The more I think about it, the more I feel like Kaijima: Why Sing When You Can Warble? is actually a horror show, not just a cute slice of life propaganda piece. The show revolves around a large mysterious bird-monster that the main character encounters and proceeds to bring home. It speaks Russian and Japanese, and quickly integrates itself into the home – eating their food and meddling in their affairs. His “unfiltered” observations and behaviors from a foreign perspective brings the family back together and they all live happily ever after. Or so it seems.
Upon closer inspection, it seems like the show both highlights the hypocrisy and alienation inherent in the “traditional-modern” Japanese nuclear family, from the parents never being around because they are both working to the older brother becoming a recluse after failing his college exams, which is apparently his only prospect for a bearable future. And the only way the parent know how to support this endavor is by allowing him to “study” in his room every minute of every day and not get in his way.
Enter Kaijima, the monster who doesn’t get it, who breaks all the rules, makes noise, and disturbs the entire household with his ignorance of local norms and bestial instincts. But its exactly this disturbance that sets the family back on track. Kind of. He sort of acts as another sibling who brings parents interest back on to the household, but doesn’t really do much to help the older brother pass his exams. Mostly he seems to keep the main character company, even to the extent of avoiding is actually human classmates / friends. It’s all wrapped in a cute veneer, celebrating Japanese foods and customs.
But from a slightly different perspective, its about a family secretly harboring an alien creature that leeches affection and food by being cute and acting innocent. Kaijima doesn’t actually resolve any of the family’s problems, but rather just inserts itself into their lives and demands to be cared for. And the family is so starved for connection that they willingly embrace it. It’s actually a story about a family harboring a dark secret, and this secret is what ultimately holds them together.
The more I think about it, the more I think it demonstrates the irrationality of the expectations of Japanese society. The scary part though is that the production team seems entirely unaware of this, and actively created this media to perpetuate the values that are the root of the problem in the first place. Kaijima’s faux pas are corrected and explained away, and never consequential enough to actually move the plot forward.
Kaijima is basically a story of “if only all of our problems could be solved by a benevolent magical creature.” But the picture it paints of the family’s problems are, to me, indictive of a society that is rotten at its core. Instead of advocating for change, facing your problems, and overcoming the harshness of reality, they chose to show relief from system only by miraculous intervention. It’s rather horrifying.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think American culture is superior at all. But as a media product, this anime is kind of amazing. On the surface its pretty average. The story, animation, comedic beats, its all fairly mediocre. The crazy part is its subversive without even realizing that its subversive. They set out to make a “whoo lets love japanese culture” propaganda piece and instead highlighted everything wrong with the worldview they’re selling.
Oh, I also played music today. It was fun.