Presentation
This six disk box set comes in three hard plastic cases, each on showing Keiichi’s friends in different poses. The inside of each box contains a list of the episodes for each disk. The artwork for this series is truly unique for its genre. The character designs are pretty cutesy which makes some what these characters do all that much more horrifying. The background designs during the series are breathtaking and appear quite realistic at times. The music is at times gives the air of light and pleasantry, though it becomes very dark and sinister when appropriate. The music compliments this series wonderfully. There is no music whatsoever during the main menu though, which honestly is surprising. Most series tend to through something there; even the song presented is never actually used in the series. The opening song is kind of creepy in of itself, relying heavily on techno sounds to accompany the lyrics. The ending song carries a bit more of wistful sad sounding tune to it, with a small message about the next episode at the end. The endings quotes are very interesting and usually help you figure out the next episode a bit more. The voice acting of both casts is also superb truly conveying every ounce of emotion these characters feel. As far as the story itself, this is where the series shines. It carries a very dark, almost Lovecraftion feel to it. That compared with the cutesy animation and at times very creepy music really brings the horror out of the series. Also while watching it; you might tend to think that each arc is completely separate. However, many of the arcs are paired up. The first half of the series contains what would be considered the “questions chapters” with the “answer chapters” given in the last half. The final chapter brings all the other chapters together in a horrifying way.
Extras
This series is almost completely lacking in this department for a box set. It merely carries a handful of trailers. I really feel that if a company is going to release a final box set of something they should include more than what you would find on the individual boxes. Give people another reason to by the set.
Overall though, this series is a fantastic vision of the anime horror genre. The music, the story, the animation is all superb. I really hope to see more anime’s like this in the future.