Friday 21 September 2012

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia

TASOGARE OTOME X AMNESIA

(Dusk Maiden of Amnesia)


Supernatural Anime about a paranormal investigatons club in a high school.


OVERVIEW - Set in a high school with a lot of expansions, creating odd walkways, twists and turns and completely unsed areas. This odd construction has given rise to an almost endless amount of ghost stories and rumours. A tricky one to describe genre wise, its high school setting is prevailant, but it mixes in good levels of humour, horror, romance and some social commentary too. The story follows the paranormal investigations club that consists of a single boy and three girls, all of whom have some degree of attraction to the boy, and unravels the 60 year old mystery of the ghost behind the stories and rumours.


REVIEW - First things first, I've been trying to avoid doing an "episode by episode" style, but for this one, I feel i should explain the first episode some. Set chronologically before the next two, it starts with one of the girls, Momoe Okonogi, writing up the days observed paranormal activities, while around her things move on their own. The boy, Teiichi Niiya, then arrives and appears to be talking to the air, or answering Momoe's thoughts, which she takes as his "sixth sense", then Kirie Kanoe arrives, making comments about the "two of them flirting". After a quick call to the always absent club president the three head out to examine evidence of supernatural events in the school. Momoe leads them to a disused food cart elevator and tells them of the story that it moves on its own, rumoured to be the work of a student who died after getting his neck caught in it. suddenly the elevator begins moving, and Teiichi is dragged into it.

The episode then repeats itself, this time showing another girl in the room with Momoe, being the one moving things and telling Momoe she's the ghost. When Teiichi enters its her he's talking with, with her questions being the ones he was answering, not Momoe's thoughts, its to the ghost and Teiichi to whom Kirie was talking about flirting to, and the call to the president, revealed to be the ghost herself, was to allow Teiichi to talk normally to her. Its obvious by now that the third girl, Yuko Kanoe, is in fact a ghost, likes flirting with Teiichi and can only be seen by Kirie and Teiichi, not Momoe. It was Yuko who shoved Teiichi into the elevator, the truth behind the mystery being that she likes to use it as a shortcut. The ride down is played for its cramped space by Yuko, taking the chance to be alone with Teiichi to give a little exposition into her existance as a ghost, as well as stating she wants Teiichi to touch her, as no-one else can feel her or notice her, in her now usual overly flirty manner. 

The episode carries on here, with Yuko revealed by Momoe as being the most common "ghost" in most of the schools stories. The final investigation is into "Yuko's grave", a stone on a hill just behind the school with Yuko's name on it. In conversation Yuko and Teiichi they comment on how it cant be her grave, as her body is below the club room, and that Yuko has no memories of her own death. When the idea that Yuko isnt buried there is mentioned to Momoe, she says thats probably true, but theorises that Yuko must have been a student, and someone erected it in her memory. When Momoe talks about it being "a romantic notion" rather than just a scary story, Yuko kicks over the stone, scaring Momoe who runs off, followed by Kirie. Teiichi and Yuko then look out across the school as the sun sets, before Teiichi goes to put the stone back up,  noticing a small bell underneath it. Teiichi narates some exposition about Yuko as the episode ends, revealing a dark shadow with an unnatural smile near Yuko. 

The split start to the first episode really is a unique method of showing the world of the anime from two different perspectives, and while the rest of the anime generally deals with things from the second perspective, one where we can see Yuko, it helps remind people that Momoe cant, and has no idea she's there for the most part. 

The second and third episodes deal with Teiichi's first encounter with Yuko, finding her body and how the club was formed, how Momoe joined and some of the ghost stories about Yuko and the school, the third deals mostly with Kirie, her connection to Yuko and her initial thoughts about her. As the story progresses we learn more about Yuko's rumours, the way they're taken by normal people and the truth behind Yuko's actions that caused them. We're also introduced to the "Antagonist", the dark shadow seen by some, refered to as an "evil spirit, twisted by hate". In the later episodes the truth behind Yuko's death, why her body is where it is, her amnesia, the dark shadow and the depth of the connection between Yuko and Teiichi, along with their feelings for each other. 


There is a large degree of humour in the show, mostly coming from Yuko's ghostly pranks and Momoe's reactions to them, some chilling horror in the form of the dark shadow which is played with real nuance and subtlety for the most part, romance in the form of Yuko's obvious attraction and attachment to Teiichi, Momoe's "admiration" for Teiichi and a slight "Tsundere" reaction in Kirie around him too. There's also a fair degree of "Risque" moments, as Yuko often "forgets" that Teiichi can see her, seemingly having no shame in flirting with him physically along with the almost obligatory "accidental walk-in-while-changing" style mistakes made by Teiichi. 

