Ranked #4498

Ookami Kakushi

As a fellow fan of Ryukishi07’s works (Higurashi no Naku koro Ni, Umineko no Naku Koro Ni), I was quite excited for the release Ookami Kakushi. I thought that I was in for another psychological thriller and exciting mystery, but unfortunately, Ookami Kakushi didn’t turn out to be as such. I admit, I went into the show with the wrong kind of expectations, and my review is a reflection of that. However, I still think I have some good points to offer.

Story

The original premise of the show sounded interesting enough, but here is why the story was poorly executed:

The first half of the series suffers from no development. Our main protagonist, Hiroshi, moves into a new town with his father and sister, attends school, and meets new people. However, something never feels quite right. A female classmate of his becomes extremely attached to him, a mysterious girl neglects him, and a few classmates begin to disappear without notice by others. At the end of each episode, we catch a small glimpse of a terrified person running away from a group of supernatural, masked beings who are after that person’s life. While you know something is up and you’re curious, what you’re mainly going to see is Hiroshi participating in ordinary slice-of-life activities and interacting with a small cast of characters. Aside from a few weird events befalling Hiroshi, nothing much changes, and this becomes dull fast.

The second half finally explores the mystery behind the masked beings, but it still moves incredibly slowly for such a short series. What you have next is a string of predictable events, coincidences, and episodes dedicated to simply feeding you all of the information. By the time the climax hits, it is downright disappointing. There are no major plot-twists or anything exciting to keep the anime’s head above the water. The finale is a joke.

Characters

The characters feel one-dimensional. They hardly have any development. Only towards the end do the characters begin to show a different side to them, but their peak development is still not all that impressive. They just go back to the way they were before, falling very short of being dynamic.

They are also not entertaining at any given point in the show beyond the introduction. Hiroshi is a shy and awkward kid who always feels nervous, but he has a sense of justice somewhere within him. His hobby is to stare at the other characters and do absolutely nothing. Hiroshi's sister, Mana, is bound to a wheelchair and we never get to find out why. Nemuru, his mysterious classmate who neglects him does only that for the first half of the series. Asagiri is another classmate who is just a walking encyclopedia, always trying to help clue Hiroshi in. And then we have Isuzu, his neighbor who instantly becomes attached to him. She just spends her time hopping around and clinging to his arm, quickly rubbing off as an annoying character. Lastly, the main villain is the typical, revengeful idiot type with a predictable outcome and is nothing special. You've seen these characters being used before again and again. The adults also have a role in the show, but they are even duller characters than the children.

None of the characters stand out as being impressive, strong, or all that memorable, even by the last half of the show. At the very least, the character's backgrounds are somewhat explored, as there is a good reason for their initial behaviors. They could have had much more depth though.

Sound

I do have to give credit for the OP song “Toki no Mukou Maboroshi no Sora” by FictionJunction for being pretty good. However, there is not much to say about the rest of the sounds. They contribute to the mood, but they're more or less on the average side. Ookami’s OST isn’t something that I would be dying to have.

Animation

The animation is not weak, but it is not spectacular either. Perhaps the most noticeable aspect of the artwork is how beautiful the costumes look on the masked beings. The color and lighting effects are also used well for certain scenes and to show real depth in the character’s eyes. Overall though, the character designs are rather average, and there isn't much change in background scenery.

Overall

I learned too late that Ookami kakushi is not meant to be a deep, plot-twisting mystery series. It is more about character relations, drama, mood, suspense, and slow buildup. But even with that in mind, the small cast of characters are for the most part unchanging and dull. This anime is mediocre and easily forgettable. read more

I figured i'd give this a short review. Mainly because, I was very skeptical of checking this anime out because it has god awful reviews.
Goes to show, I really can't trust weeaboos to have real opinions.

Anyone who outright hates this anime, is a diehard WTC/Umineko fan. They expected a psychological thriller with some brutal gore. That really isn't what this anime was about, and thus...let the hate flow.

Story: It's average. I had it pinned pretty quickly. It does start out slow at first, but it picks up in the later half. I can't say I was ever BORED though, it kept me interested or else I would have just dropped it. If you take it for what it is, you'll probably like it.
EDIT: By the way, this is definitely half Slice-of-life. Not your thing? Don't bother. You'll be bored. Not the animes fault, just a preference conflict.

Music: I really enjoyed some of the soundtracks in this anime. A lot of anime loses emotion because of a lacking OST, but this anime doesn't suffer that problem. I could accept ANY insult towards this anime, except a shot at the OST. It was well done, that's a fact.

Art: This is another one that struck me when I read reviews. People knocking the art. That surprised the hell out of me. I don't know what trashy streaming site people watched this anime on, but the 720p BD episodes I have look pretty fantastic. The art is smooth, the effects aren't lacking, and there's a decent amount of detail. For the time of release, the art is very solid.

Characters: I don't have much to say on this one. Every character has a role, and they stick to it. Not a whole lot of "change" goes on, except for one character I suppose. For a short 11 (technically 12) episode anime, I don't expect much more. Characters don't need to go through immense change to be well done.

Overall: A decent watch. I don't feel I wasted my time watching through the anime.

If you take nothing else from this review, just go with this:

F*** the haters, if you think you'd be interested in this anime, watch it and judge for yourself. Don't let a bunch of bias idiots dumping on this anime deter you, you may just enjoy it. read more