Seasonal First Impressions is a column where I detail my thoughts, however brief or long, about a currently-airing anime’s first episode or so.
In keeping with the spirit of the show I’m covering, and in my ongoing quest to make my first impressions writeups less identical, here, presented in no particular order, is simply a list of things I liked about the premiere episode of Ikoku Nikki. (English-market title Journal with Witch, but, seemingly, almost no one calls it that.)
1: Its non-linear storytelling. We start with a flash-forward, only establishing the actual premise after the OP sequence plays. This allows us to meet our main characters, the recently-orphaned Takumi Asa [Mori Fuuko, in her first starring role], and her aunt, the eccentric Koudai Makio [Sawashiro Miyuki], on their own terms, before learning of the accident that deprived Asa of her parents and Makio taking her in.
2: Its use of limited, but bold visual techniques. In particular, with its frequent cuts to the desert Asa imagines as she attempts to write in her journal, it reminds me of the sometimes casually-hallucinatory bilocational direction of the recent mystery anime Shoshimin Series. Of course, the context is very different, but I grew very fond of the technique in that series, and I am happy to see a similar method used here to elicit different emotions. Asa calls this desert “loneliness”.
3: Makio herself, a decidedly disheveled woman of 35 (making her the increasingly-rare anime character older than me) who lives in an unkempt apartment with bits of paper scattered everywhere. She is characterized as shy and just generally a bit of a weirdo. To say I felt seen, as someone in my 30s who also makes a living (well, “a living”) off of writing as Makio appears to do, also fitting pretty much all of these descriptions, would be an understatement.
4: When Makio gives Asa the journal, we see its rows and rows of ruling lines slowly morph into the sand dunes of the desert. This sequence in of itself is incredible, especially for how little is actually involved in it, but it’s Makio’s advice to Asa on journal-writing that really sticks with me: you don’t have to write anything you don’t want to, write only what you want to in that moment, and what you write needn’t even necessarily be true.
5: In general, stemming from both of these prior points, both Makio and Asa have fairly understated characterization. I admit I often struggle with fiction like this, as someone with generally low emotional intelligence who is bad at observing people. (And of course, observation of real people generally informs the sort of gestural tics and other expressive signals that act as a tell in this sort of thing.) Even so, I welcome the challenge here. I think perhaps what’s objectively true of Makio is less important than what Asa thinks of Makio, as a life raft in a sea of indifference. I am interested in seeing the two of them grow together, and that, really, is the main reason I found this premiere so compelling.
6: Of course, the louder and more direct bits of characterization help. Makio’s loud declaration that despite hating her mother and not even being sure she’ll be able to properly love Asa, that she won’t let her just be passed around by her family, is the episode’s best scene.
7: The scene where Asa, in her lonely desert, discovers Makio walks it as well. Without directly saying anything, the series draws a line between these two people, their minds, and their lives. It is proven to Asa that she is not alone. This really ties the episode together for me, and I am absolutely fascinated to see where the series will go from here.
It is shaping up to be a very strong anime season. That’s a good thing, but a problem with that is that works that are somewhat less conventional, like Ikoku Nikki, risk being overrun by their flashier peers. I really hope that doesn’t happen, there’s a ton of potential here, and what is here already is very, very good.
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