More delicious and disturbing explorations of horror.
What They Say
Momosuke is forced to rest at a stranger’s house after suffering from exhaustion. There he is given a remedy… or is it a poison? The group then meets up with a trickster spirit disguised as a samurai. But nothing will prepare the group for what they experience at Katabira Crossroads – the corpse of Ogin!
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release brings us the original Japanese language track in stereo along with the English dub, both of which are encoded at 224kbps. The stereo mix for this series is just completely creepy at times with a great use of sound to help convey the mood of the show, – especially if you use headphones – to help build up the suspense and in general to really accentuate the atmosphere. Dialogue is well placed here also with some good depth during a few key scenes. During regular playback, we had no issues with dropouts or distortions on either language track.
Video:
Originally airing in late 2003, this series is presented in its original full-frame aspect ratio. Animated by TMS Entertainment, it has plenty of familiar elements to it but manages to up the style just right so that it feels distinctive enough. The visuals in this series are crucial to the mood and the varying styles used are represented beautifully here. The backgrounds and dark colors are completely solid all the way through, cross coloration was a complete nonissue and I’m hard-pressed to really even consider what minimal aliasing I saw as any sort of problem. The colors are really mixed here with some very earthy tones and the heavy dark colors but there are some extremely vibrant parts, such as the blatant (on purpose) green color of the Willow Woman tree. Visually, the transfer here really brings it all home.
Packaging:
The show worked some good singles in its North American release as the Japanese release was just a box set so they were able to expand on things nicely. With the first volume, the front cover to the release here has a decent illustration shot of the four lead characters set against a dark purple sky filled with one giant eyeball partially obscured by the series English language logo. It’s basically the same idea as the first volume with the same characters but just slightly different in small ways but it still looks good and creepy. The back cover is heavy on the blacks and mixes in a couple of shots from the show as well as one large illustration that’s very creepy looking. The episode numbers and titles are clearly listed as are the disc’s features and basic technical information. The summary for the show sort of gives away too much of the plot for my tastes but there’s no other way to really explain things without giving things away. The insert is done with a 50/50 split with one half doing a close-up of one of the lead characters while the other half lists the chapter stops for each episode. The reverse side just shows the boxart for the then-upcoming volumes in the series with the month of release dates.
Extras:
There are a couple of extras included but it’s not one where there was a lot available to bring over from Japan. The opening and ending sequences are done in a clean format which is definitely nice since there’s so much interesting artwork used. The line art gallery is the usual array of production pieces and we also get a brief “art setting” gallery that has various locations done in full color.
The first volume of this series had just completely wowed us when we first saw it as it was so unlike most of the shows we’d been watching at the time. Its style was just so different from anime in general in a lot of ways that we couldn’t be sure whether it was just the shock of something different reeling us in or whether the stories really were up to snuff. There was a lot of anime coming out back at this time but there was a lot of same-ness in order to deliver what was selling big and appealing to a wide audience. This series was not a big seller but it was one that delivered something new for a lot of fans. With this volume, the three tales here are just as eerie and engaging as the first volume was and brings us deeper along the journey that Momosuke is taking.
The three stories build upon each other in small ways now since Momosuke is walking between the worlds now with the three… people I guess you could call them that he’s come to spend time with. In his efforts to write his 100 Stories instead of writing the riddles, he takes the same journey as them to see and hear what they do and to sometimes get involved in them as well. Sometimes, like in the third tale, he becomes far too involved and causes problems with the setting free of the souls or becomes just a bit too close to the trio.
It’s been hard to say which is the creepiest story as they all excel on some level there. The opening story is definitely in the same category as it has the spiritual trio leaving Momosuke behind to find his own way down the craggy hills and he ends up being rescued by a foreman of a large estate. Being brought inside and cared for, he finds himself caught up in a strange mystery of a house whose Master is beset with problems related to the eating of animal flesh. Momosuke finds himself being in the same boat as well as they fed him horse meat when he was barely still alive in an effort to revive him, which has now put him under the same curse. This is made all the creepier by the sound of a horse running through the household and the large painted image of the Master’s favorite horse leaving its location and visibly attacking people. The setting is so richly layered and animated that it becomes just as much a character as anyone else here.
The second tale is another one that I’ve heard similar to over the years with the tale of a tanuki that had transformed into a human so that he could get closer to some of the performances a human troupe was putting on nearby. As the tale goes of the tanuki being stuck in human form and then confused for a double of a young noble, it’s an intriguing story that’s been told in a number of shows with plenty of variation. Momosuke finds himself traveling alongside a performance troupe that has the reputation of actually having a captured tanuki in their employ and the idea of it fascinates him enough that he starts to investigate it. At the same time, the series of killings that are going on seems to be related to the same, and Momosuke’s grip on what’s real and what isn’t really starting to slide here. This episode gets highly confusing at times as you can’t tell what happened in the past or present or if it really happened at all as they unwrap the mystery of the tanuki.
The stories here are highly entertaining and well told, but the visuals for it continue to be just as striking. The way the backgrounds are done in general is just fascinating and it adds so much character. The way the rooms and houses are designed, the workings of the doors, and just the dark foreboding nature of the skies are so oppressive at times that it’s an element that really helps accentuate things. The less-than-pretty look of most of the characters as well as the ability to show whatever they seem to want to show also helps elevate it since it doesn’t flinch from what it wants to do. And once you find out that they’re not going to flinch, every corner becomes even more mysterious and dangerous.
In Summary:
This set of episodes proved to me at the time that the first volume of the series most certainly wasn’t a fluke. These episodes are just as engaging, creepy, and simply disturbing at times with their unflinching look at some of the most interesting of Japanese horror stories. The visuals are gorgeous in that desolate way and the characters that inhabit this world are fascinating to watch as they try to deal with unworldly things happening around them. Even familiar tales are nicely twisted to serve the needs of the story here and it makes me wish that the original novel would be translated so that more of the stories can be told.
Features
Japanese 2.0 Language, English 2.0 Language, English Subtitles, Textless Opening, Textless Closing, Line Art Gallery, Background Gallery
Content Grade: A
Audio Grade: B+
Video Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B+
Menu Grade: B+
Extras Grade: B
Released By: Geneon Entertainment
Release Date: December 14th, 2004
MSRP: $24.98
Running Time: 75 Minutes
Video Encoding: 480i/p MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
