A merciless but touching story of an observant girl.
Instant classic is a work that immediately after release intends to remain in history for a long time. The Heike Story is an adaptation of one of the most important plots of Japanese history and culture, and the first major work of Naoko Yamada.
What Is The Heike Story About?
A little girl travels through medieval Japan with her father. He is a musician, she is headstrong. Seeing injustice, the girl cannot stand aside. An attempt to stand up for a stranger will cost her father his life.
The country is ruled by the Taira clan, whose blades executed the father without trial or hesitation. As fate would have it, young Biwa, named by her father in honor of a musical instrument, will end up in the house of the Taira commander, the eldest son of the Shigemori family.
After learning her story, he will beg forgiveness for his clan. And at the same time, as if for the entire era, for past and future deaths, and also for humanity: cruel, greedy, thirsty for greatness and heroism, ready to lay even the head of a child on the altar of "honor" and "glory."
The Heike Story Is Based on an Epic Japanese Classic
The original source, The Tale of the Heike, is a monumental medieval legend in which the terrible, monstrous fate of an entire family, torn apart in the struggle for power, is embroidered with red thread.
Together with the heads of the rival Taira and Minamoto clans, thirsting for recognition and eternal honor, hundreds of thousands of lives fell into the millstones of the inter-clan struggle: soldiers, servants, children.
Naoko Yamada, who undertook the task of adapting selected chapters, recounts the horror of history mercilessly, but with genuine compassion and regret, as if to mourn once again those who were crushed by an indifferent epic.
The Title Unfolds a Large-Scale Story in Which the Main Character Remains an Observer
We get to know various members of the Taira clan, eavesdrop on their conversations and experiences, see how the heavy burden of ancestry crushes, breaks, and drives even the most sensitive of them to murder and death.
Yamada invites Biwa to feel the pain of an observer who can do nothing but wait for the outcome. Only once does the girl intervene in the course of history, when she rescues a family member – Tokuko – from the abyss of oblivion.
Art helps both the girl and the viewer to keep their distance without falling into a cauldron of despair. Biwa seeks solace in the sound of music, and Yamada – and all of us – in artistic performance, which smooths out the horror and turns it into a source of inspiration.
Everyone in this story is given a time limit: they must see and experience as much as they are supposed to. Even if it is excruciatingly painful. What is the point of mythical samurai bravery, songs of achievement and respectfully bowed heads, if "greatness" is based on hundreds of lives taken?
Where to Watch The Heike Story?
The Heike Story is available to stream on Crunchyroll.