Although the OVA has some ambitious ideas, those get lost at times through clumsy handling of themes and a lack of restraint on the part of the director and his or her bag of visual tricks. The art direction stays good for the first two episodes, but mars itself with bland CGI and over-use of filters in the third. Same thing goes with the psychological tension that ratchets up slowly but can't do much in the end besides resolve the main plot threads.
It might sound like I dislike it, but I don't! It's actually a rather compelling work, but it's difficult to review or make a direct recommendation to someone for. It certainly stuck with me for quite a while after watching it.
I feel like I would have liked to have seen the group explore the themes here in a full length 10-12 episode anime rather than a 3 episode OVA. The side characters' relationship with the protagonist (and he with they) had a lot of threads started while the OVA was building up tension, but you never really get much resolution for it all, and what happens with the leads might have had more effect with a few more episodes of things to rip away by the end.
The OVA has its flaws, but it's art direction is generally very good, it's soundtrack and design is great, and its ideas are unique and creepy enough to leave you with a general sense of unease.
This is the perfect anime for watching on a Halloween night you're planning to stay in with your roommates for, with the lights off and a mutual desire to share in some creepy psychological gothic horror. And anime.
