But no seriously, this anime is a decent horror offering that suffers from a few common flaws inherent to the genre.
The premise is simple, because of main character’s family, he has to move to really-small-town, Japan. But this innocent-looking village has some dark and terrible secrets (because of course it does), and when the spooky shenanigans start happening, it’s up to Kei-chan and his trusty harem to make things entirely worse for everybody (because, you know, anime plot).
The atmosphere of this setting, clichéd as it may be, nails that “everything just seems slightly off” vibe you would find in traditional horror films, tickling at your morbid curiosity and compelling you to move. There is a legitimate sense of lovecraftian fear felt by both the audience and the cast, as if these people are messing with a power far beyond what they can hope to overcome. It permeates into every action and thought, and you can feel the sense of the hopelessness about their situation. Friends and family turn against each other. Delusions and paranoia feed increasingly disturbed mental states. And the entire cast is forced to live a gruesome and deadly cycle of death and despair. There are times when you just simply don’t know what to believe anymore. Are the ones that went crazy, really crazy? Are they legitimately onto something, or are they just plain bonkers? Who is really the bad guy here? Are there even any good guys? And what is even driving everybody to deception and murder?
I also have to compliment how the dark, morbid parts of every arc are mixed in between more light-hearted, comical, slice-of-life moments. This part of the show has the dual effect of easing the tension and lulling you into a false sense of security that everything is A-OK up until when the human defecation hits the fan.
The story is presented in a format similar to what can be found to shows like Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei (The Tatami Galaxy). The entire show is divided up into partially self-contained arcs. Each arc contains a different flavor of spooky shenanigan that plays out over the course of 2-6 episodes. At the conclusion of every arc, the show is “reset” back to a beginning point so that a new arc can play out.
What this format has in redundancy (reintroducing almost everything at the beginning of each arc), it makes up for in its ability for clever storytelling. With each new arc, the story is told from a different characters. The change in viewpoints, and the subsequent change in what parts of the story are told this time around, slowly reveals more plot points by which the audience can use to piece together a larger narrative. This slow process of revelation, especially in a horror, effectively establishes an atmosphere of tension and over the course of the whole series. It compels you to keep watching for the sake of learning something new concerning the mystery and seeing the scary stuff happen in a different way.
There are some concerns I have with the show though. For one, the uniquely presented story isn’t airtight. There are some plot points that were never really resolved, and there were few inconsistences between the arcs that shared a connection. The occasionally some of the characters suffer from the classic “oh life-threatening scary movie situation? Something seriously aloof? Time to go full retard!” affliction affecting most horror show casts. I want to cut them some slack, but I was hoping that the writing was better than that.
In summary:
+ atmosphere and setting that provoked tension and suspense
+ cool presentation of story
- some plot holes
Good show overall with some flaws.
