Episode Reaction: Ronja the Robber's Daughter (山賊の娘ローニャ) Episodes 1 & 2 – Surprisingly Entertaining

I'll be honest, I came into Ronja expecting it to be a pain to sit through and watch. I thought the CGI would put me off so much I couldn't bear to watch it. And thanks to those low expectations . . . Ronja the Robber's Daughter was very entertaining. And here's why.

Our story begins with two nobles traveling with their guards and musicians. A skull of a goat crosses their path and they look at it confused. Suddenly, their guards get swooped off their horses (literally) when two robbers attack. The other guard is taken away and the nobles rush their driver to get them away. As they hurry away, robbers on horseback appear and tell them to pull over and give them their values if they value their lives. The nobles don't stop and continue their escape. Suddenly, another robber appears and apparently the two robbers have history together. They argue over who gets to have the possessions first and the nobles slow down their horses to a full stop and the robbers continue arguing ahead.

They're soon stopped by one of the robber's comrades, who tells him he has important news. We cut to the robber hurrying on horseback to his home, a large castle on a hill. When he goes up the tower and enters the room, he asks his wife if the baby's arrived yet. The wife, simply eating some bread, bluntly tells him no as babies come when they want to. In both relief and disappointment, our robber, Mattis, falls on his knees.

That's a freaking nice castle—though it could do without the friggin' annoying harpies.

Later that same day, it seems his wife's baby is ready to be born. She asks Mattis to kill the irritating harpies flying outside the castle, saying she wants to sing to their newborn child so it can be a jolly person. Mattis goes and shoots arrows at the harpies, but they easily dodge him. As he screams out his baby is about to be born, a harpy flies down to him and sits on the ledge of the watchtower. She says that his baby is going to be a "thunder-and-lightning-baby," meaning it will be ugly. In anger, Mattis shoots at the harpy but she evades the arrow easily. The harpies take their leave from the castle.

They mentioned once the harpies were beautiful . . . Yet to see that, I'm afraid.

Back in the castle, Mattis's child is born, a daughter, whom his wife names Ronja. We get some cute montages of Ronja growing up, notably of her crawling (almost walking), Mattis feeding her rice (and her making a mess of it), and everyone just being their happy-go-lucky selves. From these scenes, we develop a sense of closeness between Mattis and Ronja, noting the sense of protectiveness (but thankfully not overprotectiveness) Mattis feels for his daughter.

These guys are precious, seriously.

We skip to a few years later, when Ronja is old enough to run and talk and be a kid. I'll assume that Ronja is around 8 to 11 years old at this point. Mattis realizes that Ronja has grown up quicker than he could ever imagine (literally, she did; one second she's a baby incapable of anything except cooing and crawling, the next she's a kid who can dance and interact with fellow humans)—

See? I wasn't kidding. Look! Look!

—and he knows it's time for her to experience the forest. Before he lets Ronja go, he tells her about the dangers of the forest: harpies, dwarfs, and enemy robbers; getting lost; the river; and Hell's Pit. Ronja asks what she should do in these situations, Mattis gives her hopeful answers for each one except Hell's Pit, in which he says there's nothing to be done if she fell in there.

Before Ronja leaves, Mattis has her promise to be back before sunset. Ronja promises to be back on time and leaves the castle, off on an adventure in the unexplored forest.

At least they got the background art down.

I was honestly surprised how quickly I got used to the CGI. It's awful, definitely, but it also somehow fits into the story and world of Ronja. Yeah, I'd prefer traditional 2-D animation, but this wasn't that bad. I can understand if some people can't stand to continue watching because of the animation, but for me I could manage just fine.

The real charm of Ronja is its characters and music. Since both episodes aired together (garnering a time of 40+ minutes), we got to know each of the characters and their interactions with each other. Sure, I don't remember everyone and their names (save for Mattis and Ronja), but they're all likable and have their own little quirk. My favorite character would have to be the mother and her no-nonsense attitude. (Sometimes I feel like she should be the chief instead, lol.)

The music fits the story to a T, as it's a fantasy and has an upbeat atmosphere. Ghibli has always been good at one thing, and that'd be music. And there's no exceptions here. The music further enriches us in this fantasy world.

Story-wise, there's none as far as I can tell. So far these first two episodes were just for setting up everything, which I'm totally cool with, considering this is a two-cour show. And I can honestly say I'm looking forward to seeing where this is going. I wonder if this will be a coming-of-age story (since most of Ghibli films are like that) or if this'll just be a whimsical fantasy-adventure story. Either way, interested in what's to come. And with that, take care, otakus!