Taking place during the Bakumatsu era when the foundations of the Tokugawa government has began to sway, a young writer and folklorist named Momosuke wishes to write a book of 100 Ghost Stories. While researching these old myths and legends, the young man comes across a mysterious trio who call themselves the Ongyou. They are detectives who are investigating the legends to reveal their truth and bring those in wrong to justice. Each time Momosuke meets the Ongyou, he faces horrible truth and conflicts with his morals and he is witnessing things he is not supposed to witness…
I give a rating of 8/10 for the plot.
Characters and their Voice Castings:
The entire story involves a handful of characters that have the main roles to play. They are –
• Momosuke Yamaoka [Voice Casting: Toshihiko Seki (Jap); Grant George (Eng)]
• Ongyou:
o Mataichi [Voice Casting: Ryusei Nakao (Jap) ; Steve Kramer (Eng)]
o Ogin [Voice Casting : Sanaye Kobayashi (Jap) ; Karen Strassman (Eng)]
o Nagamimi [Voice Casting: Norio Wakamoto (Jap); Michael McConnohie (Eng)]
• Tsutaya [Voice Casting: Hiroshi Otake (Jap); Tom Wyner (Eng)]
• Heihachi [Voice Casting: Natsuhiko Kyogoku (Jap); Neil Kaplan (Eng)]
• Hermits:
o Black Hermit [Voice Casting: Masako Nozawa (Jap); Mona Marshall (Eng)]
o White Hermit [Voice Casting: Masako Nozawa (Jap);Dorothy Elias-Fahn (Eng)]
• Tatsuta [Voice Casting: Keiko Toda (Jap); Philece Sampler (Eng)]
• Kyogoku Tei [Voice Casting: Natsuhiko Kyogoku (Jap); Neil Kaplan (Eng)]
The above provided list of characters is set according to the order of their appearance in the entire series. The characters are well-illustrated, undoubtedly. Now, a little highlight of the above mentioned characters is given as follows:
• Momosuke Yamaoka: The protagonist of the entire series, whose profession is to write riddles for children. He gets fed up with his profession and decides to explore the country all over and write a hundred ghost stories which he later, decides to publish as a series of novels. But in his journey, he meets the various circumstances where he gets involved in various incidences involuntarily and faces the various forms of truth, which terrifies him about the real nature of the world he lives in.
• Ongyou: A mysterious trio of spiritual beings who claim themselves to be detectives who are investigating the strange happenings going on all around in the country. They claim that their job is to find out the criminal and penalize him for his wrong doings, following which; their souls will be sent to the place where they may rest in peace for ever after.
o Mataichi : He is perhaps the leader of the trio. He is called the ‘Trickster’ by his team-mates. He refers to Momosuke by calling him Mr. Author. He is a charm-caster by profession, who sells talismans to people. He is a mysterious short guy who resembles a mummy by looks and always carries a staff, like a priest. His behavior is depicted as that of a calm-minded, quiet and reserved gentleman, who doesn’t like to talk much. He likes to eat and is taunted by his fellow team-mate, Ogin every now and then for his mysterious and unpredictable nature. Every episode ends with Mataichi’s words of Wisdom echoing in the atmosphere, which are brought to a full-stop with this phrase: ‘To the other world, we commit thee’. He even warns Momosuke not to follow him and his group or else he would face a fate and beyond that, something terrible.
o Ogin: A beautiful-looking girl who is also called the ‘Puppeteer’ who has the job of luring the criminal to the scene where he/she either breaks down mentally and confesses the entire truth or just kills himself/herself. Her true identity remains hidden till her past events are narrated by a woman in one of the episodes. She teases Momosuke by calling him a ‘pervert’. It is seen that with the passage of time, Momosuke develops a certain sort of feeling for Ogin, which is revealed in the end when Momosuke wants to travel to the ‘other world’ and spend the rest of his life with Ogin where he is made aware of the different fates the two of them share. In the end, she is teased by Mataichi who, being aware of her feelings for Momosuke, teases her.
o Nagamimi: In the series, he is called a ‘Shapeshifter’ as it is seen that he possesses the ability to change himself into anything. He always keeps smiling, which makes him look weirder than he already is. He is pictured as a tall and stout man with a good muscular physique who always carries a long pipe with him in his mouth. He has the duty to act as the medium that brings the entire case in the light.
• Tsutaya: He is a small chubby creature who is Momosuke’s publisher. At the start, he Is shown to be pissed by the change in the decision of Momosuke to stop writing the riddles for children, but later, he agrees to aid the protagonist in his work.
• Heihachi: He is the co-worker of Momosuke.
• Hermits:
o Black Hermit
o White Hermit
These two hermit ladies work as the messengers of an entity names Kyogoku Tei, who is supposedly the boss of the Ongyou, whose identity remains under the shrouds till the end. On occasions, they are seen to change themselves into young girls to trick the Ongyou into doing what they want them to. They are accidentally destroyed by the main antagonist in the last episode.
• Tatsuta: She is a young lady who has the record of killing her childhood friend Shiragaku out of jealousy of her love for her would be husband. She thus earns the name of a witch, ‘Hi-No-Enma’ who is rumored to kill anybody who loves Shiragaku. She plays an important role in the series as she acts as one of the main assistants of the antagonist, which is revealed in the end.
• Kyogoku Tei: He is the main antagonist of the entire show. His identity and his intentions are revealed in the last arc of the entire story. Knowing his true intentions, even the Ongyou decide to act against him and do the rightful.
For the character illustration along with the voice casting, I’ll give the Anime a rating of 9/10.
Opening and Ending Theme:
Opening Theme Song – ‘The Flame’ and the Ending Theme Song – ‘Moment of Love’, both were performed by Keiko Lee.
I’ll give a rating of 8/10 jointly, for both the opening and the ending themes. You all should listen to the OSTs.
Anime Details------------------------
Title: Requiem From The Darkness
Alternative Title: Hundred Stories; Kyogoku Natsuhiko Kosetsu Hyaku Monogatari
Director: Hideki Tonokatsu
Studio: Tokyo Movie Shinsha
Original Run: October 3rd, 2003 – December 26th, 2003
No. of Episodes: 13
Genre: Crime, Horror, Mystery
Source: Anime-Manga Portal and My Personal Analysis
Overall Rating: 8.6/10
