Perhaps it just goes to show that there really are countless angles to be taken on any story - - even one that’s been told and retold, and retold yet again, for centuries. Here we are in a year with at least two major motion pictures doing their own take on SNOW WHITE, and OKAMISAN still manages to do a spin that doesn’t resemble either in the slightest.
Credit where credit’s due, it’s unique and clever to make the seven “dwarves” into the Snow White girl’s little brothers and sisters. And I'm saying that as somebody who's long since been bored by retellings of this particular fairy tale.
To be honest, though, the set-up for Ringo and the Snow White girl’s relationship was a touch confusing. Even for a show that continually winks at you for how it adheres to hokey anime tropes, to have these girls not realize they’re half-sisters (right?) until their later teens stretches disbelief suspension a bit far. Or maybe it would’ve seemed more reasonable if it hadn’t been presented as unclearly as it was in the first half of this episode.
Ah… but now I’m judging this show too much with my head and not with my heart, right? None of these quibbles really matter so much when the girls’ reconciliation proves to be so moving. And I found myself smiling a lot more while the show was breaking out its higher concentration of risque, inappropriate-in-front-of-minors gags about cup sizes and make-up sex. The show does seem to be getting funnier as it gets along.
Still, the threads aren't necessarily tying together into some larger tapestry and, oddly enough, this is starting to remind me of ABENOBASHI a little. You know, copious pop culture shot calls, happy-go-lucky that briefly flirt with deeper implications...
Come back next time. I'll expound on this comparison in more detail there.
Watch this episode, “Okami-san and Snow White, Who Is Immune to Poison Apples” below and decide for yourself, then read my comments on the previous episode here.
Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE. Order them on Amazon here & here. Follow him on Twitter: @tompinchuk
Hopefully it ends better than Abenobashi which I always thought ended horribly with exactly the opposite of the right message.
The naming conventions of the characters was much more blunt in this episode. Himeno Shirayuki is the almost literal name of Snow White in Japan. She's called Shirayuki-hime in Japan. Basically translating to Princess Snow White. Even her little siblings have kanji in each of their names that goes from one to seven.
I loved the touch of how Shirayuki was saved with CPR by Ringo Akai (red apple). Though anyone who knows the original Snow White story that it wasn't the kiss the woke up Snow White.
In the story, Ringo has always known that Shirayuki is her sort of step-sister. I don't think he was Ringo's biological father. She just avoided her because she felt such guilt that Shirayuki lost her father and home because of her.