Windy Tales
From Anime-Wiki.org
| Windy Tales | |||||
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風人物語 | |||||
| Genre | School, Life, Magic | ||||
| TV anime | |||||
| Directed by | Junji Nishimura | ||||
| Studio | Production I.G | ||||
| Network | SKY PerfecTV! | ||||
| Original run | 11 Sept 2004 – 26 Feb 2005 | ||||
| No. of episodes | 13 | ||||
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[edit] Synopsis
Windy Tales is a slice-of-life anime which uses stories about the wind as a metaphor for growing up and acquiring adult powers and responsibilities. The central character Nao discovers that there are people (and cats) who can manipulate the wind for various purposes such as floating in the air. During the course of the series she first investigates and then acquires this power, as do some of her friends. She also encounters a range of people who love the wind for various reasons. These encounters give the series an episodic style, with the initial focus on wind manipulation quickly taking back seat.
Windy Tales is notable for its unusual stylised appearance. The characters are drawn in a simple angular way and look Japanese, with their small almond-shape eyes, and little detail to distinguish one girl from another. Although a major focus of attention, the sky is almost abstract, being composed of simple ragged slabs of white on blue. The backdrops are done as simple watercolour drawings. However a lot of attention has gone into animating the characters' hair and clothing as it blows around in the wind, giving them a very fluid appearence.
The concept for Windy Tales came from Minami Ootori, who won 1st Prize at the first Anime Planning Contest for it in 2002.[1]
[edit] Characters
- 上島ナオ Nao Ueshima
- the central character, is a keen photographer and president of the school Digicam (Digital Camera) Club. She spends her time photographing the clouds and sky. Voiced by Kaori Nazuka.
- ミキ Miki
- is the only other Digicam Club member. Seemingly she is only a member because she is Nao’s best friend: she does not seem interested in taking photographs, although she helps Nao with her photographic projects. Distinguishing feature: pigtails. Voiced by Satomi Hamamura.
- 潤 Jun
- a boy who is a childhood friend of Nao, and later Miki's boyfriend. He quickly gets roped into the activities of the Digicam Club, although he is not a member. Voiced by Miyu Irino.
- 大気 Mr. Taiki
- (Taiki-sensei) their maths teacher and secretly a wind manipulator, he comes from a village whose inhabitants are reputed to control Japan’s weather. As spelt, Taiki's name literally means atmosphere and is not a normal spelling for this name. Voiced by Oki Sugiyama.
- 風猫 The Wind Cat
- one of a number of cats who can fly by manipulating the wind, it lives on the school roof.
- 涼子 Ryouko
- a girl who knows Taiki’s secret and feeds the wind cat for him. Distinguishing feature: long hair. Voiced by Ai Iwamura.
There are also a number of supporting characters (not all of whom are named) who form the focus of individual episodes:
- Ep.3: Atsuko, a girl who runs marathons and is sole member of the school athletics club.
- Ep.4: Donguri (Acorn), a flying squirrel.
- Ep.5: Mr. Makino (Makino-sensei), the teacher who tells stories (also appears briefly in episode 13). Also Nurse Shugo (Shugo-sensei), the school nurse (who also appears in episode 1, 12 and 13).
- Ep.6: a group of elementary school boys who play Kick the Can.
- Ep.8: Yuriko Nagashima, a former Photography Club member from 1993.
- Ep.9: Nao's mother and father (who also appear briefly in a number of other episodes).
- Ep.11: Karin, one of Nao's classmates and a teen idol/model.
- Ep.12: an old lady who runs an odango (dumpling) stall.
- Ep.13: Yukio, Mr.Taiki's late brother's widow.[2] She also features a lot in episodes 1 and 2. Voiced by Risa Mizuno
[edit] Episodes
[edit] (1) The Wind Cat
Windy Tales starts with Nao on the roof of the school, photographing the sky. She encounters a cat which to her astonishment jumps off the roof and floats in the air with several other cats. In trying to photograph them, Nao falls off the roof but mysteriously lands unharmed when a gust of wind slows her fall. Her classmate Jun, seeing her falling, thinks she’s trying to commit suicide and she ends up the centre of a lot of concerned attention despite being uninjured.
Thanks to a chance photograph she took whilst falling, she discovers that her saviour was Mr. Taiki, who somehow summoned a wind to arrest her fall. Despite having photographed the flying cats, Nao thinks no-one will believe her tale—after all, no-one seems to believe that she wasn’t trying to commit suicide; even her best friend Miki seems to have doubts. Determined to find the cat that flew, Nao eventually discovers him being fed on the roof by the enigmatic Ryoko with her Mona Lisa smile. On hearing Ryoko’s tale about how she discovered Taiki and the cat manipulating the wind, Nao realises that Ryoko is in love with Taiki, who has taught her how to manipulate the wind.
