The Beast Renditioner Erin – 獣の奏者エリン (Kemono no Souja Erin)
Kemono no Souja Erin is a kid’s anime that aired on NHK. However, for a kid’s anime, this series is surprising, if only for it’s comprehensively well fleshed out setting, as well as strong character development. The story and characters work well to create some awesome world-building, with politics, love, death, compassion, and everything else you could think of thrown into this compelling narrative, thrown in. The true beauty of this series, though, is not the setting, but the tale of the young girl that this series follows, from her tragic childhood all the way into her adult years. It’s a journey filled with tragedy, passion, despair, and hope, but it’s this young girl’s tale that really makes the entire series a dazzling coming of age story.
The story itself starts off with a 10 year old girl with green eyes named Erin. She lives in a village with her mother Soyon, where they raise large lizard creatures called touda. The touda are used for military purposes, so they are bred very carefully, with Soyon one of the best caretakers of the village. Erin, the quick-witted little girl she is, she tries to follow in her mother’s footsteps to become an excellent animal caretaker, all while maintaining a sense of compassion and friendship for the animals. All while tragedy and politics throw this bright young girl and her mother into a storm of troubles.
This relationship Erin builds with the animals around her is the single most important, fundamental aspect to the entire series. What makes her story so unique is how there is an intense focus on Erin’s passion for these powerful beasts, from childhood till adulthood, all while maintaining an sharp sense of detail and creative thinking. Erin’s journey from childhood to adulthood is chronicled in a mature, realistic manner that really gives her a well-fleshed out persona. Unfortunately, the cast in general is a bit lacking in development due to the sheer amount of time that passes in the storyline (and thus, lack of continuity for the cast). But because of the large time span, we get a expansive and tremendous amount of detail placed into Erin’s character.
What makes this series even more remarkable is how it uses Erin as a central character in a elaborate, tremendously conflict, all while maintaining a sense of history and grandeur to the setting itself. We are always reminded about the history and legends of the lands that Erin lives in, and it is this history that is always coming back and playing a huge role in ongoing political conflicts, as well as the ongoing wars. The pacing is really slow at times, which may be a bit unappealing for some. Yet at the same time, this slower pacing allows for some fantastic world-building and character development, which results in a excellent setting and main cast.
The series uses a simple animation style, yet the stylized backgrounds and art style allow for some very unique, perhaps even cave-painting-like, visuals. It’s artwork is very fitting for the story, and with the music, adds a unique flair to the atmosphere.
Now, to be fair, there are some flaws to this series, but they are mostly technical in nature, and are due to this being a “kid’s anime”. While the artwork and animation are great, there is a huge amount of reused animation. There are times when entire scenes are reused in flashback moments and such, and although all of these flashbacks are meant to aid any children watching this series, they are nevertheless glaring distractions. On top of that, the narration usually points out every little detail, every little point worth noting, as if the audience would never notice it. This adds an interesting, fairy-tale like feel to the story, yet at the same time is clearly another way to appeal to children. I’m being a bit picky about these flaws, mainly because although this series was aimed towards children, this would have been fine without all the added flashbacks.
In the end, this slow paced series was a surprise hit in my books. While the slow pacing isn’t quite for everybody, anybody who can appreciate series like Seirei no Moribito or Twelve Kingdoms, would probably enjoy this series. The characters, especially Erin, are charming and well thought out. The setting is an adventure to explore, yet deeply political in nature, and has a real sense of history that provides a rock-solid foundation for the story to unfold. There are a few weaker episodes and such, but for the most part, this series had an excellent, and more importantly memorable, execution.
Animation/Art: 8.0/10
Music: 8.5/10
Setting: 9.0/10
Characters: 9.0/10
Story: 8.5/10
Overall Enjoyment: 8.6/10
Screenshots, OP, and ED are later in the post.
P.S. For those that do watch this series, you might find the first 5-7 episodes kind of boring. It improves significantly from there, or at least that was my experience with the series.
Distant Paradise 