live-action segments were directed by Jissouji Akio, who lent his distinct visual style mostly to live-action movies with erotic themes.

Iri got the ball rolling on this and did an initial, incomplete script after ninjacloud pretimed the show. Perevodildo finished the script and added the numerous songs. I edited and typeset. Nemesis and Rezo QCed. The source is a Japanese laserdisc, ripped on the Domesday Duplicator and encoded by an anonymous friend. The sound is recorded at too high a level and is somewhat distorted.

Nijuushi no Hitomi is a deceptively simple film with a very strong underlying message. It eschews the sledgehammer tactics of Kuroi Ame ni Utarete and many of the Sensou Douwa shows, but it still tells a powerful story about the waste and loss created by war. I recommend it highly. You can get the show from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Late news: Perevodildo, the translator, and MartyMcflies, of LonelyChaser subs, have released an HD version, based on a 16mm film print, with the same dialog and simplified typesetting.

Later news: The 1954 live-action movie, which won numerous awards in Japan and is titled Twenty-Four Eyes in English, is available on DVD in the Criterion Collection.