Recently in horror anime Category

Everyone has a list of their favorite anime shows. That's a given. But do you have a list of the anime you consider so pedestrian, lame or terrible you wouldn't show them to you ex ever?

Lemme share my lame list. It's not in any order by the way.

1. "Bartender" - Show about a mixologist who can ease your troubles with a drink. Each episode comes with a history or story behind the cocktail du jour. Employs fourth wall techniques. Verdict: bleah and just plain boring

2. "Boys Be" - Tales of boys at school and the way they drool, pine for and leer at girls and women. Contains fanservice which means scenes where female characters inadvertently end up showing their underwear. Verdict: sexist and dumb

3. "Diamond Daydreams" - Show about the lives and loves of several women who reside or work in the nothern part of Japan. At times seems like an ad for certain locations. The character designs are among the ugliest I have ever seen. Memo to the show's animators: Go back to art school and learn how to draw. Then smack yourself for producing what amounts to nothing more than a disguised travel brochure.

4."Haunted Junction" - Kids from different religious backgrounds attend a haunted school with well-known ghosts from Japanese popular culture. Well they focus mostly on spectres Japanese school kids yak about such as the girl who haunts toilets. Verdict: A big mess. Supposed to be funny but is excruciating to watch. Has disturbing characters like a teen-aged girl overly fond of little boys. Gag.

5. "Gregory Horror Show" - MIni episodes about a mouse the unseen protagonist encounters in a place full of "scary" characters. The segments are too short and choppy. The characters are NOT scary at all since they are drawn simply. Think of wooden blocks then imagine them with faces and stubby appendages. The premise isn't bad but the animators faltered in the execution.

6. "Oh My Goddess" OVA - The first installment in a series that should have been buried long long ago. Geek meets one of the Nordic goddesses of fate. She ends up keeping house for him and falling for this very common guy. This show is nothing more than wish fulfillment for the guy who cannot get a date and still lives in his mom's basement. This tripe is an insult to any woman who can think for herself.

7. "Onegai Teacher" or "Please Teacher" - Half-human/half-alien lands on Earth and pretends to be a teacher to gather data on humans. Circumstances force her to marry one of her students. She looks like a well-endowed woman in her mid-20s. He is actually 18 but looks 15 because he was in a coma-like state for several years. They keep their marriage a secret and eventually fall in love.

Skip this so-called romantic show. If you have the DVDs, burn them and fumigate the room where these were kept. I found the relationship between the main characters disturbing and just wrong. The creator of this show should be ashamed for producing this putrid excuse for an anime. He or she deserves a flogging.

8. "Rahxephon" - Show where giant statues ( actually just prettier looking giant robots) wreak havoc in a walled-off world. Hero is a teen with a murky past. There is also a mysterious girl and a woman who is more than what she seems. Great animation, nice CGIs and compelling storyline at first. But I found the plot too convoluted for my taste and the pace of the show can be glacial at times. I couldn't finish this out of frustration and boredom.

9. "School Rumble" - HIgh school anime about a clueless girl, the guy she likes, the bad boy who loves her and their classmates. Typical show where someone can't tell the object of their affection how they feel because of certain reasons and circumstances. (e.g. the person they love just doesn't get it). Some people like this show. I don't. I got tired of the main characters' inability to confess their love.

10. "R.O.D." the TV series - Three sisters with the unusual ability to manipulate paper. They solve cases and are called paper masters for a good reason. One can create paper animals that do her bidding while another can fashion weapons out of paper. This is the tv spinoff of the popular "Read or Die" OVA about a bookworm who is really a special agent for the British.

The television show buchers certain characters in the original movie much to its detriment. The plot is more complex and folks double cross each other out of the blue. The series also runs too long and gets bogged down by the different subplots. This is one sorry spinoff to a decent, original movie.

There are days when I'm just not in the mood to follow a series. When a quick anime fix is all I need to get me through the day or week. Enter the short film.

"Kakurenbo" by Shuuhei Morita fits this bill. The movie is about a group of children playing hide-and-seek in an abandoned city. They all wear masks.