[edit] (2) The Wind Festival
It’s the summer holidays, and Nao, Miki and Jun decide to visit Mr. Taiki at his home village to try and get some answers about the strange phenomenon of wind manipulation which has been obsessing Nao since she quite literally got caught up in it. Ryoko has told them that he is attending a Festival of the Wind. On arriving at the village in the middle of nowhere, they hitch a lift to Taiki’s place where their appearance is seemingly not appreciated, at least by Taiki himself. But the woman he is staying with (Yukio, his brothers's widow) is much more welcoming, and shows an interest in their wicked banter about Taiki’s popularity amongst the girls at their school.
Taiki however remains distant, and refuses to teach them about the wind. But some other villagers are more forthcoming, particularly an old man who claims to be a wind manipulator par excellence. Despite his coaching, in which they are told they must first form the wind in their hearts, they struggle unsuccessfully to raise the slightest breath of air. But finally on the second day of trying, Miki unexpectedly makes a pennant flutter. Noticing a certain flirtaton between Miki and Jun (and perhaps recalling Ryoko’s ability and her crush on Taiki) Nao wonders sadly if wind manipulation is only possible if you are in love.
Nao has promised to photograph the wind festival for Ryoko, but to her dismay Taiki tells them they must stay indoors on the night of the festival. “Listen up: the wind can take lives. It’s not a show, this is the village’s battle.” With these enigmatic words he departs to the Shinto shrine in a clump of trees out in the fields, where the wind manipulators take up their positions around the enormous sacred tree of the shrine. As the night comes down, a raging storm of wind and lightning arises, and Nao sneaks out to watch the spectacle, aided by Yukio. To their shock, the old man who had taught them so patiently dies during the battle with the wind.
Back at school, we discover that Nao did after all learn to manipulate the wind, as she jumps off the school roof and floats gently to the ground.
[edit] (3) Running Girl
Criticised by the school for consuming prodigous quantities of inkjet cartridges yet seeming to have nothing to show for it, Nao must salvage the photo club’s reputation by producing some pictures that can be used to publicise the school’s forgotten marathon runner and sole member of the athletics club.
Nao is struck by the girl saying she loves the feeling of the wind as she runs, but apart from this wind powers do not feature in this episode (nor many of the subsequent ones except in a minor way). After some escapades in which Nao tries to take photographs on the move whilst clinging to the back of her friend’s bike, they get their pictures and Nao wins second in a photo contest — but first prize goes to an middle-aged lady who unknown to them had been photographing their escapades.
[edit] (4) Acorn, the Flying Squirrel
An injured flying squirrel (someone’s lost pet) is adopted by Nao’s friend Jun who tries to teach to fly. Nao’s wind raising powers finally come in handy as she helps the squirrel take off. In the end the squirrel goes back to its owner.
[edit] (5) Tale of the Nurses Office
Nao spends the day in the school sick room with a fever and learns something about some of the teachers and how they long to be free of their responsibilities, especially Mr. Makino who spends his time hiding in the nurse’s office feigning illness rather than hang out in the Staff Room with the other teachers, and is much liked by students because he tells them ghost stories instead of teaching them. As he talks to Nao, Mr.Taiki and the school nurse about his adventures, Makino's words evoke in Nao's fevered imagination visions of the exotic lands he claims to have visited.
[edit] (6) Kick the Can
Nao discovers that some local children can manipulate the wind as they play a game of "Kick the Can" in a disused building. Nao and Ryoko decide to investigate further. Mr. Taiki tells them that it is possible for people to spontaneously learn to manipulate the wind: all you need is to be have joy, and the wind, in your heart.
[edit] (7) Typhoon
A typhoon is on its way but to the girls’ dismay the wind cat has vanished. Their mentor, Mr. Taiki, says the flying cats love to play in the wind and may have been tempted to fly to the coast to experience the roller-coaster ride of the typhoon, something which will put them in mortal danger which he doesn’t have the ability to do anything about. In the end they learn that the drifting cats adopted a cunning strategy to protect themselves against the wind through strength in numbers.
[edit] (8) Spring Cleaning Foreshadows a Kiss
(大掃除はチュウの予感|Oosouji wa CHUU no Yokan)
Clearing out old photos from the photography club's storeroom, Nao discovers she is not the first person to have spent her time photographing the sky. But of most interest are some pictures that Yuriko Nagashima, a former Photography Club member from 1993, had taken of a baby. Investigating, they discover that the baby was none other than Jun, photographed 14 years earlier. Miki becomes irrationally jealous when she sees a photo of the other girl kissing Jun as a baby, but is satisfied when Jun finally kisses her too.
[edit] Plot hole
The episode contains flashbacks to Yuriko’s schooldays when she and a male classmate saw a wind cat float past the classroom window. However according to Ryouko (in ep.1), the cats were taught to fly by Mr. Taiki, who had been teaching at the school for less than a year by then (we learn this in ep.2 when the subject of Valentine's Day gifts comes up). So there shouldn't have been any wind cats there in 1993.
[edit] (9) Dad's Bike
To prove that he's still young at heart, Nao's dad buys a motorbike and takes her for a ride. He loves the feeling of the wind rushing by, comparing it to flying. Nao loves it too, but when he breaks both legs in a crash Nao's mum wants him to give it up, saying he's too old for that sort of thing. But in the end, he wins her over by taking her for a ride.
[edit] (10) Earth’s Last Day
(地球最後の日, Chikyuu Saigo no Hi)
Nao’s dreams that she is walking across the surface of the Moon. Above her are endless stars, and then the Earth comes into view, beautiful and blue. As Nao gazes on the Earth a great wind arises, swirling around the planet. She wakes up, shivering from the cold winter’s air coming in through her bedroom window. Nao wonders what the dream could mean.
It is the start of the winter holiday. Nao recounts her dream to her friends, and Ryoko reveals that she had a vision in her mirror, of herself still asleep in bed. Ryoko says she also sleeps with her window open, and thinks their dreams are a warning carried on the cold wind, a premonition of some terrible event that will befall the earth. Miki thinks she is being melodramatic.
Nao has the dream again, this time the earth is circled by what seem to be shooting stars, which resolve into millions of white cats which progressively cover the Earth with a tide of white. Nao awakens convinced that a crisis faces the world that only wind users are aware of it, and imagines an alien invasion. Finally though Miki has a vision too, and they realise what they have experienced is a premonition of snow, which duly arrives. Nao goes out to photograph it, but Ryoko decides to stay tucked up in bed, just as in the vision she had.
[edit] (11) Audition Chronicles
Nao and Miki photograph all their female classmates for use in a competition to find a new teen idol. Nao is persuaded to enter too, and to her surprise gets to the third round. She gets to know a classmate who is already working as a model, who tells her about the endless fruitless auditions, and how although she herself is attractive (and has appeared in TV commercials), no matter how cute you are there always seems to be someone cuter who gets picked instead.
[edit] (12) Cherry Blossom Time
(櫻のころ, Sakura no koro)
It is spring again and Nao catches a cold photographing the cherry blossom in the rain and ends up in the school sick bay again. Mr.Taiki appears, and Nao asks him if the colour of the cherry blossom changes every year. His response is, “The colour of the blossom reflects the heart of the observer.” When Nao says he should raise a wind to blow the rain away so they can enjoy the cherry blossom properly, he disagrees and quotes from Essays in Idleness by Kenko:[3]
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Should we only appreciate flowers at their peak, and the Moon when it is full? Nay.
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Inspired by another poem about the beauty of cherry blossom at dawn, Nao ends up getting up before sunrise (along with the long-suffering Miki) to photograph the trees in the pink-purple light of dawn. She also makes the acquaintance of an old lady who wistfully recalls a once-beautiful cherry tree where she met her sweetheart which has since been hacked to little more than a stump because it is in the way. Nao and the others try to save the tree, but there is nothing they can do, so instead they take the lady to view the cherry blossom elsewhere, and Mr. Taiki uses his powers to raise a storm of petals.
[edit] (13) Yukio Again
This episode follows three time lines: the present day, in which Nao and the others are reaching the end of middle school, the near future in which they are at separate high schools, and adulthood, where we see Nao living in her own flat, with a pet cat, her camera still by her side.
During the episode, Yukio (from episode 2) comes to town, and it transpires that whatever relationship she had with Mr. Taiki is over, and that she has come to say goodbye. The girls had imagined that her visit was for the opposite reason and after gladly welcoming Yukio and commenting to Mr. Taiki about her beauty, are embarrassed when Mr.Taiki tells them the truth. He tells them though that he sees them as valued fellow wind users and that they are almost adults themselves now, so he feels comfortable talking to them about adult matters.
At the end of the episode, the three girls jump off the roof of the school and land gently on the ground thanks to the use of their powers. The scene then cuts to Nao as an adult, suggesting perhaps that the previous scene was a metaphor for them taking the leap into the adult world, and that by extension the whole of the wind story has really been intended as a metaphor, since in each episode an interest in the wind has been linked with someone's adult ambitions, be they a runner, a flying squirrel, or a motorcyclist.
[edit] Reviews
Click Here to View Windy Tales Reviews.
[edit] Screenshots
Some screenshots from the anime
[edit] References
- �� See Windy Tales First Look at Anime News Network, 2004-03-09. It is also mentioned in the opening credits.
- �� This is not stated outright in the series but is confirmed on the official website, see Windy Tales Overview at Production I.G. website
- �� The 14th century writer and Zen Buddhist, Yoshida Kenko.
See Kenko's Essays in Idleness
[edit] External Links
Japanese Website(s): windy-tales.com
English language Website: ProductionIG.com
Anime Retro Review of Windy Tales
Animesuke Discussion of Windy Tales
Windy Tales (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia