Washio Sumi is Sad

And this is the episode we're reminded this is part of the so called "Sad Magical Girl" genre.

It's a good episode.

Hopefully I'll have more to say as the Prequel wraps up over the next two weeks.

Jeanne d'Arc in Anime is too Gender Normative

I can accept that it's unreasonable for me to want every Anime featuring her to follow the theory she was a Lesbian that I favor, or others that she was Trans or Non Binary.

But there is no dispute that she did dress like a man, and cut her hair short to fit that.  Whether or not that was motivated by anything more then what she said it was we'll probably never know for sure.

Jeanne appears a lot in Anime and Manga.  But I haven't seen any reference to her cross dressing, in fact she tends to be the most feminine woman in the show.  And it's not like this is alien to Anime, there is a long tradition of female Anime characters who look and dress rather boyish, the Bifauxnen.

It's like Japan simply didn't get the memo on this part of Jeanne's story, they just think female saint equals perfect embodiment of Christian Femininity.

In Fate/Apocrypha it could have created a nice contrast with Astolfo, a guy dressed as a girl, especially since they seem to be being set up as romantic rivals.  And both are French.

Halloween Anime viewing Update

At the start of the month I gave a top 5 Halloween Anime recommendations based on what I’d already seen.  Here I’m gonna talk about what I’ve been watching.

I will talk more about Fate/Apocrypha at the bottom, after a spoiler warning.  The other stuff I’ll talk about here I’ll try to keep Spoiler free.

I’m not watching Code:Realize yet since I’m waiting for it’s Simuldub.  But it’s worth noting that it also has characters from both the Dracula and Frankenstein novels.

First I watched the Netflix Castlevania series as I said I would, even though it’s not technically Anime.  The four episodes up now are basically an extended prologue, but they were fun.  And Gaius Frakking Baltar is voicing Alucard, that should be a treat.

I watched Kyoufu Kaiki! Frankenstein (also known as Monster of Frankenstein and Frankenstein Legend of Terror).  An Anime movie from 1981 based on Frankenstein.  I watched the Dub that was made in 1984, so one of the older Dubs out there.  I gave it a 7, it’s the subject of my first My Anime List review.

I much later watched the 1980 Tomb of Dracula Anime (based on the 70s Marvel comic book series), which I can’t really recommend.  The Music was cool, but it felt like a decade of comics storylines crammed into 90 minutes.  And as someone notoriously easy on Dubs, it’s Dub was one of the worst.

Then I watched the first three episodes of Dusk Maiden Amnesia.  Which were kinda fun.

I watched the Fate/Grand Order: First Order OVA Dub as I said I was going to.  It was pretty fun, and for Halloween relevance, there is a sort of homage to certain classic Christopher Lee film.

I’m also revisiting some of what I already recommended. 

Back in September I watched the first 2 episodes of the Dub of Testament of Sister New Devil.  The rest of the Dub will drop on October 31st, but I probably won’t be able to get to them till after.

Fate/Apocrypha Spoiler Warning

Washio Sumi is a Fascist

Well, I've just seen episode 3 of Washio of Sumi.

Again, I knew what to expect.  I should be made more uncomfortable by how far they go with Washio's Nationalism, given the escalation that has happened in my country since I saw the movie version.

But the fun Slice of Slice comedy and Yuri Bait makes up for it pretty well.  It's a fun episode.

I enjoyed the new Mummy movie.

I want to say that upfront since I'm going to express some frustrations here.  It was enjoyable, trying to be less Indiana Jones then the 99 film, but still more Popcorn fun then the original.  As the launch of a Shared Cinematic Universe, I like it more then Iron Man or Godzilla 2014.

And to people complaining about making these movies action movies at all.  The 40s Universal Monster Mash films were even for the time definitely more Pulpy adventure films then true Horror. And they had self parody moments as well, especially in Bride of Frankenstein.

There will be Spoilers by the way.

The second episode of Washio Sumi

I have a concern my ability to comment on these episodes will be disappointing for the Washio Sumi ones.  Maybe I should have just talked about the movies while they were fresher in my mind.

