Corpse Party: Tortured Souls - Bougyakusareta Tamashii no Jukyou

If you're looking for an anime that has a lot of gore in it, you are in for a treat!
[Some spoilers, I advise to watch first]

This 4 part anime really get's straight in with the storyline, I watched the game-play first then the anime adaptation, and they both link really well. There's scenes noticeably the same which makes it fun to watch.

The storyline is very slurred, everything happens quickly which makes it feel like the anime ended too fast. The clues characters get seem to come from nowhere, we don't fully get to see where they find information.

The art in term on how well illustrated ... guts are, is pretty good! They don't do half-half they go all out with showing gruesome scenes!

The sound I thought lacked for me because the voice acting wasn't the best, but it was all-right, sound affects could have been played with because some didn't suit the atmosphere at times.

Characters are just based on how they act, stereotypical points groups seem to have like others have said the one that's always scared, confident one, creepy one etc. Also because of the shortage of episodes there wasn't a lot to go from.

Overall I enjoyed it because of my liking to the game, and how this reflects on it, the game didn't have the gore which the anime gladly filled in and made up for it because it really made it feel real with the sound and visualisation of it! I liked the art!

Corpse Party: A relentless, extremely violent, psychopathic, fast paced, supernatural horror... That's how i would summarize it anyway.

Despite its overwhelming level of violence, there is (thank god) a very interesting story behind this short show. As you may know, this is an adaptation of the Corpse Party Game, and throughout, the plot as well as being horrifying and dark, is also very vivid, cinematic (thriller styled), and it does come across as well though out. Multiple times i felt like i was "watching" a book!

In terms of presentation, the art (very important for gore), was very good, similarly, the blood splatter sounds etc. also came ... into their own.
Though, on the topic of sound: why is the intro so upbeat, for such a slaughterous show? it's a little unnerving if you ask me! Anyway... This combination of great art and sound went together to maximize the immersive nature of the show, the atmosphere is always suspenseful, keeping the viewer on edge at all times! It's safe to say that Corpse Party majors in engaging the viewer (over the story telling) - which explains the magnitude of the theme of death...

I know I've quoted this before, but what majorly adds to the viewer's suspense in this show is its unpredictability... Those of you who have seen things like AoT, or Another will understand the plight of constantly wondering: who's gonna be next? - like in many non-anime horror classics. Corpse Party takes this to another level though! Just like a stereotypical horror, (which isn't a bad thing) you get the impression here that ANYONE at ANY TIME could be abducted, randomly murdered etc. Soo... i don't advise picking favorite characters, unless you want heartache on top of the nausea!

By far, the majority of pros for Corpse Party are tied in with presentation, and thriller devices - things to make the viewer edgy. This becomes apparent when i observe this really interesting, mysterious, story being RUSHED through too fast - it's quite weighty, and it bears a LOT of potential. But, as opposed to the gore scenes, it's always a bit too brief - think of it as fast forwarding between every opportunity to show someone's insides...

It's a bit face palm inducing i think many completed viewers will understand: how the (very short) length of the show majorly cuts its potential in areas such as Story, and - Character development: which is quite minimal.

Despite this, you should already have been prepared for a fast paced, bloody rollocoaster when you clicked on a 17+ Mystery / Horror that lasts about 2 hours total. So, fans of the horror genre won't be disappointed, but you won't have time to process what's going on either.

Would i recommend it? If you're looking for a Pure Horror Thriller, definitely.

In technical terms i should rate this a 6 for its rushed story and character dev - but my psychopathic appreciation for the gore bumped it up to 7 in terms of my enjoyment :P

Ok, let me just point out that Tortured Souls is comparable to a very sped-up version of the video game, so if you want to be eased into the story line and get all of your details together, I recommend either playing the game Blood Covered or watching a Let's Play of it first. The details are in fact in here, but they are very subtle to someone who has not already known the story.

This OVA lasting only 4 half-hour episodes for a game that lasted 5 chapters, a few hours of game play per chapter, it is obvious that the timing is a ... bit fast to really sit back and enjoy. Still, it is a great watch for any Corpse Party fan. There is actually some music from the game incorporated into the anime and the detail of art is amazing as well! There is definitely a gross-out factor, but it's a nice change of pace from the don't-show-just-listen aspect of the video game.

Now, this is NOT a retelling of Blood Covered, or at least not to a T. The overall story is the same, as in the events that have to take place, but some of the deaths have been changed. I won't spoil too much by saying who dies and how, but know that there are only 2 survivors by the end of the OVA, whereas there were 5 in the game. These changes are either from Wrong Ends from Blood Covered or written directly for the OVA.

In my opinion, this version did not do Morishige justice, him desecrating the dead and attempting murder before his death (his death not a spoiler as he died in the game - if you didn't know that you should have turned back when I said you should see the video game first). But, with that and the timing, those are my only complaints about Tortured Souls.

Those slight changes in the story are very intense and affect the outcome in such brutal ways. Not a favorite as "some" of it is like a retelling, but it essentially is not. Rather weird, but I like it!

