HOUSE OF FIVE LEAVES review
House of Five Leaves was snapped up for US distribution and online streaming by Funimation before it even began airing in Japan, as part of their deal to acquire selected titles in Fuji TV's Noitamina programming. The latest production by Manglobe, the studio behind the smash hit genre mashup Samurai Champloo and the dystopian sci-fi parable Ergo Proxy, House of Five Leaves is the animated adaptation of the manga of the same name. Yet despite the studio's pedigree, this is no easy sell, and even with a fairly conventional premise and setting in some ways it's actually a riskier proposition than either of their recent successes.
The story basically stems from the interaction between two central characters. First is Akitsu, a hapless ronin down on his luck - shy, self-conscious and withdrawn to the point of being phobic, he struggles to find (let alone keep) employment as a bodyguard and is on the verge of resorting to day labour so as to avoid starvation.
Seemingly by chance, Akitsu falls in with the gang of criminals known as the Five Leaves, after their leader - the sardonic, bohemian Yaichi - recruits him for a quick evening's work. At first Yaichi merely wants a patsy to help wrap up his current scheme, but after seeing Akitsu in action realises there's more to this jittery loner than first impressions suggested. Akitsu is shocked when he realises his benefactor runs a kidnapping ring seemingly for no reason other than mercenary profit motive, but there's something about Yaichi and his compatriots that suggest hidden depths which for some reason Akitsu can't ignore.
In other words House of Five Leaves is character driven first and foremost, the kind of show where many viewers will complain nothing actually happens. Certainly in the first few episodes there are virtually no action setpieces, pyrotechnics or melodramatic gestures. The slow, deliberate pace and deft transitions from whimsy to heartbreaking pathos and back is like something Yôji Yamada (Twilight Samurai, Love and Honour, The Hidden Blade) might come up with were he to turn his hand to animation.
Every detail seems like the result of careful planning, in other words, rather than stylistic affectations. The first episode opens with a flashback that goes largely unexplained (is this Yaichi's past? It's not explicitly confirmed), but this and subsequent sequences work as a way of mirroring Akitsu's halting attempts to ferret out what information he can about his new friend. Even with nothing spelt out and hard facts drip-fed at a cruelly slow pace every conversation or moral choice, under- or over-stated, still feels like another piece of the puzzle rather than something wilfully enigmatic.
The cast are beautifully sketched out, by and large; Akitsu is clearly the voice of reason, but he's surprisingly off-putting in some respects for a main character, edgy and discomfited by human contact as he is. Yaichi evidently has a heart, and a tale of woe driving his criminal escapades, but he's possessed of fairly ruthless sensibilities and obviously not a man to cross.
While the show focuses primarily on these two, the supporting cast are similarly ambiguous - like Umezo the Five Leaves' innkeeper or Matsu, their man undercover, both of whom initially resent the outsider in their midst but gradually warm to him in their own, believably human way. None fit too well into any easy archetypes, but only in the same way real people don't after spending some time in their company.
The production values are also not for the casual viewer, with no easy hook to match Samurai Champloo's gleeful plundering of hip-hop culture. House of Five Leaves sticks fairly closely to the manga's realistic proportions and exaggerated facial features closer to shoujo or even independent manga, all flat mouths, elongated noses and permanent expressions of hostility or disinterest. The backgrounds are elegantly drawn, but fairly static, with no iconic location shooting. One feudal cityscape or countryside looks much the same as another.
But for those after some more cerebral television, willing to sit back and savour the atmosphere and pick apart each new episode at their leisure, in only a handful of episodes the show has clearly become something to look forward to. There's a relaxed confidence to House of Five Leaves, a clear intelligence behind the writing and the voice cast, with enough artistic flair to make things a little easier on the patient viewer, and though the payoffs may be slower in coming and more reserved than the medium usually goes for, for anyone invested in the proceedings they're still powerful stuff.
Whether Funimation felt House of Five Leaves meant their package deal represented easy money or they realised it promised to be one of the standout shows in the current season, their commitment - and Manglobe's effort - still deserves to be rewarded. Anyone even slightly interested should take it as read that House of Five Leaves comes highly recommended.
