People who have been keeping up with my MAL probably noticed that I already dropped Himitsu off my list, after mentioning nothing but praises for the show in my one and only blog post for it.

With the first four episodes of Himitsu, I was spellbound. For the first time in my life I thought I was seeing the world through Shimizu Reiko’s eyes. But then for some reason, the magic the show had on me gradually worn off, and after 6 episodes, I feel like I’m just dragging myself to watch the succeeding ones (and hence I didn’t get past episode 7 any more). I can’t pinpoint exactly what drove me away from this show. Perhaps it’s Aoki, the angsty siscon to whose thought patterns we are made to conform to with each episode, or the chief who remains as monotonic as ever (Tomokazu Seki was such a waste on him). Issa-sa had this very sentiment right after episode 3; I only felt it after 6 episodes.

The distracting background music might also be to blame, as it doesn’t quite hit the right notes in each and every episode. I feel like pulling my hair (worse than the picture of Maki above) and exclaim “UGH” each time I hear it. The BGM seems to be trying too hard to become oh so mysterious, like a lion rearing its head screaming “I am mysterious, hear me RAWR!”, inevitably leading to failure of depicting this mystery which it so intended to in the first place. Hanners also expresses a similar sentiment regarding Himitsu’s music, but my RAEG for it seems to be a lot worse

Background music, in my opinion, is supposed to enhance the mood of the show and portray other subtleties which mere words can’t convey. When used effectively, this music, which serves as the embodiment of the mood and emotions in a particular scene, can pierce through the depths of your heart like no words can. I felt this power with the music of Kure-nai and Kaiba (where this one BGM piece is subtly indicative of a [forthcoming] tear-jerker moment and never fails to make me cry), also in the jdrama ROOKIES (where the mix of the GAR action and music makes the experience all the more goosebumps-inducingly Q_Q spectacular), in Toshokan Sensou (quirky, serious or dramatic, you name it and TS will have a fitting BGM for it), as well as Naruto and One Piece (oh manly friendships). Himitsu must be one of the first few animes I watched which I strongly feel would be better off without background music or audio dialogues even. That said, I love the ending song of this anime. Each time I listen to it, I feel like I’m being sent into a world of melancholic introspection. THAT is the kind of music this show needs.

Anime adaptations are supposed to give life to the mere ‘still images’ (or text, in the case of novels) on paper. But from the way things are, these still images of Shimizu Reiko’s manga portray far more emotions and depth than any Himitsu anime episode I’ve seen. I know for a fact that comparing the manga and anime of Himitsu in terms of subtlety would be unfair given the inherent subtleties of the manga as opposed to the medium of anime, but I just can’t help but feel that the advantages the anime has (ability to portray characters with voices, elicit emotions through music) was not effectively utilized. As if that’s not enough, the anime just had to exaggerate the BL undertones in the series, particularly in episode 1 with the gay portrayal of Aoki and Maki’s first meeting. While that made yaoi fans titillate with glee, many people were probably driven away by it. Geez really, that was really uncalled for. (Refer to the above pic)

Most of the complaints I heard about Himitsu are related to Aoki, and of course, once you dislike the main character (who’s the main driving force of the series and just about all the cases), it’ll be tad difficult to get into the show. It’s a slippery slope~ I read the Himitsu manga a few days back, and juxtaposed the manga-Aoki and the anime-Aoki, and found that aside from the non-siscon Aoki of the manga (a different guy solved the case of the BL president), they’re pretty much the same. The same lost sheep Aoki who spends most of his time on-screen solving cases while questioning his own sense of morality, exploring the depths of people’s memories, as well as his own. Let’s just say manga-Aoki (and manga-Maki) wins in my book for moving me to tears with each chapter, especially chapter 3 where Nanako supposedly dies (BIG FAT SPOILER!!). Maki’s past was already revealed as early as chapter 2, and I found this early revelation to have worked well for the series. The anime has been prolonging this revelation for so long that I’ve come to see anime-Maki as nothing much but a monotonic character. Props to the anime for making him look more gay too. In a way I guess the anime’s pacing made it lose that certain “Oomph!” factor the manga had, at least for me.

I also read the Kinuko arc of the manga, covered by episodes 5-6 in the anime, which people found to be the saving grace of the anime adaptation. While the Kinuko arc proved to be a refreshing change compared to the previous lackluster and more subpar Himitsu episodes, I still found it lacking. After watching episode 6 I immediately felt like ranting about Kinuko, and how I hated her for the crimes she did. It was still not justifiable, despite how one might reason out that her traumatic experience of being abused by her father drove her to become a ruthless murderer. But then that wasn’t really the point of this arc; the message it wants to convey is that there’s more to people’s memories than just painful and bitter ones which people like Kinuko have. One can see wonderful memories in the minds of people who are able to see the beauty of life, like Hirai’s dog, who saw nothing else but happiness and love, in the company of his master. The anime did get this message through, albeit less subtle (as always), but I found the manga version to be all the more powerful. The manga was able to deliver that message with so much more depth, with less words, less sounds, a less-intrusive and distracting Aoki too. It simply provided a vivid imagery, pictures which paint more than a thousand words.

With all that said, I’m saying goodbye to the Himitsu anime. For good. Despite all the rants I mentioned here, I know for a fact that people will still be able to find this a good watch and find that Himitsu magic, the way psgels does, for example. Perhaps I’m just being jaded, or I’m becoming a Shimizu Reiko elitist of some sort, though undeniably, almost all her works will be a real pain in the ass to adapt into anime because of their complexities and depth.

If you were turned off by the anime, even for reasons apart from mine, I recommend you go check out the manga and let the power of Shimizu Reiko move you instead. See her magic at work as you read her works.