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Kaze no Yojimbo Volume 01:

A New Face In Town (DVD)

"Ever since the arrival of tough guy George Kodama, who started stirring things up in Kimujuku, some of the people in this small town are feeling uneasy. It is obvious they are hiding something, but with the whole town split in half, George is having difficulty exposing “the secret”. While he is trying to find a man, the town is disrupted by numerous fights, a shoot-out, and even a murder!"

Kaze no Yojimbo is the kind of series that uses a slow and methodical pace to allow the story to develop but keeps the viewing audience guessing as to what the importance of each piece of the puzzle really is. The art style varies from dusty/realistic modern to caricature style with a dramatic sledgehammer that is slammed down every time a new piece of information is brought out. It makes for an overstated if not hackneyed viewing experience, but that’s not to say it’s not a pleasurable show to watch. (For some reason, this disc suffers from some really nasty cross-coloration issues, so much so that I couldn’t tell if it was the fault of the DVD or if it was from the original master.)

Episode 01: Gone With the Dust

The beginning of the episode is a scene where a train comes into town and is met by a complete police division who search the entire train for something – in the background a young child watches the action and then the show fast forwards 15 years. Much like a spaghetti western, the episode’s current action starts with the drifter George Kodama entering town on train.

The town is split right along the lengths of the track – the older side (the Red Town) dates back to the Meiji era, while the newer side of town (White Town) has been built within the last 10 years.

On his way into town, George sees a skinhead thrown violently out of a restaurant, and immediately meets up with his friends who appear to be plotting something. George spends his time trying to find out the whereabouts of a “Hanzo Araki” and his asking the police turn up no information; although the police mention that the name 

Araki is a common one in the town. The officer suggests speaking with the nearby restaurant owner who might know the man.(where the skin-head “Raccoon” was thrown out of). Entering the closed restaurant, George is confronted by the thugs who threw out Raccoon and manages to defeat the pack.

George then heads to the Araki hotel to stay for the night. At the hotel he is

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 eventually greeted by the manager Sanae Araki who claims that the man in question has moved to Sendai (a city north of Tokyo). Sanae is then called to the lobby to meet with the President of the local mine-site who is interested with the appearance of George.

The next morning, George is at the train-station on his way out of town and he witnesses the girl on the train being assaulted by Raccoon and five of his gang – quickly jumping to action, George knocks out all members of the group and is then arrested by the local police while he was checking on the girl.

Episode 02: Snake Swamp
As George is being led away in the back of a police car, the restaurant owner speaks with the police officer and suggests that the officer arrested George to protect him from the gang’s retaliation – and reminds him that he probably did it because both of them are “outsiders” to the town. Now under arrest, George is taken to the city’s police station where is being interrogated by the local detective.

Before the detective can make progress, George has his bail posted by Mr. Tanokura the father of the girl he saved. Mr. Tanokura expresses his thanks by asking George to stay with the family while he investigates Hanzo Araki for him and in the meantime asks him to serve as a bodyguard to Miyuki (the daughter) who appears to like George immensely.

After dropping Miyu off at the train station, George asks the restaurant owner for information on the Ginzame gang (the group that Raccoon was a part of and attacked Miyu) and is led to their company headquarters. In the headquarters, he speaks with the company manager (the brother of the company president) who offers him a position with the company as well as a giant payoff as part of a thanks for not mentioning the gang while being interrogated. George says that he will think about the offer and returns to the restaurant where the owner offers some new information to him; he states that the Ginzame gang has been known to spend long hours at the abandoned mine but doesn’t know what they do out there.

After returning to pick-up his ward Miyu, George runs into Sanae again who is surprised that he is still in town. More interesting is the frosty reception that Miyu gives to Sanae.

Episode 03: The Bodyguard

George meets with Mr. Tanokura who now has information on Hanzo Araki – he lived in Sendai for a few years after leaving town and eventually moved to Tokyo. At this point, Mr. Tanokura offers him a permanent job, but George declines and instead goes to work for Ginzame.

At Ginzame, he takes the money that was originally offered and is now under their employ. The president finally returns home and goes straight to his girlfriend’s house – Sanae. While there, an unknown attacker fires on the Hotel while Ginzame is there; now enraged, Sanae leaves the room and Ginzame orders all of his gang members to the headquarters. The local detective is on the scene where he relays to Ginzame that the car where the shooting occurred was a Tanokura vehicle, which causes Ginzame to believe that their rival has openly attacked them. Ginzame tells George that he will be in charge of “solving the problem” if the police cannot find the culprit. In the restaurant, Sanae is speaking with the owner (who is apparently her Uncle) and is now afraid for her life, to which the owner suggests getting a bodyguard. When she asks for a suggestion, he suggests George.

George then meets up with Miyu to escort her home (after she hits him repeatedly for leaving without telling her) and ends up speaking with Tanokura. He accuses George of playing both sides against each other and even accuses him of shooting at Ginzame to cause this situation. Although not denying it, George leaves the meeting as Tanokura has no proof of this. After leaving the meeting, he witnesses Raccoon meeting up with a  Tanokura driver and paying him off; listening in, George discovers that the theft was handled by Raccoon and after kicking both of their asses he drags them to Ginzame. The doorman is surprised to see the men being brought in by George and he then interrogates the doorman to find out that the whole plan was orchestrated by Ginzame’s brother, the manager. The two men are then exiled from town, but not before George returns the money from Ginzame and is once again unemployed.

Episode 04: Beauty and the Poison

George starts by trying to stay in an abandoned building to sleep for the night; however when he wakes up the next morning, he is now attended by Sanae and is in a room at the Araki Hotel. He agrees to stay on as Sanae’s bodyguard. George has also been keeping his watch on Miyu – who is very upset that George is staying with Sanae.

Miyu drags George into the nearby swamp. On their way, they run into Raccoon and two of his cronies who have surrounded a woman while Raccoon proposes to her… yes, you read that right, proposes to her. Despite her insistence to the negative, Raccoon presses the issue and George steps in and beats the crap out of the group for harassing the woman.

Episode 05: The Pursuit

Another plot filled episode!

Following up a lead on Hanzo Araki, George heads into Sendai to attend a funeral. Under the guise of a life-insurance investigator, he speaks with the family and friends of the deceased to learn more.

Back in town, Miyu is upset that George isn’t in town for the time being and Raccoon is upset to learn that George has left as well (not being able to learn anything from him yet). The Tanokura group ends up finding the driver from the shooting staying in a hotel with a prostitute. After some convincing (a.k.a. ruthless beating) the man reveals how he worked with Ginzame’s brother and how much he was paid. After getting what they needed from the man, they turn him into the police. Just outside her home, Miyu is surprised by Sanae who was taking out a rifle out of storage from the Tanokura home. She asks Miyu to thank her father for storing it and then drives away in her car.

After 5 episodes of Kaze no Yojimbo, I must admit that I can’t recall seeing such a convoluted conspiracy show in anime before. The show’s pace is perfect for such a story, but those needing a fix of action will be sorely disappointed.

- Tazman

(May 22, 2004)

“...and in other news. Toy Industrialist Jonathan Weed was found dead last night in the home of an employee, who claims Weed choked on a dinner roll. No charges will be filed against the employee, but the dinner roll has been taken into police custody.”

        - Tom (The Family Guy)

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