Fune wo Amu

[Ryu]

Title: The Great Passage (Knitting a Ship)
Japanese: 舟を編む
Release dates: 14/10/2016 (TV series 11 episodes) and 13/4/2013 (live-action film)
Genres: Comedy, Romance, Seinen
Original creator: Shion Miura
Original character designer: Haruko Kumota
Directors: Toshimasa Kuroyanagi (TV) and Yuya Ishii (film)
Written by: Takuya Satō (TV) and Kansaku Watanabe (film)
Music by: Yoshihiro Ike (TV) and Takashi Watanabe (film)
Character designer and chief animation director: Hiroyuki Aoyama
Art director: Yuka Hirama (TV)
Sound director: Yukio Nagasaki (TV)
Director of photography: Takahiro Hondai (TV)
Background art design by: Mamio Ogawa (TV)
Color design: Naoko Satō (TV)
Cinematography by: Junichi Fujisawa (film)
Editing by: Daisuke Hiraki (TV) and Shinichi Fushima (film)
Animation producer: Kiyoshi Shintaku
Producers: Akitoshi Mori (Fuji TV), Soichiro Umemoto (TV), Tomoo Tsuchii, Kimitaka Goka, Fumitsugu Ikeda and Yasuyuki Iwanami (film)
Studios: Zexcs (TV) and Filmmakers Little More Co. (film)
Distributed by: Shochiku (film)
Network: Fuji TV (Noitamina)
Opening theme: "Shiokaze (汐風 / Tide Wind)" by Taiiku Okazaki
Ending theme: "I & I" by Leola

Main cast: Mitsuya Majime (馬締 光也) voiced by Takahiro Sakurai and played by Ryuhei Matsuda
Masashi Nishioka (西岡 正志) voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya and played by Joe Odagiri
Kaguya Hayashi (林 香具矢) voiced by Maaya Sakamoto and played by Aoi Miyazaki
Daitokai staff: Kōhei Araki (荒木 公平) voiced by Tetsuo Kanao and played by Kaoru Kobayashi

Tomosuke Matsumoto (松本 朋佑) voiced by Mugihito and played by Gō Katō
Kaoru Sasaki (佐々木 薫) voiced by Yoshiko Sakakibara and played by Hiroko Isayama
Midori Kishibe (岸辺 みどり) voiced by Yōko Hikasa and played by Haru Kuroki

Supporting cast: Remi Miyoshi (三好 麗美) voiced by Chiwa Saitō and played by Chizuru Ikewaki
Shinichiro Miyamoto (宮本慎一郎) voiced by and played by Shōhei Uno
Take (タケ) voiced by Ikuko Tani and played by Misako Watanabe

Others from live-action: Director Murakoshi (村越局長) played by Shingo Tsurumi
Chie Matsumoto (松本千恵) played by Kaoru Yachigusa

Editor (編集者) played by Kazuki Namioka
Actress on poster (ポスターの女優) played by Kumiko Aso


Synopsis: Araki is a veteran editor for the dictionary department at the Genbu Shobō publishing company. He is looking for a successor now that he's approaching retirement age. After Majime Mitsuya - a salesman who's a poor talker - meets Masashi Nishioka - Araki's coworker who is sociable and frivolous - Araki overhears their conversation and decides to recruit Majime into the department. The "odd couple" work together to compile a medium-sized Japanese dictionary titled "The Great Passage" (Daitokai).

The publication of a new dictionary titled The Great Passage progresses. Mitsuya Majime, originally from publisher Genbu Shobo's sales department, has been recruited by Kouhei Araki, a veteran editor of the dictionary department who is looking to retire soon. The dictionary department is known internally as the "money-eating insect," but Mitsuya uses his perseverance and attachment to the words in order to become a great editor. Mitsuya, who has poor social skills, finds himself working with another man named Masashi Nishioka, who is able to express himself better.

Fune wo Amu is an adult story, WTF is it doing on this list?!? :lol: about 2 guys working on some dictionary project... ? Rare to see anything about the adult world in this list.. is there another list it belongs on? Is this list, the entire list of anime for the season? Is such adult fare on a different list?

thought it might be boring by this synopsis, until i saw the cliffhanger in ep.2

 

[gdpetti]

Just watched the 6 eps out so far... very nice feel to this one... from beginning little opening segment that then reaches the OP to the middle little 'dictionary' bit, to the EP which I really like, very nice feel to it, reminds me of Rakugo a little and Cross Game... and Aria... smooth and short, and then the little tag at the end. In the first season of Cross Game, the music starts up-tempo and ends melodramatic... less dramatic ending here, but the bookending is similar, though the EP is romantic instead of sad and dramatic. Good mix in the whole construction of this anime... very thought out from start to finish.... which reminds me of another SoL from the director of Aria, Tamayura.

This is an all adult cast, a rarity it seems from what i've encountered... which adds a depth of time to the other elements, that younger characters don't have without a heavily constructed painful background of a hard knock life... orphan, abuse, death etc. The adult cast has the time aspect to do that automatically... the weight of time slows them down for one reason or another, some born that way perhaps by personality. THe feel reminds me of Rakugo in the way it slips through time like the words in the sea they use as a symbol in this anime... light novel based I think it was, made into a live action film a few years ago.... an interesting work if it attracts multiple offers and/or formats for expression. I saw a tiny bit of a scene from the film, but I'm guessing the anime is better overall, more time can add more depth as it slows down the process... for better or for worse.

