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In Japan, at the end of the nineteenth century, an aspiring
author Momosuke leaves the city in search of a hundred ghost
stories to form his book. On the road he meets up with Nagamimi,
Mataichi and Ogin, a group whose purpose it is to travel the
land punishing wrong doers in a manner which fits their crime...
Based
on the novel by Natsuhiko Kyogoku, volume two of Requiem
from the Darkness covers episodes five to seven of this
very dark and slightly disturbing series. The first thing
that you notice is that the show is a real mishmash of styles.
The whole show seems determined to keep the audience out of
any comfort zone and to this end it works very well.
Episode
five, Salty Choji (I kid you not. Not sure I want to
know what Choji is either) and Momosuke takes refuge in the
castle of a local Samurai. Of course, the show being what
it is, the lord of the manor is hiding a dark secret which
will require a spanking from the group.
Shibaemon
the Racoon Dog, and a spate of murders have happened in
the countryside. When Momsuki investigates he discovers a
young man, chained up, who refers to himself as a tanuki,
the racoon dog of the title. Although Momsuki thinks that
this is a cruel fate,
the group feel that this is the way to treat a mad dog.
Katabira
Crossroads is not a place to find yourself, as a spate
of rotting female corpses have been turning up there. Momosuke
tries to find out what is happening only to discover a horrible
fact about one of his friends.
Audio
is restricted to English or Japanese Stereo, with English
subtitles; extras are likewise limited to two art galleries
and some trailers for other shows.
I didn't get to review the first disc, so jumping straight
into this series was somewhat unnerving. Although there appears
to be some form of story arc each story is pretty much self
contained. If I were making a comparison, I'd say the show
was more akin to an animated Tales of the Unexpected
- quick set-up, a lot of horror and gore and the timely punishment
of the wrong doer. It also has a lot in common with some of
the best Asian horror films; I'm pretty surprised that, given
its graphic depiction of horror and violence, this was passed
for television.
Having
said that, this means that this show is likely to be one of
the most original animes currently available, so it's well
worth a look if you're either into anime or horror, though,
it would have been nicer if the distributor could have stretched
to four episodes per disc.
Charles
Packer
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