Honolulu Theatre for Youth’s season-opening production of "Anime Momotaro" doesn’t end with Momotaro (the Peach Boy) and his sidekicks killing the evil ogres as in the classic fairy tale. HTY Artistic Director Eric Johnson says the kinder, gentler ending offers solutions to bullying without "hijacking" the traditional story.

"A lot of the Japanese retellings now sort of change that ending with the ogres … and there were some old versions of the story, traditional Japanese versions, where he doesn’t kill all the ogres," Johnson explained.

"If you go back to what that folk story was doing (in ancient Japan), it was not about a boy killing a bunch of people, it was about … what is right within the community."

As Johnson sees it, an ogre is nothing more than a bully writ large, and the story an allegory about bullying.

"If I’m a first-grader now or if I’m a peasant in feudal Japan, I’m dealing with the same kind of journey … and hopefully our presentation gives young people some courage and some skills to deal with it."

He adds that presenting the story anime style provides a "bridge" between "the traditional, something that a Japanese grandparent might share with a grandchild, and the (anime) world that a grandchild already knows. We didn’t just hijack a story to put this modern aesthetic on it either. I see it as honoring both traditional Japanese stories and values but also modern (Japanese) innovators and artists and values."