I wasn't planning to watch this anime, but I had read the manga a long time ago and really enjoyed it. For those unaware, the story is about an amnesiac ghost who wants to figure out how she died while falling in love with the boy who is trying to help her. I thought it would be an easy nostalgic watch.
And it was... for one episode. The pilot is an anime original that introduces us to Yuuko, Kirie, Okonogi and Niiya as well as the overall tone of the anime in a way that was unique and refreshing for a ghost show- even if half of it was the same thing but with Yuuko's layer unmasked. If there's one reason to watch this show, it's this.
Because it's in the following episodes that I started seeing the issues with this show. Instead of rolling with the pilot that already introduced us to the main cast, we're treated to forty minutes of what are in fact flashbacks of the club members meeting each other. While this information is useful and necessary, it could've absolutely been made in one episode or cut entirely- I'm looking at you Okonogi.
Episodes 5-7 are full of fanservice, romance and characters being cute with a moderate focus on the actual plot. It was passable if you ignore Okonogi, who suddenly thinks this is a harem and keeps asking out Niiya, who accepts almost every time even when he knows Yuuko gets jealous. We're also introduced to Shadow Yuuko, or the other Yuuko, a hateful version of Yuuko.
The real pain starts at episode 9, where the spoilers begin. The only reason I wouldn't recommend you read them is to read the manga, which is about a thousand times better.
Episode 10 is where the score went from a likely 5 to a 3. Yuuko's past is finally revealed after Niiya convinces her that the other Yuuko is just another part of her and they accept her death together as the events from 60 years ago unravel. (This is the manga's version.)
Wait, no? That's not what happens? If you want to know:
Why did they change that? At that point everyone watching had already figured out what the other Yuuko was and I was screaming at Niiya that what he'd wanted from the start was literally offering itself to him on a silver platter.
But this is far, far from the worst things the staff changed, and I was mad when I realized what they were doing. If you thought Yuuko's death was tragic in the anime, you know nothing.
In the anime, they changed one of the cruelest twist in manga history and destroyed Yuuko's character for... nothing! There's nothing in the manga that would need censure! Why did they do it?.
I guess they wanted to keep her pure and nice? But wouldn't that have made her pass away in peace and you know, not become a ghost? Because she was still alive. Am I supposed to believe that your emotions have a will of their own?
Here is the manga version, highly recommend you go read it, even if it's just the ending.
Then her sister turns to her and says: "Kanoe Yuuko is the sacrifice!"
The elders break Yuuko's goddamn leg- no, it wasn't broken in the fall- and toss her into the darkness of the buried shrine room and Yukariko orders they close off the opening and stands there as her sister screams her name, begging for her life as she's being buried alive.
You think that's all? Months later, Yukariko returns after her dad killed himself over Yuuko's death and finds the comb Yuuko used to brush her hair one last time. Overcome by guilt and regret, she tears away the planks and finds Yuuko's rotting body. She weeps her sister's death until Yuuko's ghost shows up, warped by hate. She strangles Yukariko, who decides she deserves it and wants to be with her sister more than anything. But her loving words bring Yuuko back and she leaves. It's implied she severed her hateful self soon after that. Yukariko kept living in guilt, thinking it Yuuko's revenge.
I went back to look at the dates and ok the manga finished a year after the anime but couldn't they have asked the author what they were going to do? Because this is so, so inferior to the manga and it pisses me off because you need to have read the manga to see. Everyone else just thinks this is sad as it is when in fact it's so much worse.
And I am far from someone who rages every time an adaptation changes the littlest thing. But the changes need to mean something? Like when they use the movement of the elevator in episode 1. But this was 100% plot and there was nothing to change.
So... if you're interested in this, highly recommend the manga if only for the ending and look at the first episode if you really want, it's the best one.
About the animation, it was alright. I didn't like how they let go of the roundness of author's style. But the use of black bars, the old Japanese artstyle and the colors switches, while a little out of place, brought back memories of Bakemonogatari. The sunsets were amazing and when there's horror it's pretty well done- in the first part at least.
I didn't like Yuuko's voice actress tho. I felt like she was way miscasted and that the character would've gained more from a less high-pitched and cute voice. She's still a ghost, after all, and this is supposed to be horror. The romance was... okay, I guess, if you count fanservice as romance, but can you really cheer for these guys? Yuuko's already dead! Niiya's gonna grow old and she's going to stay at 15 years old in mind and body. And he's going to stop going to school one day.
The characters weren't particularly unique. Yuuko was 75% fanservice, Kirie is a tsundere, Okonogi's an idiot and Niiya's the male protagonist. The only interesting thing that was happening was the Kirie/Okonogi ship but that was dropped immediately after it started.
I can't really think of anyone to recommend this too when the manga's so much better in everything.
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