May. 23rd, 2018 12:44 pm
Yami no Bansosha 2: Drama Notes
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earth_colorsHere are some drama notes from "Yami No Bansosha S2: Henshucho no Joken" (Spoilers ahead!!):
Kamishibai. Outdoor story-telling show, done by a narrator who in turn sells cheap snacks as "admission fees". It was very popular during the 1930s and declined by 1953, with the advent of television (so this means, in the timeline of the drama, kamishibai was almost dying by the time Menjo drew the "Shimoyama Incident"). For more history of kamishibai, a nice article about kamishibai can be found at wiki.
Btw, a kamishibai peddlers/narrator would bang his clapping stick or "hiyoshigi" to signal the start of the show, and Japanese kids would come running out of the house to meet him. You can hear the sound of "hiyoshigi" in the drama, during the Shimoyama Incident scene, as a sort of "hint". In Ep3, when Mizuno Yuki sensed someone watching her, you could also hear the the clicking of "hiyoshigi".
(info/pic: wiki)
Menjo's Preferred Theme. He liked to draw about murder incidents and crimes. The Tsuyama Massacre happened in 1938. In Ep3, his manga of the incident was shown (pic above), entitled "30 Person Massacre Incident of Kamo" with Kamo as the name of the village. The other manga was entitled "Kurita Genzo", about a serial murderer who killed people from 1948 to 1952.
Shintakara Jima [新寶島]. "New Treasure Island" by Tezuka Osamu. In ep. 4, Menjo said this manga served as a model for kamishibai. I couldn't find more pictures of the manga atm but above pic is all I got (sorry I forgot the source). It shows that it has three panels per page, and has no frames.
Left Pic shows what could be the "viaduct" at the site;
Right pic is the scene in Ep4, where Yuki and Daigo
were walking with the train behind them - it's actually
the present day location where the Shimoyama Incident happened.
Shimoyama Incident. I'm sure you can read many articles online about this incident (as well as the Japan National Railways' "Three Big Mysteries"). So I'll skip that part and I'll only write about the fictional account of the event as seen by Menjo Keizo.
First of all, I made a slight mistake in the subs. Instead of "I saw Shimoyama several times at the site before the incident happened", what he actually said was, "The President was seen several times" by witnesses at the site. The drama's fictional account of the incident seemed vague to me at first (and I'm sure to the viewers as well) but this is how I pictured it, after reviewing the dialogue:
For some reason, young Menjo was out at night (but wasn't there a curfew for that time?), and from a distance, he saw a man jumped on the tracks (between Kitasenju and Ayase stations, which was near the river). By "jump", it means the man probably jumped from some higher elevation like a viaduct (left pic above) over the tracks and landed on the ground. Menjo probably went to see the body but by the time he got there, the train already ran him over, and then, he saw a man with a limp leg disappear over the embankment. So this means, going by assisted suicide theory, the killer ("Dropper For Hire" in the subs), by request, shoved the man off the viaduct, and got down to the tracks. For some reason (based on pic above), he carried the body some meters away from the viaduct, and arranged the body on the tracks so it can be ran over "neatly" by the incoming train. By the time, Menjo came over, the train was running over the body, and the killer disappeared over the bank, after accomplishing his mission.
(left pic: cocolog) (right pic: wowow)
Mangaka and writers that were mentioned. Shirato Sanpei ("Kamui" which was the basis for the fictional "Red Ninja" of Ajima Fumiya); Tezuka Osamu ("Black Jack", "AstroBoy", "Ayako"); Ishinomari Shotaro ("Kamen Rider" TV series); Kojima Goseki ("Lone Wolf and Cub"); Mizuki Shigeru ("GeGeGe no Kitaro"), Matsumoto Seicho ("Black Mist Over Japan" [日本の黒い霧]); Yokomizo Seishi ("Kindaichi Kosuke" series, "Village of Eight Graves").
Fun trivia. The scene in Ep 1 above when Daigo was surprised that Ito doesn't know who Ishinomari Shotaro is. It's funny for those who watch "Kamen Rider" because actor Shiraishi Shunya (who played Ito-kun) also played the role in several Kamen Rider movies.
Kishotenketsu [起承転結]. In Ep 1 and 5, when Daigo said that the "ending" in a story is the most important of all, what he actually said was that the "ketsu" was the most important of all in "kishotenketsu", a sort of mnemonic device for remembering parts of a story: introduction [ki], development [shou], turn/turning point [ten] and conclusion/ending [ketsu].
Hidden Clues. The sillhoette of a falling Nanbu at the end credits showing him posing with the hand salute has been appearing since Ep 1. Also, In Ep. 4, Daigo was able to find out the meaning of "mizuiro" after talking with Tamura about the discussion the latter had before with Nanbu regarding the magazine. Tamura said that "Brave" started out as a magazine for the "blue collar". He actually said the English term "blue collar" but since I knew it would be an obvious hint to the viewers, (by connecting it to "mizuiro" or light blue), I changed the term to "manual workers" in the subs, ahaha sorry.
