Housing Complex C is a Great Horror Anime

I've watched it 3 times now, October of 2022, October of 2023 and October of 2024 which was Yesterday.

It's most notable strength is how I feel it has uniquely found out how to make Lovecraftian Horror work in a Visual Medium.  While also going in the opposite direction of what's politically problematic about Lovecraft with it's clear Pro-Immigration theme.

But Lovecraft stories aren't the only Horror stories it can be compared to.

In the context of Anime it definitely has some overlapping vibes with Higurashi When They Cry, if you want something like that but much shorter this is it.

I've seen people more into Junji Ito's work then me say there are some Junji Ito references, but I can't confirm or deny that myself.

The Housing Complex set up kinda reminds me of Lady in The Water one of those later M Night Shyamalan movies many hate on but that I enjoyed.

It's on both Max and Adult Swim, I highly recommend it.

Umineko's Anime is Great

Umineko is different from most cases of my defending a Visual Novel based Anime hated by fans of the source material.  Though my basic argument that the Anime needs to be judged as it's own thing first before bringing source material comparison into it (which VN zealots constantly refuse to do) remains.

In those other cases the Anime adaptation doesn't fundamentally change anything about what happens, it's mostly fans being upset about stuff cut that they liked, but all that cut stuff is probably still Canon in the Anime it's just off screen or in most cases literally in a POV character's head.  In Umineko however actual changes happen making it so what is happening in the Anime can't be the same as what was happening in the VN.

Before I get into those changes however, I want to describe for you my experience watching the Anime as someone who went in knowing only that it's a spiritual sequel to Higurashi.  Because I knew the connection to Higurashi I figured the timeline would restart every 4 to 6 episodes but nothing else.

It starts as an Anime take on a fairly generic murder mystery set up, the first 4 and a half episodes do a good job of establishing the characters and making me interested, and there was definitely a sense that it was being self aware about the clichés it is playing with, I happen to like that style of metafiction.  I was having a good time but it was not something I'd recommend outside the specific context of Anime to watch during October.

Then in the midst of episode 5 during what seemed to my Higurashi memory like an Arc's climax the show suddenly cuts to the characters sitting around talking about the "bad end" having a conversation that feels like one of those non canon Meta conversations characters often have over the next episode preview.  Then Battler starts questioning things and then stuff starts happening and then the Witch shows up, and he starts arguing that witches don't exist, to the Witch standing in front of him.  Then it cuts to Lady Bernkastel and I'm like "she looks and sounds familiar".

Then the show goes off the rails in the best way possible, it gets so absurd and wacky and over the top and I loved every minute of it, the Brass knuckles, the witch battles, the juggling between realities and time periods.  But as all that's happening I also start to get genuinely more invested in the characters and before I know it the penultimate episode makes my Cry, something that then still happened to me fairly rarely, this show that I was a few hours ago tweeting about as a show to watch for the absurd ridiculousness now has me in tears.

When a show or movie makes me Cry it's pretty much a guaranteed 10 out of 10, there would have to be some significant problems to cancel that out and Umineko had none.  So no matter what the VN differences were gonna turn out to be, the Anime as it's own stand alone piece of art irreversibly earned it's status as an Artistic Masterpiece.

Now as I discus the VN differences I will have to get into spoilers, though I'll try to keep them minimal.

Halloween Anime Recommendations Redux

I figured I’m long overdue for an updating of my Anime Halloween Recommendations.  This one will mostly not be about ranking them besides that I will start with is my Number 1.  Instead I will divide it into sections.

I’ll try to always identify places where you can legally stream them, but some can’t be legally streamed anywhere and I feel it's risky to publicly name any unofficial sites on my public blog.  Note anything I say is on Crunchyroll should also be on VRV, but at this point VRV is no longer worth the extra money it costs. I think more of these are on HIDIVE than any other single site, fortunately HIDIVE has a fairly cheap monthly subscription, and they offer a 14 day Free trial.

My Absolute Number 1.

Is still Higurashi When They Cry.  But it has become necessary recently for me to qualify myself.  Start with the first season of the original 2006 Studio Deen Anime which you can watch on HIDIVE, sadly only that of the older Higurashi Anime was ever Dubbed.  Then watch Season 2 also on HIDIVE which is also called Kai.  

Then take a break, sit on that material knowing that for a long time that was the entire story besides some ambiguously canonical side stories.  

Then watch the Rei OVAs also on HIDIVE, then the Kira OVAs which aren’t.  

Then watch Umineko When They Cry which also isn’t legally streaming anywhere, most hardcore fans hate that Anime especially but I prefer it to the VN’s story.