One of the characters is a boy named Hikora whose sister, Sorincha, disappeared while playing said game. I can't remember how long she's been missing though. Hikora thinks by participating in the game, he will find her.

But he will realize this particular hide-and-seek game comes with a sinister twist.

It's not a bad short film and actually won several awards.

A wronged wife. A God with no worshippers. A cat monster haunting a family.

Three tales make up "Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales" which viewers of fansubs knew as "Ayakashi. Japanese Classic Horror Tales." If you are a fan of old Japanese ghost stories, this 11-episode show just might be your cup of tea.

It actually reminds me of the Japanese tales of the supernatural collected and retold by writer Lafcadio Hearn. Try reading his "Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things" or watch the movie of the same name and you'll know what I mean.

This is the Japan found in folklore where samurais walked the dusty streets and fox spirits pretending to be beautiful women bewitch unwary men. The show re-tells the well-known play, "Yotsuya Kaidan".

Oiwa gets dumped by her faithless husband Iemon for a younger woman. Not only that, she becomes disfigured when she drinks the "medicine" sent over by her next door neighbor who happens to be the grandfather of the young hussy eyeing Iemon.

Iemon is a masterless samurai who killed his father-in-law after the old man accused him of stealing from his former lord and demanded he stay away from his daughter, Oiwa. This scum in samurai form then pretended someone else killed Oiwa's father and promised to help her find the killer. Duh. Look in the mirror, buddy. He tells himself he did it to remain with the woman he loves.

But he soon resents Oiwa when he ends up making umbrellas for a living. And when the granddaughter of a rich neighbor makes goo goo eyes at him, he decides to get rid of his current wife. He orders a servant to rape and kill her.

Now hideous and abandoned, Oiwa dies. In the show she accidentally cuts her throat on a sword Iemon gave the servant. Her faithless husband isn't satisfied with this but has another servant killed. He has Oiwa and this man's bodies nailed on both sides of a door which is then flung into the river.

Oiwa comes back from the grave to haunt Iemon which leads him to kill his new wife and father-in-law. This version also has lots of hungry rodents a la that '70s horror flick, "Ben."

I didn't much care for "Tenshu Monogatari" which features a fallen God's love affair with a human and the fallout from such a relationship. They're a doomed couple. He has a wife. Her species eats people in order to survive.
No one else supports their love. You know how that is going to end.

The final tale is apparently an original story. "Bake Neko" is about a monster cat killing a family with more than its share of skeletons in the closet. A mysterious medicine seller with an unusual sword unravels the secret. But the family pays a heavy price for a sin committed in the past.

Each of the story is told in a different style. I liked the animation used for "Bake Neko" the most because it appealed to my artsy snooty side. Hey, at least I'm honest about being a pretentious twit now and then.

Apparently, I'm not the only one who enjoyed "Bake Neko." The unnamed medicine seller got his own show this season called, "Mononoke." I'm currently watching that and so far, I'm enjoying it. No fanservice here folks.

Here are some of the newest anime to grace or litter the anime landscape this year.

"Zombie Loan" features three teens with an unusual part time job. Michiru Kita can see dark rings around people's necks which means they're about to kick the bucket. This skill is used by two of her classmates, Chika Akatsuki and Shito Tachibana, who are known at school as Boys A and B. They are the only survivors of an accident that killed many. Actually they died and are just extending their life because of a deal struck. Characters are drawn elongated and faces are very angular. Everyone looks like they subsist on one lettuce leaf a day. Action show. Has some humor. Nice Jrock opening and ending songs. Title refers to their employer. So far, it's watchable.

In "Oh Edo Rocket", Seikichi Tamaya lives in one of the row houses in Edo where the poor congregate. It is the era when luxuries like fireworks have been banned by the ruling government. It is a blow to our hero who is a fireworks maker. A girl who looks like that alien chick Eureka from "Eureka 7" asks him one day to build a rocket that could reach the moon. One of the ugliest anime I have seen this season. Terrible attempts at humor. Let's face it. I have less than 100 years on this planet so why waste it on a show this pedestrian and hideous-looking? Next!

