Ikoku Meiro no Croisée The Animation

I see a kimono, I click.

Animax's description said "Japanese culture gains popularity in the West", which was grossly inaccurate of what actually transpired. So let me break it down for you real quick:

8 year old* Japanese child moves to Paris in hopes of 'studying abroad' all things French. Instead, she becomes an au pair (domestic helper who is typically unpaid) to a working-class family on the verge of bankruptcy. Every episode is filled with culture shock, subtle racial discrimination, and abuse from her host family.

Whether you choose to watch this series is totally up to you, and there are many parts that are enjoyable ... - but I feel all viewers should be aware of the above, instead of being completely deceived like I was. Honestly, the initial description led me to expect affection and admiration of Japanese culture. And Japanese products to be in high-demand by all of society. Which already happens today in certain niche social groups as we know - and may even be a part of. But like, I thought it would be fun (if not fascinating) to see it happen in 18th - 19th century, and more importantly, the kind of art and goods being exchanged through foreign trade.

So, on that front, if you were expecting similar things, you're gonna be in for a huge disappointment. Avoid watching this at all costs. This anime is for Francophiles and fans of Les Miserables. It's hardly about Japan.

The rest of my review will contain SPOILERS, so stop reading here if you don't want to know the rest.

Things I enjoyed:

1) Alice.

My favourite character by far, and a girl after my own heart. We both collect very expensive Japanese furniture, accessories, and other traditional art (though I don't think chiyogami paper was available to France back then). It was like watching myself on screen, except Alice is much prettier.

Even if she made several cultural faux pas, you gotta give the girl A+ for effort! There's not many people who are that hardworking at understanding a foreign culture. It provided a lot of hilarious moments that are just cute, rather than feeling like any kind of cultural appropriation - especially because Alice corrects herself once she realizes she's in the wrong. Alice grows. She learns. She changes and begins treating a lot of people better as the anime goes on, and has an excellent character arc.

2) The art style

The anime's art style is undeniably good, and the color palette is slightly more muted (2011 timing, perhaps) to give it a softer, vintage look in many scenes. I would even describe the art as 'faded,' color tones. Though I was expecting a lot more designs on the clothing front (especially for yukatas and kimonos), there were still sufficient designs to keep my gaze satisfied.

3) Alan (side character)

The most underrated supporting character. He has so few lines throughout the series, but the ones he does have are simply priceless.

4) Camille

I wasn't sure how to feel about her in that one episode... but after we learned more about her. Wow, I'm in love. While she could've been better at communicating her external restrictions/rules to Claude, I still think she's awesome and deserves the very best. A lot better than Claude, but, despite that, I ship them hard and still hope they'll be together because I want Camille to be happy.

5) The thief/homeless child

I liked that they showed that. Up until that episode, I had been wondering 'Wow, I guess they're just gonna gloss over the high crime rate and awful people in Paris,' because it's pretty common for people to romanticize Paris. This incident was refreshing, even if still unrealistic with everyone being one skin color... that one's probably a historic anime problem we know about though.

6) Yune explaining the 'customer first' mentality

I thoroughly enjoyed a lot of her explanations on the culture of putting others first, consideration for the public or community good, and being helpful, even to strangers. A lot of her community-driven values can definitely be seen in other cultures across the world. So it was nice to watch her debate with Claude, whose words reflected typically Western concepts such as individualism, freedom, and a self-centric mentality.

Things I did not enjoy:

I loved this anime starting out. I'm a naturally sensitive person, but it shocked even me to cry during the first episode of an anime. I thought this series must be something special, and I couldn't wait to watch more of the heartfelt, warm, feelings that come from Yune trying her best against adversity. I was ready to give this anime a 10/10.

But, solely because of Claude, I'm lowering it to a 7.

At first, his hardworking attitude makes grandpa look bad, but as the episodes go on, it's clear who is the real villian at work here. I don't know what I would do with someone so rude, brutish, insecure, abusive, egotistical, and bitter in real life. Not to mention he's an emotionally disturbed pedophile. And no, I'm not saying that because of the la bise. Everything else.

