Frankenstein needs more Anime

My Halloween Anime recommendations post at the start of the month wound up being dominated by Vampires to a large extent, partly that may be the lingering influence of my personal involvement in the 20tween Vampire craze, but I think it's largely that Vampires and Pointy Hat Witches are the most popular iconic Halloween monsters in Japan.  And a good number of Vampire Anime includes Dracula himself in some form.

It doesn't surprise me that Mummies are not as popular in Anime because Japan simply wasn't subject to the recurring bouts of Egyptomania that the West has.  Japan knows enough about the popularity of Egypt to often use it as the basis for a generic desert setting which may include Mummy style enemies in video games.  But taking those Egyptian things outside of the desert isn't something Japan is as keen to do.

However the lack of Anime representation for Dracula's greatest rival does surprise me.  Frankenstein in Anime has had that Toei TV movie in the early 80s, a very unconventional insertion into Fate/ lore and similarly with some other more niche shows that also amalgamize a bunch of Victorian classic literature together.  Dracula in Anime has Frankenstein dwarfed and even Carmilla makes more appearances.

I am one of those who likes to observe that in the original Novel of Frankenstein in the grand scheme of things Victor's real Sin isn't creating life but abandoning it right after he creates it for not being exactly what the expected or wanted. It's about the moral responsibility that comes with bringing life into the world.

And that is why the lack of direct Frankenstein adaptions in Anime surprises me, because that moral theme is in Anime frequently, in fact it's embedded into Anime as we know it from it's foundation.  Yes I am arguing that Umatarou Tenma is an echo of Victor Frankenstein in more then just the vague way every mad Scientist gets compared to Frankenstein, as is Precia Testarossa.  And then of course there is how Mewtwo can be compared to The Creature.

So I would like to see Anime take it's distinct approach to these issues and apply it back to the original.

Ages of Video Games

After making my post on The Golden, Silver and Bronze Ages of Anime I started thinking about the same thing in regards to Video Games.  But thoughts aren't as deep though.

Video Games are an even younger medium then Anime and so frankly I think we're still in Bronze Age.  Gaming still hasn't even reached a true Modern Age.

I'm going to go ahead and say the Golden Age began with the release of Pac-Man.  The Action Button YouTube Channel has a good video on Pac-Man breaking it down and documenting it's importance in Gaming History.  All I can add is that I'm a lifelong Nintendo Brand Loyalist and so me being willing to give the honor of being the Action Comics No.1 of Video Games to something that isn't a Nintendo Franchise should really prove how strong the argument for it is.  But don't worry Donkey Kong can still be the Detective Comics No.27.

I'm next going to say that the Silver Age began in 1996.  For those of us who are card carrying Evangelists of The Church of Nintendo the importance of that year as ushering in a new era of Gaming is established first by Pokémon Red and Green then by Super Mario RPG and finally by the launch of the Nintendo 64 including Super Mario 64.  Meanwhile Kirby Superstar and Donkey Kong Country 3 were good swan songs for the side scrolling Golden Age.

But I'm also an Otaku, and in the world of Bishoujo Video Games 1996 saw in January the first Visual Novel Shizuku, then the second Visual Novel Kizuato and the dating sim Welcome to Pia Carrot released the same day.  It also had another important dating sim in Kakyuusei. Sakura Wars also left a big impact.  And then at the end of the year on the Feast of Stephen Elf dropped YU-NO A Girl who Chants Love at The Bound of This World a game who's impact on the culture can't be understated and the west's ignorance of it explains a lot of what we get wrong.

96 also had the first Persona Game.

For PlayStation fans however 1997 is the year that console finally made a name for itself with Symphony of Night, Mega Man X4, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy Tactics and SaGa Frontier all coming out in one year.

For Bishoujo games it was an ultimately less important year then 96 but does put a few developments on what 96 started with To Heart completing the original Visual Novel trilogy, then Dosei being the first non Leaf Visual Novel and Moon being the first game from the team that would go on to create Key, and the launch of the Age studio.

Finally the current/Bronze Age of Video Games started with the Wii-U,/Playstation 4/Xbox ONE generation.

The Golden, Silver and Bronze Ages of Anime.

I notice a lot of online Anime Discourse, at least back in 2016-2017, talking about what was the Golden Age of Anime treating that term as just meaning whatever is the best when that's not actually what the concept of a Golden Age means.

