Ookami Kakushi and its problems (and future promise)

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The show is finally starting to pick up the pace, as of episodes 4 and 5. What’s taking it so long?

Ookami Kakushi, the third work by Ryukishi07 to be adapted into an anime after Higurashi and Umineko, seems in some ways like the offspring of those two earlier works. It has the same 1983 rural setting as the former and the mystery trappings of the latter, and the plot aims to reveal the dark, knotty secrets behind its placid setting.

What made the anime of especially Higurashi successful, however–despite its middling animation quality by Studio DEEN–was its superb atmospherics. Was it histrionic at times? Yes, but the emotions matched the extreme cruelty or horror of the situation being presented. (Pulling out fingernails, human sacrifice, child abuse…calm and subdued does not describe such situations.) The build-up to many of the arc endings was steady and unrelenting, even when the outcome was not in question. The viewer was often shown the ending in the very first scenes, but somehow, the suspense and terror was barely lessened.

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Ookami Kakushi uses much the same formula at its start: from its opening scene, we know that there will be a showdown between Isuzu (who has the red, wolf eyes), the scythe girl/exorcist of wolf spirits, and that Hiro will be caught in between. This seems to give too much away compared to the opening scenes of Higurashi–where we see Keiichi murder Shion and Rena with a baseball bat. We don’t know why, or what led to the insane gleam in his eye–whereas the essential problem and relationships in Ookami Kakushi are obvious from the start: Isuzu is some kind of supernatural being, as is the scythe girl, and they are opposed. The secret is largely out, because as soon as we find out more about the red eyes and the wolf spirits, we know just what is wrong with Isuzu and where all of her annoying cute advances are going to end, and we know who is going to fight her.

Hence, the subsequent scenes where we see the brigade of hunters chasing after possessed people seem devoid of fright or surprise. They feel tacked on, especially since they are usually placed at the end of a relatively unrelated episode. Only when one encounter is elaborated in episode 4 does it begin to deliver the chills that are supposed to happen, and only in episode 5 does the shouta-molesting Issei show the full extent of how awful the wolf-spirit powers can be. (They were telegraphed earlier a bit thickly with his overtly sexualized advances toward Hiro, which provided the first “creepy” moments in the show.) Finally, in episodes 4 and 5, we get some well-done chase scenes and a real atmosphere of menace. Nothing along the lines of the utterly bone-chilling close of Higurashi episode 3, but a significant improvement over before.

I’ve struggled to figure out why the pacing and the feel of the show seems so limp at times, and I think it’s because these kinds of scenes are not very well integrated into the more typical school life, semi-romantic scenes at first. It may be a function of time–it seems this series will only tell one story as opposed to multiple arcs, and thus things feel a bit more stretched out–or it may be an issue with the directing/writing of the anime itself. Has anyone played the PSP game and felt similarly with the source material?

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Ryukishi07 stories thrive on a rich layer of backstory, and those elements are beginning to gel by the most recent episodes. The wolf spirits and their relation to the hassaku fruits are of course just the tip of the iceberg: the division between the old and new towns, Nemuru’s rich old family having a hand in things, the secret committees taking away possessed people before they do damage, Kaori Mana and her suspiciously kind demeanor–Higurashi taught us to watch out especially for those people….The conspiratorial mode works because it presumes a depth of secrets, which the protagonist (and the viewer) is expected to slowly discover to keep him or her going through the narrative. As the mood finally begins to shift toward something a bit more taut and suspenseful as of episode 5, the show may have much more to reveal about the Kushinada family, for instance, or just who the exorcists are, since they seem to be an independent group. Secrets make you want to know more.

I ultimately stuck with this show in part because I trusted Ryukishi07 to deliver, and after a slow start, the payoff seems to be happening. The above-average soundtrack, led by the excellent Yuki Kajiura-penned OP, also shines and makes things more than watchable. (Kajiura seems to be the perennial composer of shows that aren’t as good as their soundtracks, with the Kara no Kyoukai films being a glorious exception: at last, animes that match the Gothic vision of their music!.) In a way, the series is a test as to whether this kind of story can be told effectively in a single cour as opposed to the spiraling, interconnected mini-arcs of Higurashi. It often plays as a minor variation of the formula that that great show established, but even those can be enjoyable, especially in a typically lackluster season like winter.

Author: gendomike

Michael lives in the Los Angeles area, and has been into anime since he saw Neon Genesis Evangelion in 1999. Some of his favorite shows include Full Metal Alchemist, Honey and Clover, and Welcome to the NHK!. Since 2003 he has gone to at least one anime convention every year. A public radio junkie, which naturally led to podcasting, he now holds a seminary degree and is looking to become Dr. Rev. Otaku Bible Man any day now. Michael can be reached at mike.huang@animediet.net. You can also find his Twitter account at @gendomike.

5 thoughts on “Ookami Kakushi and its problems (and future promise)

  1. I think it may still be possible that this is a story with reset. Having played Higurashi and Umineko VN’s, it is a fact that Studio DEEN rushed through both so the pacing was quick.

    In other words, if Studio DEEN didn’t rush, first Higurashi arc might have been around 7 eps long instead of 4.

    And since Ryukishi07 seems to like this kind of storytelling, it is quite likely that a reset will happen very soon.

  2. As soon as Key first announced Rewrite and its script writers, fans fevereshly proclaimed the story to be the clusterfuck of all what Tonokawa Yuuto, Tanaka Romeo and Ryukishi07 entail. If the game disappoints, we know who to blame honestly. Ookamikakushi has the same disadvantage, fans expecting resets and parallel dimensions and what have you, and anything short of that will trample their expectations. I see Ookamikakushi as an enjoyable multi-faceted mystery, nothing more, nothing less.
    Script writers are not demigogs; sometimes they get lucky and make stuff like Higurashi. I wonder though how long it would take for people to grow tired of Ryukishi07 stories if every one of his works felt like Higurashi.
    Expectations have a high probability rate of stabbing us in the back one way or another. I’m glad I started watching this show without being aware who was behind it.

  3. I have no idea if there will be resets or not. Honestly, I don’t really care as long as the story delivers (and I do believe that Ookami will deliver, no matter the style).

  4. Nayrael: we’ll see. I actually want to try the Higurashi VN since it at last is being officially translated into English and do my own comparison…I remember doing research on all the backstory and hints for the anime and was astounded by the amount of detail that went into them. Whatever one might say about Ryukishi07, he certainly builds whole worlds.

    Miha: you’ve got a good point; artists shouldn’t be shackled by the expectations of previous work, and they should be given a chance to do different things and grow. I certainly hope this one is an example of that; it’s definitely relying a lot less on horror than some of the other stories, and that’s a good direction for Ryukishi07 to go  in.

    But expectations can cut both ways too. I knew nothing about the show when I watched the first episode, including the fact that it was by Ryukishi07.  As I saw it though, I immediately caught on to the superficial similarities to Higurashi: the rural setting, the mysterious festival, the font of the title…and given the rather non-dynamic pacing and overt giveaway of the first episode, I was thinking to myself, “this seems like a poor man’s rip-off of Higurashi” and “this probably isn’t very good.” I was inclined to dismiss the show out of hand actually. It was when I read about its origins afterwards that I was willing to cut it a bit more slack, because I trusted the original creator to develop something rich and involving. Seeing that I enjoyed episodes 4-5, I’m glad I did.

  5. Listen I end up here looking for definetly an other thing! Anyway i read here and I think i will come back again. great work

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