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The Great Passage
The Power of Words
The Series in a Sentence
Majime Mitsuya, a soft-spoken book salesman, is suddenly thrust into the dictionary editing section of his company where he learns the ins and outs of dictionary making while discovwring personal passions and growing as an individual.
What I liked
Although the show itself is about a group of individuals making a dictionary, the true focus is on Majime’s growth as a person as well as how he influences others around him. In that sense, the organic feeling to the pacing of the series was a real pleasure. This show, mostly for the better, isn’t afraid to move along at a slower pace and let plotlines slowly unravel despite being a short series. Coupled with Majime’s own quiet and nervous personality, the pacing delivers a really relaxed overall feel. That isn’t to say that conflict doesn’t exist, because there are moments of tension and danger, but every issue that pops up is the result of real-world issues. Essentially, no speedbump in the plot feels forced, no argument seems artificial, no issue seems unnecessary; in a show about writing a dictionary over a long period of time, the problems are what you expect them to be. Wrapping up what I liked are the themes of the show themselves. A lot of the show operates under the premise of truly understanding language and its influence over people as well as what it really means to have a passion for something. As a result, what is put out is a show that feels well thought out but that also makes you really think and reflect on what you think
you know and what you actually know.
What I Didn’t Like
Despite how organic the show feels in character development, plotline emergence, and issue resolution, the pacing at one point hits a big bump. While it is understandable due to the length of the series, and the series easily recovers, I found the lone instance of an unclear pace to be quite a jarring experience. Likewise, although I have to praise the series for not being afraid to embrace the dictionary making aspect and move at its own pace, some important character developments simply happen after a big buildup and are only briefly ever mentioned again. Things you would expect to take time, like falling in love, are built up and then just immediately happen. It is a hard issue to describe, especially because a lot of growth needed to be shoved into a short series, but what it boils down to is the fact that the slow-pace of the show is really just an illusion. The way that this was pulled off was astounding, as nothing ever feels too rushed, but sitting back after seeing multiple characters have huge events happen makes it clear that some passably written plotlines could have deserved more love.
Overall Feelings
The Great Passage is a show that embodies everything that I wanted to do with this blog site. It’s an anime series that is based on high quality source material that I had never heard of and that was never on my radar when the seasonal lists came out. If it wasn’t for a rainy weekend and Amazon Prime I would have never watched it, but I’m so glad I did and so many more people need to give it a chance. It may not be for everyone because of its purposely slow feel, but the realistic issues, likeable characters, and constant sense of satisfaction as well as the questions about language and life it makes you think about really make this special. Though, as I said before, the pace suffers and the show itself is purposely slow to emphasize certain aspects and themes, I found the experience to be well worth it. A Great Passage was truly great and deserves a watch from any fan wanting to kick back, relax, and see a part of the world that they might not have thought about before. Don’t judge a book by its cover because what’s inside, and how it got there, might surprise you.