PinkuBentoBox

Well, AnimeYuki & Sailor Spork finally finished subbing this series today. I’ve seen up to episode 9 raw (at the time, Lunar were the only subber and they were slooow), but once AnY took it up I ended up deciding not to see the rest this way.

Since it’s been quite a while since I saw what I did, and also since my Japanese is far from perfect, I intend to re-watch the series from the very beginning, and will be posting my thoughts here as I go.

Before that though, I thought I should raise some awareness about this series. What follows is an edited version of a writeup I did of the series way back when the first episode was released. About the only thing not mentioned is that my predictions are correct (the series does get very dark) and that I don’t mention one of the coolest aspects of the series, which is that each of Ichika’s 12 costumes is designed by a famous mangaka or anime artist. Some of the standouts in the list of contributors include Kaishaku (mangaka, author of Kannaduki no Miko, UFO Princess Valkyrie, Steel Angel Kurumi), Ken Akamatsu (mangaka, author of Love Hina, Mahou Sensei Negima, and others) and Keiji Gotoh (character designer from Nadesico, Gatekeepers, and others, and also the director of both Uta-kata and Kiddy Grade).

Uta-Kata at first looked to be a generic Magical Girl anime, but I took a risk and watched it anyway. Glad that I did, because it hints that it may end up being a lot more than that.

This is our protagonist. Her name is Ichika, and she’s a 14-year-old middle-school student. Getting into the upper age bracket of the usual Magical Girl stuff. She’s got reasonably normal personality, and is rather cute. Some people will already have noticed her similarity in looks to Eclair from Kiddy Grade. The designs are by the same person. Ichika has a cellphone, upon which she attaches a strange talisman shaped like separated yin and yang, each with six small jewels on it. The cellphone is not very important, however this talisman most definately is.

Episode 1 is Ichika’s last day of school before the summer vacation begins. On the way, she meets Sei and Kai, her two tutors. They’re twins or something apparently. Sei is the one that gave Ichika the talisman. On the last day of school, the students all help clean up. Ichika and her three friends are sent to clean the old school building, which is now unused. We’re introduced to Ichika’s friends

In the classroom Ichika and friends are cleaning, there is an old mirror. Ichika looks into it, and the surface ripples - her reflection changes, and another girl is looking back at her. More than that, the girl looking at her is the same as one she met in a surreal dream the previous night. She gets such a fright that she jumps backwards and falls on her ass. The other girls inform her that the mirror has a spooky history of sometimes showing a different reflection, ie of another person.

Thinking nothing more of it, the girls leave. School finishes, and suddenly Ichika realises she dropped her cellphone. After thinking for a minute, she realises she must have dropped it in the old school building, so she goes inside. Looking around, she spots the cellphone on the floor… but there’s something very wrong. It’s on the other side of the mirror!

The strange girl she had seen before once again appears in the mirror. “Is this yours?” A single screencap really doesn’t do this sequence justice. It’s brilliantly done, surreal and gives it a darker feeling than one would expect from an anime like this. The girl in the mirror promises to return the cellphone and the talisman, if Ichika will make a promise with her. The girl comes out of the mirror, and gives the talisman to Ichika. Ichika looks at it, and realises the colors of the beads have all changed. Before she can do anything, one suddenly glows.

The girl has apparently given Ichika the power of the Sun. After flying around in the sunset for a bit with her, the girl reveals the promise she wants Ichika to make. She wants Ichika to do her homework for her, which involves writing about her experience every time she uses the talisman. At least, that’s what she says. It’s pretty obvious that’s not the truth, but Ichika takes it at face value.

The girl then reveals herself as Manatsu, and ends up staying with Ichika for the whole summer vacation. The episode ends with a little bit of what at first looks like it’s going to be light yuri, but ends as just a peck on the cheek. “I’m sorry for lying”.

Uta-kata looks to be a deep, intertesting take on the Magical Girl genre. The way its executed is quite different to the standard, though the basic archetypes are present. I’m almost certain there’s going to be some philosophical arguments explored - ‘Utakata’ means ‘Transient’ or ‘Ephemeral’ in Japanese. The first spoken line is also pretty telling - “It feels like the morning light of Fall is somehow similar to the sunset of Summer.” Definately looking like one to follow. The Kiddy Grade style art is also a good thing, in my opinion.

AnimeYuki and Spork don’t have a single episode torrent for Episode 1. They have a batch for [url=http://a.scarywater.net/spork/utakata%201-3v2.torrent]episodes 1-3[/url].