For those who didn’t listen to this month’s episode of the Anime Exploration’s Podcast, here’s a written review of the anime to round out this year’s Halloween offerings. Let’s ghoooooooo–
–ost!
Cast & Crew
Clint Bickham as Keitaro Gentoga
Karlii Hoch as Eiko Hozuki
Natalie Rial as Yayoi Hozuki
Alyssa Marek as Ai Kamiyo
Series Director: Hiroshi Ikehata
Series Composition: Shigeru Murakoshi
Script: Kazuho Hyodo (5 episodes), Kenichi Yamashita (5 episodes), Shigeru Murakoshi (11 episodes), Yū Satō (4 episodes)
Original creator: Kenichi Kondō
Animated by OLM
Dark Gathering is available for streaming on Hidive (and on Hulu in the US – possibly on Disney+ in Canada? I’ll let the Canadian posters check for me). The manga is available through the Shonen Jump app.
The Premise (Modified from ANN’s version)
Keitarō Gentōga is a college freshman who hates ghosts. Unluckily for him, he has a knack for attracting spirits. Two years ago, this connection had led to him receiving a spiritual injury on his right hand, with his friend Eiko getting caught in the crossfire – receiving a matching injury of her own, leading to Keitarō becoming a shut-in through High School, until Eiko coaxed him out of his room and into his college. As part of his rehabilitation, Keitarō takes on the part-time job of a private tutor, and his first pupil is Eiko’s cousin, Yayoi Hōzuki. Besides being a child prodigy, there is another peculiarity regarding Yayoi—she has a spiritual constitution, just like Keitarō. However, she yearns to encounter spirits, hoping to find the ghost that took her mother away – so she can kill it and get her mother back. To do this, she hunts ghosts and other malevolent spirits, captures them, and turns them into weapons that she hopes to strengthen to destroy the spirit responsible.
Content Warnings
This series includes graphic and bloody violence, profanity, mention of sexual assault, depictions of child murder, cannibalism, and suicide.
The High Points
Anime horror often runs into problems with conveying a proper sense of terror, dread, or otherwise unnerving the audience. Dark Gathering does a really solid job of pulling this off, with some of the hauntings over the course of the series being extremely intense.
The Low Points
So, this is based on a currently running manga, and rather than going on for a bunch of filler, they stop the manga at the start of the next big overarching arc, and leave the viewer to pick up the manga to continue the story if they don’t want to wait for another season.
The Scores
Originality: This is an adaptation of a manga with a fairly novel concept – we’ve had series about people battling with spirits before (Shaman King), and using Demons in battle (Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga), but not one where it’s a middle school girl gathering up truly horrifying ghosts to weaponize them – making the creepy little girl horror archetype into the protagonist, while still making her very creepy, and perhaps a monster in her own right. 5/6
Animation: The animation is solid – OLM has a strong track record, including Berserk (1997) and Pokemon among their past accomplishments, and they do a solid job of conveying the sense of unease that the manga’s art instills in the reader to the screen. It does help that the manga doesn’t quite go for the jugular in the ways that (for example) Junji Ito’s work does, so you don’t have the issues that came up with this year’s adaptation of Uzumaki to animation. 4/6
Story: This the story of a little girl who had an encounter with the things that go bump in the night, and decided to make it her mission in life to be the one that bumps back. It’s a simple concept that works really well in the execution, with each story arc being a compact horror movie in its own ways. 5/6
Production: 5/6
Emotional Response: I’ll be honest – there were a bunch of bits from the manga that, when watching the show for the podcast, I seriously thought “Oh, maybe David & Tora will nope out at this” – they did not, and wanted more. I feel that’s high praise for a horror series like this. 6/6.
Acting: The English and Japanese dub cast deliver some rock-solid performances, with the creepy characters being very creepy, and with Yayoi in particular having a great mix of actual normal-child playfulness, combined with some unnerving monstrous elements, and a real tough-as-nails streak that makes the story fun. 5/6
Overall: This was probably my perfect Halloween Horror anime – and considering how things turned out with Uzumaki, I think I might have picked the right show to watch instead. 5/6
In total, Dark Gathering receives 35/42.
The Schedule
October 5/6: Abigail (2024) and Abigail (2023): JD
October 12/13: Season of the Witch (1972) and Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) and Season of the Witch (2009) and Season of the Witch (2011) : JD
October 19/20: Hocus Pocus (1993) and Hocus Pocus 2 (2022): `Lex
October 26/27: The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023) and Humanist Vampire Seeks Suicidal Person (2023): JD
October 31: The Love Witch (2016):`Lex and Sleepaway Camp (1983): JD and Dark Gathering (2023): Alexander Case