Author: Jessi Silver

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Halloween Seasonal Special Features

It’s Spooky Season! – Day 27: Kakurenbo: Hide and Seek

Mou ii kai?

Mou ii yo.

Thus begins a game of kakurenbo.

When you’re part of a group for a long time, you get to see the culture of that group develop and traditions emerge. The anime club I attend has always had a Halloween event where, rather than watching the typically scheduled anime (the series that people have voted on for that particular semester), there’s a costume contest and selections of spooky one-off anime to watch instead (some of the selections I’ve featured so far on this list have turned up in the past). Oftentimes folks will watch something as a younger attendee of the club that they’ll want to return to again a few years later; since many of the special event episodes that we watch are more obscure/lesser-known that your typical mainstream anime, I’m sure it leaves a stronger impression on many people. The first time I saw Kakurenbo was at one of these events many years ago.

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Halloween Seasonal Special Features

It’s Spooky Season! – Day 26: Blood-C

Hey look, it’s time for vampires again. Or is it? Over the years there have been a few different entries in the Blood franchise, which began in 2000 with Blood: The Last Vampire. In that animated film, a teenage girl named Saya battles vampire-like creatures on behalf of some mysterious American handlers, while allegedly (as we discover later) being an immortal vampire herself. In 2005’s Blood+, an alternative universe retelling of the general details of the film plays out over 50-something episodes. But we’re not here to talk about either of those versions today. Instead I’d rather share my feelings on the “black sheep” of the family, 2011’s Blood-C.

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Halloween Seasonal Special Features

It’s Spooky Season! – Day 25: Den-noh Coil Episode 9 “Miss Michiko From The Other Side”

It’s no secret that I love Den-noh Coil (or Dennou Coil if you prefer the classic romanization of the title). One look at my user icon across the various social media I use on a regular basis would tend to make that obvious. If you know, you know. And like many of the best anime out there, the series is structured in such a way that it deftly balances both the speculative ideas it’s trying to present, as well as the plot and character moments that define its emotional core. The first half of the series is largely spent world-building, laying the groundwork for the more plot-focused second half. Because of that, the first half features a lot of characters, locations, and moods that are tied together by the use of the cyber glasses that the characters wear. And because the first half is so focused on “dabbling,” it’s no surprise that one of the episodes is a great Halloween watch!

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Halloween Seasonal Special Features

It’s Spooky Season! – Day 24: Raven of the Inner Palace

I may have mentioned this, but over the last year my ability to keep up with new anime was severely disrupted due to health issues, so when it was time to prep for an anime convention I had a lot of catching-up to do. Usually when I end up in this situation, sacrifices must be made. There are always anime that I wanted to watch but didn’t have time to cram into my schedule, and I’ll realistically probably never get back around to them again. On the other hand, there are almost always some series that I take a chance on and end up loving. Raven of the Inner Palace was one such series.

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Halloween Seasonal Special Features

It’s Spooky Season! – Day 23: Dorohedoro

So far this month we’ve tackled psychological horror, comedic horror, and horror-adjacent titles and episodes. However, as far as I can see, we haven’t yet looked at the niche-within-a-niche that is “grotesque-yet-humorous urban fantasy where people are turned into meat pies,” so I wanted to make sure we had that covered by featuring Dorohedoro.

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Halloween Seasonal Special Features

It’s Spooky Season! – Day 22: Ayakashi Samurai Horror Tales – Bakeneko

Because I’m standing on the cusp of returning to work after an extended leave-of-absence, I thought I’d take today to write about one of my favorite pieces of media in order to soften the blow a bit. Many years ago, I happened upon a series called Ayakashi – Samurai Horror Tales (or Ayakashi Japanese Classic Horror depending on who’s translating the title). The anthology series adapts three horror tales from Japanese literature and theater. Or, more accurately, adapts a story and a play, and then spends three episodes on an original tale drawn from Japanese myth. It’s that original story, called “Bakeneko,” (“Demon Cat”) I’m writing about today.

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Halloween Seasonal Special Features

It’s Spooky Season! – Day 21: Shadows House

When I started this month-long project, part of the reason I’d had the idea in the first place was because I wanted to call attention to some lesser-known, older, and potentially out-of-print or unlicensed episodes or series under the guise of creating a Halloween listicle. Having said that, I think it’s important to note that not every overlooked series is older or even especially difficult to get a hold of. Take Shadows House. While I don’t think the show is a secret to anyone who’s kept up with seasonal anime the last several years, it’s a series that I think deserves to be more well known than it is.

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Halloween Seasonal Special Features

It’s Spooky Season! – Day 20: Shinsekai Yori (From the New World)

There are some anime each season that I watch, enjoy, and then mostly forget about after a few months. There are many fewer anime that I watch and never stop thinking about. Shinsekai Yori (From the New World) is one such anime series. Part of why I think it’s remained so front-of-mind for me is that my experience of watching it was very intense; it was fairly late at night on a weekend when I made it to the third act of the series, and I chose to stay up until 3 or 4 in the morning to finish it. However, in despite any sleep deprivation that may have been involved, I think the truer reason why I’ve always felt a connection with the series is that it ends on such a shocking note that I would dare anyone who’s finished watching it to ever forget it.

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Halloween Seasonal Special Features

It’s Spooky Season! – Day 19: Golden Kamuy Episode 11 “Everybody, Get Together! It’s a Murder Hotel!”

I’m sure this goes for most fans of any type of media, but it’s a fact that there are certain anime series that I really enjoy that I have a difficult time recommending to anyone. In some cases, it’s because the material they cover is so extreme that to adequately warn for all the content would rightfully drive away most folks (I’m looking at you, Made in Abyss). In other cases, it’s more that the tone is so specific that it’s often tough to get a read on whether or not someone else might actually enjoy them.

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Halloween Seasonal Special Features

It’s Spooky Season! – Day 18: Level-E Episode 4 “From the Darkness”

While Halloween is typically thought of as a holiday revolving around spooky and scary things, I find that I have a lot more fun when there’s some spooky humor involved. Fear and laughter are often closely intertwined – how often have we experienced a jump-scare that leaves us laughing in the aftermath? It’s been a trend in my neighborhood this year for families to create funny scenes using the plastic skeletons that you can find for sale in the lead-up to Halloween. Some of my favorites have been a skeleton walking a skeleton dog on a leash, and a skeleton hanging off of a second floor balcony after falling off the roof during some roofing work (apparently). It takes a symbol of death and decay and makes it funny and fun!

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