Shinigami no Ballad 1

After watching Hanban, I saw that there were subs for another series that was 6 episodes in total. It was called Shinigami no ballad. I heard of this series due to the nice graphics that I have seen on animenfo.com quite a few months ago. However, the reviews are mostly bad and the fact that I do not have that much of a bandwidth meant that I could not spend too much time watching something that I did not like. Hence, I never bothered to watch it.

Months started to pass as I forgot about this little anime. Until very recently, I did not show any interest to watch it. However, I have destroyed my backlog of anime like a rampant fool and found that I have nothing to blog anymore. Until the gods of this place, I generally have problems writing a topical article (I can but I dont have that much to say). So, i went back to this series and downloaded it.

Man, I regretted not watching this earlier. A shinigami is said to be a death god that brings death (read: Bleach). However, in this series, the shinigami girl, called Momo, gives a totally different perception of how a death god acts. With topics such as death revolving around this story, not unlike Hanban, it is a story more on love and the relationship of people. Momo is simply a shinigami that overlooks and understands these things from a third person. Even though they are all short stories (episodic in nature), the thing that binds them together is Momo, hence even though she did not seem to appear so often, her presence in the show is probably the thing that holds everything beautifully in a ballad melody of love.

Main character

Momo is a shinigami, a death god that reveals itself when someone is going to die. Well, supposedly. The fact is that Momo is a shinigami that is very sentimental, one that easily cries when she sees a touching situation. She brings death, yet has emotions that is unlike a death shinigami that should be used to killing and bringing lives when they move on. She seems to put on a brave front with the people she interacts with, yet has a very soft side. She also appears often to people who is far from dying, simply to fulfil tasks that dead people asks her for.

She is the thing that brings a conclusion to every story in episode 1-3 (I watched up to episode 3 for now) to summarize the little stories. Her presence in the story is always remembered with the little bell ringing in the background. That little bell ring comes from the cat that is with Momo all the time, and the cat seems to be more serious in nature compared to Momo.

Now, to the little episode summary or probably preview-like reviews.

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Episode 1

This is the story of a little boy and a girl in elementary year 5 (I would assume 11 years old). The girl was suffering from some illness that had caused her to faint in an earlier time. Due to the fact that the boy knew that she was physically sick, he always accompanied her back home. Even though the girl felt bad that the boy was doing it just because she was sick, she was unable to stop the boy from sending her home everyday.

During one of their trips back home, the girl found a cat that had beautiful blue eyes. They decided to keep the cat in the temple, where they feed the cat. One day, the boy finally decided to let the girl go home alone to the temple to play soccer with his friends. When it rained, the boy went home and the girl’s mother called his house, saying that the girl had not returned yet. That day, the girl died after her asthma attack came about. She had been with the cat.

Momo then came over, wanting to kill the cat. The boy blamed the cat for the problems and Momo wanted to kill the cat. However, the boy eventually used his body to protect the cat. We then hear from Momo that the girl wanted to protect the cat like how the boy always protected her. She could not do it anymore, since she was dead. However, she wanted the boy to continue to take care of the cat, like how a father would.

A fitting end, with Momo crying after being touched by the beautiful relationship between the boy and the girl.

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Thoughts

I really liked the first episode. They did not make it violent or morbid, with the death of the girl almost skipped. It was not important, but the important issue is the relationship between the two friends. It is really wonderful to see how love (maybe it’s too strong a word here) manifests itself. I like the light hearted mood that this anime is giving, as a more sombre portrayal of death would have depreived this fairy tale feeling in this story.

The graphics are also good, with rather vivid colors used and that the graphic flow was mostly decent for its vintage. I really liked Momo, simply because she is oh so cute. Man, yea, she is just too darn cute to be a shinigami.

*continues to watch more*