Anime for Halloween
Every year I try to watch at least one horror anime that I own. Though it does not necessarily have to be scary. As long as it is very violent and/or contains monsters commonly associated with Halloween then it qualifies. This year I tried out Another. I have only four episodes left to go and I am currently planning on finishing them Halloween night after work.
In years past I watched:
--The Skull Man “Freelance journalist Hayato Mitogami returns to his hometown of Otomo to investigate rumors of a man wearing a skull mask committing murders there. Once in the city, he discovers connections between the victims and a local pharmaceutical company, a new religious sect, and strange half human, half animal creatures. Along with a young photographer, Kiriko Mamiya, he decides to find out who the Skull Man really is.”
A pseudo sequel to Cyborg 009, which I didn’t know until after I watched it. This was the first anime I started for my annual Halloween watch. It has been about three years since I watched it so I don’t remember too much about it. I do remember liking it overall.
--Memories A three part anthology produced by the great Katsuhiro Otomo, that are based off of three of his short stories.
----Magnetic Rose “Two space travelers following a distress signal drawn into a magnificent world created by one woman's memories.”
The only thriller/mystery in this anthology. This one was really good and suspenseful.
----Stink Bomb “A young chemist accidentally transforms himself into an unstoppable biological weapon set on a direct course for Tokyo.”
This one was hilarious. I laughed throughout the entire thing.
----Cannon Fodder “Depicts a day in the life of a city whose entire purpose is the firing of cannons at an unknown enemy.”
This one is more of a thought peace. It moves at a slower pace than the other two. Which can be a bit jarring after watching the comedy and action of Stink Bomb. But it is still really good.
--King of Thorn “A virus begins to grip the Earth's population and a group of hopeful survivors are cryogenically frozen in attempt to find a cure. But when the group awakens they are flung into a horrifying situation.”
I was really excited for this movie when I first heard out about it. It looked beautiful and amazing. And it was beautifully animated. At least until they had to move. Or fight. Or do anything that wasn’t talking. Then it didn’t look as pretty. I watched this with my friend and we laughed at most of it and were confused by the end. We ended up labeling it as good for a laugh but not much else. I would like to rewatch it sometime to see if that opinion still stands. It has been three or four years.
It would have been better off if it had been made into a series. After we watched it I decided to hunt down the manga it was based off (six volumes total). I got lucky and managed to get them all from Rightstuf. I enjoyed the manga a lot more but I had to read it a second time before I understood it.
--Serial Experiments Lain “Lain Iwakura appears to be an ordinary girl, with almost no experience with computers. Yet the sudden suicide of a schoolmate, and a number of strange occurrences, conspire to pull Lain into the world of the Wired, where she gradually learns that nothing is what it seems to be... not even Lain herself.”
This is a really good series. I didn’t understand all of it and it will take a few rewatches to piece it all together.
I haven’t been doing the Halloween anime for very long. I think I started doing it in 2014 or 2013. And I don’t always have enough time to watch something. Last year I ended up not watching anything. I thought I had seen more but after some double checking that ended up not being the case. But I wanted to list them anyway as additional suggestions for October viewings. Though remember, this is based on titles that I currently own. They don’t have to be scary but can qualify if they have high levels of violence or star creatures usually associated with Halloween. They are:
-Le Portrait de Petite Cossette (a fun mystery) -Boogiepop Phantom (not as good as I was expecting but still enjoyable) -Project Ito: Empire of Corpses (I was tired when I watched it and kept having to rewind it when I nodded off. So I need to rewatch it sometime) -Lunar Legend Tsukihime (only cause it has vampires) -Elfen Lied (pure violence levels only)
And now for the titles that I currently own but haven’t watched yet: -Ghost Stories (every year I say I’ll watch it but I keep moving it back) -Shiki -Shigofumi -Gilgamesh -Ghost Hunt
