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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Watch | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:2234#1552] |
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Ookami Kakushi appeared to be trying to offer up a horror-mystery series like Higurashi no Naku Koro ni focused on a young man moving into an isolated town having some dark secrets to it that revolve around the supernatural and a series of mysterious murders. However, the plot's execution left quite a bit to be desired. To my understanding, Ookami Kakushi is based on a visual novel game like Higurashi, which has me assuming that the game would have story arcs in the same vain of Higurashi. If such is the case, this anime adaptation attempts to combine those story arcs into a single linear storyline which has the negative effect of making plot elements to the series incoherent, rushed and unexplored. Some characters who seem to have potential with their back stories at getting some interesting fleshing out and development are rather limited in what gets offered up here. In addition, Kazumi's character is mostly worthless when it comes to being active with dealing with the issues affecting the town in the same way Keiichi was with Higurashi and the main villain of this series was so over-the-top and shallow with his personality and motives that it made it hard for me to take him seriously as a character. As it is, Ookami Kakushi tries to want to be like Higurashi, but lacks the coherent story flow and genuinely suspenseful moments that made Higurashi engaging with its horror-mystery aspects. You won't be missing out on much if you choose to skip this series.
Last updated Friday, December 26 2014. Created Friday, December 26 2014. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Silence
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[series:2234#2939] | ||||||
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At the end of episode 10, I simply could not continue with this any longer. So far, Hiroshi is a complete waste of space and resources. He contributes a grand total of 0 to the series as a whole, and to my enjoyment. He is soft, indecisive, has no impact whatsoever other than serving as live bait. i have no characters that I like at all in this series, which is really quite an accomplishment. everyone is so flat, one sided, and generally lacking in charm and charisma. As for the mystery, it is quite obvious from the 6-7th episode onwards. Here is what I deduced very early on: The people in the Jouga town are in fact the Jouga Wolves. They may turn on people, in a state which strongly resembles lust. This desire is suppressed by hasaku. Once you let your desire rule your actions, a bunch of people will lynch you. Hiroshi is an exceptionally strong bait. this is quite close to the actual truth, except for certain details which cannot be logically deduced. So what does this series hold for me? Nothing at all. Just a complete waste of time. PS: The words written on the scythe are the letters of traditional Chinese/Japanese numerical system in alternate order: ↗Earthly Branches ↗Celestial stem A second look shows that in this context, these are used for directions. Each character stands for a certain angle. Last updated Saturday, March 20 2010. Created Wednesday, January 13 2010. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Stretch
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[series:2234#628] | ||||||
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(Eight episodes watched): Well, there is definitely some weird stuff going on in the town that Hiroshi has moved to. The synopsis above tells you a good deal more than this episode did, but the episode got me interested. I seem to have a problem with opening scenes of new series, in that until I decide whether the show is going to be worth watching I have a hard time paying close attention to all the fine details. Fortunately the opening scene (which involved some sort of spiritual grim reaper), was sort of a flash-forward to something which happens later in the episode, so that worked well for me. Later on the same technique might act as a spoiler, but here it lets us know that there will be some fairly wild action after the humdrum introduction of Hiroshi and his family (his father seems to be a writer while his little sister is wheelchair bound). In this Peach Pit work, Hiroshi finds himself inexplicably popular in his new hometown, and discovers some odd quirks about the residents and the town itself. This could still turn out to be unoriginal; the identity of the grim reaper character seems easy to guess. But I am curious to see where things will go from here. Episode two didn't reveal all that much, except that Isuzu has a brother, Issei. There seems to be at least one person in Hiro's class besides him who thinks it odd that a student "moves away" without the slightest warning. The episode title implied that it would focus on Hiro's wheelchair bound sister, but we haven't learned anything about her. I get the feeling that Hiro and his family is being monitored by some sort of secret society, perhaps because they fear being exposed by newconers, or perhaps because Hiro has some yet to be revealed mystical power to him. Or maybe they're just thinking that he'd be delicious someday. Some pretty freaky stuff happens in episode three, like a certain character apparently being aggressively gay/possessed/something else. We learn that the poor Hassaku harvest is a major problem. How do an exotic fruit, legendary wolves, bizarre townspeople, grim reapers, and now an experimental drug interact with each other? I can't help being curious to learn the answer, and maybe even figure out a little of it myself. One thing I didn't like was that if "new medicines" are going to play a part, don't make it obvious from the start that the pharmaceutical representative cannot be trusted--that's stereotypical. Although I can't remember an anime in which an honest and virtuous pharmacist helped solve the problem, at least let us figure out whether or not the guy is trustworthy for ourselves. Four episodes down, and although I'm still enjoying the show I have yet to make any major connections and figure anything important out. Largely just more and more strange stuff happens; I hope the pieces start falling into place sometime soon. This pace makes me wonder if this will be a 13 or 26 episode series. Hiro gets drawn into whatever is going on as he witnesses a bizarre event himself. In episode five the usual trend continues: we get some new pieces of the puzzle, like the "Vigilance Committee" and a person "becomes a God" (whatever that means), but so far I haven't managed to fit more than a few of the pieces I already had together. Might the Hassaku fruit contain a critical ingredient of the medication which people seem to need to control their strange affliction? Will the mystery have a rational explanation or a supernatural one (or a mix of both)? Sometimes it seems that the characters are thinking logically about the possibility of there being some sort of hitherto unknown species (the "Jouga Wolf"), and sometimes they seem to take occult factors perfectly seriously. Anyway, I am slowly growing frustrated. In episode eight we learn the meaning of the term "Jouga Wolf"--and I couldn't help being somewhat disappointed. It was a pretty dull explanation after all the frustration I had endured to get this far; actually, about the only thing it told me was that if this was a reliable indicator, then there didn't seem to be much exciting stuff lying ahead. This show almost makes me want to beat my head against a wall; didn't it occur to anybody that something genuinely interesting would have to be revealled every now and then? My favorite line (so far): "No, don't add the 'miss'. (call me) Isuzu, or maybe 'sweety' " --Isuzu Last updated Tuesday, March 23 2010. Created Sunday, January 10 2010. | ||||||||
