Plot Summary

Momosuke is a naive young author traveling feudal Japan in the hopes of finishing his “100 Stories”, a compilation of 100 Japanese ghost stories. He meets three ghoulish fellow travelers who them selves are attracted to the supernatural. Momosuke’s quasi-companions are Mataichi, a short creepy monk who deals in anti-spook talismans; Nagamimi, another creepy number who’s also a master of disguise; and the beautiful but mysterious (nice way of saying creepy) Ogin.
This group always shows up wherever Momosuke happens to be investigating rumors of the supernatural variety. The three mete out justice on those who have transgressed against the living…but the transgressors aren’t always the undead. Momosuke’s journey and fate become entwined with these “ghost busters” as he struggles to maintain his innocence and cheery perspective of the world.

Review

I liked the concept for this series and I liked the fact that it took place a little after the Edo period, making it historical as well as supernatural.

Character Design

The style was a bit disconcerting, (I think it was supposed to be nightmarish and evocative) what with sphere- and cylinder- headed samurai running about and various character designs that didn’t mesh with each other. I was also more than a lil’ distracted by the crappy CG sprinkled liberally through out the anime, but maybe that too was for an unfocused, queasy effect (it worked). The colors were a good match, though, for the tone of the series; dark and deeeep.

Requiem From the Darkness is incredibly graphic, as it NEVER shies away from blood, violence and boob shots either separately or more often, all together. Visually the anime is fairly decent but at all costs avoid the English dub as it blows beyond belief. The first five minutes for me were like nails on a chalkboard it was so bad. I feel I have a fairly high tolerance for bad dubbing (no, not really, but I try) so this had to be bad. Try it dubbed if you want but don’t bitch about it when you go deaf from the suckiness.

LIKED:

• Concept
• Color palette
• The fact it was 13 episodes long (it woulda sucked if it was any longer)

DISLIKED:

• English voice acting
• Random crappy cgi
• Some of the character designs

Rating

Requiem From the Darkness gets 0.5 outta 4 Hammies!