Kaii to Otome to Kamikakushi

I’m loving the trend of dark mystery/horror we’ve been getting lately. It’s a genre that’s severely underrepresented in this medium and Totokami is a good addition to the list. While it’s not as good as the recent Dark Gathering, it’s still a really fun watch and in my opinion one of the more underrated shows of the year.

Just like Dark Gathering, Totokami is a mystery based anime following the main cast solving “curiosities” that often involve aspects of Japanese folklore or mysticism. It’s very much a monster of the week type of show with a slow burning overarching plot in the background. The cases ... were all pretty interesting to me as someone who loves learning about mythology and Buddhist/Shinto beliefs. Nothing ever jumped out as “scary” unlike Dark Gathering, but there were definitely a few moments where I felt uneasy. The background plot with two of the characters trying to “return home” was cool too, but I felt like it took too long to actually get going. It’s like we got hints about it every episode, but wasn’t until the last two or so that they started focusing on it. That would probably be my one complaint storywise. But the most of the mysteries were very good and actually had some nice twists.

The characters are the best part of the story for me. They’re are a blast and Sumireko as an MC is pretty relatable. I mean, who doesn’t want to spend their days writing and drinking in their late 20s? Her ability to de-age herself was a cool gimmick that gave us some hilarious situations and let her live a double life as a middle schooler and bookshop employee. I think the character interactions actually ended up being better than the mysteries in this one. Sumireko, Ren and Occhan never had a dull moment, a lot of witty banter and Occhan roasting Sumireko had me dying of laughter throughout. While they started out as the most unlikeliest of allies, they really turned into a proper family by the end and made my Wednesdays that much better. Even Sumireko’s classmates in her de aged form great.

Production wise it’s solid. Animation isn’t anything to write home about, but it gets the job done. Art style looks great to me, but I know some manga fans were upset about the censorship in the anime. Sadly no nipples or full nudity which is a shame with Sumireko design, but you know it is what it is. Didn’t hamper my enjoyment at all. Speaking of Sumireko’s design, we don’t even need to ask if the author is an a** or tits person. They have a clear preference and I thank them for it.

If you like mystery anime or want to learn about Japanese folklore, or you just want to see massive anime tiddies, it’s a no brainer to watch this. The characters are likeable and the cases are interesting. A solid watch that I’ll miss. The manga will get read

Totokami gets 8 out of 10

Mysterious Disappearances - It's not Dark Gathering levels of scary, but it ain't a noteworthy one either.

Some of you would know that I'm an aficionado for horror shows (a la Dark Gathering style), even going so far as to proclaim (in the review) that future follow-up works will have a high ground to try and beat the gory supernatural series. And as much as I've tried to sustain through the newest supernatural anime this season, which would be mangaka Nujima's Kaii to Otome to Kamikakushi a.k.a Mysterious Disappearances, it's definitely a case of Mysterious Disappearances, involving Maidens with a sense of mystery for some popcorn ... comedy drama that's aimed at the Seinen (young adult men) market, This show should be a suitable demographic for people my age. But I come out just feeling so underwhelmed, that's a simple fact.

Let me ask you a question: What kind of characters will you expect to be in a show like this? The stereotypical male and female lead, of which one of them has a depth of knowledge about the occult, and knows how to deal with them whilst having the other lead be a victim of unfortunate circumstances...that was actually part of a blessing of their lives? This is the result of Sumireko Ogawa, a busty young woman who lives her life on a tangent, being surrounded by books and working as a bookstore clerk. She is assisted by Ren Adashino, a somewhat dark-looking, mysterious young man that's about at least 10 years younger than her, who can't help but stare at her voluptuous and massive boobs for unintended sexual jokes. And once the mystery gets going, the latter takes charge in trying to seek out the supernatural phenomena happening around them, luring Sumireko, his sister Oto, and other characters into the lurch of the unknown.

