Ah, yes, alternate history and splendidly sumptuous animated backgrounds and characters.
Sparks of Tomorrow S1
The first episode is now streaming on Netflix. Subsequent episodes will debut every Sunday.
Kyoto Animation, which first caught my eye with their delightful anime The Melancholy of Haruki Suzimiya (2006), published the light novel 20 Seiki Denki Mokuroku (or "20th Century Electricity Catalog") in 2018, which now serves as the source material for Sparks of Tomorrow.
As expected from Kyoto Animation, the backgrounds are superbly detailed and richly colored, favoring subdued hues that fit the historical period. Kihachi works from a deep catalog of inventions that could be made possible by electricity, even though the country is captivated by steam power. As a demonstration, a collection of light bulbs dazzle crowds.
Four years later, however, Kihachi's brother Seiroku, who always encouraged him, has long abandoned him, and Kihachi is ready to give up. Then he encounters Inako, who is comically clumsy to an extreme degree; she is the daughter of a family of sake brewers who have fallen on hard times.
Indeed, her father readily agrees to a proposal of marriage on her behalf from the rich and powerful Yosuke, heir to the almighty Mizoe family, who wield great power as a manufacturer of steam engines. Though Yosuke has proposed marriage to Inako, who he has never seen before, he makes his intentions clear when he immediately begins tearing Inako's family home apart in search of the fabled 'electrical catalogue.'
It's a good thing that Inako is out of the house, naively taking this treasured volume to the home of Kihachi at her mother's bequest. That keeps the book in safe hands for the moment, but Yosuka is determined to take it.
Is he seeking the book to use it or to trash it? Can Kihachi make use of the Electronics Catalog for the good of mankind? Those intriguing questions look like they will be answered in the coming episodes; together with the high-quality artwork, the characters make me interested in seeing how the show develops.
Here's the official synopsis: "In an alternate past, an unlikely duo team up to look for a missing catalog that could bring electricity to the smoke-filled streets of Kyoto."
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