Going to Bat for Kemono no Souja Erin

A piece of fiction that is described as being for “children” often has an unfair stigma attached to it. Stories are described as not being “adult” enough. They simplify themes and plots too much. They are too obvious with their symbolism. In short, children’s stories are often accused of being dumbed down so that children will be able to understand them. But this is an unfair generalization that actually simplifies the amazing work done by stories with children in mind.

Kemono no Souja Erin, about a girl whose curiosity and love of nature thrusts her into a beautiful and dangerous world, is one of those stories. I honestly believe it deserves — demands — to be mentioned in the same breath with classics such as The Phantom Tollbooth, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Chronicles of Narnia or whatever other classic children’s story one might like to mention.

A common hand wave regarding children’s stories that a person likes, but does not want to admit were written for children in mind, is to claim them as “family” stories — shows/books/movies/whatever that offer enjoyment for children, teens and adults alike. Some of my favorite shows do this. Tiny Toon Adventures, for example, has a lot of craziness that I enjoyed as a kid, but it also has many references to things that flew completely over my head at that age. (The “Citizen Max” episode is a good example of this.) Now, I do not have a problem with this at all. But it does highlight what, to me, makes Kemono no Souja Erin stand out above many children’s series: It does not just treat them with respect but also treats them as adults.

I write “as” instead of “like” as a deliberate choice. Kemono no Souja Erin is a series with many “adult” themes and plot elements: War, murder, assassination, tragedy, betrayal and on and on and on. Erin is not a grim series by any means, but it is not afraid to display the potential for darkness that exists in the world. The way the series treats that darkness is a big part of what makes it work for me — it does not dumb any of that down at all, but it somehow manages to also have it exist on a level that is not incomprehensible to children. Erin shows many things as they are — good or bad — and it trusts people to either get it, or question it if they do not get it.

That sense of curiosity is something that has driven the series from the very beginning. Its main character, the titular Erin, always asks questions. If she does not understand something, she asks about it. She researches. She observes. She learns from her observations. If Erin cannot immediately understand a situation, she does not give up, nor does she grouse about it. Instead, she thinks about how best to approach her problem. Erin suffers misfortunes, moves from place to place and is not handed anything on a silver platter. Her one constant is that intense curiosity that drives her to really know the world around her, for better or worse.

Take a recent episode, ep35, for example. In it, a male beast-lord, named Eku, is taken in to Kazalm, the school Erin attends to learn about the beast-lords. Eku becomes friendly with a female beast-lord Erin has been raising, Lilan, who undergoes some interesting changes soon after: The fur on her chest becomes flushed with pink, and she constantly calls out to Eku. Adults watching have probably clued into what is going on, but the show comes up with a decent reason to explain why nobody at the school can see what is happening: Eku and Lilan are both wild beast-lords, and thus have been raised in a completely different way than the beast-lords that have been raised at Kazalm from the beginning of their lives. They have never seen this type of behavior in a beast-lord before. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the back of their minds, they guessed what was going on, but as scientists, they chose to observe rather than make assumptions.

It soon becomes more obvious that Eku and Lilan are going through a courtship ritual in preparation for mating. And when it actually happens (as filthy as this may initially sound :P), it is a spectacular scene. The actual act is represented symbolically, of course, with scenes such as the one highlighted in the first screenshot of this post. It is an amazing spectacle of color, imagery and life; I can honestly say that it is one of the most beautiful scenes I have seen in any series this year. And it ends with Erin and the other students and teachers simply watching the creation of a new life and learning from the experience.

Of all the ways a person could get his or her kids to actually learn about sex in an educational way, this is probably the least mortifying. Kemono no Souja Erin lays it out as directly as possible without explicitly stating that Eku and Lilan are having sex — they’ve come together to create a new life. Nothing filthy about it. Nothing to be ashamed of. Just a natural, beautiful, instinctual action. This is how the series does not treat children like idiots: While it does not show the beast-lords mating, it does not attempt to hide why they are doing this. Like the students and teachers, children watching the series are probably seeing something they never considered before, something that will probably teach them a bit more about life. (To say the least, haha.)

It is like this with everything in the show. People die. People love. People plot. People see things go wrong in the worst possible ways. There is no effort to hide the good and the bad of the world from children; all that the series asks is, to borrow a phrase from The Daughter of Twenty Faces, that children “watch, listen and think for themselves.” Again, this is the key to Erin: Curiosity. One should always try to understand something for him- or herself, and failing that, questions should be asked of everything.

One of the most remarkable things about the series is that the plot is actually surprisingly complex — there is political intrigue, different groups with murky motivations and an actual history behind this land that is clear and makes sense. It is written so that people of all ages can understand the story, and yet it does not sacrifice any of that complexity. Only the truly great stories are capable of those feats. And I think one of the biggest reasons Erin is able to do this is because it makes that effort to really engage the viewer and encourage thought rather than being deliberately obscure and mistaking that for depth.

Just one more thing that really stands out to me about Erin: It effortlessly portrays the growth of a young girl from her childhood to (where the series is currently) what I assume are her early 20s in college. There are a good number of time skips throughout the series — at least three that I can recall off the top of my head. And they are not short, either; years will fly by between some episodes. But Erin’s growth always remains realistic and interesting. When I see her walk, talk and interact with people, I can really feel how the passing years have colored her view on life and how much more mature she becomes with each day. The Erin of ep37 (the latest episode I have) is different from the Erin of the beginning of the series, but it is in a way that feels completely natural. She has always been kind and curious. But her growth comes in the strength she develops and how her affinity for nature serves as the basis for her morals.

I think many children could see a hugely positive role model in Erin. She is smart, curious, loving, hard-working and unafraid to follow what she believes is the right path. If I had kids, I’d be proud to watch this with them and know that they are not being talked down at but rather being talked to.