Ranked #855

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia

Dusk Maiden of Amnesia. Even that title alone may convince some viewers to watch this series. But what you may least expect would be a ghost troll (a hot ghost troll if I may add) hanging out with the main protagonist on a daily basis doing cute little things here and there.

The story so far covers the Paranormal Investigation Club, a club that deals with the supernatural. From there, we have the other members starting with Teiichi Niiya, probably the only normal member of the group. He maintains an unusual relationship with our ghost troll Yuuko in which despite her flirtatious and mischievous attempts at him, he still values her as a friend and not forget her. Then, there's Momoe Okonogi, the most enthusiastic member of the group. Her enthusiasm of the the club is probably over the limits in Niiya's point of view as far as she shows the most interest in finding out what happened 50 years ago involving our lovely ghost troll, Yuuko. Of course, she still hangs out around the club while creating many mischievous interactions between herself and Niiya. Next, we have the Kirie Kanoe, the not so enthusiastic member. At first glance, she seems normal but when you get to know her more, you'll find that she's a very insecure person. Why? Well, for nearly every 5 minutes, she goes on about the dangers of Yuuko and warns Niiya to be on his guard. She can be seen as the antithesis of Yuuko for even though her outside (appearance) may resemble her somewhat, her inner self is worlds apart.

Then, finally our lovely ghost troll Yuuko, who can forget about her? After all, she is the star of the series and the "dusk maiden" of amnesia. Her flirtatious attitude with our main protagonist is guilty pleasure and some of the guys watching this might be biting their fingernails about how lucky he is. (I know I am at least sometimes) However, it does seems that despite playful self, she harbors a dark past she tries to keep herself a secret from anyone. She tries hard to forget about her past and make it into an amnesia but there's one thing you cannot forget: you can't run away from your problems like an amnesia.

And of course, even for stories like this, there would be fan-service, pool parties, and those cute "love-love" scenes. There is always some "horror" scenes mixed in with light comedy and even psychological twists later on. However so far, this series is not another Another (no pun intended). I mean seriously, let's ask ourselves: who actually got scared out of their pants in the first episode? Despite this though, there is definitely an eerie atmosphere behind the curtains and lies beyond the horizon of the dusk.

Beyond that, I find the art of the series to be gorgeous as well as the various well captured angles of "dusk" in this anime and the night moon skies. Kudos to Silver Link I say, you sure know how to set a high bar for this season. As for the sound, it's not something you'll listen to while studying for your university entrance exam but it's also something catchy that fits the overall story. And take notice the OP and ED song that our beloved ghost troll Yuuko-san seems to be imitating. She would go pretty far in American Idol I'd say.

Overall, I find Dusk Maiden of Amnesia to be entertaining and makes Sundays a wonderful relaxing day to finish off the weekend. Its balanced light comedy and seriousness is something that most of us will notice and while it doesn't reach the necessity horror levels of some other series you may have seen in the past, it does makes it up with its entertainment and value. Its darker tone of the story later on will keep some of you viewers glued to your seat.

This is an unique anime at that and one such series this Spring Season that I'm sure most of us will not forget like an amnesia. (at least I hope)


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“Tasogare Otome x Amnesia” tells the story of Kanoe Yuuko, a beautiful ghost girl who mysteriously died a gruesome death many years ago. When I first heard of this anime, I thought immediately that it would be a very interesting anime to watch, since I was really into horror stories and such. However, when I think about it, I believe I overestimated the anime a bit. You may hate me when I say this which may automatically make you press that “Not Helpful” button, but either way I will say it. While watching the first five episodes of “Tasogare Otome x Amenisia,” I find it a bit cliché; it was technically just your subtle anime with a few laughs, and a bit of mystery and horror mixed into it.

Plot:
“Dusk Maiden of Amnesia” definitely seems like an acceptable anime with the little plots, synopsis, and summaries written about it. Ultimately, it is your normal anime with a dark feel, and a lot of comedy and romance latched onto it. However, the anime mostly contains comedy and romance which I find it to be quite ironic. Usually the summaries written about this anime give you the feel of horror and mystery, but when you watch the episodes you see too much romance. The only times you have a feeling of horror and mystery into it is when you see the Paranormal Investigation Club trying their very best to find clues about Yuuko’s death, or when Yuuko is pretending to be a ghost just to scare the crap out of the main characters which is only a total of four. Lastly, the anime is way too fast paced, I kept on getting confused on like how much time has passed during the anime. To summarize it all up, I believe “Dusk Maiden of Amnesia” does a terrible job at showing any type of plot development because it gives me the feel that it is mainly concentrating on showing the relationship between Yuuko and Teiichi.

