The festival is here, let’s all go to the Little Sister cafe!
What They Say:
The Paranormal Investigation Club is hosting a haunted house for the cultural festival; those who enter are exposed to their greatest fear.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the group together and a bit and a silly episode done to bring everything into a certain place, Dusk Maiden of Amnesia is ready to move forward a bit, if it’s going to be a series with a real plot. But based on what we’ve seen and the overall setup, it’s a show that’s more about the week to week experience and the characters more than anything else. I won’t be surprised if it gets more serious towards the end, but this isn’t a series designed to tell one whole story but rather a weekly experience that’s fun and enjoyable with an edge of darkness and sadness. The show has that down pat as we’ve seen and this episode starts off with a good bit of fun revolving around cosplay, making sure to get in all the expected pandering right from the start.
With the show delving into the realm of the cultural festival, there’s plenty of options to be had there but for this club there’s really just the one. It’s time to throw a haunted house event. With Yuuko on the team, there’s certainly a lot they can do and she’s keen on having a spot of fun with it, especially since it means no maid uniform (which she looked good in). While Yuuko torments Teiichi a fair bit, we get to see Momoe and Kirie spend some time together doing their own investigation and it’s made clear that Kiri is definitely not enjoying her time with Yuuko and is becoming frustrated by it. Not that time with Momoe is much better as she’s just spastic in a different way that would drive me nuts.
The festival has its moments, though I’m cringing at the idea of a school allowing a “Little Sister” cafe just because…. well, just because, so this adds some lightness in the middle of more emotional scenes. For Kirie, she doesn’t have quite as much fun during the festival, especially with one of the medical study bodies tagging along with her, but Kirie has a stranger time of it as it goes on and she dresses up like Yuuko. She’s trying to take on that role for reasons unknown, but it becomes clearer when Teiichi is able to see through the costume and disguise with relative ease. Her interest in him is pretty obvious but she can’t understand how to compete against a ghost or why she should even be competing against a ghost when you get down to it. It’s an interesting position to be put in and she handles it well for the most part.
In Summary:
Dusk Maiden of Amnesia has a good bit of fun here as it plays out the festival aspect, but it’s watching Kirie that makes it work the best. She’s kind of all over the map here, as you would expect of a girl her age, and the things she’s feeling and what she sees as her obstacles definitely make for a difficult time. Similar to previous episodes, it’s definitely a moody and atmospheric piece at times with the set designs and colors, but it also has some really big moments of brightness that you can sense almost hurt Yuuko when they hit. I’m still not quite sure how to latch onto this series, but it has some very fun, quirk and well designed things to it that definitely makes me want to come back.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
