May 17, 2011
Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, a set of three traditional Japanese ghost stories.
Goddess of the Dark Tower; While the animation left a lot to be desired, I rather enjoyed this story (the most out of all of them). Hmmm, I suppose there is not a real equivalent in Western culture, but basically…just as a mortal might attain godhood, so too can a god attain mortalhood. Forgotten gods as they were referred to, although I’d refer to them as decayed gods…as their transcendence from purity to worldly is a transcendence from benevolent to malevolent.
Yotsuya Ghost Story; This one was one of
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missed potential. It could have been better, but it was not half bad either. An onryo tale; that of an angry vengeful ghost that bears a terrible grudge against its wrongful and grotesque death. Morbidly frightful to be honest, despite its short comings…especially since towards the end they weave the story into its real life relevance in Shinto, Kabuki, and folklore. Which adds a certain creepiness, I definitely do not want to end up dead from watching this!!
Goblin Cat; Apparently this one was the more popular of the tales and even got its own spin off series. To be honest, I was not so very thrilled by it. The anime style I did not care too much for and the storyline was rather hard to follow. This tale dealt with a bakeneko, a cat goblin. The cliché’ scenario of course where an assorted party is trapped in a house that is being assailed by ghostly/demonic entities and the only person who can do anything about it is some sort of demon hunter or exorcist sent by providence.
All in all; I would recommend these tales to anyone interested in traditional Japanese style ghost stories. Personally, I would say that a movie style format for each tale would have been better then the mini-series style formatting they used for each tale.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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