Tonari no Yōkai-san
Entry updated 9 September 2024. Tagged: TV.
["The Yōkai Next to Me" or "My Neighbours the Yōkai"] Japanese animated tv series (2024). Liden Films. Based on the Manga by noho. Directed by Aimi Yamauchi. Written by Tomoko Konparu. Voice cast includes Ryosuke Higa, Yuki Kaji, Yō Taichi and Asaki Yuikawa. Thirteen 24-minute episodes. Colour.
In Japan the Supernatural Creatures known as Yokai live alongside human beings; in folklore they are a mixture of good, bad and neutral creatures, but here they are generally benevolent and have close relationships with people, including marriage and children. There are also Gods and Demons, though these are on the whole more distant. Otherwise this Japan is much like our own, with the rest of the world also co-existing with its own regional Mythological creatures. Nonetheless, history seems to have followed a similar path: in a flashback to what is probably World War Two people watch bombers pass overhead towards a City, but here they are dragons.
The series is centred on the rural town of Fuchigamori. In one household a family's beloved but aged Cat, Buchio (Kaji), becomes a nekomata: he is still cat-like, but two-tailed, bipedal, able to talk – and, like many Yokai, a Shapeshifter. Buchio is assured he is part of the family and will be given love and support: the latter is needed as he is shy and there is paperwork to be completed, such as the Yokai rebirth registration and Yokai health insurance. He is mentored by Yuri Tachibana (Taichi), a fox nekomata whose own family history was not so happy, and who has to fight her resentment of this. Living nearby is Mutsumi Sugimoto (Yuikawa), a young girl whose father was swallowed up by the Void, an "imaginary Dimension" between our world and the afterlife (see Eschatology). The father figure in her life is Jiro Fuchibiyama (Higo), the Tengu (a crow man) who protects the mountains near the town: the great love of his life had been Mutsumi's great-grandmother, who died young – he has never fully processed his grief. The first few episodes establish this as a sentimental "slice of life" Anime centred on Buchio, Mutsumi and Jiro's lives, which underlines the importance of people – human and Yokai – protecting and supporting each other: additionally, a source of sorrow for Yokai is the knowledge that most of them will live considerably longer than their human friends.
Sf elements are introduced: a Space Station, manned by humans and Yokai, is sending a probe into the X-Point, a Wormhole discovered seven years ago as part of an investigation by the international Space-Time Laboratory into the rifts that have been appearing in the sky: they send a team to Fuchigamori after one appears above the town. The Laboratory also investigates Parallel Worlds: soon after the rift's appearance a woman gets off a train that should not have been running and is shocked on seeing a yokai, then disappears. Shortly after, we see Yuri baffled by Buchio, as if she had never seen a talking cat before, whilst Yuri's boyfriend is shocked when a fox talks to him in her voice. Yuri has experienced a body swap (see Identity Exchange) between herself in parallel worlds; the one without Yokai might be our own. Fortunately the Space-Time Laboratory's Scientists are able to identify this other world and arrange a corrective swap. Later, the Laboratory returns to investigate a meteorite that landed near Fuchigamori 500 years ago – it fell from a parallel dimension during a "Boundary Break", a major rift caused when two parallel worlds clash.
The season climaxes with a huge rift opening in the sky above Japan: it is another Boundary Break, but here the other world is one of the mysterious void spaces that exist between dimensions – places where people swallowed by the void go, turning into Oni. Traditionally Oni are evil demons, but here it is discovered they are the husks of souls and are, though murderous, pitiful. They pour into this world, temporarily causing havoc before the rift closes. Whilst this is happening, a black shadow tries to swallow Mutsumi: it is her father. Jiro manages to retrieve him, but he is now a yokai with no memory of his past. The rift's closure has an effect on the Yokai, who find themselves weakening then fading away. However, the belief that a mystical power exists in names and words – known as kotodama and here phrased as "the [heart's] power to give existence to things that shouldn't exist" – means they are brought back by those that miss them; particularly, it seems, by Mutsumi, who has a transcendental experience.
The world-building has some interesting elements, such as humans with Yokai ancestry being susceptible to their behavioural traits and genetic illnesses: so a girl with Kappa ancestry has the urge to hibernate in cold weather but, as the human body is not designed for this, it would be fatal. Though most of the Yokai are traditional, there are also more modern ones, such as Nishiya Chiaki, a tsukumogami (a treasured object imbued with a spirit) who was a beloved car. A soul took residence within him and, when not a vehicle, he is a human body with a car for a head. As he is now an individual in his own right he has to get a driver's licence (and, as he was a German car, needs to apply for Japanese citizenship). The widower who owned him as a car is now his partner.
Tonari no Yōkai-san has its flaws: the season finale's crisis is resolved a little too easily, whilst the sf and slice-of-life Fantasy components do occasionally jar. Nonetheless this is an engaging, likable series. [SP]
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