Hiroshi Kuzumi along with his sister and father took up residence in a small village called Jouga. The boy quickly befriend with his age-mates Isuzu and Kaname. He’s also popular with the rest of the class. The carefree atmosphere end, when Hiroshi noticed that some people from his surrounding suddenly disappears. The searches lead him and his friends to an old legend about local wolves and yearly festival named Hassaku. Moreover when the night falls mysterious figures and a girl with scythe roams in the village. All these strange events seems to have some connection with Hiroshi.
Anime is based on a visual novel game which the script is written by Ryukishi07 who is the creator of Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. The characters are designed by group Peach-Pit who drew Rozen Maiden and Shugo Chara. That information itself can entrance and prepare for something original and interesting. Unfortunately. Although I can’t judge the game I haven’t play, the animation of Ookami Kakushi is very disappointing.
All the expectations about this series were ruined and the hope about a worthy successor of Higurashi destroyed. Supposedly this title should be a horror but the creators messed up. We can ignore the fact that the characters looks very sweet, have cute big eyes and the colors are quite bright. For horrors we mostly expect tension. We wait and wait and wait for couple of episodes but it never appears. Since there’s no blood and no violence there should be some tension. There’s non. Even in the middle of the forest on night you can fall asleep watching this.
In the beginning Ookami Kakushi was somehow interesting. Mysterious figures with masks and their leader, a girl with scythe who looks like a white wolf. Moreover a mystical red moon. The atmosphere could attract some people. The performance was less well than expected. What it needed was some anxious sounds, unexpected twists to use the series potential. That was nothing like that. We have a riddle to solve: people are disappearing without a trace. However we don’t have this feeling to find out the truth. The secret of Jouga village don’t draw attention. In truth many people will solve this secret after few minutes. The rest will yawn instead of analyze every scene. All the mysterious vibe disappears after few minutes and solving the affair don’t give any satisfaction. Ookami Kakushi is simply boring although posses some action.
The characters don’t convince as well. They are bland, irritating or they don’t give them much attention. The main hero is not impressing. All the more as a protagonist of horror genre. He’s very fearful, avoiding troubles. In the role of a irritating character features Isuzu Tsumuhana who sticks to Hiroshi all the time. This type of character rather shows up in a harem anime than in a horror. Some interesting figures like the mysterious class president Nemuru Kushinada, or the doctor who wants to cure the villagers from a untypical illness didn’t get much attention or was introduced badly. Only two characters save this title. Shunichirou Sakaki who is interesting considering that he is the main antagonist with revenge and tragic past. This kind of thing were showed many times but with other characters which don’t have any motivation this is enough. The second person is Kaname Asagiri, Hiroshi’s classmate who is interested in occultism and novels. She has the role of a person that discovers the village secrets. She would definitely fit as a main hero.
The graphics offers good standard. You can recognize characters design same as the one from Rozen Maiden or Shugo Chara.and although this isn’t a style that you would expect from a horror. Sometimes the characters faces looks very flat though. The backgrounds don’t impress this much but the Jouga village can enchain from some point.
The music fit well and is interesting. You can’t call it groundbreaking but it manage to build up the atmosphere. We have some ominous and mysterious sound in the background. The best in it is the opening and ending, that shows how the anime should look like.
Basically some people can be dragged by the story and secrets of Ookami Kakushi, which aren’t so bad. Frankly the realization is bad done. The general idea, although commonplace, could have attract people who like mysteries. The authors couldn’t fit neither the secret or the characters personality. I don’t know to who recommend this title, maybe to fans of the game? In the end one sentence, that sums up this title: the good idea isn’t enough, the more important thing is how it will be introduced.
