Heike Monogatari

## Heike Monogatari *Heike Monogatari* is a masterwork of lyrical animation — director Naoko Yamada's (of *K-On!* and *Liz and the Blue Bird* fame) sweeping, painterly adaptation of Japan's most celebrated medieval war epic, produced by Science SARU. Based on the 13th-century *Tale of the Heike*, this series follows Biwa — a young girl with a mystical eye that allows her to see the future and the ghosts of the dead. After her father is killed by retainers of the powerful Taira (Heike) clan, Biwa is unexpectedly taken in by the clan's leader, Shigemori, who also possesses one such eye. She lives among the Heike as their prosperity peaks — and then watches, powerless to change it, as the clan's arrogance, political overreach, and the tides of war slowly pull them toward total ruin in the Genpei War against the rival Minamoto clan. The series is told with remarkable restraint and beauty: Yamada's signature sensitivity to gesture and emotion translates medieval tragedy into something profoundly intimate. The gorgeous watercolor-influenced art direction and the haunting biwa lute soundtrack create an anime unlike anything else — a meditation on fate, loss, and the fleeting nature of glory.