Then take a longer break, and consider watching Gou and SOTSU which are Higurahsi When They Cry New on Hulu.  I find these to have worthwhile content but not nearly the masterpieces the original story was.  So please treat their canonicity as optional.  [August 2022 Update: Gao and Stosu are also on Crunchyroll now including an English Dub.  I hate that this has a Dub but not Kai or Rei.]

Part 2: Some Retro Recommendations.

I mean truly retro, like even most Millennials can't remember when they were brand new.

The Vampire Princess Miyu OVAs from the 80s which are on three Free streaming sites, TubiTV, RetroCrush and Midnightpulp.  It’s a four episode OVA originally but sometimes it’s streamed as two Volumes in which what is usually referred to as the second episode is part of Volume 1.  Also in this case only the Dub is streaming for some reason. [Update March 2023: it's gone from Tubi now but still on the other two.]

Vampire Hunter D, the original 1986 film which holds up better than it’s overhyped sequel.  HIDIVE streams this one both Subbed and the Sentai Dub, which is a good Dub.  But it seems that you will have to turn to Piracy or finding old VHS tapes if you want to experience the original Streamline Dub.

Kyoufu Densetsu Kaiki! Frankenstein called in English The Monster Of Frankenstein or Frankensteins Monster, Horror Legend - Bizarre! Frankenstein.  This movie also isn’t legally streaming anywhere. I watched it on YouTube, however it might not be there anymore since it’s Toei and they've gotten more aggressive recently as PreCure and Sailor Moon focused YouTubers have learned.  It has a Dub that was actually recorded in the 80s, like one of the very oldest Dubs in existence.  I reviewed the movie on MAL a few years ago.

Part 3: Some Millennial era Stuff.

Nightwalker which is an Anime I talked about earlier in the Month. [Update: it's now on RetroCrush]

Hellsing, I only recommend the original, never Ultimate.  This one’s on Funimation.  [Update August 2022: Hellsing is on Cruncyhroll now.]

Witch Hunter Robin, which I’m personally very nostalgic for, but I don’t know how many others remember it.  It’s also on Funimation.  [Update March 2023: and now it's on Crunchyroll.]

Princess Resurrection is more Campy Halloween fun than ever actually scary, but I enjoyed it.  It’s another one on HIDIVE.

Part 4: If you’re into Fate/ try some other Nasuverse Type Moon stuff.

Kara No Kyoukai, called Garden of Sinners in English, can now be streamed on Crunchyroll but it doesn’t have a Dub.  It’s from UFOtable who did the Fate/Zero Anime, the TV Anime of Unlimited Blade Works and the Heaven’s Feel movies so it looks as great as they do.  And Yuki Kajiura does the music which is always a treat.

Tsukihime has an older Anime from 2003 which does have a Dub but isn’t legally streaming anywhere.  Many hate that Anime, but I’m baffled by people who continue to dismiss it but defend Deen/Stay Night. I feel it holds up far better.  Because Tsukihime is more Horror Genre then Fate/ I feel it’s “cheaper” looking presentation suits it better then Deen/Stay Night, similar to Deen’s Higurashi stuff [Update too late: turns out Tsukihime is on HIDIVE as well and I didn't notice.]

Part 5: Zombie Anime

If you want an Anime Version of a George A Romero Zombie movie, I recommend School Live! on HIDIVE.

If you want something more like Zach Snyder’s Zombie movies I recommend HighSchool of The Dead also on HIDIVE. [Update: I also spotted this on Hulu today.]

If you want something outside the standard Zombie format altogether but that still feels appropriate for Halloween, Sankarea was a good show.  I could have sworn I stumbled upon it earlier this year on either Hulu or Netflix, but now it’s showing up only on Funimation.  [Update August 2022: This is on Crunchyroll now.]

Part 6: Something very Modern.

In/Spectre from last year was a very fun and thought provoking show.  It’s on HBOMax and I’m sure other sites too, but I want people to choose sites like HBOmax, Disney+, Netflix or Hulu over Anime specific sites when they can to encourage those sites to consider Anime worth investing in so more Anime can become more easily accessible.  [Update August 2022: and thanks to recent devleoptments I no longer want to encourage people to Sub to HBOmax, fortunately In/Spectre including the Dub is on Crunchyroll now.]

Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood is a slice of life Anime with Yuri undertones about Vampires.  It’s on Crunchyroll and apparently it has a Dub now, I’m pretty sure it didn’t have a Simuldub and thus I had watched it Subbed.

Juggalo Anime Recommendations (Also Bone Thugs)

I'm not a Juggalo but my brother is, so I know a lot about that community that the average outsider probably doesn't.