The Golden Age of something is it's first era of greatness, some stuff can have came before but they're basically Pre-History in the grand scheme of things.  No fan of Western Superhero Comics actually thinks the Golden Age had a higher baseline level of quality then fully developed modern Comics, or that most of the absolute best Comics ever made were made then, but they call it the Golden Age anyway.

Likewise I am going to say the Golden Age of Anime began with the premier of Astor Boy in 1963 and ended with the final episode of Lupin III Part II (Red Jacket) in 1980 even though I am personally into very little from that era.  

I will then define the Silver Age as spanning 1981 through 1994 and maybe even the first season of 95.  

The Bronze Age is then 1995-2010 (or maybe it wouldn't be completely wrong to include the Fall of 94) while the current Modern Age began with 2011 and is still going on as I write this. 

Significantly over 50% of all the Anime I've completed on MAL is Modern in this definition.  Partly because how much Anime gets made each year keeps increasing, but also because it was a years into the Modern Era that Anime became a full time interest of mine.

However I would have to say the Bronze Age is probably the age I currently like the most, it contains most of the few Anime I actually do have Childhood or YA Nostalgia for.  And there are so many interesting kinds of Anime I feel were only made then.

Now my definition for the Golden Age is perhaps the most self explanatory.  That it ends right before Millennials begin being born makes it easy for us to see it as the Antiquity of Anime History.  

The Silver Age is then contemporary with the Earliest Millennials growing from Babies to starting High School.  But I'd also say the key 1981 milestone to kick off this age was Urusei Yatsura while the swan song of the Silver Age was Sailor Moon S the last season of that Anime with Tomita, Yanagikawa and Sumisawa on the writing staff.

I already have a Post on this Blog about Anime in 1995 showing what a game changing year it was. But the argument for starting the Bronze Age in Fall of 94 would be Macross 7 & Magic Knight Rayearth and how DNA seems ahead of it's time as an absurd Harem premise. And I also already have a post on 2011 Anime showing how it launched many of the trends that define modern Anime Culture.  And even in that post I had not yet accounted for Psycho-Pass or some other shows I watched more recently, or how for Detective Conan the Holmes' Revelation Case can definitely be considered the start of the Modern Era for that show and Movie 15 the first movie to truly feel like modern Detective Conan movies.

But 2010 as the end of an Era is also interesting to break down.  War on Geminar was the last real OVA saga, since then OVAs have only been for bonus episodes of TV shows and Hentai.  Oreimo season 1 was the last real Otaku Rights show before Otaku culture became too tolerated for such a premise to feel relevant anymore.  White Album and Yosuga no Sora were the last Anime adaptations of retro Visual Novels made before modern Anime styles got in the way of such adaptations feeling Retro (I love YU-NO's 2019 Anime but I do wish it could looked more like a 90s Anime).  For Pokémon Diamond and Pearl is the last generation I personally feel can be considered a classic gen.  Legend of The Legendary Heroes was the last major Fantasy Anime before the influence of SAO and LN Isekai took over (a few shows and movies with the vibes of these kind of Fantasy still get made but they get drowned out).

For both Superhero Comics and Anime the change from Golden to Silver is shockingly clean, with if anything a brief gap that feels like neither rather then a transitional period that feels like both.  With Anime it's only the change from Silver to Bronze I consider debatable at all, Fall of 94 and Winter of 95 can each go either way.  I similarly do consider the transition from Silver to Bronze for Comics the most stylistically complex (other transitions are only debated more by DC nerds because this is the only one where the continuity didn't change).  None of the shows airing in both Fall 2010 and Winter 2011 I consider defining shows of either era.

What to call the era the follows the Bronze Age after it's no longer Modern is what isn't so standardized.  For DC Comics it's the Post-Crisis era, I'm of the generation of DC fans who grew up with the Post-Crisis era being the current Modern Era.  But when did the Post Crisis era end?  During the early-mid 2000s we felt like it was still the Post-Crisis era but in hindsight a lot of what was special about the Post-Crisis era to many who consider it their favorite era of DC comics was already being eroded by 2002, I consider the reviving of Oliver Queen in the Quiver arc from 2001 a key turning point.

