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Oct 26, 2023
How to start...
First and foremost, what are the Japanese yokai known as Kappa? They are typically depicted as green human shaped turtles with webbed hands and feet with a turtle like shell. They have a bowl of river water on top of their heads and are generally very polite. One would even say they are obsessive about politeness. Another thing these yokai love is sumo wrestling, cucumbers, and shogi, which is like Japanese chess. If you are ever challenged by a kappa you have a high probability of defeating it if you're addicted to chess.com, WWF or have cucumbers. So what's so scary about these
...
guys?
( To be Continued....
Well when they're not being polite; they drown children or animals playing near their rivers, sexually assault women who dare cross the river alone, and drink your blood or eat human limbs as most other yokai do. And before I forget, there is another weird thing Kappa are obsessed with; Shirikodama
[尻子玉 ].
Shirikodama, is said to be the human soul that exists as a small magical jewel within the anus. So how do Kappa obtain these sacred jewels? They literally pull them out of peoples asses. I shit you not, Kappa collect ass jewels. It's fucking weird.
So if a cucumber eating, sumo wrestling, lizard that likes to steal jewels from your asshole isn't bizarre enough; imagine a story about three boys who have difficulty connecting with someone important to them while learning what it truly means to do so.... who also anally defeat monsters as a singing turtle gang with mahou shojo transformation type musical sequences. Sounds wild, right?
Sarazanmai is peppered with symbolism and metaphors underneath a layer of simplicity, making it a pleasure to watch for both types of viewers: those who want to be challenged and folks who only care for the surface level details and visuals.
Detractors would be the repetition level for some scenes which are akin to Revolutionary Girl Utena, especially during the first 4eps of the show. This is said to such an extent that I can see some folks wanting to partially skip the sequences. (I found it kinda meh at first, but by episode 9 they had grown on me so much that I found myself upset if any of them were omitted from an ep.)
However, series has some fantastic animation by MAPPA and A+++ music. I haven't laughed this hard after a first episode in a long time. Sarazanmai really hits its stride at the episode 5 mark and exponentially gets better with each passing ep after. THE KAWAUSO COP DESIRE SEQUENCE IS PEAK. [ <-- Utena vibin' that goes hard af ]
Real talk: this a lot more enjoyable if you are knowledgeable about Japanese folklore and yōkai; which includes ghosts, gods, transformed humans and animals, spirit possession, urban legends, and other strange phenomena. ( Que to why my description started the way it did. )
One other observation would be if you know Japanese words and wordplay; ( this makes the elements more impactful, but is not essential to enjoy the show: ) like 'soba' means the noodle and 'a place beside you/to be by your side' or 'kisu' means the fish and 'kiss' or Toi とい (the younger brother) name meaning far away/distant and Chikai 近い (the older brother) name meaning close to/promise.
.There are both adult sexual themes and gay themes in the work; but you don't need to be gay to be able to relate to the difficulty in connecting with others, which is at the core of the show. It's hilarious, intelligent, complex, and interesting in a very bizarre way. These lend itself to a concept that's challenging but also straightforward and worth a watch if you're looking for something unique.
P.S: There are important after credit scenes after the ED each episode that the opening of the next episode won't show.
See you, ByeBye!! ~~dish!
This is also a Ikuhara Kunihiko joint. Other works include Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mawaru Penguindrum.
His stories generally have a gay/lesbian or incestuous coupling, metaphors and abstract concepts, early subtle foreshadowing and magical girl sequences. There is not a lot of stuff that is similar to the artist so you'll know when you've seen one.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Oct 26, 2023
Since this series is technically 13 episodes, I can't suggest it for the club wide anime review so I'll just post it here. What's more Halloween related than Hell, right?
Series is a dark comedy and treats Hell as if it were an office workspace. It also explores Japanese folklore as well as many other religions and their hells. There are even some demon idols and womanizing heavenly beings going for after work beers at the izakaya. If I haven't mentioned already there are also singing goldfish plants, murderous rabbits, and even an excrement hell!
The series is from Sentai Filmworks and WIT Studio so animation
...
is good, but it definitely isn't S tier ufotable quality. Music used is relatively upbeat and catchy, reminiscent of a drunk sing along.
Show overall is pretty easy-going and easy to pick up and put down since the main arc of the first season just shows how Hell is run. If this show ends up being your cup of tea there is another season, 2 ovas and a lot of specials, so there's more than enough to watch if you're into it.
I think it's a great underrated dark comedy a breath of fresh air in the genre. I like the series so much Hozuki is in my top 10 so..yeah 10/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Oct 26, 2023
Requiem from the Darkness - 2003 - 7.5/10
The anthology series is an adaptation of Kyogoku Natsuhiko work. Genre is Horror, Mystery, Supernatural, Fantasy with Historical and Psychological themes.
Show consists of a writer who journeys across the country to write an anthology of disturbing / ghost stories and his misadventures along the way. MC often meets the Ongyu, a trio with supernatural powers that hunt the wicked, on these travels.
Show depicts a lot of graphic gore and violence. Most characters are deformed in one way or another, the surroundings are dark and often quite literally twisted, setting the mood for all the disturbing things the
...
viewer is about to witness. Supporting characters are sparsely developed through out the series to maintain mystery; aside from the MC, whom undergoes changes as a result from the events of the series.
The art style is reminiscent of Puppet Princess, Cheeky Angel, Monster Rancher, and Detective Conan which is no coincidence since they're all TMS Studio projects.
Suggested + Similiar genre/theme shows to this would be:
◇ Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror
◇ Mononoke
◇ Petshop of Horrors
◇ Hell Girl
◇ GeGe No Kitaro
◇ xxxHOLIC
- Thank you @Infinite_Jester for the reccomendation on your horror thread. This was a gem, and I was SO surprised to not have seen it before due to my love of horror.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 26, 2023
Akuma No Hana - 2013 - 8/10
The exploration of perversion, naivete, alienation due to challenges, and hormone driven psychological conflicts during the formative years for our characters are some of the best parts of this anime. Negatively speaking, I wish the dynamic between Kagusa and Nakamura was established with a better foundation, her pull didn't seem weighted enough for me as pointed out earlier on.
The rotoscope doesn't bother me, I think it actually fits the story pretty well. It's realistic and at the same time foreign, the portrayal gives a feeling of alienation to the characters visually while also allowing the uneasy tension and anxiety
...
resonate with the viewer. The conflict of the emotions vs visuals is kind of intoxicating to me.
Could have done without the American Beauty hallucination thrown in there, but I get what they were doing with it. Thank you for the reccomendation @Pekyo reccomended this to me, deliciously perfect and fit my tastes spot on.
Suggested + Similiar genre/theme shows to this would be:
◇ Serial Experiments Lain
◇ HigeHuro
◇ School Days
◇ Hana to Alice
◇ FLCL
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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