But also I'm an Otaku.  Being an Otaku and a Juggalo are kind of parallel in how to outsiders it just seems like a fancy way of saying you're a fan of something (Anime in one case and in the other the Insane Clown Posse hence forth called ICP for short and affiliated artists), but there is in fact a deeper hard to define identity behind it.  You weren't an ICP fan before you listened to ICP music but you were probably already a Juggalo.  Likewise I only got enough into Anime to even start considering calling myself an Otaku in the latter half of 2016, but what an Otaku is I in fact always was.

There is also how it sometimes becomes almost a quasi religion.  While Juggalos symbolize God as a Dark Carnival of freaky clowns, Otaku symbolize God as a Cute Anime Girl in Sailor Fuku.  

Also like with a lot of insular fan communities that chiefly interact online there has been post Gamer Gate an increasing visibility of the loud minority of political reactionaries in each community tainting how they were once perceived as fairly inherently progressive.  My brother and I are both Socialists.

One of the roles I have self appointed myself in the modern Anime community is being someone who thinks they know how to recommend potential entry points to people who haven't tried it yet.  And in this case one of the things I think Juggalos and Otaku sometimes have in common is their sense of humor.

You see I think I might very well be the only non Juggalo who's watched Big Money Hustlas and found it funny, I get the sense of humor it's going for, meanwhile Big Money Rustlas which has had better luck at getting nice things said about it from Normie critics I found rather unappealing.

Now there are a lot of Comedy Anime out there going for a lot of different styles of humor.  But the first Anime to pop into my mind as material that might be enjoyable to the same people who find Big Money Hustlas funny are Nabeshin shows like Nerima Daikon Brother and Excel Saga.  The first one I listed is probably better for people new to Anime, if you've seen The Blues Brothers you have basically have all the pop cultural context you really need.  Excel Saga has a lot of meta going for it that makes a working knowledge of the 30 years of Anime history leading up to it helpful, but still I don't necessarily think entirely necessary.  I hate that neither show it seems can be legally streamed online right now.

Those are comedy recommendations.  Juggalos are also known for being into the Horror genre.  Recommending Horror Anime has already become a recurring theme of this blog, but it's become increasingly necessary for me to qualify my recommendation of Higurashi When They Cry.  

Please for the love of God start with the 2006 Deen Anime and then it's sequel Kai, and then take a break, contemplate that story knowing that for a long time what was all there was, they are legally streaming on HIDIVE and can be found for free on sites I won't risk linking to here.  Then maybe give the Rei and Kira OVAs a shot but their canonicity was always ambiguous at best and their goofiest episodes definitely not cannon.  For the Gou series that started in late 2020 and it's follow up Sotsu which is still airing (officially in English often called Higurahsi When They Cry New) I won't have a final verdict till I see how it ends which I now fear even Sotsu won't have the final ending, right now my feelings are complicated leaning towards not liking it.

Now when it comes to Umineko When They Cry, as the only person who seems to truly love it's Anime version, I think Juggalos if they found it might appreciate it.  It can't legally be streamed anywhere right now however.

For Zombie Media, the Anime equivalent to the George A Romero films would be School-Live! aka Gakkou Gurashi!  While something more like Zack Snyder's Dawn of The Dead for better and for worse would be High School of The Dead.  Both are also on HIDIVE along with Vampire Hunter D and Princess Resurrection which I haven't watched yet.

The 80s Vampire Princess Miyu OVAs are on TUBi, RetroCrush and Midnight Pulp if I remember correctly.

Many Juggalos are also into the Music of Bone Thugs N Harmony, and I have two kinds of recommendations based on that.  First my favorite Anime Composer, Yuji Kajiura, has a musical style that I feel can at times have a similar appeal to that of DJ U-Neek who is Bone's main Producer.

She did the music for most of the old Bee Train shows of which I still consider her best work to be Noir followed closely by it's sister serises Madlax and El Cazador de la Bruja.  She then did Mai Hime a show I still haven't watched most of yet, and the Kara no Kyoukai films, then really hit it big in 2011 with the one two punch of scoring Fate/Zero and Puella Magi Madoka Magica.  Since then she's done Princess Principal which was great, Demon Slayer which is a Shonen I didn't watch, the Heaven's Feel Trilogy, Lord El Melloi's Case Files and more.

She also did the Music for at least one Live Action Japanese film and that's the Boogiepop movie from 2000.

