House of Five Leaves

Spoilers ahead!

When I started watching Saraiya Goyo I had no expectations at all. I was looking for a short anime to watch, hoping it would have entertained me the way action anime, and samurai stories generally do. I was wrong, and I also honestly felt super dumb to have discovered this pearl only now!

The anime is set during Japan's Edo period, characterized by economic growth, social order, isolationist policies and popular enjoyment of arts and culture; samurai, craftsmen and merchants lived in the cities. In particular, samurai could choose whether to give up their sword and become peasants, or move to the city of their feudal lord (shōgun) and become paid retainers. Masanosuke Akitsu (Masa) is a samurai (a rōnin, precisely), and a skilled swordsman. He wants to find a feudal lord to serve with his abilities, but his timid and "unreliable" personality often leaves him unemployed. He is determined to find a job in the city, though, since he needs a stable job in order to send some money back at home, which he stubbornly avoids. His immortally sad and pouty face doesn't exactly help him to find an occupation, until a misterious man who tells him: "Edo does not need sad faces" (or something like that) offers him a job as his bodyguard, a yojimbo.

The misterious man, called Yaichi, reveals to be the charismatic leader of a group of bandits. I found great that he somehow collected some people who suffered in their lives, the "sad faces" Edo ignores and nobody keeps an eye on, and completes his circle with Masa, which is actually sad and worried all the time. He is reluctant at first and tries to be cautious, but Yaichi already casted his spell on him, who decides to join his group and dig further in the background of the misterious man who hired him.

Yaichi's group is a team of bandits who call themselves the "Five Leaves", and Masa simply becomes the fifth member along with the owner of a tavern (Umezo), a thief and artisan (Matsukichi), a former prostitute (Otake) and Yaichi himself, whose past is left unknown until the end of the anime. Yaichi operates as a leader and "adhesive substance" in the group, which was firstly created for a noble cause: to take vengeance on a man who sexually harassed Umezo's daughter. Masa has his own issues with his past, his personality and the anxiety that envelopes him when too many people stare at him, but he somehow grows during the story and learns to accept his kind nature and the kindness hidden in these misterious people, as well.

As the story reveals itself, nor too slowly nor too fast-paced, it's possible to fully appreciate this anime. And I mean, deeply. The characters design is, at first, kind of disturbing: tall figures, long mouths, bizarre eyes. However, as one gets used to it, it's possible to appreciate the animation which indulges more, with abundance of details, on objects worthy of attention. Even though the story is pretty engaging, when people think of samurai and the underworld, constant action and bloodbaths are anticipated. This anime is surprising in a sense that action is always present, sometimes it's suppressed and awaits in the background, but it's never too forced. The Five Leaves are heterogeneous, and their criminal deeds are not hazardous, nor particularly violent. They still have their own things to do in everyday life, do not intend to commit their lives only to criminality, and just enjoy the company of each other. As a result, it's rare to see cruel fights and Masa drawing his sword. Rather, the power of this anime lies in the storytelling. It's not hard to keep pace with the disclosure of life pieces, but as the characters are introduced and their intertwined lives slowly make sense to us, we are drawn further in the story. Even some minor characters, such as Masa's sister, get to be introduced and appear on screen, which is enjoyable.

I liked that the name of the organization makes sense after all, since it is inspired by the shape of a scar inflicted on Yaichi's back, which Otake found pretty rather than disgusting, and took it as an inspiration for the group's name. Every member of the Five Leaves is bound to Yaichi, who either saved or helped them in many ways, so it's natural that everything traces back to him. And even though he is the beginning of everything, his painful story gets to be hinted at flashbacks during the episodes, and fully disclosed only at the end.

The soundtrack is amazing: the opening and ending are fresh, contemporary, and demostrate that it's still possible, in modern times, to indulge in storytelling without forcefully insert fighting scenes to draw the attention of the audience. At the same time, the story is obviously set in a distant time in history, so that the soundtrack resonates deeply with Japanese traditional music. It's amazing that, even during some heartfelt dialogues between the characters, the music suggests that we should expect a sudden turn of events, like the background action and anticipation I mentioned before.