Ikoku Meiro no Croisée episode 1: [First Impression]

Here comes to interestingly cute story of a young Japanese girl named Yune who comes to Paris near the end of the 19th century to work in a blacksmith shop.

 

ZeroG’s First Impression

The story is really cute, there is no better word to describe it. I don’t expect to see any action or ecchi or romance in this anime, it is a pure cute slice of life anime.

 

To see this little japanese girl giving her all to be accepted into Claude’s shop, it is really cute to watch.

 

Unfortunately I fear I won’t be able to blog this show for two main reason.

 

The first one is because cute show are not something I am very good at blogging, I have an easier time blogging suspense or action show. If the show looked really bad and wrong I could probably still blog it and bash at it for everything that is wrong with the show. But from what I saw, this show seems perfect for what it wants to deliver. I would not be able to perform a good review of each episode.

 

The second reason I can’t blog this show is because they speak japanese. It might sound weird said like that, but they are in France, there are french writings everywhere, but people are all speaking japanese. The biggest problem I have with this is that we never know if Yune is speaking french or japanese. I believe this show would have been more interesting for me if it was in two separate language completely, they speak french when they speak french and japanese when they speak japanese, not always japanese. Not I can wish for something like that to happen because I’m french and therefore I have no problem what-so-ever understanding french and reading subtitles when they speak in japanese. It is also weird for my brain to read book covers and sign in french and right after continue to read the subtitles in english. But this second reason is all related to my frenchiness.

 

Overall this seems like an awesome show if you like the genre, but while I consider watching it, I have no intention of blogging it.

 

Possibility of Watching: Yes

Possibility of Blogging : No

 

ZeroG signing off

 

Silvia‘s turn!  Admittedly I was surprised nobody else was blogging this series (or at least planning to blog beyond a first impression). From the initial summaries it looked very interesting, and I can say from after watching the first episode that I am indeed interested. It doesn’t have any cool action, big heroes, typical nakama shounen themes, a cast of hopeful male idols to faun over one girl, or a bunch of perverted anime tropes. It’s not a typical series. It’s different and a breath of fresh air and I like it.

 

Ikoku Meiro no Croisee is about a young Japanese girl, Yune, who moves to Paris in the late nineteenth century with an old man, Oscar, who traveled to Japan and returned home to Paris. She is to be the maid in the shop “Enseignes du Roy,” which in English equates to “[the] King’s Signs.” Claude, Oscar’s grandson is the only one working in the shop. He is a blacksmith from a family of blacksmiths and they make all kinds of metal objects, but they specialize in intricate signing as seen when Oscar is working on repairing a piece that resembles a flower with a butterly with glass wings hanging on it.

 

Yune is a very cute girl; it isn’t mentioned in the episode how old she is exactly but I would guess around ten years old. At first it is implied that she doesn’t know any French and can’t understand anything, but after she accidentally breaks the sign Claude is working on it is discovered that she does indeed know a lot of French. Throughout the series all of the characters speak Japanese; it is a series made in Japan after all. There is some narration in French with Japanese subtitles, and the name of the series in French is displayed and said during the show once or twice.

 

The heart of the episode was highlighting the cultural differences between France and Japan at this point in time. When Yune bows to the floor to Claude, he panics and accuses his grandfather Oscar of treating Yune like a slave. After Yune accidentally breaks the butterfly sign after Claude repairs it, she offers him her most expensive kimono as an apology. Claude, not understanding how much this kimono meant to Yune, gives it to an art gallery that sells it for 500 Francs—a pretty large sum of money at this period in time. When Oscar finds out, he informs Claude that the kimono he sold was Yune’s only memento of her mother. Claude is shocked and saddened, and he goes to Yune and tells her he will buy it back—and he bows just as she does to him. It is a touching moment of seeing two people from two very difficult cultures connecting in a meaningful way. If you couldn’t tell, I really like these types of things.

 

I will definitely keep up with blogging this show, it is adorable and the animation is very beautifully done, especially all the backgrounds and architecture. A lot of love (and money) seem to have been put into this series, and I am interested in following it to the end. I just hope the story goesn’t go totally Japanese and turn into loli or something strange… I don’t know if I could handle that. The beauty of this show has nothing to do with romance and I sincerely hope they stay away from it, unless it’s say Yune falling for a cute Parisian boy her own age or something, but please no YunexClaude… or worse, YunexOscar.

 

On that awful note, I’ll see you all next episode! <3