Boogiepop and Others is a series of Light Novels that started in the 90s that in-spite of their influence didn't get a proper Anime till 2019.  The Author of that series liked to reference in various ways the Music he was into.  And one of those was clearly Bone Thugs N Harmony because the prequel novel features a character named Mo Murda (but that gets back translated into English Localizations as Mo Murder by people not getting the reference) which is a confirmed reference to the multitude of songs Bone made with some variation of that title.

The 2019 Boogie Pop Anime is difficult to talk about, because I found it pretty enjoyable when I watched it not knowing what they cut.  But it's first three episodes are to anyone in the know a frustratingly abridged version of the first novel.  The live action movie is a much better adaptation of that source material.

The 2019 Anime still has value, the books adapted for the latter half of the 18 episode season I feel were adapted much better, at least in that the Anime version can stand on it's own better.  Episodes 10-13 is the Prequel story, Boogiepop At Dawn which contains the Bone reference character mentioned above.  

The Live Action Boogiepop movie doesn't and shouldn't have a Dub, for LA that's an inherently more awkward process.  For the 2019 Anime I like the English Dub but I'm known for being not too Dub critical in general, either way of consuming it should work fine, do what ever you'd generally prefer.  Same is true of everything else recommended except Higurahsi Kai and Umineko which sadly don't have Dubs.  Nerima Daikon Brothers might be the one that's most better to watch Dubbed, since it's unique musical nature can be harder to follow subbed even for people very used to it, that of course could make it more difficult for a Dub to work, but they pulled it off spectacularly.

Horror is a genre that generally does better when it’s low budget

 or at least seems low budget from a 21st century perspective, the Lugosi Dracula and Karlof Frankenstein may have been the most expensive films of 1931 for all I know.  My point is in the Hammer Dracula movies it’s not a bug that all the blood looks obviously like red candle wax, it’s a feature.

Sometimes the superficial expectations of what “high quality” looks like doesn’t actually fit the aesthetic of the kind of story at hand, it’s similar with classic Film Noir.

Big Budget movies about Frankenstein or Dracula just wind up looking like superhero movies using Victorian pulp rather than comic books as their source material.  I enjoy some of those movies, but they aren’t movies I’d recommend watching as Horror.

My reason for this rant here is that every week now when a new HigurashiGou comes out there is somewhere a twitter image comparing an old 2006 Higurashi screenshot to it’s Gou counterpart saying “and you think Deen looked better then Gou”.  And it feels similar to what I ranted about in that old Sakuga post.

Art is subjective.  And Gou is not objectively better because it looks more pristine and shinier and more like an average generic 2010s Anime.  Rather that is exactly why it no longer feels like Higurashi to me.  I enjoy plenty of generic 2010s Anime, but that’s not what I watch Higurashi for.

I don’t want to dunk on Gou, it’s not the worst looking, I can tolerate it more than Pokemon Sun and Moon which I dislike for similar reasons, and the storyline has my attention still.  My point is the old Higurashi worked, it became nigh universally considered the best Horror Anime partly because of the very visual aspects these people are now trying to bury it for.

This is not any kind of Childhood Nostalgia for me, I first watched Higurashi in 2017, my first post about it on this Blog was when I had just first watched it, so not even half a decade yet have I been into it.  What I do have childhood Nostalgia for is Sailor Moon. I'd started seeing it on TV before it was ever on Toonami even.  And I am fine with how Sailor Moon Crystal looks, it also looks very different from the 90s Anime, but it’s not simply trying to force those character designs into the most conventionally modern artstyle, the opposite really, it's trying to be stylistically faithful to a 90s Manga in a way the limitations of 90s Anime couldn't.  

But perhaps a more apt comparison is Fate/Stay Night another Visual Novel adapted by Deen in 2006 and then later by a more "respectable" studio with "seemingly" more budget put into the Animation.  Fate/ has horror elements but that's not it's primary appeal.  So yes for Fate/ the Deen Anime is almost unwatchable to me while UFOTable is in every way an improvement.  But the reason Deen's style didn't suit Fate/ as well is because Fate/ is meant to feel Epic and Mythical rather then Spooky.  

My plea to Horror YouTubers to talk about more Horror Anime?

If you'r afraid "I don't understand Anime enough to have the proper context for this" good, that's exactly the perspective this conversation needs.

You see there is a Meme in the Anime Community that Horror is a genre Anime isn't good at.  And in my opinion the main reason for that is most discussion of these shows are from people who're more into Anime then they are Horror and so only have the most surface level assumptions about what the goal of Horror even is.  The only non Anime Horror they've seen is the most mainstream well known stuff, to make an analogy they'd understand, the Horror equivalent of the only Anime you've seen being what airs on Toonami and a couple Ghibli films.