If you didn't see the movies, these TV episodes well be the preferable way to experience the story.  The movie experiment I think would have been better if they made one full length movie.

This episode is still establishing our characters.

Next episode will I think not even include a battle, it'll be a mostly comedy episode. 

So yeah, I don't have much to say besides, it's still pretty good.

The Temptation of Frankenstein

My desire to spend this month watching a lot more Horror Anime lead me to watching Kyoufu Densetsu Kaiki! Frankenstein, which I wrote a review of for MyAnimeList.  That movie felt very inspired by the Universal Frankenstein films, so I felt like watching a few of those again.  And I just re-watched Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman.

A movie that arguably marks the birth of the first Shared Cinematic Universe.  And with Universal now seeking to launch a new MCU style shared universe reviving their old monsters, it definitely put thoughts in my head.

If there was any type of overarching plot thread to the old Monster Mash saga.  It was the idea of other Scientists being tempted by Frankenstein's secrets when an opportunity to follow in his footsteps is provided, like it's an irresistible forbidden fruit to them.

Even Henry's actual children in Son Of and Ghost Of resist it at first but give in, with Ygor serving as their Serpent.  But this movie marks the beginning of other unrelated, sometimes at first perfectly normal, doctors following this arc.

But of course like many of the interesting things about these early films, it's not quite explored as in depth as it could be.  So that's something I'd like to see revisited.  Don't find some excuse to make Victor just as immortal as his Creation the way a lot of recent works have done, like Penny Dreadful.  Let it be other scientists playing that role each film after somehow stumbling upon Frankenstein's records and/or the Monster.

I know some might complain about the idea of repeating the same arc over and over again.  But just like how the One Ring's temptation of different people is different depending on that individual's personality, there are a lot of different characterizations this premise could explore.

Take Dr. Manning in this movie for example.  What's interesting about him is starting out as a normal medical doctor.  His decision at the end might have seemed less inexplicable if they actually verbalized more the subtext that he was basically being pressured into violating the Hippocratic Oath.  Talbot very explicitly wants to die, so that could have been easy to accept, but The Monster is basically a child who doesn't understand what's going on.

Analyzing this movie as Hollywood's earliest example of a film that is a sequel to two originally separates films continuity wise is also interesting.

As a Sequel to The Wolfman it works great.  As a Frankenstein movie though, it has unavoidable continuity issues from being torn between two different approaches.  There clearly was a draft of the script that tried pretty hard to work as a sequel to Ghost of Frankenstein, Lugosi's monster even spoke originally.  Yet there are also moments that just want to treat it as if this old castle was where the Monster was originally created.

Of all it's connections to Ghost.  The easiest to miss yet most important is that the man who's reputation lead Maleva to bring Talbot to this town was Ludwig Frankenstein's from before Ghost's story started, as someone who'd helped people.  She did not think "the guy who made a monster from dead bodies ought to know how to deal with a Werewolf", though that's what a viewer who watches the movie out of the context of the saga is inclined to think.  So that other scenes of the film seem to forget Ludwig existed, makes that confusion even worse.

Now people complaining about the new Shared Universe trend like to emphasize how it's more important for a film to work on it's own then tie in with other movies.  That's all well and good.  But this movie's inability to decide if it wants to be a sequel to Ghost or some unflimed Frankenstein reboot, made it inconsistent with itself.  And that caused the main flaws of an otherwise pretty good movie.

The Last Jedi trailer was very RED

I'd commented briefly on how the red dust in the Teaser had me thinking of KyleKallgrenBHH talking about Kurosawa's use of Color in his latter film, in the video on RAN.  In the new Trailer it was more then just a little, the sue of Red in this Trailer was very striking.  It's like a Live Action Miyazaki film.

The trailer feels designed to miss lead.  Still I do think Leia was always gonna be killed off, they just acted like her involvement in Episode IX was an issue so no one would figure that out.

I don't think Rey is gonna turn to the Darkside.  I have a feeling by the end of this film Rey and Kylo will both be left sort of abandoned.

So the Porgs suggest to me that maybe Pokemon could work in Live Action.

It's Americans who don't know what Teenagers actually look like.

A lot of Anime does a lot of creepy stuff that is designed to appeal to various levels of Lolicons.  This post is not my attempt to deny that.

What grinds my gears however is this accusation that Anime constantly makes High School and even Collage aged female characters look younger then they should, "infantalizing" them.

The reason a lot of American Anime critics are saying this, is because American television has given American society a distorted idea of what High Schoolers look like by spending decades having the characters on Teen Dramas constantly played by actors in their 20s, frequently late 20s, even well into their 30s sometimes.

I make a habit of noting when an actress on some show I'm watching turns out to have been born the same year I was, 1985.  And there have been actresses born in 1985 playing High Schoolers all through the time I've been watching television.  But only 1 got to do so while we were actually High School aged.  Michelle Trachtenberg actually was supposed to be playing her own age on seasons 5-7 of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.  But both the script and fans constantly treated her like she was an infant compared to the other characters, because she practically was to the other actors.

The thing is, I have noted this fact, and complained about it, since long before I got particularly into Anime.  If i recall correctly I'd reblogged posts on Tumblr about how damaging it is to American teenagers that the people representing them on TV look so much more mature and developed then them.
phantasticphil-know-whats-real-f---ed-every

"Know what’s real f---ed? Every other age group has the correct aged actors representing them except teenagers. Adults play adults - children play children; but teenagers are played by more adults. Why? Because apparently our body changes from puberty are too ugly for TV. So what happens? We go through those years looking at the perfect “teenagers” and wondering why we don’t look like that."

And that's part of why I started really falling in love with Anime once I started watching more then just the obvious nerdy stuff.  I started watching High School Anime and went "wow, fiction where Teenagers don't look like fully grown adults".

It's easy to forget what real Teenagers look like.  We all were them at one point, but memories are not as reliable as you think, when I remember my teen years, I always recall myself looking how I do now.  So many people wind up just depending on all the TV they watch to get a reference point on how Teenagers should look.

Fortunately my extended family keeps reproducing, so there have always been current teenagers around.  So I can tell you that Anime teenagers look like teenagers.  They still often have the problem of looking too flawless, but compared to western TV, yes they absolutely look their age.  Likewise in what I've seen of Live Action Japanese media, the Teenagers look younger compared to American TV, because they are cast closer to their age.  Even Canada is better on this, some crossover stars graduate from playing High Schoolers on Canadian TV to start High School on American TV.

So when I then saw that it was really common for American Anime critics to complain that Teenagers in Anime look too young.  I was enraged, but for whatever reason held off ranting about it on this blog till today.

Now, the recently started airing Anime A Sister's All You need, is from the looks of the pilot another creepy Imouto Anime, I would not recommend anyone watch it.  But what set me off to finally write this post was one review describing two 18-20 year old female characters as "looking like they're 12".  Here is a Screencap taken from that very review.

(The Context of the Subs is a homophobic comment being made, which makes me cringe.  So again, don't watch it.)

These girls are not short, and they have fully developed breasts. What in the world looks 12 about them?  Is it just the big eyes?  All Anime characters have big eyes because of a design choice Osamu Tezuka stole from Walt Disney, seriously look at the Dwarves in Show White, they have total Moe Eyes.  So thank you Walt for cursing all Anime Girls to be eternally accused of looking like children no matter what.

Also since this criticism is also couched in gendered terms, saying it's mostly women this is done to.  Would any unbiased observer not assume all three of those characters are the same age?  They clearly look the same age, the dude just has a more severe expression, cause he's another Stoic Light Novel protagonist so he's required by law to try and out brood Kirito.

Now some Anime characters are within the story meant to look young for their age.  (Which can happen, I spent most of my 20s being constantly mistaken for a middle schooler.)  Those characters generally look notably shorter then everyone else, and if female are always flat chested.

I could also add that a lot of what's called High School Anime is really Middle School, Yuru Yuri is Middle School, in which context I think some of them look rather old.  So yes, some characters in what you see called High School Anime are pretty close to being 12.

Anime has always, even Miyazaki style Anime, tended to use Height as the default way to communicate age differences.  So kids always look way smaller then their parents, even if the kid in question is 18 and so about as tall as they'll get.  So that also complicates this issue a bit.

So we Americans should fix our own issues about how Teenagers look on television before we complain about Japan's.

Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru: Washio Sumi no Shou Episode 1

I plan to post on each episode of the new Yuki Yuna season.  I can't guarantee they'll be very good posts.  At any-rate Yuki Yuna will be a regular presence on this Blog for the next 3 months.

For the Prequel half, I'm re-watching since I saw the movie.  I have to say it's not proving as re-watchable as the original Yuki Yuna Anime.  Though it may simply be that I enjoy the Dub voice actors more.

I wasn't super-impressed with the movies to begin with.  Perhaps It's good to show I'm not always blindly thrilled by Prequels.  They were by no means bad, only a sequel would ruin Yuki Yuna and so that's what I'll be more on edge about.

I was again reminded of how I feel the Vertexes are kind of like the Angels from Evangelion.  I know some people really get offended every time someone alleges an Eva influence on something.

This first episode is still a perfectly adequate set up for our three Heroines.

Generational perspectives and Star Wars

In my ongoing war with Star Wars Prequel haters, I respond to all the "they ruined my childhood" nonsense by explaining that the Prequels are my childhood memories.  The Phantom Menace is to me everything A New Hope was to those people who fell in love with it in 1977.  When I re-watch it now it's one of the few things that makes me tear up.

And I'm not alone, the Prequels have plenty of fans on Tumblr and Wordpress.  And Facebook groups dedicated to them. 

And when saying this on a message board, I inevitably get a response from someone saying they were a youth in 1999 and they hated that movie too.  As if that proves something.

My mother was of the same generation as the original Star Wars fans, being a late Baby Boomer.  She's told me about how she and a boyfriend went to see it in 1977 and walked out of the theater.  The movie also got a fair share of less then glowing reviews at the time. 

But there is a difference between failing to fall in love with a movie that is an established franchise and one that isn't.  The people for whom A New Hope wasn't their thing weren't invested in it, they just moved on, when it became a big thing later then went "huh", but felt no emotional need to be offended by people who liked it.

But for people who kept hearing about Star Wars all the time, who were told it was a classic before they had the chance to make up their own minds on it.  When the movie made for your generation doesn't appeal to you, you may become unwilling to consider that it was simply not your thing.

Digibro, an Anime YouTuber, got into trouble once for complaining about boring tastes in 3x3s, for questioning if there really are so many people who's personal favorites happened to be all these "Elitist" Anime.  And I think for a lot of people of my generation or younger, movies like the original Star Wars trilogy, or the first two Godfathers, are in the same boat.  A lot of people convince themselves they like them because they feel they have to.

Am I saying anyone born in the 80s who didn't love TPM wasn't meant to be a Star Wars fan?  Not necessarily, there are plenty of differences between them to explain why one would appeal to you and not the other.  For me, the OT has a limited appeal, I appreciate them same as I do Evangleion as an Anime fan, but they don't speak to me.

Digibro said in a podcast once that he thought he simply didn't like Space Operas because he didn't enjoy TPM.  But then played Mass Effect and loved that, and then watched the RLM review and "realized' TPM was simply a bad movie:.  Well a youtuber named SaganFan1983 has a video totally destroying Plinkett's TPM review.  Meanwhile Mass Effect may also be a Space Opera, but it's basic appeal is still massively different from Star Wars.  Based on Digi's taste in Anime, Star Wars simply isn't for him, after all he said in the Kill La Kill video he hates orchestral scores.

Digi isn't quite my "Generation" in the sense I mean here though anyway.  Five years younger might not seem like a separate generation at first, but in the context of how quickly Hollywood and Anime trends have shifted in the New Millennium, they are a world apart.

I was 13 when TPM came out.  For awhile I'd been making the argument I summarized in the first paragraph of this post thinking of myself as the oldest end of the generation the Prequels were made for.  That it's odd to say I grew up on it when I was already a Teen.  But lately, I've noticed how in most old footage I see of people in 1977 gushing about the original film just after leaving the theater, they were mostly Teens and early 20s, I see no real little kids.  So I now realize that I am rather the youngest of the Prequel generation.

So Digibro and EndlessJess and the other PCP members, like the other rising stars of YouTube right now have a much younger perspective then I do on fiction.  The time when people my age would have been the core of YouTube, was a time when the Internet assumed only negative reviews were marketable.

People of Digibro's age have stuff from 1999 they are Nostalgic for, but those are shows and movies that were aimed at a much younger audience.  I was into Pokemon at the time they were super popular, but it's that fandom I was definitely arguably too old for.  It caught my attention because I was a Nintendo freak who'd spent 5 years being into Mario and Zelda already.  I think many Nintendo fans my age resent Pokemon for so quickly becoming equal to them.  I fortunately have always been pretty accepting of new stuff.

We have on YouTube now a generation that grew up at a time when the Internet was ruled by those Nostalgic for the OT.  And for whom Star Wars films made for them didn't start till 2015.  No one denies TFA was a BO success, even though financially it really didn't do any better then TPM.

It used to be you wouldn't really get to be a famous reviewer until your personal golden age was already over.  But people born in the 90s and 00 have had the opportunity to become famous praising their favorite shows while they still aired.  If more people my age had that opportunity during the Prequel era, things might be different.

However I still believe it's only a loud Minority.  Plenty of Prequel defenders exist in every generation of Star Wars fans.

But the Internet is still somewhat a place where negativity trends more, as much as things may have improved. So the first YouTube videos to come up on a google search for them, are often saying "not THAT bad" at best.  Because that's what trends.

My plans for The Fall Anime season.

First of all I'm continuing Fate/Apocrypha, it's second Core started with episode 13, which was pretty fun.  As well as the Simuldub of In Another World with my Smartphone, which has a few episodes left.

I will be watching season 2 of Yuki Yuna is a Hero.  I'm planning to cover all 12 episodes on this blog, even though the first 6 are repeating the movies I already saw.

After that, I will probably wait till the Simuldubs start to add more shows to the list.  That doesn't mean it'll only be shows getting simuldubbed, just that I want to wait.

The only other show I already knew I would try, is one I now already know is getting a Simuldub, Code:Realize.  Which is another addition to the Anime legacy of Arsene Lupin.

Now for Summer what my plans originally were got completely derailed.  If Digi and Nate do another Podcast on something I'll probably watch it too.

But for now, this is the plan.

Since I'm pretty sure none of the Simuldubs will start till November.  That gives me plenty of spare time to in October to watch old Anime, both rewatching and trying new stuff.  I'll try to give priority to stuff that has a Horror or Gothic slant, to then perhaps make a follow up to my Halloween recommendations before the month is over.

Update October 13th:

Well it turns out the Simuldubs are starting before Ocotber ends.  I may wait till November to start them anyway.

 For the Winder Season I started watching the shows I did when the Dubs already had 4 episodes up.   I didn't premeditate that, I really wasn't interested to trying to follow currently airing shows yet.  But it was nice to get the 3 episodes test out of the way as soon as I started.

You can Westernize Anime adaptations without actually Westernizing them.

What I mean by that is, you can change the setting of one that was originally set in Japan to America or Canada or Europe or wherever, without changing the storytelling sensibilities from Japanese ones to American ones.

For one thing lots of Anime are set outside Japan, or at least include lots of Non-Japanese characters, to begin with.  As I've said before I wish those would get the priority in terms of making Hollywood or other Western adaptations of Anime.

But I am also all for re-imagining stories, and retelling them in different settings.  I like when Anime gives a distinctly Japanese twist on a popular story of the Western Tradition.  And so I think it's valid to also do the reverse.

The basic themes and questions dealt with by Death Note were perfectly universal in my opinion, so I felt you could retell that story in America without needing to change it's social commentary to something more American.  Mother's Basement in his video on the Netflix Death Note movie says the original Death Note Manga and Anime was a commentary on "Japan's harsh stance on Crime".  As if the attitude of being harsh on crime is somehow uniquely Japanese.  Even California still has the Death Penalty.

Death Note is a story that had a pretty broad reach in America because it is frankly an ideological critique of the very impulses that Death Wish appeals to, and that makes my parents cheer on Rorschach when he says "you're trapped in here with me".

If they wanted to use an Anime adaptation to talk about American interventionism, plenty of Anime is already at least partly about that.  They could have done Canaan for example.

Basically I'm saying a lot of Anime is as naturally adaptable and culturally universal as Shakespeare, where many adaptations change the period and setting often without even changing the script or dialogue at all.  But even an adaptation that isn't going to be retelling the exact same story, even more so needs to keep in mind why people like Anime to start with.  Taking that away won't make it more appealing to broader audiences, what we've learned with Comic Book Superhero movies is that if the target audience doesn't like an adaptation, the general public won't even care.

And even plenty of Otaku Centric Anime are among those in my view.  American Otaku call themselves that because of how much they identify with that Japanese subculture.  Because we feel just as out of place in our society as they do in Japan.  The American version of Lucky Star has been in my head for awhile now, I just need to get myself in a position to pitch it.

The Wachoskis are the most notable when it comes to being Hollywood directors influenced by Anime.  The specific Anime they draw on is rather out of date compared to what the current generation of Otaku would like to see brought to American Cinemas.  But still they are an example of making things thought to only work in Anime work in Hollywood.

I think their best movie is Speed Racer, the only one adapted from a specific Anime.  Speed Racer keeps getting overlooked when people act like there are no good Live Action Anime adaptations.  The movie flopped when it came out but has become the very definition of vindicated by History.  But it was also an adaptation of Speed Racer's Dub.  But even that Dub was still distinctly Anime, and this movie arguably is even more Anime.  The way it's non-linear at times, the way the tone shifts, the way the visuals go all out.  The way it'd bold and unapologetic about what it is.

It failed at the time it came out because it was ahead of it's time.  If it came out now when the MCU rather then Nolan is dominating the Superhero film market, the story may have been different.

Digibro has expressed support for Abrams doing Your Name. I haven't seen Your Name, and my opinions on Abrams films are complicated.  His main argument is Abrams is a more accomplished director then most making Anime adaptations.  That reminds me of my suggesting Zach Snyder for making some Anime adaptations.  Digi had also compared Zach Snyder to the director of Death Note and Attack on Titan, I think Attack on Titan would be more Snyder's style.

Now for objections to Westernizing Your Name, I can understand being concerned with the Shintoism in it, though plenty of similar ideas exist in other religious traditions.  However what annoys me is when people say you can't westernize Your Name because Your Name is about "the cultural divide between Rural and Urban Japan".  That is literally the most universal cultural divide there is, it's certainly here in America, it's a divide that pops up in my life constantly.  And it sure as hell effects our elections every four years.

Mithrandir’s Halloween Anime Recommendations.

I’m by no means the first Otaku to provide some Halloween season Anime recommendations in October.  So why care about mine?

October 31st happens to be my Birthday.  So even though I’ve defined myself as not a Horror fan in the strictest sense (in that I’m not looking to be scared by any fiction I watch) I have other reasons for enjoying a lot of stuff in the Horror and Gothic genres.  And I have a lot of memories of enjoying such fiction during the Halloween season.  

I love the classic Universal Monster movies, I’ve also enjoyed many Hammer films.  And other more obscure horror movies, like those Public Domain ones you sometimes find in DVD box sets selling 50 for only $10.  Slasher films I’ve tended to not be fond of, but I do enjoy Halloween 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6.  And some of my favorite episodes of Western live Action television have been Halloween specials, from NCIS episodes like Witch Hunt to Pretty Little Liars‘ epic trilogy of Halloween specials.  Plus I love the first two Ghostbusters movies, and I don’t hate the reboot.

Since I’ve become mainly an Anime watcher over the last couple of years.  It’s overdue that I make some Anime Halloween recommendations.  Though I feel kinda like I haven’t watched enough Horror centric Anime.

I listened to about like an hour of the Podcast that Mother’s Basement did with Digibro, Gigguk and BestGuyEver about their Halloween recommendations.  And really none sound like they fit what I look for this time of year, but they might for others.

One thing Gigguk said that rubbed me the wrong way, was that he doesn’t like how Anime Horror is too “aesthetically pleasing”.  I don’t like how western horror in recent years is so obsessed with being Aesthetically ugly.  I like the first two Saw movies as Mysteries, and that’s about it from the Torture Porn genre.  And I like none of those movies that revolve around women crawling out of caves all slimy and muddy and dirty.  Classic Horror, like Universal and Hammer gave us, was very Aesthetically pleasing, it was simply a Gothic Aesthetic.

These recommendations are largely for people relatively new to Anime in general, if you have a respectable MAL already you’ve probably at least tasted all or most of these.  If however you consider yourself a hardcore Otaku and you’ve missed any one of these, you need to reconcile that immediately.

Why give Halloween themed recommendations to Newbies?  Maybe Horror or Gothic romance simply is your favorite genre and so Halloween fitting Anime would be the best entry point possible.  Or maybe now simply is the time you decided to finally give Japanimation a shot.  Or maybe you’re already at phase 2 or 3 of burrowing down the Otaku rabbit hole and are looking for new routes to dig into.  Perhaps specifically saving the Horror Route for October.

One more note before I start.  I haven’t watched the Castlevania series on Netflix yet.  I’ve decided to wait till during this Halloween season (and thus after I’ve already posted this) to watch it.  Then I might talk about it somewhere if I feel compelled to.  (Turns out it’s not actually Anime.)  I don’t want to include in this list something that hasn’t already stood the test of time somewhat.  And it gives me something new for the season to enjoy myself.  It annoys me that the Godzilla Anime doesn’t drop till November.

1. I’ve already declared When They Cry/Higurashi the ideal Horror Anime.  If you haven’t seen it yet, don't read that post past the Spoiler Warning.  In summary what I’ll say here is it has very much the Japanese equivalent of a Gothic Aesthetic.  And it makes an engaging mystery, with well done shocking moments.  And never abuses the Jump Scare.  
   
   
   But one thing I forgot to mention in that post was the Score, the Music in this show is perfect at setting an eerie mood.  If you can find the music on it’s own, it’d be excellent for a Haunted House.  
   
   
   Another note before moving on, for the numbered entries here I’m not recommending entire franchises but single series that might be part of larger franchises but still have a distinct entry on MAL or most Streaming sites.  For Higurashi it’s really only season 1 I’m recommending for October viewing.  Season 2 (Kai) is perhaps better for early November, when you’re kinda still in a Halloween mood, but want to phase yourself out of it before Christmas.  (Don’t expect Christmas recommendations BTW.)
   
   
2. Vampire Princess Miyu, the 4 episode 80s OVA.  This would be best if you want something shorter to get your feet wet.  It’s probably the only pre-2000 Anime I’ll recommend here.  It similarly has the Japanese equivalent to a Gothic Aesthetic.  And I really like it’s use of sound effects.  I also like the 90s TV series, but that’s better watched in the context of how to make a darker Magical Girl show.
   
   
3. School Live I now consider the best Zombie Anime.  Highschool of The Dead still has value, but if you’re gonna watch only one watch School Live.  Don’t let the cuteness fool you, it gets pretty scary.  And it isn’t filled with tasteless fanservice.
   