Characters:
The main characters in this anime either show an advanced character development or an extreme lack of character development. The characters Yuuko and Teiichi are seen throughout this anime 80% of the time. I believe these two show too much character development because in just a short amount of time they already act like lovers who’ve been together since childhood or something. The problem with this is that you see the same scene almost all the time: Yuuko seducing Teiichi, Yuuko making fun of Teiichi, Yuuko touching Teiichi, Teiichi touching Yuuko, and both of them all lovey dovey. I love romance and all, but this is too much, I mean in just the first day they meet and you already see them on top of each other, it’s too much of a fast development for me. The other main characters Momoe and Kirie are pretty much shown 20% of the time throughout the whole entire series; they barely receive any amount of screen time which results into barely any character development. As a result, I believe the creators only made them to act as ‘extra’ club members.

The other problem I have with this anime is that it lacks background characters. I understand perfectly well that background characters are not that important to the anime, but seriously throughout the whole anime you just see four characters and their all the main characters! I don’t know if you understand this, but minor and background characters may not be that important to an anime, however when you see the same characters every episode, and no other characters at all, you slowly understand that minor and background characters play the crucial role of making it seem more realistic to the viewer. I mean think about it, if you were a person trying their very best to find clues to some death at a school than you expect to see some people who know some information about it, or at least you see just some random people off into the distance chatting about God knows what! But this anime doesn’t have any of that, just four characters in some big ass school. This anime takes place at a school, and at a school you have students, teachers, and all those other people, but there aren’t any of them around in this anime; it makes me think to myself “Where the hell are the other students? I mean I’m only seeing four characters the whole entire time, doesn’t anybody go to this school?” The only time I saw some actual background characters in this anime so far was on episode five, even if it was just a little bit it made me feel happy to know that some other people actually exist in this anime.

Art:
The art style of this anime seems like the only darn thing that is 100% perfectly fine! Even though the plot is all messed up, the art is like the only thing that makes me give this anime a decent score of 7 out of 10. The colors used in this anime were so pretty it makes me feel like I’m looking at some painting. The animation was also very well done it had a great use of graphics and effects. Yep art perfect in every way. Indeed the background artists could do a bit more better job at making the backgrounds seem older to give the overall anime feel a bit of pizzazz, but it’s still fine just the way it is. Oh and did you guys know that the people who drew this anime did a great job at showing some fan service? Well now you know, so if you like these sort of animes with fan service than you might actually think “Holy crap, I’m in Heaven.”

Sound:
Seems okay, I have no problems with the voices used in this anime nor the opening and ending songs of the anime. Though I don't know why, but both opening and ending songs didn't seem to attract much attention to me, I didn't really like them that much, but I still thought it was good for the whole mood. The only thing that needs fixing is the better use of background music to better add the mood of the events occurring throughout the show. If the anime had some special sound effects or my favorite, motivational music than I bet I would have rated the anime a little higher maybe up to a 7.5 if that option existed in MyAnimeList.net, I wish it did, it would make my reviews a lot more accurate.

Enjoyment:
My overall enjoyment to “Tasogare Otome x Amnesia” was definitely nothing special, I pretty much thought that it was boring. I didn't feel any type of suspense in this anime, no chair gripping, hair biting, mommy I’m scared moments. It was just me sitting there, staring at the computer pretty much bored out of my mind watching Yuuko and Teiichi have some fun. Some parts in the anime did make me awe in adoration or laugh out loud towards the characters or some moments happening in it. Though I mainly just felt bored throughout the whole thing. I did feel a bit of jealously watching this anime since Yuuko and Teiichi’s relationship together seem so perfect, they rarely have any arguments and such or some difficult obstacles they have to face in order for them to be together forever or something like that. I mean throughout the anime their always together, their love just seems perfect and all with no strings attached. God, you don’t know how much I want a relationship like theirs; just watching them all lovey dovey makes me feel like I’ll be forever alone.
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