Timeline of Events Leading to Nanbu's Death. Here's my piecing together of the events in the drama:
Note: During Nanbu's tenure at Soukisha, he had come up with his surefire plan for relaunching a winning magazine. But he was bothered about his staff's contract renewal, and the higher-ups' treatment of them. He decided to do something in case his staff is dismissed. He planned to transfer to Kiwi-sha, taking along his staff and his "knowhow".
3 weeks before death:
He started visiting Kiwi-sha many times, and proposed his plan to start the publication of a new manga magazine.
Around a week before death:
Nanbu's last week seemed to be a really busy time for him. He told Soukisha president about his hint for a successful magazine: "mizuiro". When he said he might "get eliminated (kesareru [消される]) because of a grudge it might incur", what he meant was that Soukisha President and his son will get rid of him (fire / dismiss him) because he gave away the idea to a different company, Kiwi-sha.
Around this week too, he found out about Watanuki and Managing Director's illegal trading. He visited Comic Suplex and bought Ajima Fumiya's manuscript and Menjo Keizo's kamishibai and returned them to their rightful owners.
He then confronted the president about the illegal trading and tried to threaten to expose his son's wrongdoing in exchange for the non-dismissal of the staff. His plan didn't work, and only pushed his resolve to leave the company along with his men.
3 Days before death:
He visited Watanabe Haruko at her bar. Still waiting for Kiwi-sha to approve his proposal, he admitted to her that his men "do not have a place in my plans" as of then. But then, he has a "chance to shake" (or give a big unexpected surprise to) his "rotten" bosses at Soukisha.
2 Days before death:
The next day, he learned that Kiwi-sha approved his plan.
2-1 Days before death:
He made arrangements to move to Kiwi-sha.
He called Artisan to order cake for his men.
He moved his manga books to the top floor of the new office (Yuki said in Ep1 that Nanbu didn't have manga books in his apartment, but it's possible that the books in the new office was his).
He also placed there, the whole kamishibai set of Shimoyama Incident that Menjo gave to him.
Night of his death:
He drank to celebrate. Since he cannot tell anyone yet about his good news, he probably went up the building with Horio to confide in him and maybe invite him to work at Kiwi-sha, too. But tragically...
Kamishibai. Outdoor story-telling show, done by a narrator who in turn sells cheap snacks as "admission fees". It was very popular during the 1930s and declined by 1953, with the advent of television (so this means, in the timeline of the drama, kamishibai was almost dying by the time Menjo drew the "Shimoyama Incident"). For more history of kamishibai, a nice article about kamishibai can be found at wiki.
Btw, a kamishibai peddlers/narrator would bang his clapping stick or "hiyoshigi" to signal the start of the show, and Japanese kids would come running out of the house to meet him. You can hear the sound of "hiyoshigi" in the drama, during the Shimoyama Incident scene, as a sort of "hint". In Ep3, when Mizuno Yuki sensed someone watching her, you could also hear the the clicking of "hiyoshigi".
(info/pic: wiki)
Menjo's Preferred Theme. He liked to draw about murder incidents and crimes. The Tsuyama Massacre happened in 1938. In Ep3, his manga of the incident was shown (pic above), entitled "30 Person Massacre Incident of Kamo" with Kamo as the name of the village. The other manga was entitled "Kurita Genzo", about a serial murderer who killed people from 1948 to 1952.
Shintakara Jima [新寶島]. "New Treasure Island" by Tezuka Osamu. In ep. 4, Menjo said this manga served as a model for kamishibai. I couldn't find more pictures of the manga atm but above pic is all I got (sorry I forgot the source). It shows that it has three panels per page, and has no frames.
Left Pic shows what could be the "viaduct" at the site;
Right pic is the scene in Ep4, where Yuki and Daigo
were walking with the train behind them - it's actually
the present day location where the Shimoyama Incident happened.
Shimoyama Incident. I'm sure you can read many articles online about this incident (as well as the Japan National Railways' "Three Big Mysteries"). So I'll skip that part and I'll only write about the fictional account of the event as seen by Menjo Keizo.
First of all, I made a slight mistake in the subs. Instead of "I saw Shimoyama several times at the site before the incident happened", what he actually said was, "The President was seen several times" by witnesses at the site. The drama's fictional account of the incident seemed vague to me at first (and I'm sure to the viewers as well) but this is how I pictured it, after reviewing the dialogue:
For some reason, young Menjo was out at night (but wasn't there a curfew for that time?), and from a distance, he saw a man jumped on the tracks (between Kitasenju and Ayase stations, which was near the river). By "jump", it means the man probably jumped from some higher elevation like a viaduct (left pic above) over the tracks and landed on the ground. Menjo probably went to see the body but by the time he got there, the train already ran him over, and then, he saw a man with a limp leg disappear over the embankment. So this means, going by assisted suicide theory, the killer ("Dropper For Hire" in the subs), by request, shoved the man off the viaduct, and got down to the tracks. For some reason (based on pic above), he carried the body some meters away from the viaduct, and arranged the body on the tracks so it can be ran over "neatly" by the incoming train. By the time, Menjo came over, the train was running over the body, and the killer disappeared over the bank, after accomplishing his mission.
