Category: Finished Series: Horror

Okay, now I know what happened to the “horror”-part of Ayakashi ~ Japanese Classic Horror: they saved all of it for the last two episodes (yes, for some reason, Bake Neko consists of three episodes, instead of the usual four). For one of the first times ever, an anime managed to actually scare me. Not much, but still… Needless to say that I absolutely loved this episode.

I would try to give a summary of this episode, but I feel like I won’t be able to. So many different things happened all at once, this was just a roller-coaster ride from one scene to another. If the third episode doesn’t disappoint, then Bake Neko will easily be the best out of the three stories presented in Ayakashi.

Another thing I loved is the attention paid to exorcism. Our medicine seller uses finally a bit more than just the basics in order to get rid of this demon. The line of salt, the flying scales that would tell the demon’s location, the paper seals which would show signs whenever Bake Neko was near it, it all made sense once you saw it in action. The dialogue also was a major plus of this episode, ranging from the characters going berserk to the bickering between the bodyguard and the medicine seller and from the desperate characters to the calm characters. Speaking of characters, these also were great. Each of them seems to be unique in some way, and for some reason, all are interesting to watch, especially the uncle freaked me out, as he seemed to be extremely happy when the demon arrived, in a scary way.

The artwork, the more I look at it, the more I actually like it. It’s really something different, for both the characters as the background.

Today, we start with the third and last part of Ayakashi: Bake Neko (I’m really forcing myself not to misread it as Baka Neko). And again, it feels like we’re in a total different anime. The funny thing is, that the impact is even bigger than with Ten Shu Mono Gatari. And again, Bake Neko has some unique features. Yotsuya Kaidan had the incredible murders, Ten Shu Mono Gatari had its great love story. Bake Neko, however, is just crazy. And that has to say something, especially when compared to Yotsuya Kaidan.

The first thing that comes to the eye is the once more changed character art. Yotsuya Kaidan had ugly characters. Ten Shu Mono Gatari had elegant-looking characters. Bake Neko has hilarious looking characters. Especially the minor characters just look like they had to suffer from the horrors of overbudgetting, ending up with a continuously idiotic look.

That’s not all. Also the dialogue just screams chaos. While Yotsuya Kaidan’s dialogue was based on history, Ten Shu Mono Gatari tried to be as romantic as possible, Bake Neko just uses fast-paced dialogue combined with characters being weird, and combines it to something that actually ends up pretty enjoyable.

Anyway, about the story of Bake Neko: I like it. I really like it. This might be the best of the three. We have this demon, who’s busy assaulting a rich family, consisting of a grandfather, a father, a mother, a daughter, an uncle, two or three bodyguards and a bunch of servants. He already killed the daughter and one of the servants, and if it weren’t for a medicine seller who happens to know exorcism, the entire house would have been demolished.

In order for the medicine seller to be able to kill the demon, three things must be known: Katachi, Makoto and Kotowari: the form the demon takes, what is really going on, and the events that made the demon act the way he did. Katachi is immediately clear: this is a case of Bake Neko (hence the title). The merchant needs the members of the house in order to be able to determine Makoto, after which the episode ends. My guess is that the rest of the episodes will deal with the merchant figuring out what happened, accompanied by a couple of nice deaths. I also like the way that especially the uncle seems to be hiding something, though my favourite character still is the assistant bodyguard. He’s just so ignorant.

As expected, Ten Shu Mono Gatari ends just as morbid as Yotsuya Kaidan. While the latter ended a bit too predictable, with the rats and all, the former delivers a much better and satisfying ending. The deaths actually make sense this time. We start with Zusho-no-Suke and Tomi Hime standing in the highest room of the castle, and watching the local army stand at the gates. Tomi Hime wants to defend the castle, and the old woman shows her civil side.

What then starts is a horrible bloodbath between the minor forgotten gods and the local army. The local army may have 1000 people at its command, the forgotten gods remain forgotten gods, who have the ability to take out ten men at a time. I guess I don’t have to say that they gladly make use of this. But then again, the forgotten gods have weakened. Not as in, they can only cast a few skills before their MP is up, but as in the fact that once they get hit, they’re dead, just like any other human. They still don’t know how to mask this weakness, so eventually every forgotten god except Tomi Hime ends up killed. It was great to see that the creators showed the scenes from both parties point of view. It gives so much more backgrounds than when just one side is put in the spotlights.

Tomi Hime and Zusho-no-Suke, meanwhile have problems of their own. First, the old woman tries to kill Zusho-no-Suke after all. He gets saved by his ‘wife’, feeling extremely jealous. Then, she finally realizes that Zusho loves Tomi Hime, and not her. She forces him to go with her, and we’re in for a pleasant surprise, as it appears that Zusho has turned into a forgotten god himself, as his face gets a total make-over. In a bad way. By seeing this, the wife runs away. Zusho and Tomi Hime then decide to defend the castle themselves.

When Tomi Hime, however, finds out about the fate of the other residents of the castle, she goes berserk, complete with a number of extra hands and a pair of wings. Every soldier outside gets killed by her, while Susho himself takes care of the soldiers inside the castle. The landlord is the last of the army to perish. It might be a bit morbid and predictable, but I liked the way it was carried out.

