Ayakashi Samurai Horror Tales Vol. 1: Goddess of the Dark Tower Review

Originally published on otakureview.net

Intro

            So, where exactly is the horror in this samurai horror tale?

The Story

            In this opening volume, we are quickly thrown into a story taking place in the feudal times of Japan. More specifically, in an abandoned castle that is inhabited by forgotten gods including the beautiful Tomihime. A young man named Zushonosuke is working as a bird handler for a feudal lord when his falcon escapes in a storm. Zushonosuke stumbles upon the beautiful Tomihime. It isn’t long before the two fall in love though and this leads to disastrous consequences.       

            By the time the second episode starts, Zushonosuke has realized the truth about the woman he has met and Tomehime’s fellow forgotten gods within the castle have begun to realize her feelings for the human. With his lord giving him the choice of bringing back the falcon or committing seppuku, Zushonosuke returns to the castle to find his falcon but instead finds the truth which begins a war between the humans and forgotten gods. Zushonosuke and Tomehimi are then caught in the middle and decisions have to be made that will be hard with the hardest being is their love worth the deaths that it will cause among those in both their worlds?

The Good And The Bad

            I’m a big fan of animes that are set in a historical background. I always enjoy pieces that have some kind of cultural reference to them and in this case, the story is one that takes place in the shogun era before the Japanese revolution and is based off a story that was written by a man named Izumi Kyoka who lived and wrote during the Meiji era of the Japanese restoration.

            When I first put in this anime I, as usual, didn’t really have any real idea on what I was going to be expecting but I’m fairly certain this wasn’t it. When I heard about the title, I had a vague idea that the series was going be made up of separate stories as opposed to one long story but I actually expected all of the stories to be quite dark and well, scary. In this case though, we were shown a four episode story about love and what lengths people (and gods apparently) will go for it.

            The story was one that I really enjoyed. The story was sweet and well told. The writing did strike me as a little bland but the conflicts were there and they all made sense. The conflicts between characters weren’t always as heart breaking as the director probably wished but the internal conflicts were told well and really got you into the characters that much more up until the end.

            The animation also didn’t come across nearly as smooth as it should have been. Upon my initial viewing, I was surprised to see the animation look so flat. The colors are rather dull but it still looked good and crisp despite the bland coloring. There really wasn’t much in obvious CG animation as well. The only reasons why any of this was particularly shocking to me was merely because I found out afterwards that this series originally aired in 2006 in Japan.

The only other thing that I didn’t particularly care for were the some sound effects used with the evil spirits which were entirely unnecessary and made it sound cartoony at times. The scene in particular I’m talking about is when Zushonosuke returns to the castle and the evil spirits accompany him. The sound effects when the evil spirits fall down the stairs is just plain terrible.

Music

            The opening theme took me absolutely off my game right away. For a series that was billed as a historical horror tale, the Japanese rap at the beginning was very unexpected. It wasn’t a terrible theme and if I had heard it on its own, I would’ve enjoyed it and I still might but in this context I’m really not sure how this was a good choice. The ending theme however is a soft ballad with a very traditional sound to it and I really enjoyed it. It had great sound, nice lyrics and sounded appropriate.

            The background was fitting and always felt appropriate within its setting. I am failing to recall any scenes within the anime that had music which stood out as inappropriate, badly placed or badly composed. I’m sure that most of the music will fall badly when played out of context but in this series, they are quite well done. I might’ve enjoyed hearing some more traditional music or music using traditional instruments a bit more but that’s just a personal nit pick that has no real relevance to my opinion.

Dub vs. Sub

            Willow Johnson as Tomihime stood out in the English cast for the way she captured the eternal sadness. The dub cast was fairly well done throughout and the sub cast was also well done but Willow caught my attention the most. This is another release where either track is an acceptable choice for viewing and I have no real preference on performances as they both have good and bad picks.

Extras

            Besides the clean animation, there is also some notes about some of the terms used within the anime which I found interesting. I really enjoyed reading the first screen about the original author and story and the following pages about the various terms were fun to read as well. Some were naturally fairly obvious terms but some really shared some nice insight into history and culture which is always a plus. The text could’ve been a bit bigger to make it easier to read but other than that, it was a nice extra to see.

Overall

            While it certainly feels like Geneon didn’t really put their full weight behind this one and it’s been panned by other critics, I enjoyed this piece. I thought the story was sweet and it was well told. It took me off my guard and surprised me with a story that was moving and fun to watch. While it wasn’t a technical masterpiece, it certainly wasn’t a waste of time and I really think that this is one worth seeing. Perhaps not something you’ll want to add to your collection but if you’re interested in historical anime or want a nice dose of culture, this is probably a good way to go about it.

Final Grade: 81% - B