(left pic: cocolog) (right pic: wowow)
Mangaka and writers that were mentioned. Shirato Sanpei ("Kamui" which was the basis for the fictional "Red Ninja" of Ajima Fumiya); Tezuka Osamu ("Black Jack", "AstroBoy", "Ayako"); Ishinomari Shotaro ("Kamen Rider" TV series); Kojima Goseki ("Lone Wolf and Cub"); Mizuki Shigeru ("GeGeGe no Kitaro"), Matsumoto Seicho ("Black Mist Over Japan" [日本の黒い霧]); Yokomizo Seishi ("Kindaichi Kosuke" series, "Village of Eight Graves").
"Hepburn and Schliemann". In episode 2, these names were mentioned as possible manga story angles thought up by Nanbu, of two Edo period foreigners, making a time slip journey to modern Japan. American James Curtis Hepburn, known for the Hepburn romanization system, visited Japan in 1859. Heinrich Schliemann of Germany was an archeologist who was in Japan in 1839.
(info: wiki)
(info: wiki)
Fun trivia. The scene in Ep 1 above when Daigo was surprised that Ito doesn't know who Ishinomari Shotaro is. It's funny for those who watch "Kamen Rider" because actor Shiraishi Shunya (who played Ito-kun) also played the role in several Kamen Rider movies.
Kishotenketsu [起承転結]. In Ep 1 and 5, when Daigo said that the "ending" in a story is the most important of all, what he actually said was that the "ketsu" was the most important of all in "kishotenketsu", a sort of mnemonic device for remembering parts of a story: introduction [ki], development [shou], turn/turning point [ten] and conclusion/ending [ketsu].
Hidden Clues. The sillhoette of a falling Nanbu at the end credits showing him posing with the hand salute has been appearing since Ep 1. Also, In Ep. 4, Daigo was able to find out the meaning of "mizuiro" after talking with Tamura about the discussion the latter had before with Nanbu regarding the magazine. Tamura said that "Brave" started out as a magazine for the "blue collar". He actually said the English term "blue collar" but since I knew it would be an obvious hint to the viewers, (by connecting it to "mizuiro" or light blue), I changed the term to "manual workers" in the subs, ahaha sorry.
Timeline of Events Leading to Nanbu's Death. Here's my piecing together of the events in the drama:
Note: During Nanbu's tenure at Soukisha, he had come up with his surefire plan for relaunching a winning magazine. But he was bothered about his staff's contract renewal, and the higher-ups' treatment of them. He decided to do something in case his staff is dismissed. He planned to transfer to Kiwi-sha, taking along his staff and his "knowhow".
3 weeks before death:
He started visiting Kiwi-sha many times, and proposed his plan to start the publication of a new manga magazine.
Around a week before death:
Nanbu's last week seemed to be a really busy time for him. He told Soukisha president about his hint for a successful magazine: "mizuiro". When he said he might "get eliminated (kesareru [消される]) because of a grudge it might incur", what he meant was that Soukisha President and his son will get rid of him (fire / dismiss him) because he gave away the idea to a different company, Kiwi-sha.
Around this week too, he found out about Watanuki and Managing Director's illegal trading. He visited Comic Suplex and bought Ajima Fumiya's manuscript and Menjo Keizo's kamishibai and returned them to their rightful owners.
He then confronted the president about the illegal trading and tried to threaten to expose his son's wrongdoing in exchange for the non-dismissal of the staff. His plan didn't work, and only pushed his resolve to leave the company along with his men.
3 Days before death:
He visited Watanabe Haruko at her bar. Still waiting for Kiwi-sha to approve his proposal, he admitted to her that his men "do not have a place in my plans" as of then. But then, he has a "chance to shake" (or give a big unexpected surprise to) his "rotten" bosses at Soukisha.
2 Days before death:
The next day, he learned that Kiwi-sha approved his plan.
2-1 Days before death:
He made arrangements to move to Kiwi-sha.
He called Artisan to order cake for his men.
He moved his manga books to the top floor of the new office (Yuki said in Ep1 that Nanbu didn't have manga books in his apartment, but it's possible that the books in the new office was his).
He also placed there, the whole kamishibai set of Shimoyama Incident that Menjo gave to him.
Night of his death:
He drank to celebrate. Since he cannot tell anyone yet about his good news, he probably went up the building with Horio to confide in him and maybe invite him to work at Kiwi-sha, too. But tragically...
