Kaze no Stigma – the value of mid?

What does the term “mid” mean? Not literally what does mid mean, but connotatively what does the term “mid” mean? What springs to mind when someone describes a show a place or a thing as “mid”?

Recently, especially in anime circles mid is not something that is middle of the road or middling instead mid is “bad”. Anime circles have always been filled with argumentative sorts but as of late there’s been a rise in polarization between shows being peak and shows being mid.

Characters are frauds and characters are GOATs. And in some areas, this can be very funny. It is quite humorous, after all, to change the name of characters from Sukuna to Fraudkuna if you’ve been online too long and have a broken sense of humor. In a purely memetic sense, these are punchy and easily circulated but after the jokes are over when one sits and engages with a property that you’re consuming what does it mean if that property is mid and what does it mean if that property will forever be mid?

Trust the wind, in my heart!

Kaze no Stigma or Stigma of the Wind, is a 24-episode anime produced by Studio Gonzo and licensed by Funimation. It was based on the light novel series of Takahiro Yamato, who passed away in 2009.

Kaze is an anime that was released in the spring of 2007 and sits in the top 500 on MyAnimeList. It is about Kazuma, an exile from a fire-wielding family who has returned with air powers. He is joined by his love interest and heir to his family, the hot-headed Ayanno who has fire powers along with his younger brother Ren, who is a prodigious fire user. The series is about how upon Kazuma’s return members of his family turn up dead and he’s the one blamed. He proves his innocence but his family still ends up having to fight an underground gang war against various families and clans that have water and earth powers. It’s one part Avatar The Last Airbender and one part Yazuka.

In terms of animation quality for the time it is nothing too impressive. In the same season as Kaze No Stigma, classics Gurren Lagann and Afro Samurai both burst onto the scene as animated marvels. Kaze is a basic looking both in comparison and in presentation. It doesn’t do much that other shows don’t do.

As far as characters go almost every single character is some shade of something done a hundred times before. A red-headed tsundere love interest, the cool and aloof protagonist, the cute younger brother. It’s all been seen before. The show doesn’t attempt to break new ground in any area

The plot of the show over 24 episodes is about the protagonist leaving home after being a failure of a fire user to come back triumphant as a powerful air user.

But with all of that in mind, there is still the question of “Does this show do anything with its story?” Does it say anything interesting? Does it play with the family relations? Does it deal with the weight of responsibility? Does it deal with the concept of lineage? And the show says, resoundingly no.

To be mid?

So then what is the value of this show? Why is it being discussed?

As stated earlier, the show even if you wanted to give it a glowing review could at best be placed as not derivative. Maybe a bit of a twist on an old concept and overall probably worth another season if you’re really feeling generous.

But this show never got another season.

This show will never get another season because the story could never get another chapter. After all, the author died.

It is very rare for works to be continued after the death of their creators especially anime that aren’t necessarily setting the world ablaze. Kaze No Stigma now sits at a 7 out of 10 there haven’t been re-releases of its animation, the manga and light novels are actually quite difficult to find and all of this leads to a show that isn’t especially terrible but will be forgotten.

And what does that mean?

What does it really mean for all of these shows to be released and then subsequently forgotten when you think about books, or movies, or games, there’s often reverence treated for the classics but they’re still sort of a respect given to contemporaries and this may just be a commentary on the nature of consumerism in general but anime seems to have a much more voracious consumption pattern.

In the year and season that Kaze No Stigma came out, there were 201 shows according to myanimelist.

That summer there were 198 including one of the most infamous shows in anime history, School Days.

School Days is notable not just because it was released the same year, but in the fact it has a far lower score on myanimelist and yet is 200 spots higher than Kaze No Stigma. It had an entire franchise and even won awards. Despite being considered by many to be one of the worst shows ever.

It’s a wonderful comparison because School Days is a bad show the plot is terrible. The characters are terrible. The animation is not that good. The themes, the morals, everything about the show is disgusting and yet it’s a show that has a legacy that far outpaces that of Kaze.

So what does this say about the show about Kaze? Did it die when its author died? It’s hard to argue against that. Berserk’s author Kentaro Miura, died quite recently. Dragon Ball’s author, Akira Toriyama died quite recently and this is not to say that Kaze is on the same level as those mangas, it clearly isn’t. But it is to say they’re not limited by their ties to their author. A show is not produced by an individual and yet with their death, it can be ended by one.

Perhaps if Kaze No Stigma was peak there would be more of a push to have more of it. After all, Berserk is considered peak by many. Dragon Ball is considered peak by many.

Or maybe if Kaze No Stigma was terrible and had a legacy that overshadowed anything else because of how bad it was there would be more of a push for re-releases but as it stands it’s just one show, from one season, that wasn’t particularly bad, wasn’t particularly good, and thus exist in this state of forever being incomplete, forever being inconsequential, forever being mid.

What do you think? Leave a comment.