Requiem from the Darkness - Japanese Horror Anime Style

So there will be those who have been following this blog who have heard me mention this show and wondered what I've been going on about.

Requiem from the Darkness was a bit of a surprise show for me. The cover of the first disc kept drawing me when I saw it on the shelf in Gamesman, and so I went to my usual go to site for anime reviews - Anime on DVD.com - and read the glowing review of the first series, which convinced me to watch it.

Now AoD has yet to guide me wrong - they suggested that I stick to Argentosoma, and thus I managed to catch one of the best twists in anime. They even gave a good review for Fafner - which is beginning to grow on me. Heck, they convinced me to check out Chrono Crusade, which I was never going to watch - but now I'm actually pleased I did.

Requiem's style is very unusual. Drawing on traditional japanese art and the graphic nature of the pre-manga storyboards that travelling tale-tellers used to carry from town to town - Requiem is certainly an unusual series that wont appeal to everyone.

The animation is a bizarre mix of traditional and CG, with many secondary characters being strange caricatures or even symbolic representations of people. There is the hint that their forms are indicative of their true natures, but at times the most normal looking people end up being the true monsters in the series.

It is an unusual series that is essentially about telling ghost stories, and really takes its time about it, relishing in each story and making sure that you are always just a little bit uncomfortable. I have to admit, I refuse to watch this series at night, because it genuinely left me feeling disturbed and creeped out.

But in a good way that a really well crafted horror story would. I think the makers understood that animation would prove to be a difficult medium to tell horror stories with, and so they opted for some very clever techniques to help create a malevolent atmosphere. Oddly enough, the main characters are so... likable. Even the strange supernatural trio that the story centres around.

Yet again this is a devious trick, I feel. By making the characters so likeable... it gives the series that much more of a creepy edge. When they talk so matter-of-factly about a murderer or demon, it feels all the more creepy because they are talking about it as if demonic evil is just so normal in the world.

This is a very clever little trick that serves the series well time and again.

Don't get me wrong, these guys are out to purge and punish evil, but the trio have seemed to come to expect people to become evil. Momosuke, the lead, is essentially the pure moral character who is slowly making the shift from naivete to understanding.

An excellent series that I have to highly recommend. :)

Love and Huggles

Conan

Currently Reading: Exalted 2e
Currently Playing: Unknown Armies - To Go; Mage: The Awakening - Threshold
Mood: Feeling good!