I would struggle between calling the therapist or the cops, lol.

He behaves like an ultra-possesive boyfriend towards Yune, and then abuses her daily. Her developing Stockholm syndrom doesn't help either. It gets tiring - and loathsome - to watch. His complete cynicism towards the world may be a survival habit, but everything else? His obstinate ignorance and intolerance towards anyone not like him...? Even if he has good moments, it's just difficult to like him when his cons outweigh the pros.

And the worst part is that, unlike Alice or even Camille, he does not change throughout the series. His character development is weak at best, changing from racist intolerance to indifference, if you can call that progress. It's a pity that the anime chooses to portray him as the hero, when really, he's more of a selfish predator who projects all his fears and aggression towards everyone around him. God help him, he won't accept help from anyone.

*I only discovered while writing the review, that Yune is actually 13 years old. Which isn't mentioned in the anime, and with her apperance and overall plot points (ABC book, anyone?), it's not very believable to me. Mentally and physically, I think she is 8 - 10 years old, definitely not past 11. Even if she were older, the dynamic between her and Claude is still extremely disturbing. Not a fan.

The principle characters are Yune who leaves Nagasaki for Paris to work as a maid for a pair of ironsmiths, the somewhat amorous but kind Oscar and his grandson, the initially aloof, very troubled, but very earnest Claude. Other recurring characters include a young thieving boy, a bratty, but free-spirited, Victorian weeaboo (yes, they did exist in 19th century France, look up Japonisme) named Alice and her elegant, ladylike older sister, Camille, who is not free to pursue the one she loves.

A very sweet, relaxing show. The art style is quite cutesy about the face, but the detail on clothes is phenomenal and attention paid ... to setting and subtler body language is very nice. The pace is slow, but soothing. The characters have more bubbling under the surface, but while the finale and lovely extra episode touch on these subjects, they do not delve into it as much as the manga does (I recommend it, especially the Grand Magasin chapter, for those who want to see the story take a more serious and high-stakes turn-- as well as see more development of Yune and Claude's relationship).

It overall has a gentle and innocent feeling and doesn't sink to the same lows as a lot of moe shows with young-looking protagonists (Yune is actually in her early teens, she's just very young-looking and smaller-built than everyone else due to her ethnicity!). Fanservice is practically non-existent, there's one comedic scene very early on where Yune tries to take a bath, unused to the fact that they're a rare luxury in France and Claude sees water leaking from the roof and runs in on her while her back is somewhat exposed and everyone panics, but that's it (half the scene is rendered as chibi scribbles and it isn't played up).

Subjects explored are cultural shock and misunderstandings arising from differences, class differences, and more, but mostly, it is a gentle and warm show, with beautifully rendered settings that bustle with life thanks to the high quality animation and painterly-soft, but also vibrant colours that seem to glow and also help bring the setting to life.

There is some drama at the end of the series and even tragic backstories, but the story is ultimately a gentle, hopeful one with characters whose love and support for one another is enduring, even if they have disagreements, even if they are powerless to change the world around them, making an impact on one another, no matter how small, is good enough. Camille cannot help her restricted freedom, but she can be the perfect lady so her little sister, Alice, can be free. Claude cannot change the fact that their trades and old-fashioned shops are dying, but he still searches for inspiration everywhere he can to make beautiful and inspired signs. Fitting a slice-of-life series, it's about finding joy in the little things in life and connecting with others.

It's not for someone who doesn't enjoy slice-of-life however, unless you really enjoy period dress or enjoy very light romances with class differences and age differences and are willing to overlook a slow pace.

The score is sweet and evokes the setting and time period very well. The ending song is a bit too cutesy, but the opening is very lively and very Parisian. The best is probably the very traditional (in a Japanese sense) love song sung in the special episode 4.5 (one of my favourite episodes, especially in light of the manga, because it touches on the real reason Yune came to France...).