So with about 15 years seeming to be the average, we Anime fans may well be near the end of our current era, which is perhaps what a lot of people tired of certain current Anime trends are hoping for.  But we probably won't notice the change as it happens just as DC fans didn't and just as I don't think we noticed the huge shifts happening in 2010-2013.  Madoka Magica was a big deal immediately, but how soon did people realize just how much it had completely changed the game for it's Genre?  Maybe the upcoming Madoka movie will help end the very same era the original show helped start?

But what will we call this era?  DC fans were lucky being given a convenient name early on, though it was originally used to denote continuity changes more so then an era.  We have been using some terms to describe the modern state of Anime, but they tend to refer to specific subgenres of what's going on now rather then all of it.  What do Dark Magical Girls, Isekai, VRMMOs, Magic Academies, endless Fate/ Spin Offs, and Battle Royal/Death Games all have in common?

I know sometimes the Post Crisis era is also called the Dark Age of Comics because of Watchmen/DKR influence.  And indeed some of those Anime trends are Dark but not all of them, Isekai is usually the opposite and plenty of classic style Mahou Shoujo have coexisted with the Madoka Clones.

Maybe "The Light Novel era" works.  LNs were a thing during prior eras and they portably will still be in future eras just as the Edgy Anti-Heroes of 90s Comics didn't just disappear.  But it does feel like this is an era where even some things that aren't LN based often seem like they are because of how pervasive their influence is.

Occultic;Nine subverts the Flat Earth Atheist trope

First of all this post is going to spoil some of the central twists of the Anime Occultic-Nine, if you haven't seen it already I suggest you do so quickly, it's very underrated and is only 12 episodes and it's both subbed and dubbed on Crunchyroll, and it's a fitting show for Halloween month in my opinion.

Flat Earth Atheist is the TVtrope term for when a character is written like a strict hyper rationalist materialists even when in a setting where denying the Supernatural is a lot less rational then it is in our world.  Occultic;Nine is a show that at first one might think is going to feature that trope but actually doesn't.

In the opening episodes both Gamon and Sarai are skeptical of the supernatural, the rest of the main cast are all pretty ready to believe in the paranormal so those two are the Skeptics representation.  While both are skeptics it's only Sarai who gives off that smug Reddit Atheist energy, he's the character who a genre savy viewer will expect to act like Fred in Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. Gamon's skepticism is a lot less central to his identity.

So that's why it's interesting how in episode 7 following the reveal that they've all been Ghosts for 3 episodes it's Sarai who's mostly accepted that the evidence as pointing to that being the case even before it's made truly indisputable.  While it's Gamon who's in denial, but his denial is framed as Emotional coping not a product of whatever his ideology was.

So it's an Anime where the true Rationalist accepts the facts even when they go agaisnt his prior world view and the "Flat Earth Atheist" was never actually that much of an Atheist.

Halloween Anime recommendations by Streaming App

It’s time for me to do another Halloween Anime Recommendations post. This time the structure shall be by what legal streaming sites (if any) you can watch them on, cause I think in my prior versions of this the need to say it for each entry separately and then add edits when changes happen later made them difficult to read.  But it does mean some shows may get mentioned more than once if they’re on more than one website/app.

I’m starting to write this many months in advance with the plan to post it on October 1st 2023, I intend to double check and make sure everything I say here is on a given website/app still is, but if anything slips through the cracks I apologize.  Also knowing my luck something could be taken down the day after I post this.

I’ll start with the Freest Anime Streaming Site, RetroCrush, because getting people to access what's most accessible is one of my main goals.

The Vampire Princess Miyu OVAs from the 80s are still there, and last I checked, still only Dubbed which is sad because it’s one of the few things where I don’t particularly recommend the Dub, the Dub is adequate, it certainly could have been worse, but sounds stiff at times.  But besides occasionally awkward Dub voice acting they hold up really well, with a nice mood and atmosphere amplified by really distinct sound effects.

Boogiepop Phantom is is there which I wasn’t expecting.

They also have Go Nagai’s The Devil Lady which I recently watched and is pretty good.

The movie Hells is pretty fun as well.

Honestly there’s probably a lot more on Retrocrush I’m just not familiar with yet, my tastes in Anime are pretty modern, fortunately they have a Halloween Collection of their own featuring the shows I just listed.  And maybe if I’m lucky before October is over they’ll add some of the stuff I plan to talk about at the bottom of this post.

A number of Anime on Retrocrush are sometimes also on similar Free apps like Tubi, MidnightPulp and Filmrise, but I don’t feel like keeping track of which.  Since almost all Anime on any of those is also on Retrocrush with the most notable exception being Case Closed/Detective Conan which isn’t a Horror show but has the occasional Hallween episode.