Think blood and dismembered limbs make the horror anime?
Well, they do, but it's not sickening.

Corpse Party: Tortured Souls gives the whole deal, from eyeballs being pulled out of the socket to intestines being cut with scissors. There aren't very many jump scares which is a big plus for a scaredy cat like me, but the graphics of the corpses can be uncomfortable for people who aren't used to such graphic images. I recommend watching this well after you eat or well before since this can get your stomach twisting and turning.

The story is pretty cliche for a horror story and if you've played the game, ... the anime leaves a lot of it out. Not surprising since they had to fit the whole mystery of the Heavenly Host Elementary School into two total hours of screentime. But they do fit the more important aspects into the anime and it's not lacking in the violence and creepiness the game brought us.

The only aspect lacking in the whole storyline is the character development. They have to leave a lot of it out due to, once again, the four episode cap. The characters themselves were pretty cliche in the first place for a horror story that's centered around a bunch of teenagers. The airhead, the occult freak, the delinquent, the initially pretty crazy guy, the calm collected one, etc.

Overall, in comparison with the game, not bad. For those of you going in cold, it's not bad for a horror. It's a nice short watch that leaves you staying away form giggling little children. Unless you disliked children from the beginning.

I am a huge fan of Corpse Party. I loved the game and the Corpse Party: Blood Covered manga, so I was really looking forward to this anime. Even if it was only going to be an OVA, I felt that was a great opportunity to capture the best moments of the game animated!
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STORY (4/10): When it came out, I watched it and the first episode was great! It was true to the game and the manga. But then it all went downhill around the middle of episode 2. The story became incredibly out of order, so many things were going on at ... once, and it was just crazy. Now, I understand that the anime had to move at a faster pace due to the amount of time for each episode, however it could have been done much more efficiently. They didn't focus on the right things to make the story make sense.

What I love about Corpse Party the most is the characters, their relationships, and the overall plot. I feel that this anime just twisted it all and distorted the whole meaning of it. My take of the game was that it revolved around the idea of friendship (I mean, it's a game about a group of friends that are trapped in Heavenly Host Elementary and have to work together to get out). The anime did not portray it that way and focused more on the gore and shock factor than the aspects that I find to make Corpse Party unique.

ART (8/10): The animation was beautiful though, and they also did a very good job with the atmosphere and backgrounds. The gore/horror scenes were very well animated.

SOUND (9/10): The music was great (the opening song is amazing) and the fact that they used the original voice actors from the game was a plus for me. The sound was the highest point of this anime, I would say.

CHARACTER (6/10): *SPOILERS* (you can skip)
Since most of the characters died, including the ones that were not supposed to, originally, I wasn't happy. I was so upset when one of my favorite characters that was not meant to die in the true ending... died. I know it's Corpse Party, but the true ending was so interesting and one of the best parts! The decisions that the characters made who actually survived carried the story in the game, but those characters didn't last the anime, so the cool character moments/plot points were missing.

Major relationship and character developing scenes were cut out, such as the pool scene with Ayumi and Yoshiki, and the end where the characters realized that they were the only ones to remember their friends who died. Those were impactful scenes and should have been included rather than some others.
*END SPOILERS*

ENJOYMENT (6/10): As a fan, I enjoyed it in the beginning, but I am more interested in plot than I am in the gore. It may have been great for gore fans, but those who hold more importance in story will probably have a hard time enjoying this. The plot is just gone by episode 2.

OVERALL (4/10): So, overall, it was nowhere near as good as I was hoping, but it did have its positive points. However, those good points were not enough to make the destruction of the plot better in my opinion. I don't suggest watching it if you are a big fan of the original game and its story, but if you love horror and gore, and don't mind the character development much, then go for it!

This anime was interesting. This delivered exactly what it said it would, gore and plenty of it. The story in this show was quite confusing although it did end up fully making sense at the end. Other than that the rest of the show was quite mediocre. I think I may have liked it more if the characters had been more fleshed out and if the show had given me a reason to care about what happened to them. Overall this show wasn't bad but it wasn't good either.

This OVA is for people who've either played or watched the lets plays of the games Corpse Party : Blood Covered and/or Corpse Party : Book of Shadows. I came in with the right expectations, knowing it was a 4 episode OVA meant it couldn't possibly cover everything.

What I liked :

This OVA managed to pull of a more horrific tension than any horror anime I've seen. This is the most scary anime I've seen. From the gore, to the jumpscares, to the dynamic camera. This is how you do horror. They also managed to perfectly adapt some of the iconic scenes that happened ... in the game, if not better. This OVA also surprised me with it's changes. Because the game has bad endings, they were able to surprise fans like me with unexpected deaths and twists.

What I disliked :

Because this is just an 4 episode OVA, they had to cut some corners. Some scenes I would've wanted to see in this OVA, weren't there. They also tried to condense the plot in a little span of time. It would've been better if they just skipped parts or just adapted some bits of the story, without condensing the entire story.

Overall this is a good OVA. It isn't a full adaptation, but it is something. Go in with the right expectations, and you should be fine.

