Take A Pick Tuesday: Master Keaton
To me at least Master Keaton is like a wonderful fresh
breath of air, you can truly feel the awe that Taihei-Hiraga Keaton feels when
he goes to various places, sees various archeological digs, artifacts or places
and feels a connection with them along with myths, legends and stories, like
him we truly all feel whole with our cultures and as human beings in general.
The plot of Master Keaton is a unique one. Keaton is a former SAS who teaches part time
and works for Lloyd’s of London an insurance company like no other. For Keaton
though it is only part time, it allows him to travel the world and taste delicious
cuisine and of course at times forces him to risk his life as his partner
Daniel often sends him on dangerous assignments, luckily his training as SAS
usually comes in handy as does his knowledge in what his real focus is. To
become an archeologist, it’s clear that Keaton has keen knowledge of the
subject and more often than not it becomes a requirement in the cases he
investigates. While that is supposed to be his true focus he seems to spend
more time with Lloyds which sometimes makes him wonder if his dream will ever
come true.
The show takes
you to all places around the world and Keaton is very soft hearted, very
concerned with people and although he has enough training to turn people into
canned yams it’s never on his list of things to do first. Like the places he sees,
Keaton without realizing it often digs into people’s souls, understanding their
strife which sometimes, not all the time, brings them to some sort of resolution.
The original comic was a combined work by creators Hokusei Katsushika who wrote
it and Naroki Urasawa who did the art. There’s actually a bit of controversy on
whom the credit should go to. Naoki Urasawa who would go on to work on such
famed manga’s as Monster, 20th Century Boys, Pluto and Billy Bat would state in
an interview that he’d done the blunt of
the work at some point and his name should be printed larger. Hokusei
Katsushika or his real name Hajime Kimura would pass away in 2004. While it
does seem that at some point Urasawa was more than the artist but the writer
for the story at times, it is still a subject of dispute as far as people who
knew Kimura are concerned.
Master Keaton may
not be on everyone’s list of anime that ring a bell but it should be. Not only
does this show step away from the characteristics that most assume belong to an
anime (usually those that do not watch anime especially). Instead of sex
goddess appearances of both male and females in the show everyone has a very
human face, very different from each other and well-grounded to what we see
every day when we look at each other.
Having only been out the country once I can’t say how accurate the
places are that Keaton visits but no doubt there was love put into the scenery,
detail that seems so realistic and all of it represents the things that Keaton
loves so much. A painting in light colors at times, it can change depending on the
area as well as the tone of the story of each episode, darker colors are used
at times and usually fitting to the story being told or the overall mood of the
subject matter. Some of the other characters you will meet is his daughter
Yuriko Hiraga who lives with his divorced wife, as to why they divorced it
seems at times like a mutual thing and others a regrettable one. For one thing
Keaton is clearly not over his wife by any means someone who doesn’t make an
appearance in the show or its OVAs unfortunately. Despite the divorce his
daughter who has a good head on her shoulder has a great concern for Keaton and
often is the ear to listen to when Keaton is feeling disillusioned. Sometimes its
tough love but some of the best characteristics that we find in Keaton we also
find in his daughter. Then there is his father Taihei Hiraga who also divorced
Keaton’s mom the way Keaton would divorce when he was a child, in their
thirties, his father is a bit of a ladies man in fact that is supposed to be
one of the reasons Keaton’s mom left him, supposedly. Accompanied him is a
giant Saint Bernard with a powerful sense of smell, his father is quite the educated
man as well, a zoologist in fact. Then you have the rather large detective
Charlie Chapman who makes an appearance a couple of times in the show. The
adaption does a good job capturing these characters as well as the others you
meet during Keaton’s investigations. In saying this one of the great things
about the show is the dub, considering that most of the characters are from different
places in Europe, only Keaton himself is half Japanese as is his daughter and
only his father is full Japanese, the rest of the characters would have accents
in their particular regions which doesn’t feel too over the top, subtle mixing
well with the true to manga art in the show, with its detailed scenery and
human faces and coloring.
The show
doesn’t repeat itself, the only reoccurring thing is the heart in the
storytelling, since archeology plays a big part of the show it’s easy to get
caught up in the technical parts and lose track of the human factor as well as
the storytelling. Not so with Master Keaton instead it uses why the study is so
important and the normal predicaments that effect people to tell a true heartfelt
story in each episode. Whether it’s a girl who is running from her grandmother’s
home in Italy, filled with the memories of her departed father to a woman
Keaton meets by chance on a train, telling a story of loss when the Berlin Wall
was erected and the devastating results to her family after its fall. To even
Keaton trying to find reason in the dreams he had while teaching classes to
adults in a school destined for demolishing, reminiscing about the teacher who
had inspired him to follow his dream and wondering if he’d truly come short of
this dream. Telling his daughter on the rooftops, on how his teacher would give
lessons in between the bombings in London during World War II and how his
teacher had a theory of European Civilization starting by the Danbue River, a
theory Keaton wishes to follow as well. The episode shows the importance to
continue to learn and to never give up on your dreams bringing him face to face
with his inspiration in a heartfelt conclusion. The show has plenty of darker
moments as Keaton does come face to face with a former mentor from the SAS, his
partner Daniel possibly finding true love and the sad truth behind it hence the
name of the episode Blue Friday. There are quite a bit of the sort but that’s
what makes the show so fascinating though, truly the excavation takes place in
the nature of the human heart and Keaton is our guide to this.
A Podcast Companion
*Need more otaku time, well for more
ideas why not hop on to the newly minted podcast Rats On A Plague Ship. A
podcast that speaks on all matters of geekdom with yours truly and my fellow
co-host Sal Almaraz. The true cure to when the hours feel like they drag!
No comments:
Post a Comment