Of the 50 episodes on Tubi none work as a Halloween episode. Of the original 123 on Filmrise Episode 20 A Haunted Mansion Murder Case would probably be the first.  Season 2 Episodes 6-7 Mountain Villa Bandaged Man Murder Case also works, episode 24 qualifies but it’s not one of my favorites.  Season 3 Episodes 7-8 have Ghost in the name.  Season 4 Episodes 2-3 is another Mountain Villa set up, however I feel episodes 6-7 is the most traditional Halloween episode among them since it’s Dracula themed.  Season 5 episode 6 is also worth mentioning.

I recently learned that Cowboy Bebop The Movie is essentially the Die Hard of Halloween movies and it’s only on Tubi.TV.

Pokemon has its own Free Streaming App PokemonTV, not all of the Anime is on there and much of what is often changes, but the earliest Seasons usually are as well as most spin off series not part of the main Anime.  The Early seasons have a few Spooky focused on the Ghost Pokemon, and the Generations Miniseries has one for one its Gen4 entries.

On Adult Swim’s App and Adult Swim On Demand should still be Housing Complex C which last year very quickly earned its status as an essential Halloween recommendation, it finally cracked the code of how to make Lovecraftian Horror work in a visual medium. 

HIDIVE still has some of the best Halloween Anime, but it now lacks a couple key Anime that it used to have.

On the subject of Zombie Anime, as I’ve said before, if you want something that feels like a Moe Anime take on George a Romero watch School Live!.  But if you want one that feels more like a Zack Snyder Zombie Movie go for High School of The Dead.

One of last year’s recent additions to the Halloween Anime Canon is Call of The Night which isn’t actually scary at all but is still pretty watchable and has the right vibes.

Monster Princess is a fun and trashy Halloween Anime.

Lunar Legend Tsukihime’s 2003 Anime is not liked by most fans of its franchise, but I found it enjoyable and certainly fits the season.  

Rozen Maiden also has nice Halloween vibes.

Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess will start airing on October 7th six days after I plan to post this.  So I don’t know if it’ll actually be good or not but I’ll check it out.  [Update: this show isn't what I expected, it may still be good but I don't think it fits as a Halloween show.]

[Update: The Eminence in Shadow season 2 happens to begin with a Ghoul arc.]

Honestly I wouldn't recommend subscribing to Amazon Prime just for the Streaming Anime that comes with it, but between all the good non-Anime stuff on Prime (like Britannia which can be a fun show to watch for Samhain) and saving you shipping and handling on Amazon orders there isn’t much of a reason not to get it.  In which case there are a couple Anime you can watch there specifically.

Elfen Lied I dedicated a full post to back in August..  In short it gets dismissed a lot today as the ultimate substance-less edgelord Anime, but there is a real Heart to it that those critics are ignoring, I’m even willing to call it downright Wholesome at times.  But however you interpret it there are certainly many who’d find something like it fun to watch for Halloween.

Vatican Miracle Examiner is a 2017 show I didn’t finish, but I’m willing to recommend it to people who have Prime on its first 4 episode Arc alone.  It’s like the ultimate absurd B-Movie horror premise, I don’t want to spoil where it goes, just trust me.  If only it had a Dub.

Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarock seems interesting.

In addition to the Anime that comes with Prime you could also Digitally purchase some stuff if you can afford it, like Lupin III Secret of Mamo (I don’t know which Dub the Amazon purchase comes with) which has potential Halloween appeal.  The original Vampire Hunter D is also Purchasable that way.

Hulu has some options but I wouldn’t recommend subbing to Hulu for Anime alone.  Some of what is and isn't on Hulu seems to rotate a bit, it has a lot of the same stuff HIDIVE does but I’ve never noticed any of the Halloween stuff I mentioned above on it before.  It also has some CR overlap.

The original Hellsing (not Ultimate) is another Anime I consider fun for Halloween.

Seraph of The End: Vampire Reign is a show I had fun with once a few years ago but haven’t rewatched it since.

Blood-C is amazing, I was enjoying it from early on but then was totally blown away by where it went.

Wandering Witch is about a Witch but usually isn’t actually scary.

Netflix is one of the more expensive but it does have some solid options.