GORE! GORE! GORE! GORE! GORE! GORE! GORE! GORE!

if you like the words I wrote down you will LOVE this show.
its sooooo gory.
but parts don't make sense and don't expect everything to be explained or repeated.
I feel it could have been longer and dragged the guts along the floor a bit further.

apart from that the sounds are disturbing the evil characters are creepy and there are tongues, TONGUES, TONGUES!!! EVERYWHERE!!! why are there so many damn tongues.

overall disturbing and makes me feel like a sadist after so many people dying in awful ways

Part 1 English
Part 2 Bahasa Indonesia

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Well, well, well, what do we have here? Corpse Party: Tortured Souls - Bougyakusareta Tamashii no Jukyou. Quite a mouthful, isn't it? And let me tell you, this anime is quite a ride.

First up, let's talk about the story. It's a horror story, so if you're not into that, then this one isn't for you. But if you're like me and enjoy being scared out of your wits, then you'll love it. The story is creepy, atmospheric, and keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Next, let's talk about the art style. It's not the most groundbreaking I've ever seen, ... but it definitely does the job. The character designs are unique and memorable, and the animation is smooth and fluid.

Now, onto the main characters. They're all pretty interesting, each with their own quirks and motivations. You'll find yourself rooting for them as they try to survive in this terrifying world.

The voice acting is solid, and the music is suitably eerie. Together, they create a spooky atmosphere that really immerses you in the world of the anime.

So, what's my overall experience ? It was a fun ride, but not without its flaws. The pacing could be a bit slow at times, and some of the scares felt a bit predictable. But overall, I enjoyed it.

So, let's give it a score. Hmm... how about a 7.333/10? It's not perfect, but it's definitely worth checking out if you're in the mood for a good scare.

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Well, well, well, apa yang kita punya di sini? Corpse Party: Tortured Souls - Bougyakusareta Tamashii no Jukyou. Cukup panjang ya namanya? Dan biarkan saya memberi tahu Anda, anime ini sangat menarik.

Pertama-tama, mari kita bicara tentang ceritanya. Ini adalah cerita horor, jadi jika Anda tidak suka itu, maka ini bukan untuk Anda. Tetapi jika Anda seperti saya dan menikmati ketakutan yang luar biasa, maka Anda akan menyukainya. Ceritanya menyeramkan, atmosferik, dan membuat Anda duduk di tepi kursi.

Selanjutnya, mari kita bicara tentang gaya seni. Ini bukan yang paling groundbreaking yang pernah saya lihat, tetapi pasti cukup baik. Desain karakternya unik dan mudah diingat, dan animasinya halus dan lancar.

Sekarang, tentang karakter utama. Mereka semua cukup menarik, masing-masing dengan keunikan dan motivasi mereka sendiri. Anda akan menemukan diri Anda mendukung mereka saat mereka mencoba bertahan hidup di dunia yang menakutkan ini.

Akting suara-nya bagus, dan musiknya cocok untuk suasana yang menyeramkan. Bersama-sama, mereka menciptakan atmosfer yang menyeramkan yang benar-benar mengalihkan Anda ke dalam dunia anime.

Jadi, bagaimana pengalaman saya secara keseluruhan? Itu adalah perjalanan yang menyenangkan, tetapi tidak tanpa kekurangan. Pacing bisa sedikit lambat pada saat-saat tertentu, dan beberapa ketakutan terasa sedikit bisa ditebak. Tetapi secara keseluruhan, saya menikmatinya.

Jadi, berikan skor. Hmm ... bagaimana dengan 7.333 / 10? Itu tidak sempurna, tetapi pasti layak diperiksa jika Anda sedang ingin ketakutan yang baik

I'm writing as a big fan of its original game. So my review is mainly negative.
briefly, comparing to the original game, it's a fail.

Bad points:
-the story is largely modified, some scenes are changed to be rather absurd.
-important connections among characters are not clarified.
-the flow of story (especially e.p.1) is way too fast, the whole story is rather like a collection of this or that famous event of the game, it lacks proper transition between scenes/episodes.
-as an OVA, the character's artwork isn't well drawn.
-fans of the game (like me) are not satisfied by the story, they can pick up "weak" connections and butt in easily. people ... who are new to it can be confused since the may story jumps too much.
-it's not THAT horror.

Good points:
-the OP theme song is amazing.
-the cast voices are unchanged.
-it's gore.

As a fan of the game and manga I am really disappointed. I love the Corpse Party game (one of my favorite games) and I was waiting on this anime for months.

I like the art style and voice acting. It is just like in the game. The story on the otherhand is really poor. It is rushed, do not stick to the story in the game and they left a lot of things out of the anime. They started to change scenes after 1 ½ episode, scenes that does not take place in the actual story. When the anime sticked to the story in ... the game, it was great. But when it did not, it was terrible to watch and made me angry a lot of the times.

My final verdict will be 7/10. If they had not changed the scenes so much and left so much out of the story, I would have rated this anime 9/10. Sure, they have put a lot of content into an OVA of 4 episodes, and I think they would have been able to make a better story, a story closer to the game, if they had made more episodes (I think it might have been economical issues). But since it is like this, I will give it a 7.