"Kaibutsu Oujo" or "Princess Resurrection" tells the tale of Hiro Hiyorimi and how he ends up living in the household of a princess who grants him an immortality of sorts. His sister had invited Hiro to stay with her now that she's been hired as a live-in maid or housekeeper at a mansion on top of a hill. Her employer turns out to be this young woman Hiro pushed out of the way of falling steel beams. Hiro dies but she brings him back to life. This comes at a price for Hiro. He is now her servant and often puts his carcass in front of her whenever some monster goes after his black-clad mistress. He also doesn't live long and must continually be revived by Princess. Typical anime character designs. Seen four episodes. Eh. Would do in a pinch if I'm craving anime but nothing special about it. Could easily turn into a monster-of-the-week type of show. Tolerable for now.

Gorgeous animation do not a good anime make. An engaging storyline and likeable characters are also required. So it's kind of sad when a show you know could have been great merely reaches the acceptable level.

Such is the case with the second season of Hell Girl which is actually called "Jigoku Shoujo Futakamori". Enma Ai is back with her three assistants as they offer a hellish bargain to those who want to have others dragged unceremoniously to Hell. If you're willing to enter a contract with Ai, the bane of your existence gets whisked off pronto. The price remains a steep one. You go to Hell as well when you die because as Ai says, two graves are dug when a curse is placed.

Like the first season, this one features beautiful character designs and backgrounds plus the same hohum way of telling its stories.

Each episode focuses on Ai's client of the week and how she deals with their requests. Some of her clients are a waste of molecules, so to speak, while a few deserve to get dispatched to the underworld themselves. There is a little boy who undergoes personal tragedies one upon the other that you wonder how Ai can just sit there and do nothing for him. He is actually a key in resolving Ai's end and mirrors the persecution she faced in her earlier human form four hundred years ago.

That's another problem. The director assumes you know Ai's back story or have seen the first season. Go watch the first season. It helps explain certains things in the second season.

This time around, we learn more about the history of Ai's three assistants and why they're working for her now. We also meet a rather unpleasant hell spawn masquerading as a little girl who could double as the Japanese version of the "Bad Seed." She's called Kikuri I think. She tags along with the gang and tries to muck up their work.

After sitting through all the episodes even the crummy ones the ending comes as a major disappointment. Aaaargh! It was a let down to be sure. Is that how Hell Girl is supposed to end? I am so tempted to spoil it for the rest of y'all but I won't be a party pooper.

I'm flabbergasted. Really, I am. I've just seen the first episode of "Red Garden" and think I've stumbled onto something interesting this season. I heard about this show from an anime fan (who else?) and agree that the show is unusual to say the least.

You wouldn't know what it was from the intro song which sucked big time. Some Jpop songs just need to go away. Far far away. Maybe to another galaxy.

The episode begins with men in suits driving several teenage girls to their homes I suppose since you see them being put to bed. But another car rams one of the vehicles. Two men break into the car and kill the men in suits escorting an unconscious girl with long orange hair. A man in white looks at the prone girl and smirks.

The next time we see the girl she is dead and her body has been dumped in a wooded area in New Jersey. The cops are swarming about the place and we hear that this is the fifth girl found like this. They don't know yet if it's a suicide or a murder.

The four other girls we saw earlier, Rachel, Claire, Rose and Kate, have no memory of what happened that night.They're groggy. One is nauseous. Another falls asleep while standing up. Turns out they all go to this New York school where the hall monitors are called "Grace" and are led by this little Miss Perfect called Paula. Kate appears to be a new member of "Grace" favored by Paula.

The dead girl was Lisa and she also was a student here. School gets dismissed early because of the terrible news. Kate is devastated. It seems Lisa was her friend and told Kate recently of landing a boyfriend she met in Coney Island. Now here is where things take a weird turn. A weeping Kate wanders the school grounds and sings a mournful tune. I didn't know if I had been dropped into the middle of a musical. She stops warbling and then the episode continues. Eh? At least no dancers gyrate around Kate.

