This is also known as “Shion’s King” and subtitled “The Flowers of Hard Blood”
Synopsis: Shion no Ou centers around a young junior-high school girl named Yasuoka Shion who witnesses the murder of her parents as a child. At the time of the murder, her father leaves behind a game piece from shougi, a Japanese strategy board game similar to chess. This leads her to believe that the murderer is a shougi player. Although Shion refuses to speak after the murder and communicates only through writing messages, she eventually decides to take up shougi herself to gain clues about the murder of her parents.
(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shion_no_%C5%8C)
Genre: Mystery, drama
Status: Anime – Completed (Oct 2007 to Mar 2008.)
Manga – Ongoing (5 volumes as of 10/2007)
Thoughts / Review: The OP theme is “Lady Love” by RIZE. The ED theme is “My Dear Friend” by Teruma Aoyama.
ON A SIDE NOTE… Shion no Ou began as a manga series written by Katori Masaru and illustrated by Jiro Ando. The anime adaptation, produced by Studio Deen, started airing in Japan on October 13, 2007 on the Fuji TV television network.
AND THE CHARACTERS ARE…. Episode 1 introduces us to the main characters. YASUOKA SHION – the lead character. She has witnessed her parents’ murder in their own home when she was 4. She had never spoken a word since that time due to trauma. She communicates mainly via notes. In episode 2, we also get a little insight on why she hasn’t spoken since and this involves something the murderer told her then. She is 11 when the story begins. She had been adopted by a neighboring family and her adopted father is a well-known shougi player from whom she has learned how to play. YASUOKA SHINJI – He is Shion’s foster father and is a professional shougi player with a rank of 8 dan. YASUOKA SACHIKO – Shinji’s wife. Shion’s foster mother. SAITO AYUMI – A 15-year-old androgynous male shougi player. Due to his sickly mother, he had to leave high school to take care of her. When playing shougi, he pretends to be a girl in order to compete in a weaker league and earn money to pay for his mother’s hospital bills. NIKAIDO SAORI – A high school female shogi player and apprentice to Makoto. HANI MAKOTO – a professional shougi player and is referred to by many as Meijin, a highly prestigious professional shogi rank.
MY IMPRESSION… On watching episode 1, the intro was pretty intense. We see the summary of the plot right off the bat. Shion’s parents are killed by a creepy man and for some reason, Shion was able to survive. She was eventually taken in by a neighboring family and raised as their own. Oh, and her adopted father is a renowned Shougi player; hence, Shion is sort of an apprentice with exceptional potential. The OP song is just your usual rock song, but I kinda liked it. Although the drawing isn’t anything special, I thought the animation quality was pretty good.
All I know about shougi is that it’s a board game that’s sort of like chess, so I can’t really say anything with regard to the matches. Even though the story involves shougi, you don’t necessarily have to be knowledgeable about it to be able to appreciate the story. I think this is mainly a mystery and shougi just happened to be the setting. You’d see a bunch of matches but it doesn’t dwell in it too much. The intensity of the game comes across as you watch it but it doesn’t focus on that solely. The main story, of course is Shion’s journey through shougi as she tries to figure out her parents’ murder. Being a 22-episode series, the story gradually unravels but it also gives enough answers to some of the questions we all have as we learn about the characters in each episode. Remember, Shion hasn’t spoken at all since the murder of her parents so it’s a bit odd not to hear her speak when she’s being spoken to and be treated to a moment of silence and reading of her notes and signs. You can hear her voice once in a while though, through her thoughts. Even if there are pauses, you won’t notice it too much since usually the people around her knows her situation and they fill in the gap.
I love mysteries. Hence, despite my utter lack of shougi knowledge, there’s enough mystery going on around the characters and it’s enough to make me wonder what happens next and how the story will progress. Why were her parents killed? How and why did she survive? Who’s that creepy guy stalking her? Etc., etc. So far, the pace is just right and everything seems to be properly explained without taking too much time on one question. This is set for 22 episodes, so at this rate, the pace seems to be just right and I think it will be safe to say that we’d solve the mystery by the end of the series.
Don’t be put off by the shougi setting since it’s mainly about a mystery although there isn’t exactly a particular detective or something like that who is actually investigating and it’s also a bit on the serious side. If you enjoyed Detective Academy Q or Detective Conan and the like (sans the occasional laughs), or if you like the atmosphere of mystery in general, I think you might enjoy this one too. It’s worth giving a shot. ^_^
Leave a comment