I cannot laugh enough at how ridiculously perfect the title is for this anime, because it is in essence, a party of corpses.

That's right! If you haven't guessed already, this anime heavily revolves around blood, gore, and more blood. Intestines, eyeballs, guts, everything is on the menu for all you gore lovers!

Over the course of four episodes, the story is obviously not going to be perfect. However, it does have a fair enough plot and it definitely has a shocking ending. Some people will enjoy it, some people wont. I personally liked the ending.

Perhaps one of the biggest downfalls to this anime are ... its characters. Some of the decision making were just completely illogical. I couldn't help myself from laughing by some of the absurd scenes. Also, some of the characters were just damn right useless. It was a huge let down. But there were a few characters that were tolerable.

I really enjoyed this anime for what it delivers. That is: creepiness, gore, and an intriguing story line.

Corpse Party is a prime example of an anime you would enjoy with a group of friends, or preferably by yourself, on a friday night. Given its horrific scenes and extreme gore, it's safe to label this anime as the manifestation of despair.

Generally, there are two types of audience when it comes to anime adaptations - those who have followed the source, and those who didn't. The latter might find some amusement in the cheap gore and shock factor of the show, as "Tortured Souls" has been known to be one of the goriest entertainment among anime, often compared to the likes of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Elfen Lied. However, I feel that even if I haven't played the game, I probably wouldn't have gave a s*** about the characters either way, even with all those uncanny and gruesome manners of death.

Tortured Souls is a ... perfect example of a rushed anime. Five chapters lasting at least four hours of playtime (depending on your reading speed) are cramped into the four episodes lasting 30 minutes each. The writing is terrible, and the character motivations were utterly butchered due to either altered dialogue or scenes that were cut out. A notable example was the fight between Naomi and Seiko, where Naomi spews some impatient remarks that drive an angry Seiko away, making the latter look like a petty person (in the game, Naomi's insult is far more devastating because it involves Seiko's late mother). Because a lot of scenes were cut down, you have little time, if any at all to connect with any of the side characters. Both friends and enemies of the main cast are just shallow caricatures waiting to be murdered. The result is a lot of senseless and superficial violence that lacks the necessary context.

The ending to the series is a great display of just how little the writers themselves cared about the characters, going for a cheap shocking death the likes of B-horror movies rather than offer any form of closure. It's the final insult on the beloved characters of Corpse Party and the entire franchise, leaving me with a bad taste as a parting gift.

The animation quality also looks mediocre compared to many other anime, and not just horror ones. The animation looks washed out, like it's done with the cheapest technology available. The lighting quality is terrible, so it can often be hard to see the details. Even in terms of its much-praised blood and gore, it also falls flat on its face as it pales in comparison to Higurashi, where the very details of the gorged eyeballs and spilled intestines are shown in their full glory without cutting away. The gore in Tortured Souls, however, feels held back as if the animators don't really have the stomach to draw such grotesque images.

There are a few things that kept me from giving the anime the lowest score possible, however. The opening theme, for starters, felt much more emotional than the video game version as it balances between bleakness (its opening verses) and hope (its chorus). It's a nice choice of song that feels thematically appropriate for a horrifying story about the gruesome fate of innocent little kids. In spite of my earlier complaints, most of the scenes and dialogue were faithful in adaptation and only look bad because a lot of context was cut out. Last but not least, and perhaps the most surprising of all, the scene with Sachiko at the very end is also done far better than the game version as it provides a nice closure for the little dead girl as well, and it would have made me tear up if not for all the bad writing that came before.

As an adaptation, it fails on nearly every level. As a standalone anime, it's bad storytelling without proper pay-off. Those who seek two hours of cheap thrills could find them here in the forms of throwaway characters and b-movie gore, but there is so much of that already in American horror films I wouldn't know why you would put your soul through the torture (ba-dum-tss!). I regretted wasting my time watching this piece of s***, and I would advice horror fans to seek much more satisfying titles out there like Higurashi, Elfen Lied, Shiki, and even Umineko Naku Koro ni, another rushed anime that's much better made than this travesty.

We all love telling tales of the past,
Be they epic, romantic or scary
Stories of people long since dead
though levels of truth may vary

For such is the tale of Sachiko,
and the tragedy of Heavenly Host
A school long lost ‘tween heaven and hell
each student and teacher a ghost.

... A simple chant will bind you as friends,
So why don’t you give it a try?
But make one mistake and that’s all it takes
To suffer and surely to die.

When wandering these decrepit halls
Be brave, be clever and true
For many a soul has been trapped here
And the next one might be you.

Sorry about that... I’m no poet, and that was probably terrible, but I couldn’t resist. For a proper plot summary, Corpse Party is the story of seven high school students, their teacher and a little girl who get together one night to tell a juicy urban legend that one of them heard online... One that comes not only with thrills, chills and intrigue, but with a cute little charm that’s supposed to link all of them as friends forever. But suddenly, and with no explanation, the charm backfires, and sucks them screaming and horrified into a twisted, disturbing world that wastes no time in splitting them up and running them through the meat grinder... Almost literally in a few cases.