Afterwards, when we think that the ending couldn’t have been more obvious, we get to see a great final scene, as the two demons, without much success, try to search for valuable things in the castle, which got burned to the ground during the battle. Then they see three figures flying in the sky. They make some remarks, and leave. I loved this part. Overall, Ten Shu Mono Gatari was a very nice story to see. I still find Yotsuya Kaidan’s craziness better, though. Furthermore, where, exactly, was the ‘horror’ part?

This tale somehow manages to keep getting better and more beautiful by the minute. Okay, the “Horror”-part is still drifting in oblivion, but this certainly is one of the better love stories in anime. All tensions are rising high, and it seems that everything is ready now for a big climax.

We start with the guy, whose name appears to be Zusho-no-Suke (no wonder I couldn’t remember it. I’ll call him Zusho for the time being), and Tomi Hime have a little fun in the human town. Then the old woman finds them, and begs Tomi Hime to return. Once they do, it becomes clear that she has a very good reason to be against Tomi Hime’s feelings. Her love for Zusho caused the Forgotten Gods to weaken. In other words, making them mortal again. Tomi Hime then forces Zusho to leave her alone.

Zusho leaves the castle, and suddenly the other woman comes running up to him. The two end up marrying, though Zusho still thinks of Tomi Hime. When the woman finds out about this, she manages to make the landlord decide to attack the Forgotten God-castle. Of course, with them weakened like that, this will turn out to be quite interesting.

Anyway, Zusho finally can’t hide his feelings anymore, so he abandons the woman and heads back to the castle. In there, they see the torches belonging to the regional army rising. This will make for an awesome climax in the fourth episode. I can hardly wait to see it.

The man (what the heck was his name again? *kicks memory*) gets ordered to return the falcon he lost in the previous episode. If he doesn’t, he gets to perform seppuku. Though I think he would’ve gone back anyway. When he arrives at the castle, he meets up with the two demons, and the three form a truce. It’s interesting that the demons are on the good side for a time. Well then, they enter the castle, and suddenly they got attacked by a couple of forgotten gods. The demons actually help our main character escaping, after which he goes to search for Tomi Hime. He finds her, but before the two can get to know each other, the old woman manages to catch him and knock him out. He finds himself locked up afterwards, only to be freed by Tomi Hime. The two talk for a bit, Tomi Hime shows her background, and they officially end up as a couple. After a wild night, the main character convinces Tomi Hime to run from the castle, and the two run off on a horse. This doesn’t actually please the old woman.

Overall, I like this romance. It’s greatly executed and I can really feel that these characters love each other. There’s just one problem. This show is called “Ayakashi ~Japanese Classic Horror”. Not “Ayakashi ~Japanese Classic Love-Stories Involving Supernatural Beings”. I have yet to see any horror in Ten Shu Mono Gatari. Sure, we have some ghosts and demons fighting each other, but I don’t really classify that as horror. It’s more like action. Overall, I think I liked the second episode of Yotsuya Kaidan more than the second episode of Ten Shu Mono Gatari. The former already had some disturbing deaths at this point, though the latter likes to take its time in telling.

Anyway, the two are in love now. It can’t get any better than this. I’m expecting that the horror-part will come in the next episode. After all, something has to happen, doesn’t it?

Aaaah, I’ve been waiting for this to come out. Yotsuya Kaidan is finished, and now we continue with the second story of Ayakashi: Ten Shu Mono Gatari, and it suddenly looks like I’m watching a total different anime. The art style got a total retyle. The faces of the characters suddenly became to look much more like normal anime-style, and the clothes have changed from simple one-colored kimono’s into bright-colored, multi-layered cloths. This changed the overall style to be mush lighter. Overall, I have to say that I like this new art more than the previous. Especially the Forgotten Gods look beautiful (if you exclude the old lady, that is). Yotsuya Kaidan’s art wasn’t bad, or anything, but it just bothered me a bit too many times.

The story’s also so much different from Yotsuya Kaidan, which revolved around nothing but arrogant characters, only doing as they please and killing each other. Ten Shu Mono Gatari, however, seems to be a love-story, between a Forgotten God and a human. Yotsuya Kaidan had just one supernatural being involved (namely Oiwa). Ten Shu Mono Gatari has many, including different species. I have no idea whether this will be as succesful as Yotsuya Kaidan. I guess the only way to find out it to watch the next couple of episodes.

Holy god, this was one paranoid episode. I loved it!

Ayakashi is divided in three parts, each worth of four episodes. This episode featured the ending of the first part. I’m very pleased with it up till now. The first part featured Iemon getting what he deserved. Okay, it was predictable right from episode two, but the storytelling totally made up for it. I don’t know if it’s just me, but it’s fun seeing a sick person like that getting all scared and having illusions. The rats may have been a bit too much, though, although they set for a grand finale.

The second part of the episode told us about the background of the story. This certainly was a nice addition to anyone on par with the Japanese history. When you don’t know a lot about it, it might become boring, though.

The goodness continues. Somehow, the third episode managed to follow the second episode’s brilliance. The first half of the episode shows several characters struggle with Oiwa’s curse. It was lovely to see all of them become so paranoid at her sight. The second half of the episode, we get to see a bit of Osode’s story. That one is so full of unexpected plot twist, I really had to control myself not to fall off my chair…

I really like the way this show is heading for. It’s not often when deaths of characters are so common, that the creators manage to make each and everyone of those deaths awesome to witness. Not to mention all of the different complots that are going on. At first you might think them to be boring and repetitive, but once you see more of them, you’ll be able to see the unique aspects of all these complots.