Vampire in The Garden is a show I enjoyed in the Summer of 2022 but forgot to talk about when October came along.  It’s the kind of show I would have had a lot more to say about if I could have seen it during the height of my Vampire fixation in 2009-2014.

Monster is a classic 00s Anime that is on there now after lacking a legal streaming option for years.

Fate/Apocrypha is a show I cautiously recommend with its unique takes on Frankenstein and Dracula and Jack The Ripper.

Zom 100 is a new show from this year that I haven't watched any of yet myself so I don’t if i can recommend it, I may try it during this month.

And Netflix also has some Resident Evil content.

Castlevania is a show I have mixed feelings on, including being mixed about if to even count it in an Anime discussion.  And its spin off Nocturne went up just a couple days before October started.

[Update: Good Night World released on Netflix on October 12th wound up having some Halloween appeal.]

Crunchyroll, some may argue I should’ve started there since it’s used by pretty much every Anime fan willing to pay for a legal streaming App at all.  It has a greater volume of stuff then HIDIVE, I’m not sure I want to write mini reviews of everything on there potentially relevant.

The one I most actively recommend is Garden of Sinners aka Kara No Kyoukai which sadly still isn’t dubbed but is fantastic regardless.

Gankutsuou is a classic no one should miss out on.

Sankarea is very good, I could have sworn it was on Hulu when I first watched it but now it’s only on CR.

In/Spectre is another one I'll go out of my way to recommend since some prominent Canadians have been stupidly hating on it, don’t listen to them it’s awesome. 

 Ms. Vampire who lives in my Neighborhood is a fun show from recent years.  Zombieland Saga is a show I still haven’t watched myself but I’ve heard consistently good things about it from those who have.  Holy Knight is a Vampire OVA I have mixed feelings on.

Dance in The Vampire Bund is interesting.  Its pilot works as a neat short story all on its own, I think many will who won’t like the rest of the show.  It’s also a shaft show so cna visually remind one of other Shaft shows like…. Omg it just occurred to me Monogatori could be Halloween relevant but I can’t watch it, it has no dub and is already Text heavy even before Localization.

Occultic;Nine and Chaos;Child are good recommendations if like me you’re feeling oddly Nostalgic for 2016 and 2017 this year.

Some stuff on CR may still be on Funimation if you're still subscribed to it (or if it even still exists in October), some may even still be only Dubbed there like Boogiepop Phantom.  Phantom beats the proper Boogiepop and Others Anime on pure Aesthetic, but both are worth a watch.

Witch Hunter Robin is an old personal favorite of mine that doesn’t get talked about as much as it deserves.

Of CR’s planned Fall 2023 shows starting in October, only The Family Circumstances of The Irregular Witch seems even close to relevant, but I have my doubts. [Update: turns out this is the kind of show who's one joke wears thin pretty quickly.]

[Update: Dead Mount Deathplay is a fun show with good Halloween vibes, and it's second part starts today October 10th.  Don't know if it's Dub will resume before October ends though.]

.......

Sadly there are still some Anime that can’t be legally streamed anywhere including some Halloween relevant options.  Occasionally a sufficiently old and niche one can simply be found on YouTube like Monster of Frankenstein or the Live Action Boogiepop and Others movie both of which I recommend.

I don’t want to publicly promote where I go to watch what I can’t officially watch for a number of reasons.  Otherwise I’d definitely direct people to someplace where they can watch Karin, a great early 00s hidden gem Vampire Anime.

The 90s TV Anime version of Vampire Princess Miyu is a mixed bag (especially its Dub which is indeed worse then what the OVAs got), but I do see value in some episodes so I am sad it’s not streaming anywhere.

Most of the Blood The Last Vampire franchise can’t currently be officially streamed, the original movie from 2000, Blood+, the Live Action movie and The Last Dark movie which continues the story of Blood-C, are all worth checking out. 

Detective Conan’s 25th Movie The Bride of Halloween is sadly still not officially localized for The West in any capacity.

But perhaps most tragic is the inability to legally watch Umineko When They Cry anywhere.  Like Tsukihime I'm nearly alone in considering it’s Anime good, but I consider it very good, I rank it much higher than Tsukihime. Its penultimate episode made me Cry.

And it turns out even Higurashi isn’t on HIDIVE anymore, along with Vampire Hunter D.  Two of the absolute must sees.  Night Walker is also gone.

I may add updates to this post if anything changes before October is over.