The Show:
Many anime producers have taken to reissuing their shows in boxed sets. It's a nice
trend and I'm happy to see it continue. One of the latest such releases is Requiem from the Darkness, an eerie show that has a unique
look and feel to it. This isn't a case of style over substance though, this
series has a good story to go along with the interesting visuals.
Taking place during the Edo period in Japan, this show concerns that
travels of Momosuke, an aspiring writer. This young man makes his
living by writing children's riddles, but what he really wants to do is
write a book of 100 ghost stories. So he travels the countryside
compiling the local legends of hauntings and such.
At the beginning of the first episode, Momosuke gets caught in a heavy
rain storm and seeks shelter in a run down old store. There
he encounters a trio of strange people: Mataichi an old monk who
is very adepts at using charms, Ogin the puppeteer, and Nagamimi a shape-shifter.
These three people have the job of dealing out punishment to those who
have eluded the law. They do their job effectively and with a certain
amount of relish.
Momosuke doesn't follow the trio, but as he chases down his ghost stories,
he finds his path intersecting the group's quite often. He's looking
for horror stories, and they are punishing those who have committed horrific
crimes. Momosuke ends up watching, and occasionally helping, this
group more than he should.
This is an episodic program with each show telling another ghost story,
and it is very well done. The shows themselves are scary, but not
in an Audition like guy-in-a-bag-rolling-around scary, more of an eerie
scary that keeps your eyes glued to the screen. Many of the episodes
had scenes of segments that surprised me too, which added to my enjoyment
a lot.
There are a lot of violent parts to this show, but the vast majority
of them are implied rather than shown, and it works well. When you
see a thin, sharp line pass over the silhouette of a woman, and then the
image falls into two parts, you know what happened and it is spooky.
Much more fear inducing than any Go Nagi gore-fest.
Another reason that this show works so well is because of its unique
artistic style. Some people might not enjoy it, but it really is
quite effective. The images are all dark and angular, with a distorted
style that fits the horrific nature of the series to a tee. Thick
bold lines outline many characters and building and objects look a little
bit foreign and different adding to the creepy feel of the show.
The music to the show is also just a little off kilter which adds to
the uneasy feeling. The songs used for background music sometimes
don't really mesh with the show as a whole and this has a disquieting effect.
Sometimes the music to horrific scenes is just a bit too up and light or
too funky. At first I thought it was just odd, but as the show progressed
I realized that it really helps keep the viewer unbalanced.
This show was just the right length. A short thirteen episode
series, the viewer doesn't have time to grow bored with the formula or
tire of the horror/mysteries. Though there isn't much in the way
of an overall story, what there is comes to a nice conclusion in the final
two-part story.
The DVD:
All thirteen episodes of this show are presented on four DVDs.
These are housed in a book, with one page for each disc. The cover
has a nice wrap around picture of the main characters. The book itself
comes in a thin slipcase that is quite attractive. I really prefer
this book style of storing DVDs over the more frequently seen fold out
pack. It's also much thinner than standard cases. A nice looking
package.
Audio:
This disc has the original Japanese soundtrack and an English dub, both
in surround stereo. I alternated between the languages every episode
at the start, but decided I enjoyed the Japanese track more and finished
the series reading the subtitles. I thought the English dub was good,
but the Japanese voices were more eerie and spooky, adding a lot to atmosphere
of the story. The audio quality was very good (though I think a 5.1
track would have worked really well with this show.) The audio for
both tracks were clear and free from noise and the music came through full
and strong. I was very pleased with the way these shows sounded.
Video:
The full frame image looked good too. This is a very stylized
show and the dark and grey colors were strong and the areas in shadows
had sufficient detail. The blacks were very solid which is important
for this series, and the occasional bright colors were vivid. There
was some minor aliasing but no other digital defects. A nice looking
disc.
Extras:
Like the original releases of this show, there wasn't a lot of bonus
material in this boxed set. The first disc has a clean opening and
closing, and all four have a line art gallery as well as a gallery of background
art. Aside from previews and DVD credits, that's it.
Final Thoughts:
This horror based show isn't in the Go Nagi style of grotesque monsters
and flying limbs. Most, but not all, of the violence is implied and
it works very well. The stylized art and music come together with
the eerie stories to make a rather spooky show. Just about every
episode has something the made me jump, even if just a little. Though
the show only last for 13 episodes, it's just the right length. The
stories are still fresh at the end, but if it had lasted any longer they
would have started to get a little stale. A show that's a little
different from the other anime that I've seen, and that's a good thing.
My main complaint is that the price is pretty steep. I wish that
Geneon would have discounted it some. As it is this retails for the
same price that the original volumes did. Even so, this set is Recommended,
especially for fans who are looking for something a little different and
eerie.
Buy: