Tasogare Otome X Amnesia – 06 – 07
“I am a shadow… The true self…”
 |
Well since everyone else is experimenting with their post style, I figured I should at least attempt changing it up too before deeming it too much effort. This is mostly my speculating and laughing at the misfortune of others (…so it’s not that much different from how I normally do things), but I’ll be working at this for a couple of weeks before I find a writing system that works for me. |
More problems with Yuuko (ghost) in episode 6 where Yuuko (blonde) shows up and starts a panic over a school rumour of the Red Person. Now Yuuko (blonde) hates ghost stories because she’s been bullied since her name is similar to that of the ghost. …This trauma has somehow convinced her that she needs to get rid of every ghost story ever as revenge. Now why she couldn’t just change schools might be a stupid question (…no, seriously, why?) but I guess no dorama=no plot. So it’s up to Yuuko (ghost) to fix things… Even though it’s not really her fault.
Yuuko (blonde)’s way of leading the group farther astray? Telling the crowd that the Red Person can only be appeased by sacrificing the one left behind in the school: Yuuko (ghost). Don’t even get me started on how little sense that makes. The people mob. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem since nobody sees Yuuko. However, Yuuko explained a couple episodes ago that people CAN see her if they expect that they’re going to see something. How much and what a panicked group expects to see is questionable, but the danger that they could have seen and caught Yuuko was still there, thus why Niiya and team barred the doors. Now as to why they didn’t see Yuuko breaking the windows, it’s most likely because they expected Yuuko inside the room, not outside of it. … Either that, or Yuuko would have been safe the entire time, and it was a case of Kirie and Niiya once again forgetting that Yuuko can’t be seen by regular people (and Momoe was just playing along). On another hand, letting the panicked crowd into the room probably would have resulted in even more property damage. Lord knows the school needs more of that.
Now it’s a party.
Yuuko (ghost) helps people. It’s what she does. Why does she do this? It might be attributed to her living through Niiya. By helping others with him, Yuuko finally gets a chance to interact with others; something that she hasn’t done in a very long time. Either that or as it was shown in this episode, Yuuko has little to no power to interfere with what people do with her name in the school. Helping people might be her way of fighting back against some of the more hurtful rumours. This is more true with some of the manga stories, but I’m just throwing this out there regardless. At the end of everything though, it’s nice that Yuuko apologized to Yuuko. She may hate people’s stupidity still, but at least it’s not directed at Yuuko anymore.
This episode had some great visuals
Moving on to the next episode, Kirie brings up the interesting point that Yuuko has no negative emotions. Now to me, the manga didn’t explain this as clearly (it was more explained that Yuuko shoves what she doesn’t want to remember on Shadow Yuuko), so this was a huge revelation. This explains so much about her personality and why she acts so carefree. Though seeing how twisted Shadow Yuuko is, I really do wonder wtf happened to Yuuko to make her gather that much hate and regret. Even I don’t know the answer to this one, so hopefully the anime will give us a satisfying conclusion.
Yuuko’s feelings for Niiya have caused jealousy; an ‘ugly’ emotion. It makes sense that in turn, she would want to get rid of the source of that emotion (Niiya), thus why she pushed him down the stairs. Now since Yuuko has forgotten all about Niiya, does that mean that Shadow Yuuko still does? This also raises the question: how much has Yuuko forgotten because of things like this? She says that’s she’s been alone for a really long time, but is that truly the case? I was expecting the events of this episode to happen near the end of the series, but I guess they’re planning something else for the finale. …I’m still expecting this to derail from the manga at some point.
He got the injuries by ‘falling down the stairs’
End Thoughts:
Once again, human logic astounds me. How the hell were the people going to try to sacrifice a ghost (…can ghost Yuuko even bleed)? How did the blonde Yuuko not see this plan backfiring on her from a million miles away? I mean, she was bullied because of her connection to Yuuko. Was she really that blinded by hate that she didn’t think the people would connect sacrificing Yuuko to sacrificing her? AHAHAHAHA. Yuuko (blonde) was a part of a different story in the manga as well involving her being bullied and a love triangle that happened before this, but (obviously) they cut that part out. It was just one more story of Yuuko (ghost) helping out people using her supernatural powers just because. I guess they included it in here to add to the whole “lore of the school” thing that happened in episode 7.
So I guess I was somewhat right about the writers going back to the rock. At this point, I think my main question is why didn’t they just bring up the whole plague thing the episode that they first found the rock? It probably would have made a better build up to the ‘Yuuko has an evil alter ego’ plot than having everything happen in one episode. Oh well, I’m not in charge of the script. I’m sure there’s a method to how these things work. Like I said before above, they’ve already animated what I thought was going to be like the 2nd or so last episode to this anime. Now I could be wrong about this, but with these events happening now, hopefully this means that they’ll be giving us a conclusion as to what actually happened regarding Yuuko’s death (they can’t just show us all of this and not give us an answer)(…or they could, but that would a real bitch move on their part). SILVER LINK hasn’t really animated anything with a 100% conclusive ending yet, so maybe they’re planning to make this their first…?
…No, really. Where are all of the teachers in this? Not only do windows get broken all over in this school, but students carry around knives, create panicked mobs, break down doors, try to kill one another and NOBODY CARES. No wonder there are so many stories about people dying all over the school. The students probably kill each other. That being said though, SILVER LINK delivered once again on the visuals. There’s nothing that says “creepy mob mentality” more than having a bunch of dark shadowy people without eyes. Even better, they kept coming up with different ways of showing the creepy mob. What I’m kind of disappointed in now though visually is Shadow Yuuko. I’ll give you an example after this paragraph, but where the manga genuinely freaked me out, the anime seems to be doing everything it can to avoid showing Shadow Yuuko’s whole face. Sure, the unknown is a source of fear. However, at this point, I want to see if they can pull off showing ALL of Shadow Yuuko’s face.
…Can I un-find you?
After this, I can barely call the anime counterpart frightening.
Preview: I swear, these pictures are getting less and less plot appropriate.
About Karakuri
University student and the one at Metanorn who's known for wearing glasses. Likes blood, insanity and plot twists, but also plays otome games and adores cute romance anime. It balances out... somehow.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Did somebody finally turn up the Horror part of the anime?
Episode 6:
Never start a rumor that will start a panic, especially with paranoid school kids. Things go straight to hell if it backfires. But the surroundings doesn’t help calm it down either. A facility that consists of multiple buildings that connect together to accommodate both junior and senior high school students. Years of ongoing renovations and expansions have meant most of the old inner structures have been sealed and abandoned. Classrooms turned into storage rooms, staircases no longer in use, hallways like dark alleys. With the existence of such a maze-like building, it is only natural that rumours of the paranormal would appear.
Seeing that mob of students at the very end of their sanity reminded me of the last two episodes of “Another”. They were so out it that they didn’t think what they were doing was insane. Sacrificing a ghost, where would you even begin to do that? The blonde Yuuko is lucky she’s still alive or it wouldn’t have ended nicely for her.
Episode 7:
Ah, humans. Always digging into paranormal situations (curses) and getting involved with creatures (ghosts…etc…) they should obviously steer clear from but they jump right in anyway. Teiichi was getting a little too close and Kirie was looking for darkness and now she’s found it.
Yuuko’s sudden jealousy and irritibility was a catylist and starting to fit into the vengeful spirit persona.
As I thought, Shadow Yuuko was holding all the negative emotions of the original while the original was doing everything she can to keep the memories away. Whatever happened must have been too horrifying to keep in mind. One of the ghost stories has to have a clue. My bet is on the shrine. It’s too bad Teiichi had to pay for it and to add insult to injury (no pun intended), she’s forgotten about him.
The way Yuuko was ignoring Shadow Yuuko’s words was like in Persona 4 where the character was facing their Shadow while trying to deny certain aspects of themselves.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Heh. Finally some of what I signed up for xD
6:
It seems like anything with an old decrepit school building is cause for ghost stories in anime. I’m still sticking by my joke theory that there are so many stories about random deaths since the students like to kill each other in panicked mobs.
Oh yeah, I totally got Another vibes from the mob as well. Though if blonde Yuuko died, I’m sure the story would have been twisted into “Oh yeah! She was killed by the Red Person!”. …That and nobody would have cared because ADULTS DON’T EXIST IN THIS ANIME. Ahahaha.
7:
Yeah, no kidding. That’s a whole lot of negative feelings over a death. Over this whole thing, I really wish they would have investigated the shrine more since it’s obviously important… I guess Yuuko doesn’t want anyone near her body though. Niiya could probably go investigate now, but I’m pretty sure he wants his relationship with Yuuko repaired asap.
Yeah, to the Shadow thing. Thus my opening line is a direct quote from the Persona 4 games xD …I don’t remember if the anime used it or not.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Episode 7 is the most engaging episode to date for sure. A sudden turn into a darker plot. I’ll consider that Yuuko developed a split personality at the moment of her death, probably because of what she saw before it happened and that she couldn’t go anywhere due to a broken leg.
Whatever happened made her extra clingly which in turn, made the jealousy easier to grow. Maybe it was pressure from the fact she can’t keep burying the truth or that she began to feel the negative side-emotions that come with love (jealousy, hurt, etc.). And in a desperate attempt to have solace, she erased her own memories like Mirai Nikki’s Yuno.
I think she pushed Teiichi down the stairs because he was becoming something that would also force her to remember and that she sees Shadow Yuuko everytime she looks in his eyes. It would make sense that she’d shove Okonogi or Kirie down a flight of stairs since they were catalysts to her jealousy, making it harder to be around Teiichi.
It definitely does have a Persona 4 feeling to it. She just needs to confront herself and accept the good and the bad. Teiichi will accept her regardless of who she is and what he’s learned.
I know she’s a ghost and all but she ate the sandwiches that were for Teiichi out of spite. They were solid things and she’s not supposed to be, so where did they go? I’m wondering if the story can really be wrapped up in the remaining episodes.
One a side note: I knew something seemed familiar about Okonogi. Her character design reminds me of those twins from Blood-C and what’s more, they have the same seiyuu: Misato Fukuen.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I personally really liked 6, but maybe that’s because I was laughing at everyone’s blatant stupidity the entire episode and admiring all of the visuals.
Whatever happened to Yuuko, it was probably extremely scarring… I just hope the anime is able to come up with great reasoning to this. I don’t think I could accept it if it were something minimal like “oh, she broke her leg and we left her there.” I think Shadow Yuuko justifies some deep, deep psychological trauma xD Bring it on, SILVER LINK!
Hmm, but on that hand, shoving Kirie or Momoe would have been her accepting her jealousy instead of running away from it. The first half of your paragraph there does make a lot of sense though. Niiya was actively searching for her past/ trying to make her remember. In that sense, taking him out was a smart choice.
Thinking about this in Persona 4 terms, it makes a lot of sense xD. Yuuko denies her Shadow-> Shadow attacks. Hell, Niiya even wears glasses. But yeah, in more serious conversation, I think Niiya is ready to accept pretty much anything. … Unless SILVER LINK throws a huge curveball or something about Yuuko’s past. Even I can’t fathom what would be big enough for Niiya not to accept though.
Yeah! The sandwiches! Not to mention she can wear clothing (but it turns invisible… or something)/ carry around food at a cultural festival (still invisible) and yet if she touches a basketball, it just looks like it’s floating. Wtf is up with her ghost powers?
WHAAAAAAT?! Momoe and the twins from C have the same seiyuu?! …Unfortunately, I’m going to ruin it for you and say that Momoe is nowhere near as devious as Nono or Nene.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
I haven’t been following this series, but it keeps popping up on my radar when I go around the net and blogs, so I’m somewhat interested.
Now that you’re 7 episodes in, would you recommend this to someone who doesn’t like horror? I’m hoping it just stays supernatural?
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Hmmm…. These last two episodes have been more horror-ish, for sure. There are some tense moments too, but there aren’t really any jump-scares and there’s no gore. It’s mostly atmospheric creepiness here. The manga’s visuals were scarier for sure for the most part so I don’t really view this anime as horror.
I don’t know what your tolerance level for horror is, but I’d say that it’s been pretty supernatural so far.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
Hmm, thanks! I think I’ll give it a whirl.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
YMMV, but I’m not a fan of horror or even really ‘thriller’ movies and shows, but I’m enjoying the heck out of this show. I totally agree that it hasn’t done stupid ‘gotcha’ crap to just scare the viewer, nor is it gory, it’s more of a tension and drama and supernatural. I don’t know if that will change for the worse (I hope not), but so far it’s been a really enjoyable show for me.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I can handle a little horror every now and then but there’s not much of it here. This series is mostly supernatural rather than horror except for these two recent episodes. It’s fun to watch, especially where it concerns the main characters. Overall, yeah, Tasogare Otome x Amnesia is definitely up for recommendation.