Summary
In the early 2000s, a hilarious comedy sitcom about a working-class family in America aired.Malcolm in the Middle, starring Frankie Muniz, Bryan Cranston, and Jane Kaczmarek, followed the experiences of the titular character Malcolm, the middle child in a family of four siblings. The series premiered in January 2000 and ran for seven seasons until 2006. The series had an opening title sequence made up of clips from the show itself and other media backed by the song “Boss of Me” by alt-rock group They Might Be Giants.
The opening sequence very notably includes clips froman obscure anime from 1998known asNazca,created by Yoshihiko Inamoto. Is this anime series any good, and does it have any special relevance toMalcolm in the Middle?
Original Run
April – June 1998
As one would guess from the title, Nazca’s premise is inspired by Peru. More specifically, the events that take place in the series are largely centered on an ancient civil war waged by two Inca warriors who have now reincarnated as protagonist Kyōji Miura and his Kendō instructor, Masanari Tate. The series gets its name from the Nazca Lines, a set of famous drawings located in the Nazca Desert, south of Peru. These geoglyphs have been around since as early as 550 CE, garnering all sorts of speculation as to their purpose and the nature of their construction.
In the series, a civil war between Atahualpa and Huascar led to the fall of the Inca Empire. During a Kendō finals match, Tate gravely injured his opponent; however, upon the moment of impact, his top student Kyoji, and his fiancée, Yuka Kiritake, witnessed a sight beyond comprehension: where Tate stood mid-swing, a completely different person assumed the same position, armed with a genuine sword instead of a wooden one.
In their vision, they were seeing Tate’s reawakening as Yawaru, an Inca warrior who wishes to purify the world through its destruction. In his last lifetime, Yawaru’s plans were thwarted by the warrior known as Bilka. Tate goes around finding other reincarnations of individuals from their lives in the Inca Empire, and various charactersawaken to their past lives, aligning themselves with either Yawaru, or Bilka, whom Yawaru and his allies consider a traitor.
Kyōji is forced to make a choice between following the whims of the spirit of Bilka and destroying the Kendō instructor he respected more than anyone, or attempting to bring Tate back to his senses while risking the destruction of the world as they know it. While the series attempts to be rooted in Incan culture and a certain time period, several anachronisms seen in its depiction of the Incas points to a lack of adequate research into the setting that makes up a significant part of the story.
The Primary Antagonist Shares a Voice Actor With Dio Brando
Masanari Tate, the reincarnation of the Inca warrior Yawaru, is voiced by Takehiro Koyasu, whom many anime fans will recognize as the voice of Dio Brando from the anime adaptation ofHirohiko Araki’sJojo’s Bizarre Adventure, or Zeke Jaeger fromAttack on Titan. With a long-running career, Koyasu brings life to Yawaru’s character in a way that makes him stand out from the rest of the cast because the role demanded that he perform the same character from multiple angles.
Upon introduction, Tate seems kind and inspiring, while his voice’s slight change in intonation when Tate is Yawaru brings out a certain eeriness to the character. Throughout the initial episodes of the series, Tate recruits people who are the reincarnations of his allies from when he was Yawaru, reuniting them with the memories from their past life, catching them up to speed with current events. In the third episode of Nazca, Tate has left Japan for Peru to release and control the energy of life known as Iriyatese in order to create his ideal world – an undertaking that both Kyōji and Yuka believe to be uncharacteristic of a man who held no radical beliefs or ambitions to speak of.
The Original Manga Was Written By The Authors of VariousLegend of ZeldaManga
Akira Himekawa, the mangaka duo responsible for the creation of the manga adaptations of various installments oftheLegend of Zeldavideogame franchise, were the authors behind the original manga from which the Nazca anime series is derived. Originally published by Kadokawa in their Ace Dash magazine, Nazca fell under the shōnen category and appealed to the demographic through its high-stakes depiction of the war between “good” and “evil”, and the total upheaval of the life of someone who was once a normal high school student as a result of a supernatural destiny.
Nazca’s most significant setting being Peru and the ancient Inca Empire, creates an interesting contrast to the modern-day normalcy seen in many anime and manga of its kind. The 1990s were also a largely experimental time for both media, and Akira Himekawa are legendary contributor who createdNazcain a period wherea group like CLAMP put outRG Veda, an interesting anime inspired by the Rigveda, something we hardly see done as overtly as it was back then. The anime was licensed for distribution in English by Pioneer (Geneon) in 2000.
The Clips In Malcolm in the Middle Are From The Third Episode
The two clips fromNazcaseen in theMalcolm in the Middleopening sequence come from the third episode. The clip of the blonde guy on a skateboard rushing towards the screen is just before he crashes into Daimon, Kyōji’s best friend and the reincarnation of Orejon, the priest of Tahuantinsuyu (“Realm of the Four Parts” in the Quechua language which describes a territory that spread across modern-day Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, making up a single Inca state). The second clip used in Malcolm in the Middle is of Kyōji’s rival in Kendō, Shinri Shiogami,a cruel and violent individualwhom Tate initially rejected as a student because he’s simply reprehensible. The context of that low-angle shot of Shiogami’s face inMalcolm in the MIddleis that it’s from right after Shiogami sends an innocent person that, from his deranged perspective, looked like Kyōji tumbling over the side of a bridge into the raging waters below.
The third episode ofNazcais crucial to the rest of the plot as it explains what Tate’s actual motivations are, and it’s like a point of no return after Yuka’s attempts to appeal to him as his fiancée (in both lives). The relevance of the clips toMalcolm in the Middleis that they are part of the opening’s various references to creature-feature films and old TV from various eras, possibly some of the pop culture that the titular character Malcolm and his family consumed throughout his childhood. These clips are juxtaposed with various from the series itself, which supports the aforementioned, as the stitching of the two in a chaotic manner reflects the whimsy and chaos of Malcolm’s own family.Nazcais never outright mentioned in the series, and it hardly focuses any of its episodes on the characters' TV tastes, so it’s hard to say whether it is used forreasons beyond the aesthetic.
Malcolm in the Middle is available to stream onDisney+. Nazca can be purchased on DVD fromAmazon.
