This wasn’t exactly the type of episode I’d expect from this series, On one hand, it’s still got the serious air, creative action-scenes and the dark nature of Hei. Suou has also gotten a lot better now that she’s a contractor, and Kirihara also is back and seems like she’s going to be a major player in the story. And at the same time this episode introduces a bunch of goofballs, including a bunch of punks, the father of one of these punks, who works as a cross dresser, and Suou gets sick fro having eaten very old noodles.

So yeah, overall I do regard the first season as superior to the second, mostly because of its very short length and I’m fully aware that this second season isn’t going to be able to top the Yin-arc. However, the execution has gotten much tighter at least (from what I remember of it, anyway). Especially the humour is better balanced here: the comedy episodes of the first season were amongst its worst episodes, especially that silly OVA was just pointless, but here it actually fits and contributes to the overall story, rather than being annoying.

In any case, I’m glad to see that Suou has indeed stopped being an annoying teenager now that she’s turned into a contractor. I like this set-up a lot and it works really well with Hei’s development from the first series. Or at least, I think he has developed. It’s hard to tell whether he did or not considering how he’s been acting most of the time, and we’ve never really seen him in a situation like this, in which he had to train and take care of an annoying teenager.

I also wonder: what’s Suou’s penalty? Hei said that he noticed that she used her powers when he was away, so it’s got to be something that alters her looks, but I didn’t quite pick up yet what it was.
Rating: * (Good)

Anime Innovation Tokyo is a project meant to sponsor young and talented creators in creating something new and innovative. These people often have great ideas, but lack the budget and experience to really put these into practice, and that’s where this project helps them out with. I really like this idea, and therefore I’ll gladly promote their efforts. Cencoroll is the first project of theirs to be completed.

Cencoroll mostly stands out with its animation and storytelling. Regarding the former, you can see that the creators have gotten themselves a nice budget, but a limited one nonehteless. They make up for it with really good keyframes though: they’re very expressive, and well drawn, and a lot of time went into each frame.

I also like how down to earth the characters remain: despite that this is an action-series, none of the emotions of the characters are ever cheesy or overdone. In fact, the lead character is as nonchalant as you can realistically get. The storytelling also has a little bit of wit inside of it, when some plot twists aren’t explained and the writers assume that the viewers themselves are able to figure out that A + B equals C, which is something I appreciate.

The question however is: is this movie truly innovative? To that question, my answer is no. I wouldn´t exactly label this series as unique. However, it does have a “screw conventions we´re going to do it our way!”-mindset, and that’s the thing that counts: you can really see that the creators wanted to be innovative, and this is actually a great start for Anime Innovation Tokyo, as they come up with a concept that will generally be very well liked, andnot just be popular amongst the arthouse fans, while at the same time they put in a few neat ideas. I’m hoping that the future projects are going to be a bit more daring in trying out really new things, but it’s a great start nonetheless.

A few weeks ago, there were a lot of requests for a this, so here you go: in preparation of Halloween, here is the list of my 10 favourite horror series. It was an interesting list to compile, because even though I’m a big fan of horror, I never really thought about my favourite series of the genre.

Of course, there are many different kinds of horror. Anime is hardly ever truly scary, but it does have a wide variety of horror series with a genuinely creepy atmosphere, and that’s what I was looking for when compiling this list. This can be done with gore, scary images, monsters, but also psychological horror, and the classic Japanese style of horror that tries to creep the viewer out with a tight storytelling. I tried to include a bit of everything in this list, because I don’t believe that there’s one sub-genre that’s inherently better than the others.

Again, like with my other lists I’d love to see some other people’s top 10 (or whatever suits you best) horror-series. I’m also interested about other sorts of Top 10 lists you want to see on this blog. I might as well try to create a different Top 10 list every month.

Some series who didn’t make the list but deserve a honorable mention: Hakaba Kitarou (for those who are interested in the combination between horror and comedy), Betterman (a bit long-winded, but pretty nice survival horror) and Mouryou no Hako (has some horror elements, but not enough to really make it to this list).

#10: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

Higurashi’s biggest focus isn’t horror, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have a number of genuinely creepy episodes in its first season. Especially because at that point, you’ll have no idea what the heck is going on, which only contributes to the atmosphere. It has gore, characters going insane and a setting in which you can trust nobody, all packaged under such a seemingly cute exterior.

#9: Boogiepop Phantom

Boogiepop Phantom is really more of subtle psychological kind of horror, but like Higurashi it also really likes to confuse the heck out of its viewer, and takes this sense of mystery further than any series I’ve seen. This, combined with a number of disturbing cases of messed-up personalities earned this series a place in this top 10.

#8: Kurozuka

So yeah, we all know what a mess Kurozuka ended up to be in the character-department, but as an action-horror series it truly shines. It had a really powerful set of visuals and a constantly tight atmosphere and some incredibly tense and well-written action scenes. Madhouse really knew how to make a huge visual spectacle out of it, and the genuinely creepy atmosphere made this into a unique series.

#7: Perfect Blue

This is the only movie I have on this list, but it really deserves to be here. This is everything that psychological horror should be, and Satoshi Kon succeeded in creating a schizophrenic and paranoid 90 minutes. It’s an excellent character-study of the darker sides about being an idol, dealing with obsessive fans and the like. While it’s not the best thing that Satoshi Kon has written, it still knows how to capture its audience and stands out as the best animated horror movie for me.

