King of Bandits Jing
Anthony D. Baranyi
fantasy series, "King of Bandits Jing". I saw the first couple of episodes
when the series first started on NHK BS2 in the Fall of 2001, and
subsequently ordered the first two R2 DVDs, but I never followed up on it
due to having too many other anime to watch for much of last year. Well,
these past few months have been different and I no longer have access to
nearly unlimited anime, so I've been going back to finish older series. In
this light I watched the first couple of episodes of "Jing" again,
remembered why I had originally been interested in the series, and ordered
the remaining four R2 DVDs.
"King of Bandits Jing" is a very odd shounen action series. Many of the
usual clichés that fill shounen anime are missing from the series and the
overall feel is quite different from the norm. The first and foremost
contributor to this feel is the character of Jing, the hero of the series.
Jing is almost a throwback to the heroes of action anime of 20 or more years
ago such as Lupin from "Lupin III". Jing is very confident, skilled and
mysterious. He relies on his wits as much if not more than his fighting
ability. Jing is also more than comfortable with the various girls in the
show, unlike so many current shounen heroes who are either indifferent to
girls ( such as Hikaru in "Hikaru no Go" ) or totally inept around them (
such as Naruto in "Naruto" ).
But Jing is not a compulsive flirt like Ataru in "Urusei Yatsura" either –
that role is left to Jing's companion and occasional weapon, Kiru, and
loquacious, flirtatious bird who might well be a descendent of Joe Carioca
from "The Three Caballeros". But Kiru isn't there for comic relief alone -
he can transform into a powerful energy weapon when he grabs onto Jing's
right arm.
This leads to the next unusual aspect of "King of Bandits Jing" – the
stories do not really fit into the typical fight-of-the-week approach of
many modern shounen action series. Instead, to a good extent Jing acts as a
white knight, rescuing "damsels in distress". The thief aspect of the story
is almost nonexistent.
The world of "King of Bandits Jing" is also quite unique. It is a very
baroque world which is vaguely reminiscent of the settings for the series
"Eat Man". There is a sense of dreaminess underlying the various towns that
Jing visits, and each place has it's own self-contained theme. There is a
town of thieves, a town of time, a town of music and so on.
And in each town Jing meets up with a beautiful, although not necessarily
human, girl. This is another area where "King of Bandits Jing" is quite
different from the typical shounen series, and to an extent, even from many
of the late night "bishoujo" series that proliferate on commercial Japanese
TV channels. One needs to keep in mind that "King of Bandits Jing" played on
NHK BS2, a Japanese public TV station, in one of the weeknight suppertime
kid's anime time slots. These time slots are specifically aimed at a
predominantly pre-teen audience and compete against suppertime anime like
the various "mon" series and other toy-related anime series on the
commercial channels.
What is striking about the girls in "King of Bandits Jing" is that they
aren't there for comic fan service as in many bishoujo series. Instead there
is a small but distinctive level of subtle yet still surprising eroticism,
such as in the story arc with the girl whose artist father painted a
landscape painting over most of her torso. As I watched the stories I kept
on wondering how I would have reacted if I had seen the series when I was in
the target audience age group.
The animation in "King of Bandits Jing" is variable. It ranges from the
level of ordinary shounen action animation in the lighter parts of the
series, to being quite detailed and impressive in the darker story arcs. The
background music to the series is also quite good, although the opening and
closing themes didn't strike a cord with me. One of the interesting inside
"jokes" of the series is that most of the characters are named after various
alcoholic drinks. So the use of the word "Shot" in the episode numbering
doesn't refer to a gunshot, but to a drink.
In the end, however, it is the enigmatic character of Jing and the
individual story arcs that make "King of Bandits Jing" an intriguing and
memorable series. There isn't an overall story arc to the series – I suspect
because the series is essentially just a selection of incidents from the
manga. In my mind this actually adds to the overall sense of otherworldness
in the story. Also, we never do find out any of the background history of
Jing, but again this just increases the fascination with the mystery about
him. All-in-all, I enjoyed "King of Bandits Jing" immensely and recommend it
to anyone who wants to watch a very different interpretation of a
traditional shounen fantasy theme.
Dave Baranyi
D-Chance.
<snip>
I've only seen the first episode (fansubbed) of the series.
Plenty of action with just a hint of fanservice. A fairly
entertaining standalone episode. I wasn't overly impressed
by the artwork (although the ep I watched looked well-used,
so I may not have seen it at its best) or character designs;
but did think the story and characters to be imaginative
and was surprised that there was some depth given to
it, especially since the selling point seemed to be 'action'.
I've also fallen prey to not watching way too many good series
due to lack of time. I might have followed this one a bit more,
but... so much anime, so little time.
D-Chance.