   
4. Witch Hunter Robin.  I can’t believe I haven’t talked about this on this blog more yet, since it’s about as ancient as the BeeTrain trilogy in my development as an Anime Fan.  It’s use of its horror elements is pretty interesting.  It's also got intrigue.  And is one of the best examples of why I love the 26 episode structure.
   
   
5. Hellsing, (the original Anime not Ultimate).  Is a satisfying Anime spin off to the legacy of Bram Stoker’s novel.  While all of the above 4 have Dubs, and the Dub is what I watched, this is the only one I feel confident in calling a top tier Dub, after all Alucard is Crispin Freeman.  Though I will say for Miyu not to write off the OVA’s dub based on how the 90s show’s gets called one of the worst of all time, it’s a very different Dub.

The only honorable mention I shall provide is the Fate/ franchise as a whole, it has Horror elements but that is not quite it’s main appeal.   But since the mythology/folklore is a large part of why I’m into Horror in the first place, it does overlap well with part of why I like Fate/ so much.  From the quasi Lovecraftian quality of Fate/Zero’s Caster, to the Fate/Stay Night:Unlimited Blade Works Caster’s berserk button being when she’s called a Witch.   Those are as I’ve explained before the best entry points to Fate/.  

Heck, Rin Tosaka pretty much always dresses like it’s Halloween.

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya, is the worst entry point only appealing at all if you're really into the niche it’s made for.  I am, so I enjoy even it’s much maligned Dub.  But as the ultimately least dark version of the Fate/ universe, it still has some solid Halloween season material.

The Grand Order OVA’s Dub becomes available this October, so I’ll also be watching that before the month is over, I can’t comment on it before then.  But on the subject of single episode OVAs, Fate/Prototype can be a spooky quick Halloween viewing experience.

But another reason I couldn’t leave Fate/ out of this post is that Fate/Apocrypha is a currently airing show that includes the characters of Vlad The Impaler and Frankenstein’s Monster, and also Jack The Ripper, and Semiramis is fairly Witchy.  So if any currently airing TV Anime this October needs to be mentioned it’s that one.  The tone however doesn’t fit Halloween as well as the other shows from what I’ve seen so far, unfortunately.  Maybe they’re saving the scarier bits for the Fall, either way it is again not a good entry point for Fate/.

As of episodes 8 and 9, Vlad and Frank’s characters are finally getting some good exploration.  And as of episode 11 I’m very into it.

Normally a list like this doesn’t end on the honorable mention.  But I organized this from the top down anyway.

It turns out this year’s October 31st will be the last day the legal streaming site www.Daisuki.Net operates, it’s being shut down.  So this month is your last chance to watch any Anime there.  But it has none of what I’ve recommended so that’s not actually helpful here.

Vampire Princess Miyu and Witch Hunter Robin had past legal western releases, but I can’t find them currently legally streaming anywhere.

School Live, Hellsing and Fate/ should be easy enough to find legally, between Crunchyroll, Funimation’s Website and Netflix.

Higurashi I was having trouble finding on any legal site, but then I found HIDIVE.  You can watch stuff free with ads, but need a paying subscription to view the Dubs it has.  For Higurashi the Dub isn’t that well received anyway, I was okay with it mostly but I can see why others wouldn’t be.  School Live is also on that site.  And it has some Fate/ stuff as well.
Update One Year Later: Now Witch Hunter Robin is on Funimation and VRV, but Miyu is still not legal anywhere.  Higurashi season 1 is now also on Hulu and Yahoo but season 2 is still only on HIDIVE.

Update May 2021: The English Dub of the Miyu OVAs are now on TubiTV, MidnightPulp and RetroCrush.  

Higurashi is still on HIDIVE (and VRV via HIDIVE) but that site doesn't have legal free viewing anymore.  Gou is on Hulu and FUNimation but I do NOT recommend watching it till you've seen the main series.

Witch Hunter Robin is still on FUNimation but not on VRV anymore.  Hellsing is also on FUNi and School Live! is on HIDIVE/VRV.  Most of Fate/ can be watched on either Netflix or HIDIVE.