In order to escape from this world that Silent Hill has screaming nightmares about, the dwindling students will have to solve the mystery behind the Heavenly Host massacre, examining the blurry lines between the truth of what happened and the story that became public knowledge. And if that doesn’t seem hard enough, they’ll have to do this while avoiding the demons and ghosts who want nothing more than to spread their eternal suffering to others. With the odds stacked against them, and no horrors being spared on their behalf, can any of these forsaken friends overcome their fate and live to see the real world? Or are their tortured souls doomed to hell for eternity?

The Corpse Party OVA was produced by a studio called Asread, a small time production company that originated as an off-shoot of Studio Xebec. They’ve released a surprisingly small amount of titles, ranging from the misogynistic Shuffle to the plot-hole pin-cushion known as Future Diary. By all means, you’d expect them to shaft a four episode OVA that nobody wanted to see with as little effort and money and possible... In other words, this anime should look like ass.

In spite of this, I was pleasantly surprised by the over-all look of this OVA. Okay, it’s no visual wonder... The budget was clearly a small one, and this fact is betrayed to the viewer in several scenes, most notably of which occurs right at the very beginning when the nine are saying their chant. For most of the series, however, the visuals are executed nicely, teasing your eye with suspicious framing and backgrounds full of gritty, unsettling details. Everything in Heavenly Host looks appropriately ancient, with the corpses scattered throughout the building in varying states of decay, and mold and grime covering every inch of the building’s walls.

The character designs, while somewhat distinctive, are disappointingly generic. You could argue that there’s a point to this, as there’s no real main character in this series(the protagonist from the game has been brought down to everyone elses level), and everybody looks like they could be a secondary or stock character in any other show. You could make this excuse, and there is some logic behind it, but it doesn’t make the cast look any less dull or any more memorable. The animation shines through in some scenes... Where there’s suspense or gut-wrenching horror to portray, the animation becomes solid enough to make up for the over-all cheapness. The visual effects of the ghosts alone justifies the unevenly allocated budget. The music is just as spooky as it needs to be, and while there are no real stand-out tracks, it does it’s job well enough to amp up the tension and shock whenever needed.

Before we go any further, I should probably mention that this OVA was based on a video game series that’s developed a strong cult following since it’s release back in 1996, despite not getting a sequel until 2008. The series then took off, spawning countless new games and manga adaptations, as well as an eleven minute OVA that’s completely worthless and the four episode OVA that I’m discussing today. Having said that, adapting video games into the visual medium is a notoriously hard thing to do, so how did this iteration of the story hold up?

Well, I’ve always held onto the belief that an adaptation doesn’t need to be accurate... It can change as much as it likes, as long as it manages to put forth a good stand-alone story. The problem with applying that belief to Corpse Party is that, as far as I’ve seen from the handful of let’s play videos that I’ve seen, this anime only tells a fraction of the story. Most video game movies will find ways to work around the gameplay aspect of their source material or just omit it completely, and that’s kind of a necessity in terms of keeping the story from getting repetitive... But there’s a lot of story and character development in Corpse Party’s gameplay, and it’s sorely missing from the OVA.

The first episode is executed decently enough, as it goes through the prologue and then spends the rest of it’s time focusing on two specific characters. They interact with each other and explore the haunted school for a bit, allowing the horror to set in with a very effective slow burn, leading to the first of many shocking death scenes. However, the pacing issues become immediately apparent when the second episode starts, and the story suddenly shifts to cover the rest of the characters and their situations, as well as expositing about many of the rules and properties of Heavenly Host.

I haven’t played the game, which is why I can say with complete sincerity that you don’t have to have any behind-the-controls experience to know that tons of material was left behind for the sake of adaptation. This is most apparent from one particular scene where two characters figure out what they’ll have to do to put the ghost children to rest. We switch focus to other characters, and by the time we get back to these two, they’ve already completed the bulk of the task. The entire anime is like this, jumping from important plot point to important plot point, throwing away almost all of the mood and complexity of the source material to get through the story as quickly as possible.

The mystery element of the story, which gave the game it’s celebrated sense of intrigue, isn’t slowly revealed as each piece is discovered... Which I do believe they could have accomplished with an extra episode and a clever rewrite. Instead, the entire backstory is dumped on you through exposition towards the end, and it grinds the story to a halt faster than the third act of the first Silent Hill movie. It tells the backstory completely... Or at least I think it does... And they do kind of manage to tell it organically through the characters and their discoveries, and while I have to give them some credit for that, it doesn’t stop the sequence from feeling like I’m reading it out of a text book, and it spoils any feeling of immersion it may have had because of this.

