Tasogare Otome x Amnesia (Dusk Maiden of Amnesia)
Release date: 9th April 2012
This anime is a weird one. Based on a manga by Maybe and produced by Silver Link,a summary of the plot will make it seem simple and interesting. If you watch a trailer, it looks creepy and promising. Being fond of horror anime, I sat down to start watching this show with high hopes of something that might actually spook me this season. This didn’t happen. The only thing that actually worried me about this first episode was how confused I was after watching. It’s not that it isn’t creepy at all, in some places it was very atmospheric and ominous. The problem lies in the constant genre-jumping and the weird structure. Two watches through are not enough to be able to guess with any confidence on where this show is actually going. Looking at the first episode in detail probably won’t help but let’s give it a try.
We start with dark colours, ominous music and a shaky camera. So far, so good…just not for long. It cuts to a girl making notes for the Detective Club, one that apparently seeks out supernatural mysteries. She chatters away to herself in an overly dramatic way and starts getting spooked because things in the room are moving – her mug, her notes, a keyring. Small things that are obviously being done to annoy her and which are so blatantly supernatural that any sense of mystery the soundtrack is trying to create is gone. It’s too quickly introduced for a horror plot and more suited for a comedy. This is a feeling that runs through the whole episode and yet the word ‘humour’ doesn’t seem to be being applied to this series anywhere.
The girl making notes is not likeable by any stretch of the imagination, babbling about romance things and being so oblivious to the things floating in the room that whatever entity it is trying to get her attention is more worthy of sympathy than the victim. An equally uninspiring male character soon enters but manages to redeem himself by talking to the invisible whatever and failing at being subtle when the idiot girl notices. Although none of this is creepy, he is at least actually amusing and not just irritating. As the idiot girl continues to be spooked, she starts jumping to the wrong conclusions, deciding that the boy can read her mind and getting flustered because she has a crush on him.
The scene has begun to drag and the creepy, short opening is a distant memory by this point. The anime skips from genre to genre so quickly that it’s confusing rather than intriguing. Each part is probably good in its own way but when all put together it seems a little messy and without a clear sense of direction. It’s obvious that the idiot girl has the wrong idea about everything and that there is a ghost with a sense of humour in the room. This setup does not need ten minutes to explore and has by its end completely ruined any sense of original creepiness.
Of course, then it tries to be scary again, with a ghost story, an ominous looking corridor…and a dumb waiter. A little anti-climactic but not too unusual for something in a school setting. This is when we first get to see our ghost…drop kicking the little guy into the dumb waiter. And after that confusing sequence, it’s queue commercials.
When we get back, expecting to find out what has happened to the guy and maybe actually be frightened by the suddenly appearing ghost, we’re skipped back to the opening and unfortunately back to annoying girl. The scene is exactly the same as before except this time we can see a moody, long-haired ghost girl pretty much trolling the annoying one and so it’s a little better than the first time. Things are a little bit clearer, if still on the comedic side rather than the frightening, but replaying the whole scene isn’t really necessary since the situation did not need that much clearing up. Although it is satisfying being able to watch the torment properly, it’s a long and fairly uneventful scene and we’ve just watched it a few minutes ago.
It soon becomes clear that the ghost also seems infatuated with the little guy and it’s somehow turning into a comedy romance. Naturally, we then we get to see the ghost’s bra. Objectionable content, here we come. We have to wait a little longer for the next bit however as we’re still re-watching that first scene with the addition of the spirit-troll.
Inside the dumb waiter, things get even more confused. It’s dark again and they’re actually talking about creepy things, which is promising. Except then they’re touching each other in suspicious ways. Which is then made sad as the ghost talks about not being able to touch anyone else. Hang on, wasn’t this funny and childish a moment ago? Apparently we’re back in a supernatural, psychological anime, albeit with added fanservice. We’ve grown up a lot since meeting idiot girl.
And just as you’d think that, she is then back and annoying as ever. With not much left to go, you’d think the anime couldn’t jump around anymore. It does. They talk about the actual ghost, Yuuko, for a while and go to find the place she was buried. The really very pretty animation and creepy music is back and the title now makes sense as it seems Yuuko can’t remember anything. They mention her corpse, casually, and then move on. Some more trolling happens, of course, and annoying girl luckily flees for the last few minutes. The anime then pulls another unexpected emotional punch that looks and sounds like a meaningful end to some long story, not a confused 20 odd minutes of genre skipping.
Finally in the last few minutes the setup is explained in a few sentences and finished with some ominous words and a big creepy mouth thing. Yuuko is a ghost that has amnesia and they’re trying to find out what happened to her. Something bad is probably going to happen in regards to the freaky mouth. Simple, right? In theory. I couldn’t help but feel that most of the episode was somewhat pointless if this is actually going to be the plot.
However, it does seem like the first episode was trying to do something different, which it managed, but it felt a little clumsy in plot and dragged in some places, particularly the whole scene repetition. Judging from the darker moments as well as the ending and the initial opening, it seems to promise something strange and different but enjoyable; worth trying out. Judged only on the more random moments and unlikeable characters, it doesn’t seem worth the hassle of trying to keep up. Hopefully later episodes will fall into a more easily accessible pattern and the plot can actually get underway.
Good: Pretty, unusual and sort of intriguing
Bad: Slow to start, confusing as anything and vague set-up for later episodes
Score: 5/10