The story of Yuko is a dark one, and while Momoe busies herself collecting the student rumours and sightings, Kirie spends more time trying to unravel the truth behind Yuko, her death, her amnesia and the dark shadow, while Teiichi tries to avoid molestation and embarresment from Yuko mostly. As the series progresses it delves into this darker aspect, building to some shocking moments, drawbacks and emotional scenes. The truth is revealed surprisingly early, episode ten of the twelve in the series, and the last two episodes are used to wrap up Yuko's story, bringing the whole truth behind Yuko, her family and Teiichi to light. The final episode has an honestly heart-wrenching conclusion. Its not overplayed like american drama's can be, but it will tug at the heart strings as it wraps up. The manga its taken from has run for three years and is still ongoing, so there is a possibility of further series or OVA's to happen. 

Production wise, this is exceptionally slick, smooth animation, box-cut scenes, exceptional use of 3D and CG. At times its similar in its "cinematic style" to "Bakamonogatori" without delving into its surrealist look, and it makes good use of the shadows, odd halls and low light to emphasise its spooky, chiller moments too. The voice cast shine fantastically here as well, with only four main characters to play from they really have to carry the whole weight of the show and do so amazingly. While Yuko's appearance and character are almost a "perfect match" for the type of character Mamiko Noto normally portays (black uniform, red eyes, long straight black hair in a miko cut, cute shy-but-fun personality and a supernatural being) her voice actress, Yumi Hara, does it perfectly. Having a slightly breathy, otherworldy aspect to Yuko's normal voice and providing a impressively chilling tone to the dark shadow. 

A great story, very well told at a great pace, excellent production and casting, this is one of the best anime's i've come across in a long time, and I thorougly reccomend it to everyone. in fact, I've even link to a place it can be seen at the end.


SUMMARY -

Story -    Some of the best work I've seen in a long time, funny, scary, romantic, heroic and almost everything else covered with an ease not often seen. The characters stay true to who they are and while the short season doesnt allow for much character growth, they still manage to squeeze it in very naturally. The overal story is compelling, and the two leads are so very likable that its hard not to want things to work out for them. Honestly, i can see no real flaws in this piece. 10/10


 Production - I cannot fault it.. work of the highest calibre. Seamless CG and 3D, fun character designs brought to life with ease by excellent voice work, its cinematic style adding impressive depth to the sequences, making dark corners that little bit darker. Emotion flows so naturally thanks to the excellent combination of on-screen animation and powerful performances. Also worth taking note of is the attention to detail, with everything feeling so real and in place thanks to the level of background work. The final "cherry on top" is the ending theme song, sung by Yuko's voice actress, featuring Yuko singing, her mouth synconised with the words, something even music-based anime's often avoid doing. 10/10

 Music - A soundtrack I'll be keeping an eye out for, Score and insert songs used wonderfully to fully emphasise moments and scenes, never feeling awkward or out-of-place. The opening theme, "Choir Jail" is a romping orchestral metal piece, with powerful vocals, excellent musical performance and a chorus that simply rocks hard, driven by its thrashing drums. The ending, "Calandorie", as noted sung by Yumi Hara who provides the voice for Yuko herself, starts with a slight sinister feel before breaking into a listful, almost celtic in feel, ballad with a tinge of sadness and hope. 10/10

 Accessability - Set in a small town in Japan, it has many of the standard Japanese cutural pratices on show, school festival, after-school club, sailor-suit school uniforms and many themes around bento's. While not completely alien to the west, or hard to understand, its not exactly completely understandable to a complete beginner to the anime and japanese cultures. 5/10

 Overall Impression - If only every series was this good.. amazing work in every aspect, its hard to find any fault save for its short length. I would have liked to have seen more of the investigations into the school rumous by the paranormal club, more of Yuko's teasing of everyone involved and more about the rest of the school, as there isnt really any other characters outside the main four. Would adapt really well into a movie, I hope they never spoil this series with a live-action version, because live action would never be able to get the wonderfully constructed and maintained "feel" this has as an anime. I suggest you ALL go over to crunchyroll and watch it yourselves.  9/10

 

 Final Score - 44/50

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please Excuse the Security, but automated Spam is a problem! thanks for understanding!