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Information

Title (English) Sheep's Song

Title (Japanese) Hitsuji no Uta

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Fantasy Novel

Notes OVA series. 30 mins x4

Classification -

Synopsis Young man experiences painful migraine-like attacks along with a lust for blood. He meets his long-lost sister who explains that there is vampirism in the family bloodline. He is romantically interested in a girl in the school artclub but the relationship founders when he starts lusting for her blood.

Review Dave Baranyi (below) didn't like this at all, but I thought it wasn't so bad.
This is, apparently, a low-budget production, and there is a certain lack of pace and movement and colour, however some people quite enjoy that style of animation. More irritating are the frequent abrupt flashbacks and repeated hallucination scenes, and the overuse of cheaply scored dramatic music, or should I say Dramatic Music.
The script seems at times to be shying away from the audience's expectations and substituting inaction - hey fellas, when are we going to have some drained corpses and when's he going to chomp the artist girl? The plotting is certainly a little different - whatever you were expecting to happen it, er, doesn't.
On the positive side it's quite atmospheric, and the relationship between the brother and sister is touching. (GC)
The other day I saw a notice on CD Japan for a new OAV series called "Hitsuji no Uta". I hadn't heard anything about the series, and when I searched around the web I mainly found references to Bit Torrent sites, so I D/L'd the first episode to check it out.
And it was a good thing that I did.
"Hitsuji no Uta", which translates as "Sheep's Song", might equally be called "Hitsuji no Unchi". This is a real sheep's turd of a show, despite being animated by Madhouse. What we have is a lethargic, uninspired and unoriginal re-hash of all the worst "real vampire" cliches, served via a pathetically inept attempt at "artsy" animation, which equates to almost no animation at all.
The cliches come thick and steady, like old molasses pouring from a wide mouthed bottle. Teenaged Kazuna has not been feeling well recently, and it doesn't help that his step parents won't tell him anything about his real family. Kazuna is also getting "urges" when he is around the homely girl in the after school art club (who looks like an escapee from "Key"), particularly when she cuts her fingers.
For no particular reason, Kazuna goes by his old home (where he hasn't been since he was three years old - good memory, ne?) and meets up with his long lost older sister, who promptly spills the beans on the family's deep dark secret - they have a "blood disease" that acts a lot like vampirism. At this point, my "suspension of disbelief" started to hiccup badly, as I tried to figure out how a disease/curse in Kazuna's father's line got to impact his mother too. (Maybe the story is really about incest and hemophilia?)
Not much else happens in the episode. If I were feeling "charitable", I might shrug off the glacial pacing, tired dialog and nearly non-existent animation as "set up" for the ensuing story, but I also D/L'd the second episode and saw more of the same. The music was also unmemorable, so all-in-all, there is nothing I can really recommend about "Hitsuji no Uta", except to recommend that you don't waste any time, money, bandwidth or disk space on it.
BTW - if you want to get an idea of what I mean about the animation, check out the official web site at :
http://www.groove.or.jp/anime/hitsuji/index.html
and click on the summary for either part 1 or part 2. See the still images on the story pages? Well, that's about the same level of motion that you will get out of the OAVs too.
(Dave Baranyi)

Credits

Episodes 4

Release

TV Showing See the whole series for free? This series may be syndicated to regional cable, satellite or terrestial TV stations. For Europe click here.

Date 2003-05-25

Production

Broadcaster

Animation

References & Help Look up the latest data on this title at:
Richard Llewellyn's Animated Divots, or
Anime News Network (see Encyclopedia section) ,
or in "The Anime Encyclopedia" (Clements & McCarthy, Stone Bridge Press, 2001).
Help & further information.

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Information
Title (English)	Sheep's Song
Title (Japanese)	Hitsuji no Uta
Advertising Fantasy Novel
Notes	OVA series. 30 mins x4
Classification	-
Synopsis	Young man experiences painful migraine-like attacks along with a lust for blood. He meets his long-lost sister who explains that there is vampirism in the family bloodline. He is romantically interested in a girl in the school artclub but the relationship founders when he starts lusting for her blood.
Review	Dave Baranyi (below) didn't like this at all, but I thought it wasn't so bad. This is, apparently, a low-budget production, and there is a certain lack of pace and movement and colour, however some people quite enjoy that style of animation. More irritating are the frequent abrupt flashbacks and repeated hallucination scenes, and the overuse of cheaply scored dramatic music, or should I say Dramatic Music. The script seems at times to be shying away from the audience's expectations and substituting inaction - hey fellas, when are we going to have some drained corpses and when's he going to chomp the artist girl? The plotting is certainly a little different - whatever you were expecting to happen it, er, doesn't. On the positive side it's quite atmospheric, and the relationship between the brother and sister is touching. (GC) The other day I saw a notice on CD Japan for a new OAV series called "Hitsuji no Uta". I hadn't heard anything about the series, and when I searched around the web I mainly found references to Bit Torrent sites, so I D/L'd the first episode to check it out. And it was a good thing that I did. "Hitsuji no Uta", which translates as "Sheep's Song", might equally be called "Hitsuji no Unchi". This is a real sheep's turd of a show, despite being animated by Madhouse. What we have is a lethargic, uninspired and unoriginal re-hash of all the worst "real vampire" cliches, served via a pathetically inept attempt at "artsy" animation, which equates to almost no animation at all. The cliches come thick and steady, like old molasses pouring from a wide mouthed bottle. Teenaged Kazuna has not been feeling well recently, and it doesn't help that his step parents won't tell him anything about his real family. Kazuna is also getting "urges" when he is around the homely girl in the after school art club (who looks like an escapee from "Key"), particularly when she cuts her fingers. For no particular reason, Kazuna goes by his old home (where he hasn't been since he was three years old - good memory, ne?) and meets up with his long lost older sister, who promptly spills the beans on the family's deep dark secret - they have a "blood disease" that acts a lot like vampirism. At this point, my "suspension of disbelief" started to hiccup badly, as I tried to figure out how a disease/curse in Kazuna's father's line got to impact his mother too. (Maybe the story is really about incest and hemophilia?) Not much else happens in the episode. If I were feeling "charitable", I might shrug off the glacial pacing, tired dialog and nearly non-existent animation as "set up" for the ensuing story, but I also D/L'd the second episode and saw more of the same. The music was also unmemorable, so all-in-all, there is nothing I can really recommend about "Hitsuji no Uta", except to recommend that you don't waste any time, money, bandwidth or disk space on it. BTW - if you want to get an idea of what I mean about the animation, check out the official web site at : http://www.groove.or.jp/anime/hitsuji/index.html and click on the summary for either part 1 or part 2. See the still images on the story pages? Well, that's about the same level of motion that you will get out of the OAVs too. (Dave Baranyi)
Credits
Episodes	4
Release
TV Showing	See the whole series for free? This series may be syndicated to regional cable, satellite or terrestial TV stations. For Europe click here.
Date	2003-05-25
Production
Broadcaster
Animation
References & Help	Look up the latest data on this title at: Richard Llewellyn's Animated Divots, or Anime News Network (see Encyclopedia section) , or in "The Anime Encyclopedia" (Clements & McCarthy, Stone Bridge Press, 2001). Help & further information.