NoaIzumiAnime Review: Salaryman Kintaro
February 8th 2009 05:17
DVD cover showing Kintaro and Ryuta
Former biker gang leader and widower Yojima Kintaro is now just trying to go straight and be the best father he can to his young son. When he takes an office job at Yamato Construction, the Japanese business world is about to get its strangest salaryman ever.
If you’re familiar with Japanese media at all, you’ve probably heard of Salaryman Kintaro. He’s been the subject of a long-running manga, movie, live-action TV series, and this anime.
A salaryman is a uniquely Japanese concept. A broad definition might be “career office worker”, but that doesn’t begin to describe it. “Salaryman” is often a derogatory term, evoking a burn-out case, with little creativity or ambition, just trying to get by while taking the least risk possible. So, if you take someone like Kintaro, a natural leader who speaks his mind, and put him into a job where he’s expected to be the exact opposite, you’ve got yourself one heck of an interesting premise.
Yojima Kintaro himself is a little hard to relate to, as he’s not really human. He loses his share of fights, and has a lot to learn about doing business, but seems almost supernatural sometimes. As an example, early in the series, he falls of a seaside cliff after saving the life of the chairman’s granddaughter. Any mortal man would have been killed on the rocks below, but Kintaro survives with nary a scratch, and also (while he’s down there) catches an octopus for dinner. And of course, every woman he meets falls in love with him. Imagine James Bond in an office job. Women want to be with him, men want to be him, even if the only thing he does is sit at his desk, sharpening pencils.
Kintaro also has amazing luck when it comes to meeting people. He got this job in the first place by saving the life of the company's chairman when he was adrift at sea. Later on, he happens to does other good deeds for people who happen to be in a position to return the favor. The man whose dog he saves is an official who helps him get a contract, he defends a girl’s honor and winds up impressing a major “fixer” in the construction industry, the woman who becomes his girlfriend turns out to have connections to some of the most powerful people in Japan, etc. In one particularly memorable scene, Kintaro is at the home of a woman whom he helped at a pachinko parlor. The old woman has invited him for tea and turns out to be wealthy and influential. A car drives up with three people in it, a young couple and an older man. The young man is a young yakuza boss who was part of Kintaro’s motorcycle gang. The young woman is the young man’s fiancée and the woman whom Kintaro earlier saved from a fondler on the train. The older man is a long-time Yakuza who was the partner of Kintaro’s dad during a job that went bad. Small world, isn’t it?
In spite of being hard to swallow, Salaryman Kintaro does wind up being inspiring. Even if Kintaro is over-the-top, he’s still the man everyone (including the viewer) wishes he could be. Forthright, courageous, and gives everything 100%. The most interesting thing about the series is how Kin inspires everyone around him and helps them be the people they want to be.
The anime also does a good job of making the business world understandable to the average viewer. The makers obviously did a fair amount of research into the construction industry, but they portray it in such a way that you don’t have to an insider to know what they’re talking about. In a sense, as Kintaro is learning about the ins and outs of the business world, so are we.
In fact, I would recommend this series for any student of international business. It’s a great way to learn about the Japanese business culture and philosophy.
A review of Salaryman Kintaro wouldn’t be complete without at least a mention of the second most important character, Kintaro’s son Ryuta. While Kintaro inspires everyone else, it’s Ryuta who inspires Kintaro. It’s fitting that the last shot in the series is of Ryuta and Kintaro together, since it is Ryuta who is the driving force behind Kintaro’s journey.
Great moments: The mega-run! Very few of us are actual former Japanese motorcycle gang members, but that’s something that appeals to the outlaw in all of us.
Extras: Interviews with the director and producer. They are spread out among each disk, and total about thirty minutes each. Well worth checking out.
Summary: Good character-driven drama set in the Japanese business world. Grade: A minus.
Age rating: 15 and up. A few fights in which one or both of the participants are badly beaten, fan service of the topless variety, allusion to a rape.
| 37 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
Comment by Anonymous
Really Long Link