The characters also suffer, and not just in the literal sense. With all of their development and background information glossed over, they’re simplified down to the barest of possible tropes... You’ve got the class rep, the gropy lesbian, the genki girl, the obsessive fanboy, the blonde punk, the overly-attached idealized loli, the blank slate protagonist, etc. It’s very difficult to become attached to any of these characters, which causes their occasional demises to lose a lot of the emotional impact that they should have had. There are so many details I didn’t hear until after the fact that would have made so much more sense had I heard them in the show. Apparently, two of the female character were competitively in love with the male protagonist. Apparently, one of them was his childhood friend. Apparently, this whole ritual was performed to strengthen this group’s friendship because one of them was about to move away. I should have known these things!

Hell, as little as I know of the game, maybe some of the obvious plot holes make more sense in it. It’s stated that when you die in Heavenly Host, your existence is completely erased from the real world, which makes no sense, because the entire reason they tried this ritual is because of the blog entries of a girl who was already killed and trapped there. Her blog should have never existed, right? And I’m not going to throw out any serious spoilers, but what was up with that twist at the end? What’s the logic behind that one? Is any of this explained in the actual game?

Now after all that bitching, you’re probably expecting me to say that this show is awful, and that it’s a poorly executed gore fest that doesn’t deserve any of your time or attention. And in some ways, I guess that’s true... So why do I like this show so much? Why do I derive so much guilty pleasure out of what is so obviously a trainwreck? To explain what Corpse Party does right, I’m going to have to compare it to another horror anime that I reviewed very recently, Another.

These two shows have very similar plots. They both take place in haunted schools where a bunch of unfortunate students are being ruthlessly killed off by a curse. The differences, however, are vast. The ghost in Another feels more like a sadistic mob boss than a vengeful spirit, while in Corpse Party, the ghosts are far more firmly defined and straightforward. In Another, it’s hard to ignore the many ways that the curse could have possibly been broken, while in Corpse Party, the situation really does feel hopeless. In Another, one of the characters has a power that she refuses to take advantage of until at least eight more people have died, but in Corpse Party, you can tell the characters are doing whatever they can to get home. Also, unlike Another, Corpse Party doesn’t try too hard to look spookier than it is by arbitrarily making one of it’s characters obsessed with Gothic things.

In Another, the body count seems to have an ulterior motive running contrary to the established tone of the series. There’s a huge body count, but none of the deaths feel scary, as they’re either plot related, included for spectacle, or... Well, I didn’t really talk about this in my review of the series, but a lot of the female deaths are sexually suggestive in nature, as most of the girls are killed through penetration, strangulation, and one of them lands in a sexual position after falling from a window. It feels more like a sexually repressed revenge fantasy, with the ghost serving as a self-insert character, rather than a genuine horror title.

Corpse Party doesn’t have that problem. It’s difficult to get attached to the characters, so their deaths aren’t going to break your heart, but they’re still framed and executed in terrifying ways, feeling exactly as horrifying and nauseating as they were meant to. Even if you don’t care whether or not the characters live, you still feel the pain and terror that they feel. The deaths aren’t played over-the-top for spectacle, neither are they sexualized, save for one or two incidental panty shots. Yes, there's stabbings and strangulation, but the way they're presented is so gruesome and gritty that even the most hardcore gore-porn addicts wouldn't be aroused by them. In this way, Corpse Party succeeds in the most basic of ways... It’s genuinely scary. The pacing, while bad, still allows for suspense, which makes the inevitable splatters all the more crushing, even though it feels kind of cathartic to see so many annoying archetypes killed. Either way, no death ever feels hollow or pointless to the narrative.

But I think the main reason I like it so much is because it’s the perfect Japanese equivalent of a slasher film. The vast majority of those kinds of movies aren’t good by any means, but they’re still so fun, gory and cheesy with no pretensions of being anything more that they’re a blast to watch on a dark and stormy night, whether you’re alone or with friends. At only two hours long, it doesn’t waste any time between scares, making it the absolute best anime to watch on Halloween. I’ve always loved gory horror films that are perfectly fine with people seeing them for exactly what they are, and Corpse Party makes me nostalgic for the days when I was a teenager, watching grindhouse horror movies at my friends houses while my over-protective parents didn’t know about it. I get that it won’t have that value with most viewers, but it has it with me, and that’s what counts.

Corpse Party: Tortured Souls is not available stateside, and neither are any of the other iterations of the franchise. The mangas and light novels have not been officially translated, although it is possible to play a subbed version of the original game online. Neither this OVA series nor the abysmal eleven minute one that preceded it have been picked up for US distribution, although it is possible to watch both of them for free on youtube. Malayasian bootlegs exist on Ebay, but... Well, you know how those things are. Proceed with caution.

I normally wouldn’t like the fact that a show was as unavailable as this one is, but in all honesty, that scarcity actually works in it’s favor, making it feel even more like a back-alley bootleg of a show that you’re not supposed to be watching. That appeal is limited, however, and I can’t justify giving it credit just on the merit of my own guilty pleasure... It’s a train wreck, frankly, and while the many things it does wrong do prevent me from giving it any kind of firm recommendation, the few things it does right are important enough to save it from being completely unwatchable. I give Corpse Party: Tortured Souls a 4/10.