Instead, a horde of black butterflies surround her. Rachel who is walking along with her posse sees them too. The butterflies, which are only visible to the four girls, lure them to a park. Claire asks the others if they also don't remember last night. They get creeped out.

A man and a woman appear from the shadows.The woman introduces herself as their teacher and says the girls died last night. She tells them that a man is approaching and orders the girls to kill him with their bare hands. The man runs at them on all fours. They scream.

I was hooked despite the terrible songs used for the intro and the ending. The ending song was a Jrock tune with terrible lyrics and a horrible beat. The character designs are well, unique too. OK, I'll be honest. The people in this show are ugly. I don't have a problem about the characters being long and lanky but they sport really big noses. You don't notice the exaggerated noses until you see them in profile. Poor Rachel looks like a clown because she has a bulbous nose. Other than that, they look fine when not in profile.

But the storyline is very promising. There's murder, mystery and weird messenger butterflies. Woohoo! I hope "Red Garden" doesn't disappoint later on. But for now I think I kinda like this weird place. Move over Toto and don't hog the Pocky.

One of the benefits of suddenly finding myself on vacation is that I can just take off and haunt the anime store whenever I want. Of course I can afford to be more discriminating as well and not just borrow any DVD or tape just to get it out of Mr. Rival's hands.Take that you fiend! Unlike you I can afford to be nice.

I'm following so many series I've lost count. I think I'm up to 20 shows. Maybe more. I've decided to focus on a dozen right now and just catch up on the others later.

One of my current favorites is "Ghost Hunt" which chronicles the cases handled by the Shibuya Psychic Research. SPR is comprised of director Kazuya Shibuya, his assistant Lin, and part-time employee/high school student Mai Taniyama. Shibuya also uses a TV medium, a shrine maiden, an Australian exorcist and a monk who plays in a band.

Shibuya is just a teen but very smart, ultra confident and arrogant. He insults Mai a lot. She has this crush on him but isn't afraid to sass him back and even bestowed the nickname, "Naru", on him which is short for narcissist.

Anyway, the last case I saw involved the strange goings on at a high school. The case ended at episode 17 which I shall recount for the benefit of the peanut gallery.

A black dog attacks students, a sickening smell pervades one classroom, weird things are seen and there's a twisted version of a Ouija board that the students play. It turns out everything is linked to a freshman who committed suicide in the fall who was into the occult and felt oppressed by the faculty and administration. Mai, whose dreams often show clues to the cases, tells Naru that the spirits are eating each other which leads him to deduce that someone used a variation of an old Chinese curse.

The target of the curse, which is fueled unwittingly by the students playing that odd version of a Ouija board, is one of the teachers - a spiteful mean man. There are only two options open to our ghost hunters. Let the curse kill the teacher or turn back the curse onto its creator. Since the student who started it is dead, the curse will rebound back onto the students who played that Ouija-like game. A horrified Mai tries to stop Naru and Lin because she feels the students thought they were just playing a harmless game and were not intending to kill anyone. Naru tells her everyone has to accept responsibility for their actions and thwarts her attempts. She rages at him and calls him a murderer.

What Lin, who is a diviner, actually does is return the curse back to wooden effigies representing the students. Naru doesn't tell any of them this until Lin is finished because Lin wasn't sure he could ensure the students' safety. But it works. Mai is chastened. As she reports to Naru about the condition of the students who didn't play the game, he apologizes for saying harsh things to her. She is dumbfounded because this is Naru who seldom admits he is wrong. It's not fair, she says. She wanted to apologize but he did it first. He takes all the good moments, she points out. Naru smiles at her and she blushes in shock. She has never seen him smile except in her dream state when the dream Naru shows up to help her out.

It was such a sweet moment. Naru and Mai looked so cute my inner fangirl started squealing. Then reason reasserted itself and I throttled my inner fangirl to silence. It was a moment of weakness I assure you brought on by too little sleep and too many hours listening to angsty alternative music.

Mai and Naru forever! Uh, excuse me while I choke someone. Now git. Nothing to see here.