Takarajima

A journey through MadHouse chapter #5: a classic tale of pirates and treasure hunts.

Takarajima puts us in the shoes of Jim Hawkins, a boy who will be involved in a journey to find the treasure of the famous pirate known as Captain Flint. A classic pirate story that is still good even today. It has what it takes to keep the viewer trapped in this journey. It has an essence similar to what one saw as a child on a Saturday morning while eating breakfast. It is an anime that can take you back to happier times in your life, because although it is not ... something from our time, it does appeal a little to nostalgia for being a simple and unpretentious story.

The conflict of Jim going to look for a treasure to help his mother and how he will make allies and enemies on this journey. It is a story that knows how to capture the essence of piracy very well, because although monsters may come, even among them there are codes that must be respected. One thing to note is the antagonist of this story, John Silver. He is a person who is physically limited but can still instill fear among the pirates. He is not a brutish and violent antagonist as you would expect from this type of story, but rather a more intelligent and manipulative one who is willing to do anything to find that treasure.

Even though I consider it a pretty good and entertaining story, personally it is not what I was looking for. At the end of the day you can't take away that feeling of Western literature, and I understand that because it is based on an English book, but it is not the kind of feeling I look for in an anime. Maybe I am too used to modern anime and these first encounters with the classics can be a shock, but I don't think that is the case. I am just not used to Western stories in anime.

This was a pretty consistently engrossing series. I actually found it harder and harder to compare with the other adaptations of Treasure Island I've seen as I went through it because this really felt like it was charting its own course, much for the better. I may have known the broad swings of the story, but elements like Jim and Silver's relationship were given some pretty deep nuance here, and there was a lot more to enjoy out of the secondary cast. There's a very strong visual presentation, particularly for its time, as well as the music it uses, all of which add up to ... a package that I think a lot of modern anime could not match for style. At times, this gave me Ghibli vibes, but with a much reduced fantasy element and more focus on the high flying adventures of pirates, sailors and treasure hunters that still was grounded in the realities of this kind of conflict. Some of the plot twists and turns were a bit unbelievable, but gives those moments so much strong atmosphere and visual style that it's hard to hold that against it. I thought they could have done more to examine characters like Trelawney, Livesey and Smollett, but given the size of the cast, I think they did pretty well with all the motivations and background, albeit some of that came very late (e.g. Gray). There was more substance here than I was expecting, and I'm happy to walk away satisfied.

Just finished the 1978 anime adaptation of Treasure Island by the studio Madhouse. It was a really great adventure. Here's a spoiler free fast review.

Despite looking old, the animation was still very fluid and had a lot of charm to it. The pacing could have been a litlte faster as this story probably didn't need a full 26 episode series but the upside was that it fleshed out the characters way more. Particularly the main characters; Jim Hawkins, John Silver and the constantly shifting relationship between the two was beautiful.

I also really liked how raw the series felt in that it didn't bother censoring or ... making the harsher stuff look more pleasant. Many reality checks were given throughout the story which made it feel more authentic.

The mystery behind Captain Flint's treasure wasn't anything grand or spectacular, but it was a good device to carry the plot forward while the series focused mostly on the conflict between the good guys and the pirates which imo was one of the highlights of the show, especially the dialogue between the two factions.

The OST was great. A lot of variety from jazzy guitar to dramatic piano which mostly fit the scenes really well.

And the ending in particular was a bittersweet one but imo it fit the story perfectly. Mostly tied up the stories of all the surviving characters while also leaving some stuff a little open for some imagination which I also liked.

Would recommend to anyone that wants to see a great version of a classic adventure story. Don't let it being an old anime scare you away.