Somewhat minor, but I nearly dropped the anime and switched to the manga when Alice was first introduced-- I'm glad I forced myself to continue watching, I now love Alice's character too, but her voice was quite unbearable in her first episode. She shrieks her lines and I think this must've been a direction issue, because her voice actor has played very believable children before her...

“Ikoku Meiro no Croisée The Animation” is what happens when you make a show with an interesting premise but simplify it to the most bare bones, feel good and naive things You can.

A young japanese girl named Yune arrives in Paris. Brought in by Oscar, she is to become a live-in maid for a small blacksmith / metal craft shop that is run mainly by his grandson - Claude. From that day she discovers new things in an unknown place and makes Claude’s life a little more “interesting”.

Yeah, that’s it.It’s a slice of life show so don’t expect an overarching plot or even a main ... goal for the characters. They are just living their lives in a seemingly peaceful way. There is a little bit of drama in all this but it’s resolved pretty fast.

As for the main cast:
Yune - 15 year old Japanese girl who came to France with Oscar. Why? Don’t know, that’s not really revealed even in the later episodes. She’s the main source of fluff and the reason why You should check Your sugar level after each episode. She adapts rather quickly to her new surroundings and even gets something that could almost be called a friend… if You’re naive enough.

Claude Claudel - A young man working at the metal crafting shop and takes care of Yune. He creates signs and other things made from metal. He is the third generation working in this shop. Despite benign 17 he can be pretty cold and dry to Yune and other people. Especially those who he doesn’t trust. At the end of the day he cares about Yune and even when he’s harsh to her he mostly does it out of care and not malice.

Oscar - Caude’s grandfather with a pretty huge wanderlust. It is on one of his travels that he meets Yune and takes her back with him. He’s mostly easy going, has terrible luck with women and seemingly doesn’t like to work.

Alice Blanche - the most annoying character in the show by far. She’s obsessed with Japan and Yune. To be honest I thought the show would make her redeemable but no. From start to finish she’s just an obnoxious cunt that treats Yune more like a fascinating plaything than a person. She’s not malicious in it, she’s written in a way that suggests she doesn't even notice that and thinks she’s just friends with Yune. Unlikable as hell.

Now that we know the cast I want to say something.
Despite being in a foreign land Yune’s culture shock is mostly used in the most generic and lazy way possible. Yes she learns about differences in food, that people in Paris are colder than in japan (according to her anyway) she doesn’t really adapt or fight it. It’s just there. There is only one moment when she actually listens to Caude’s warning and that’s the only moment when she actually doesn’t have to. It’s a bit of a wasted potential to show how someone from a totally different background adapts to her new life but I guess there were more important things for the authors.

What really disappointed me was the fact that the show sets up pretty good dramas between characters and then either totally forgets about them or resolves them in a two minute monologue. Not even a conversation. I would love to see a proper development and resolution to some of the Claude-Yune frictions and even more the Calude-Camille one. I get it, it’s an episodic slice of life / Iyashikei show. But then why set those up?

What the show does rather freely is make Yune act like a little kid. Seriously she’s 15 but mostly acts like a 5 year old. She smiles, laughs, cries and the show uses all those to make her as sweet as possible. She can’t even be afraid without looking like something that should make You take insulin. The show doesn’t hide the fact that most of the things that happen, happen because Yune needs something to do and not because of any kind of logic. It’s not bad per se, but some of the situations are so dumb and naive that I had problems suspending my disbelief.

I think the saddest part of all this is that despite Yune having some pretty interesting interactions and adventures she doesn’t really grow through the show. Apart from maybe benign more forward to people she doesn’t change her attitude or behaviour in any way.

All in all it’s not a bad show. If You’re a fan of Iyashikei You can actually find it entertaining. There are some sombre tones but most of the show is pretty calm and peaceful, even if Alice can turn Yune’s day into a rollercoaster.