This anime is by far the most disturbing and gory thing I've ever seen. Typically that's not my cup of tea, I prefer the more cheerful stuff. However, this anime still manages to impress me and kept me wanting to watch more to see the final conclusion of the story.
The story itself is very dark and also has a pretty big plot hole if you are paying attention, but it's still overall enjoyable.
The gore is insanely over the top, but not in a cartoony way, instead it's very upsetting to watch (which is what they were going for). And every time you think ... to yourself "oh they wont go there..." they 1up you and show you something far worse. Aside from the gore, I really like the atmosphere the anime gives, it really puts you in the school and makes you feel a part of the anime, almost like a video game.
The characters don't have too much depth, but aren't too shallow either. An immersion breaking moment is when one character starts to see horrible things in the scenery for the first time, but continues without batting an eye or saying anything, which made me laugh out loud at how outrageous the situation was.

Overall, if you want to watch a horror movie, pull up and watch this 4 episode series instead. It's about the same length as a real movie, and I guarantee it to be way more potent than anything in the theatres.

This is my first review! :D

Story: 1
Even though the story starts off well, after the first episode it becomes rushed and confusing. It's so rushed that it feels like whole scenes are missing from it. The story gives itself no time to slow down and develop things like characters. Also, the shock ending is forced, and it's not explained well at all. This anime would have benefited from more episodes to develop the story more.

Art: 7
The art is one of the saving graces of this anime. It might not look as good as some other works in the same year, but it's still amazing. ... The atmosphere in this anime is also well done. Another thing done well is the character designs, and they all have something physically to tell them apart. Plus, the huge amounts of uncensored gore is also a plus.

Sound: 7
Another good part about Tortured Souls is the sound. The main theme is one of the best anime opening I've in years, and all the music fits in the anime. I simply like the soundtrack.

Character: 1
Because the plot was so rushed, it gave no time for any of the characters to develop. They've to go along with the plot. Some characters only get one scene of time before they get killed off as well. They also seem to make stupid decisions just for the plot.

Overall: 4
Even if the soundtrack, art, and gore of this anime is good, the story and characters bring the quality of the anime.

Recommended for people who don't care about story and characters. Also, for horror lovers that want to see an anime filled to the brim with gore.

You know all those horror anime? Tokyo Ghoul, Attack on Titan (kinda horror), Another, Elfen Lied, Highschool of the Dead? Recognize these? Then, I introduce you to something a bit more gory - Corpse Party. Time to take the next step up from the not-so-scary/not-as-gorey anime that you've seen in the past.

I loved Attack on Titan and Another, etc. so I wanted to take the the next step up by looking at all the horror anime that exist! Then, I saw Corpse Party on the list so I thought, "Oh- this looks interesting." I click on it and then the 'ugly' pictures and descriptions show ... up. Geez.

The reason I gave this anime a seven was not because I hated it, it was because of the amount of gore there was. The story plot was very interesting, students being trapped in a haunted Elementary School that they somehow transported to on a dark, gloomy night at their High School (which is built on the old Elementary School's site), while they all try to escape in hopes of not being killed, considering the fact that the haunted Elementary School consisted of many killings in the past. The art is an outstanding (ten) to me, considering the amount of blood and body parts involved in it. Already in the first episode (each episode is at least half an hour long/ 23 minutes to be accurate), there will be guts an blood and dead bodies in at least every minute of the show. It is very revealing when it comes to showing guts and it won't hold back on jumpscares nor showing/revealing dead people/bodies lying on the ground. The sounds of the anime are good, but the animation is what makes it scary, not the background music or the screaming and gasps of dying people. Characters are somewhat good. In the beginning you may think "this looks like a regular high school-type anime" but boy are you wrong. As soon as blood and guts appear and are added to that, then those characters will no longer be the innocent boys and girls that look all kawaii in their school uniforms. I'm an average fan when it comes to horror shows but Corpse Party is way too advanced horror for me (unless you're crazy and can handle four episodes that last at least half an hour of guts, blood, intestines - oops, did I say too much? teehee~) Overall, it was a pretty enjoyable anime, even though blood and killing is pretty much involved throughout all of them.

Oh- forgot to mention, you know that creepy little girl you always see in horror movies? You know, the one with the long black hair covering her face and she's wearing a long dress and usually stands in random places? Yeah- you'll see her from time to time, so enjoy that! Oh- one more thing, make sure you don't watch this at night (you'll only regret it later). Here's another recommendation, watch this anime with your friends or even your parents if you have to, or might as well don't watch it at all! Being around friends while watching is a great idea (trust me on this cuz I watched this alone, in the dark, underneath my covers, in the middle of the night - not a smart move, should've watched it during the day time)

If you are already scared of Another or Attack on Titan or even Blue Exorcist, then don't even try going further into it and watching this. Just, watch it at your own risk if you really want to (like me), and have fun daring your friends to watch it hehe~

Since I previously played the game and got one of the good endings, THIS THING BLEW ME AWAY.
It was totally not expected.. I literally had my mouth opened wide at the end, great job was done with this anime! Of course you don't get enough time to relate to the characters and y'know, bond with them.. As this is a very rushed version of the game, but nonetheless, it was very similar to it to my surprise! This anime didn't disappoint me one bit. c:
Yeah, there are some great twists of events there which made me like it even more, I thought I was going ... to watch the same ending I got in the game, but man was I wrong! Everything was just so unexpected and exciting. I totally recommend watching this and preferably playing the game before, just so you get the chance to have more feelings for the characters. c:

I haven't played the videogame, so my review is only based on this short OVA and obviously it won't be affected in any way by that game.