This one is slow like Aria... nice feel to it... SoL little pieces of a puzzle as its being put together... same with the storyline of the dictionary and personal relationship of the MC, it all reflects upon itself, including the little dictionary middle and very end tidbit... very well constructed work... so far, it's the opposite of Hataraki Man...

Really like the EP... seems this is being streamed on Amazon prime... how many are they doing?

 

[Ryu]

This is an all adult cast, a rarity it seems from what i've encountered... which adds a depth of time to the other elements, that younger characters don't have without a heavily constructed painful background of a hard knock life... orphan, abuse, death etc. The adult cast has the time aspect to do that automatically... the weight of time slows them down for one reason or another, some born that way perhaps by personality. THe feel reminds me of Rakugo in the way it slips through time like the words in the sea they use as a symbol in this anime... light novel based I think it was, made into a live action film a few years ago.... an interesting work if it attracts multiple offers and/or formats for expression. I saw a tiny bit of a scene from the film, but I'm guessing the anime is better overall, more time can add more depth as it slows down the process... for better or for worse.

Nice too how Kaguya and Majime confess their mutual feelings already, now it's Nishioka's turn on what to do by ep'7... he was fed up hiding a relationship with his girlfriend around, maybe there'll be no transfer if he keeps blackmailing?:lol:

 

[Ryu]

nice feel to it... SoL little pieces of a puzzle as its being put together... same with the storyline of the dictionary and personal relationship of the MC, it all reflects upon itself, including the little dictionary middle and very end tidbit... very well constructed work... so far, it's the opposite of Hataraki Man...

Really like the EP... seems this is being streamed on Amazon prime... how many are they doing?

Kabaneri is the newest anime I could find in AP of US, i agree how FnA feels like rakugo especially after long timeskips... as now kishibe got the protagonism and a new guy dates her in Ep.9, at last they'll finish their dictionary 13 years later :d

 

[gdpetti]

Just caught up with ep 10... year 14 on the dictionary... does it really take that long? Why? Guess I only think of reissues, which are mostly updates... and they seem to be redoing the entire thing from start to finish.... they probably mentioned the last one they did... how many years ago? If it's been 14 years now since they started.... and it was probably the same before... so every 25 to 30 years they do a complete redo? An update is probably done every 4 to 5 years??? A few tidbits like this wouldn't hurt any... like throwaway background lines they could talk about around the other dialogue.... that timeskip covered 13 years... and last ep another year.... whoa! At least they did ask about how old that sensei guy was... 68 or 90? they didn't know... and how they didn't look much different....

Guess that's one way not to change the character drawings!

I really like the EP.... I listen to it every time... a rarity for me....nice and short too... with a short scene at the end of each ep that seems not related to next week's ep but the current/last one.... a little joke as a parting gift. The upbeat OP helps with the mostly dramatic storyline... basic stuff that can get boring if not handled well... the time skip does remind me of Rakugo... the old lady has died, right? thus the pray at the house shrine photo of her? and the 'parting gift' at the end of ep10 is a momento of the three together with the cat? The whole thing has a nice SoL groove to it.... especially by the end as that EP chimes in. The boring aspect of the job is perhaps too realistic to most jobs, in or out of an office? I liked that Prof O? at the college when he said 'not as good as a kneel'... and the guy turns it on him, figuring that the prof is probably the usual kind, and he's right with his observations on the lunch etc. Funny. It's nice to see an adult storyline... even if it's not fantasy driven with super warriors etc. I can see why those are really popular though... life can be very boring outside of our main catalyst years... thus the escapist fantasy which acts like a drug.

2 eps left, right? It should end well, with a finished product... whether or not the office sensei lives long enough is still up for grabs, but it's time for the printers so after that is mostly the sales dept's job. No second season for this one, right? Maybe in another couple decades?

 

[Ryu]

2 eps left, right? It should end well, with a finished product... whether or not the office sensei lives long enough is still up for grabs, but it's time for the printers so after that is mostly the sales dept's job. No second season for this one, right? Maybe in another couple decades? :blink:

S2 is unlikely by a solid finale, sadly Matsumoto passed away in its publication... but as he said 'it'll be always incomplete', btw here you go as Xmas gift full ED
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7TNYz_orrg

 

[gdpetti]

That ED is from the film version? It doesn't have the vocals on it, just the instrumentals... which are ok, but it's the feel of the song more than the music I like.... goes with that sense of the sea of words that is animated often in the anime. I didn't find this anime ED on Youtube, or at least by the same artist from the sound of it. I see different versions on Soundcloud but not this ED version... one seems like the same singer, but different instrumentals, pacing... then covers.

Is this series over after 11 eps? Thought it would be the usual 12, but after that timeskip to the project completion, I really don't see much left for this, though I would have ended it differently than a pic of them with his landlady/wife's grandma on the front steps? Hard to determine who's actually dead or not! As this is like 13 or 14 yrs later... so it looked like the old guy from the office that got sick has passed away, right? His landlady/her grandma?? not sure, but I'm guess so? It's hard when they really don't seem to age at all, mentioned in a previous episode, but it is a little unrealistic.... like it or not, that kind of thing happens whenever time gets involved as it always seems to do.

I wonder how realistic this is for a dictionary project? I would assume, if it's a regular part of their book catalog, that the dept would just keep it updated every 3 to 5 years? Isn't that how it's done? Same with that other project they had to do, that was done only a couple or so years ago, some school related thing. I wouldn't thought the same for all such projects.... regular updates.

If that was the end, which it did seem to be, then it was a nice project... short story format, single cour. Nice to see an adult project... I wonder how many there are in any season? Most of those listed seem school related, and not college.... which are all so similar that I can't tell most of them apart.

This was nice while it lasted.