#6: Ayakashi ~ Japanese Classic Horror

Of course, this is one series that can’t be missing in a top-list of horror anime. This actually was the series that introduced me to this great genre, and it really shows what you can do with it. It consists out of three stories, and while the second one isn’t exactly impressive, the first and third really manage to deliver in disturbing antics and very tense storytelling. They’re both well built up, and especially the third story Bake Neko (which would later spawn its own series called Mononoke) is storytelling at its finest.

#5:Paranoia Agent

More Satoshi Kon, as he takes another shot at psychological horror. This series was supposed to be a collection of stories that didn’t fit into his movies, and the result is a number of excellent character-studies about a collection of people who breaking down mentally. This is of course great horror-material, and he really manages to combine this with this creepy atmosphere in which you never know what’s real and what’s just an illusion. It’s a show that loves to play with irony, and another great horror recommendation.

#4: Gilgamesh

I’m still not sure why this series is so often hated, but I digress. At its core, Gilgamesh is a dark series with a constantly tight and cold atmosphere. Unlike the most of the above-mentioned series, the type of horror is nether gore, scary images or psychological, but instead it really tries to captivate its audience with its storytelling. It’s a series with a creative storyline that fits this type of series perfectly, resulting into an excellently creepy series.
(On a side-note: try finding a good image for this series. Thank you very much, Fate/Stay Night.)

#3: Jigoku Shoujo

Every episode of Jigoku Shoujo has pretty much the same concept: someone has a grudge on someone, someone accesses the Jigoku Shoujo Website, and someone gets sent to hell. But this series really makes use of this ritualistic set-up in its storytelling, again creating a very creepy atmosphere that never dies, even after 78 episodes. It’s a series that really knows how to build up its stories, and while they indeed may be hit or miss, this series however really hits hard and often enough.

#2: Shigurui

I think it was pretty obvious that Madhouse would end up dominating this top 10: five of these ten come from them, and Shigurui stands head and shoulders as their best work in terms of horror. It’s the only series that actually managed to freak me out while I was watching it, that’s how powerful the storytelling is. This series is absolutely brutal, and spares nobody: every single character is a huge bastard, and nobody gets spared when it comes to the incredibly well-drawn gore. Nothing is too much for this series and it shows this again and again and again. If you want to freak someone out, then this is my top recommendation for it.

#1: Ghost Hound

But in the end, nothing can beat Ghost Hound for me as my favourite horror-series. With its huge attention to detail in terms of psychology, it knows exactly what to do in order to create an incredibly creepy atmosphere, and on top of being an excellent psychology lesson, this series also really manages to create a unique atmosphere that attempts to do much more than being simply creepy. If you want to get in the mood for Halloween, then this is my top recommendation: Ghost Hound knows how to capture its audience, and it does so with a frightening consistency.

It’s episodes like this that really remind me why I’m still such a fan of anime. This episode was just… beyond awesome. Major spoilers coming up, do not read this entry if you haven’t seen the episode, and for the rest I can say little else than:

What the Fuck!?

I sort-of suspected that this episode would end with a bang, but this kind of a bang… I never saw coming: freakin’ Beatrice set everything up. The reason why her acting felt so forced was that it was SUPPOSED to be acting: there’s no way Battler was going to notice, and instead Beatrice started playing the innocent victim, while creating a new villain in Evatrice. Holy crap, talk about an awesome plot twist!

I’m now starting to see why Beatrice was supposed to be such an awesome character. The sheer cruelty in which she continuously keeps thinking of scenarios to fool Battler, and does it every time, and at the same time you can see that she isn’t perfect. My guess is that she originally didn’t plan to include the Evatrice plot in this arc, and instead just tried to use her Teacher to confuse Battler, but when he cornered her (when Ronove interrupted her when she was about to give away an important clue) and they went into that emergency meeting of theirs, they decided to go for such an elaborate illusion.

On top of that, Beatrice seems to have two intentions that contradict each other: her first goal is to “win” from Battler: make him acknowledge that she’s a witch. However, on top of that it’s also her “job” to “win” the game endlessly, and she seems to be under the orders of Lambdadelta. While seemingly contradicting each other, could it be that the first goal of hers is also just a red herring? That she simply already is a mage, but needs to keep the Ushinomiya-family in that endless loop of theirs for some reason? That could explain why Battler’s sister suddenly popped up as a major player.

Anyway, back to the murders: the survivors this time are Battler, Eva, Jessica, Krauss and Rosa. It’s interesting how Evatrice confirmed that Jessica isn’t one of the murderers, and neither Eva nor Battler killed Nanjo. However, that doesn’t go for Krauss and Rosa. In fact, while I don’t think that Krauss was the murderer in the first two arcs (perhaps he got killed off before he could get started), but he actually seems like a pretty likely suspect this arc: remember how he said that surprisingly nice comment about how he regrets having been so mean to his family members? After Beatrice’s act and all, I don’t believe one word from that anymore.
Rating: **** (Fantastic)
And remember, I reserve the right to delete posts that talk about what happens in the novel after this episode