This review won't contain spoilers.


Story 4/10

In short, the story talks about a group of students that after a charm suddenly end up in Heavenly Host Elementary School, a cursed school where ghosts out for revenge. The premise is somewhat exciting and forced me to watch those 4 episodes. Unfortunately I can't say the same for the effective story of the anime.

Since there are only 4 episodes, I didn't really expected a complex story, but there are way too many ... plot holes and random scenes made only to add some blood and violence to the whole thing. After a while you aren't even surprised anymore by random murders that happen every 2/3 minutes. The worst part of it is that it isn't scary as an horror should be. Let me explain: Corpse Party doesn't have the most original setting, I've seen haunted/cursed schools everywhere in horror films and stories, even children's ghosts are one of the most common characters, so at least I was waiting for something scary to happen, but apparently this isn't the real objective of Corpse Party. Indeed it's all focused on blood and student's inner body parts, especially intestines, that, I'm talking about my personal experience, just cause disgust.

So, nothing scary at all in an horror anime. Ok. Maybe it has some other strong aspects? Nope, just that. Even the will to find a way to get out of that hell of a school is hidden behind the stupidity of the characters that do everything to get killed in the most idiotic ways, but I'll talk better about in the right section. Probably the best parts were the beginning and the ending, they somehow satisfied me and incredibly rised story's mark to 4, the rest was just a bloody mess.


Art & Animation 7/10

Nothing to complain here, drawings were well made, I'm especially talking about the setting (school environment) that's rich of details and realistic. I've appreciated the difference they made between bright, safe places and dark, elementary school filled with ghosts and murderers. Gore and splatter parts were also nicely made, not really realistic but still enjoyable.


Sound 8/10

Even if there isn't any memorable OST, sound effects are well made. Screams are amazing, the sound during various killings/stabs/random splatter stuff is half way between disturbing and enjoyable, but it's overall perfect for the anime.


Characters 3/10

I admit that I don't really remember any of main character's names except for one or two of them because their name was actually shouted during the whole episode. This also means that it was hard to follow the conspicuous sequence of deaths and that I couldn't care less about their deaths, because I haven't even had the time to understand who or how they were.

Leaving this apart, characters are just flat and unrealistic under every point of view. There are way too many situations that could have been avoided if they hadn’t been brainless creatures, I suppose this is a feature to actually make something happen, but it could have been done much better. They take decisions that are against every logic and the events seem forced, squeezed through the episode. I understand that they are just a group of 16/17 years old guys (but not only, there are some grown ups too) put in an infernal school but there are some times that you can’t find a way to justify their behaviour, you’ll probably understand better what I mean while you watch it.

Thing to point out: characters are made of clay, literally, they explode/lose body parts just by touching things. That’s how it seem to work.


Enjoyment 6/10
Despite all his problems, Corpse Party is enjoyable to watch and it’s interesting to see how those characters manage to die in all possible ways. Sounds sick, but that’s what this anime is. I don’t think I’ll watch this OVA again, but I’ll have fun talking about it with friends. Since I haven’t found it scary at all, I can’t say I enjoyed this as an horror anime, but all the crazy stuff that happens everywhere is somewhat interesting.

Should you watch it? Mh, if you aren’t scared easily, with every probably this won’t be a terrible experience. There is a lot of violence, nothing more. If this sounds good to you, go ahead, you won’t be unsatisfied.


This was my first review on MAL, I’m sorry for eventual grammar mistakes since this isn’t my main language. Feel free to send me a message if you want to discuss with me some points of the review.

Corpse Party is an anime for those fans of gore and just horror.

In Corpse Party: Tortured Souls there is not much story nor is there much character developement. For that I suggest your play the game this anime was based off of.

The characters in this anime are not very deep nor do they go through much change throughout the anime. The characters you meet at the start of the anime are the ones you are left with at the end. They will not change much in relationships and they will not change much in who they are, this is just the type of story ... Corpse Party is in this adaptation.

The story seems like a simple folk tale and is nothing like the story in the RPG horror game. In the game there is a big plot and there is enough time to really develop the story into what it is. There is only four epsiodes of this anime and therefore there is not much time to go into detail about the story. There is only the main plot points from the game.

The gore and horror in this anime is amazing. The great art and animation really makes it so you get the full affect of the gore these students are going through. That is one of the big upsides to this anime and also what makes more people enjoy it.

Overall, I wish there were more episodes to allow enough time for character developemt and for the story to evolve to the one it is in the game. This anime is especially for those a fan of horror and gore, not a great chain of events or characters. I did enjoy it though and it was the first anime that I watched so I would not be here reviewing anime if I at least didn't enjoy it.