You know, I've seen this listed but browsed past it so many times because I assumed it would be a boring show. Chess. Most of you would probably disgard this off-hand as well right? Well, my early assumption of what I now think is most probably the most underrated show of 2007/2008, was wrong. I would never have imagined I'd enjoy watching people playing chess this much and thinking about it now, I don't recall ever actually seeing an anime themed so before. This was something completely new for me and it caught me by surprise -
Shion no Ou : The Flowers of Hard Blood (
AniDB )
Category : Seinen (
Wiki |
ANN | Suspense thriller )
Runtime : 2007-10-14 - 2008-03-23
I will mention however, there was quite a bit of controversy surrounding this title. This was initially announced as a 12 episode series but was later expanded to 22. Not a bad thing per se, except for the fact that the initial budget was not expanded with. Late in production Studio DEEN pulled their animation crew from the Shion no Ou project to start work on a new title though, resulting in a noticeable decline in animation quality. But that aside, the most controvential and perhaps what sparked my interest in this show, the actual writer -
Hayashiba Naoko (
Wiki ) /
DO NOT read the Shion no Ou Wiki entry!
She wrote Shion no Ou under alias, Katori Masaru, thus the only publication for which she did so. See, Shion no Ou shows us the world of professional shogi (Japanese form of chess), a world Naoko knows first-hand. She was considered a genius at the sport and seen as icon in the history of Japanese shogi whilst she held and defended the highest female master rank in the game. Now, in a strategic game in which the player able to most accurately predict his opponents next move would be victor, this is not something to be taken lightly, and definately not something most of us can do. Need I also mention shogi is a little bit more complicated than it's chess counterpart? Sadly though, Naoko's fame in the shogi world would not last forever and when she was pointed to as the center of a sexual scandal, her cookie started to crumble. She was forced to end her career and when things got completely out of hand, she actually left Japan (the Japanese society is not so forgiving as the one we know). She then took up writing novels and was later the mangaka for her first and thus only manga, Shion no Ou. For a short summary on the life of Hayashiba Naoko see the following -
• She was the overall winner of the amateur Meijinsen at the age of 11. At the same year, she was encouraged to become a member of the female league to widen her knowledge of the game.
• While attending elementary school, she became a live-in student of Yonenaga Kunio, Eisei Kisei.
• She became a pro shougi player at the age of 12.
• At 14 years old, she achieved the "Joryu Oshou(1)" and "Joryu Meijin(2)" ranks.
• She maintained her "Joryu Oshou" rank for 10 consecutive years.
• Eventually, she was given the rank "Queen Oshou(3)".
• On May 29, 1994, she left word to her master that she wanted to take a break from shougi and promptly took a leave.
• She discreetly came back to Japan on June 18 of the same year from United Kingdom. As punishment for leaving without permission, she was told to pay 1.5 million yen.
• In 1995, CONFESSIONS, a collection of her nude photos, was published.
• Aside from the scandal from the photobook, scandals about her illicit affairs with Nakahara Makoto Meijin also surfaced, forcing her to end her career in shougi.
• On August 1995, Hayashiba-sensei left the Japan Shougi Association(4).
• She began a new career of writing novels targeting the female teens and eventually moving on to writing novel series.
• Since then, she had been concentrating on writing novels
• It seems that her pseudonym, Masaru Katori, is just used when she wrote the storyline for the manga Shion no Ou
[1-2] Oshou (王将) and Meijin (名人) are two of the seven titles fought for in Japan Shougi Association. Almost similar to Go titles, the titles are: Oshou, Meijin, Kisei, Ouza, Oui, Ryuo and Kio. "Joryou" is a term added to the titles to emphasize that it's the title for the female kishi.
[3] Queen Oshou is rewarded to a player who held the Joryu Oshou title for 5 years in total regardless of consecutiveness.
[4] Hayashiba's name did not appear in the list of retired shougi players, making it more correct to say that she "left" the Association.
Yes, Shion no Ou is an animated adaptation of it's original manga and yes, every single aspect concerning shogi in this anime is technically correct and accurate. But, and that's a big but, do not make assumptions like I first did, yet. Shion no Ou, aka Shion's King, is not just a story about shogi. This is, at heart, a suspense thriller set against the professional shogi world. Even with all it's flaws and after it's production difficulties what keeps all the falling pieces from scatter is the rock-solid foundation carrying it from the ground up, the story. Just like her maker, our fictional main character, 12 year old Yasuoka Shion (voiced by the highly acclaimed Kawasumi Ayako) has a natural talent for the game. She's a master at the sport and we're immediately thrown right into the professional shogi world as she competes in a masters tournament. Shion however, carries the burden of a very dark past. At the age of 4, she bare witness to her mother and father's murder and, as a result of shock from the ordeal, she has not spoken a word since. On that tragic night the killer approached Shion but did not harm her, instead, he played a game of shogi with her before placing his "King" on her dead father's forehead as he left. Shion, at this time, was tightly clutching her's. 8 years later and now in the present day, the killer is still at large. Who is he? What reason could he possibly have had to do it? These questions are about to be answered as he once again resurfaces now that Shion's quickly becoming a media attraction and she herself starts to realise her nightmares was indeed a true harsh reality. Just like the game she mastered all the scattered pieces of her suppressed memories strategically starts falling into place. Shion's about to face her demons during the most crucial time of her professional shogi career and this little girl would have to muster up all the courage she has to see it through, both professionally and emotionally. And that is what won me over. As Shion does not speak she has to express her emotions. It's not just those expressions itself though, but the way it affected the characters around her, that really stood out.
I really enjoyed this show and after now having seen it it's hard to believe only a few people are talking about it. Note I linked the seinen genre intentionally because this is not for everyone, though I think a few guys here will enjoy this, if only a few.
Lastly I'll mention that a complete understanding of shogi is not required to watch this anime though you would do good to at least know the basics so please browse through the
Wiki entry if you can. Luckily Live-eviL featured notes after each episode but still they came after you've already seen the actual gameplay, thus a little late. Live-eviL finished it, 720p Matroska, 5.06Gb.
Watch it, I personally think it's one of the best shows I've seen in months, thus underrated imho. And on such a note I'll end with some flamebait mentioning Code Geass R2 is the most overrated show this year. **** knows how it got it's rating because I sure don't. Well, more on that another time.
Scary...
But I'm quickly getting the hang of it. The thing thats throwing me off most in all the Kanji. Im a way it makes the series more interesting too.