Despite the manga being serialised in October 2019, Nujima opted to go for the "monster of the week" format where each oddity, known as a Curiosity and is Marked by the yellow exclamation mark traffic signs, is delved upon, describing and explaining the various types of phenomena that are happening right under their noses. In the "people be cursed, figure out what's affecting the curse, and resolve the curse" story arcs that are based off of real-life urban and/or historical legends, I'll admit that it's nice having some infotainment on top of the relevant mysteries that are analyzed. But it's also that same mystery that, ironically, detracts all of the suspension that the manga-turned-anime is supposed to do, offering solutions that, while making a wee bit of sense to deal with, just come off as just asspull solutions like a rabbit from a magician's hat, making this more of a supernatural thriller, cashing the stakes just for reactions, and not a mystery as it proclaims to be. Stories that are just made up for the fact to lead you into a corner, which doesn't also help you understand how and why, ultimately just leave you in the lurch, like a dark hole that sucks you in and leaves you with no exit sign, you don't call these mysteries to begin with.

As with every studio Zero-G work, the production may be all over the place, but I'll give the compliment to the hugely-miss director Tomomi Mochizuki, having to handle directorial and series composition for the show, despite his rather bad track record of shows, of which this show is unfortunately yet another +1 to his rollercoaster of a work biography. Otherwise, this show is akin to yet another Zero-G work: Fall 2021's Sankaku Mado no Sotogawa wa Yoru a.k.a The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window, both in its mystery and supernatural elements, that had good rhetoric going for it, only to squander with some questionable writing choices.

I don't really care for the OST here, which, for mystery and/or supernatural series, is pretty much needed to help elevate the dangers of the oddities happening around the show. With that said, as mildly impressive as Yuyu's OP (composed by Mafumafu) can be, Nonoka Obuchi's ED is just mid, almost as if like the song didn't fit the aesthetics of the show (well, apart from the sand art visuals, which was nice to see).

It irks me to say that you're better off watching Dark Gathering, because it really is a tall order going from said series to this show, which is a complete night and day comparison of the obvious kind, despite having the Ecchi side of Sumireko being one of the show's main appeals. But fanservice is no consolation for mediocre mysteries, and Kaii to Otome to Kamikakushi a.k.a Mysterious Disappearances, is one such show that has "all bark, but no bite," and that's a shame, because this could be so much better, all things considered.

Have a hard time to believe that I spent 10 episodes on this one. The opening is great but beside that.
There are basically four big flaws ruining it.

The first is the story.
It's just a kaii thingy, you don't even need a basic story to begin with but this one tried to go with it and is completely failing because the MC just doesn't care about what happens beside her.
So no matter how big of a mystery is laying around with an MC ignoring all of it without even a thought, it falls short.
The worst being that she goes with all the story because she is ... supposedly a writer and want material and doesn't go to the actual material.
Not that the actual story is deep neither, you can guess it just at the first few episodes then it just unravels when none of the characters are here.

The second is the actual kaii.
You would think youkai and legends of the kind but here it's actually more like some ghost stories.
That would have been good in itself but the author had to put it in a youkai fashion explaining it using a bit of one youkai, another from a legend, the last bit from a theory and you basically have a weird mix of a bit of all just popping out at the end to explain it all as if there was actually some logic behind it.

The third one being the victims.
There is actually some background story on them on how they become how they are and a prey to the kaii, it's supposedly dark with bullying and bullying and some others (no, it's not only bullying, just mainly bullying), but it was just so shallow. Like, "even in the darkness, if you have your phone with you, you'll find some light" level.
Whole point being how they have become victims, you get it ? Victims. There was no good path for them. They've been broken one way or another and yet there is none with an actual shadow at them in their behavior.

The last one is the characters. Kind of goes with the why the impact of the third one is almost to none.
Basically, they are all young girls on the paper, some forty-year-old drunkard in fact.
They only talk about how the MC has big breasts or about panties. The character with the only conversations without those being the only guy.
Kind of feel a pattern here. It would be gross, pervert, just some sexual harassment if it was the guy saying them but, oh wait! They are girls! False alert, It 's safe!
Well it doesn't change the fact that those aren't the way normal people would speak, even less a middle-schooler in an all-girl school or an idol but, hey, who cares? More fanservi-actually no, even though you have a skirt up every two episodes, you don't see them so it's just character killing.

I wonder, does the Ecchi tag come mainly from their very girly conversations? I think I'm on something here.