Kurayami Santa (暗闇三太) is an original anime by Yoshikawa Choji. The short series aired 13 episodes in the Summer of 2015.
Demon lord Enma task's the demon Santa with traveling to the surface to help maintain the balance of souls sent to Hell. He discovers Japan at the height of its post war boom, filled with a people being drastically westernized and urbanized. The changes have caused a rift in general social awareness as more people than ever before are living in cramped and polluted cities. He decides that he will have to understand the people more before he can be confident in judging them in these times of upheaval. He travels the land, taking in all of the change, battling new spirits of ill intent caused by modernization and people who have lost their moral compass.
This is an interesting and unique series in how it works diligently to recreate the feel of an anime from the 60's. Everything about the artwork is an homage to the beginning of TV anime. To help accentuate that it is inter-spliced and overlain on archival footage from the time period. The content of each episode deals with a more modern view point on the struggles that society in Japan faced during the reconstruction and financial rebound after World War 2. Issues with sacrificing and destroying objects of the past in favor of modernization and a construction industry on hyper-drive. The issues of social positions being displaced after a few hundred years of being very narrowly defined.
The artwork and framing is unique and enjoyable for what it accomplishes. The stories themselves though are brief, preachy and at times difficult to follow in a concise manner. The positive attribute for the series is how it tries to recreate a product of the pass, but the stories are lacking in real substance and originality. It's an interesting specimen of artistic creativity and idea's, unfortunately it looses substance beyond its imagery.
The series is not currently and probably never will see any official English version.
Bonus Fact: Santa and friends battle Godzilla in the last two episodes. Yoshikawa has a long history of working on the Pokemon franchise which explains why 'Godzilla' looks like a legendary Pokemon.
Demon lord Enma task's the demon Santa with traveling to the surface to help maintain the balance of souls sent to Hell. He discovers Japan at the height of its post war boom, filled with a people being drastically westernized and urbanized. The changes have caused a rift in general social awareness as more people than ever before are living in cramped and polluted cities. He decides that he will have to understand the people more before he can be confident in judging them in these times of upheaval. He travels the land, taking in all of the change, battling new spirits of ill intent caused by modernization and people who have lost their moral compass.
This is an interesting and unique series in how it works diligently to recreate the feel of an anime from the 60's. Everything about the artwork is an homage to the beginning of TV anime. To help accentuate that it is inter-spliced and overlain on archival footage from the time period. The content of each episode deals with a more modern view point on the struggles that society in Japan faced during the reconstruction and financial rebound after World War 2. Issues with sacrificing and destroying objects of the past in favor of modernization and a construction industry on hyper-drive. The issues of social positions being displaced after a few hundred years of being very narrowly defined.
The artwork and framing is unique and enjoyable for what it accomplishes. The stories themselves though are brief, preachy and at times difficult to follow in a concise manner. The positive attribute for the series is how it tries to recreate a product of the pass, but the stories are lacking in real substance and originality. It's an interesting specimen of artistic creativity and idea's, unfortunately it looses substance beyond its imagery.
The series is not currently and probably never will see any official English version.
Bonus Fact: Santa and friends battle Godzilla in the last two episodes. Yoshikawa has a long history of working on the Pokemon franchise which explains why 'Godzilla' looks like a legendary Pokemon.
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