I don't consider myself nearly a Horror fanatic, but I definitely feel like I've seen a lot more western horror then Mother's Basement or Gigguk or Digi-nee.  I've seen lots of Universal and Hammer stuff and the major Slasher franchises, but also the kinds of movies that show up in those 50 movies for 20 dollars box sets you used to be able to buy at K-Mart during Halloween season.  And I've read more pre-Dracula vampire stories then anyone else who's blog isn't explicitly a Vampire themed Blog.  And in the context of all that I think Anime does Horror just fine.

And the thing is I feel like other Genres don't have this problem in how their Anime installments are talked about nearly as much.  There are plenty of non-Horror YouTubers I wish would dip their toes into Anime more often, and I make recs I think will suit them in their comments sections.  But SFdebris has given a normie SciFi nerd's perspective on some SciFi and Fantasy Anime, the Anime heroes that most resemble American Comic Book Superheros have been talked about by Comic Book YouTubers, Death Note has been talked about by every normie who could possibly have something interesting to say about it, and we've had normie Feminists talk about Utena at least in print.

All of those are things I'd like to see more of, but they don't have the complete dearth that Horror Anime has.  The most interesting videos on Higurashi are from someone who mostly makes their name talking about PreCure.

Now most of the YouTubers I'm thinking of are mostly talking about Movies not more serialized formats.  So that might be a problem since none of the top Anime Horror I recommend are movies.  But the 80s Vampire Princess Miyu OVAs are about the same total length as a movie, so perhaps they're the best place to start.

So people like Dark Corners and In Praise of Shadows  the opposite of your perspective on Anime Horror we have more then enough of, your takes are now needed to balance things out.

So start with the Miyu OVAs, find out which Anime Horror movies are considered good or at least interesting, I have no recs there yet besides maybe that early 80s Frankenstein movie.  Then when you're ready to devote time to some TV Anime get on School Live and Higurashi.

I'm making this plea at the start of July hoping I can inspire someone to have something ready by this October.  Dark Corners now has a series specifically on stuff you can stream, a lot of Anime is streaming, apparently the Miyu OVAs are on Tubi now.

Episodes 1 and 2
Episodes 3 and 4
[Update: I was suprised to see Tubi has the Dub (and only the Dub from what I can tell) for this one, Tubi usually only has Subs from what I've tried to watch there before.
The OVAs have a pretty good Dub so it should be fine.]

Don't use only my recommendations though.  There is a lot I haven't even seen yet.

Update:  These Horror YouTuber have talked about serises of Horror Films though, and in that context maybe dividing Higurashi up between it's Arcs would work.

WCW's Halloween Havoc 95 is probably the best Halloween Havoc.

It may not contain the highest quality Wrastling of any Halloween Havoc.  But the point of Halloween Havoc was to be a the Pro-Wrestling version of a fun Halloween Special or Halloween appropriate film.  And I doubt any others (I have indeed not properly seen all of them) can compete with this one in that regard.

I've talked before about how I've never really been scared by any Horror movie so being genuinely scary isn't what I look for in a Horror film.  And much of what I enjoy watching when I get in a Halloween mood is a lot of Campy ridiculous Trashy "so bad it's good" type of horror content.

Halloween Havoc 95 being the peak of the Dungeon of Doom story-line is as good as any Halloween Havoc ever managed to be at that.  "THE YETI" is the perfect Halloween moment in my mind.  I didn't get to see this event live when it first happened since I became a Wrestling fan mostly in 97, but I'd rented it on VHS back in the day and it was a riot, I loved it and I'll always have fond Nostalgic memories of it.

I'd also rented the previous Halloween Havoc once, it's Main Event being Hogan vs Flair in a Steel Cage retirement match felt more like a Starcade Main Event to me.  They should have maybe done the first Hogan vs Vader here instead of putting it off (he was in Kayfabe already the Number One Contender) and had SuperBrawl be the rematch.

I was not watching Wrestling yet in 93, but from what I know about the Black Scorpion story-line I feel like it was probably originally conceived of with the idea of the blow off being at Halloween Havoc, the angle seems to have started back in August and it could have been a very fitting angle for the Halloween themed PPV.  I don't know if the delay till Starcade was because of Executives wanting to milk it more or because of everything that went wrong behind the scenes with who it was gonna be, but my theory is it was originally for Halloween Havoc, and would have felt more fitting for it then just Sting vs Sid.

During the NWO era this mostly just became one of the few events Hogan would actually work at.  The Warrior was doing some cool stuff in 98, I loved the build up to that match I don't care what anyone says, but the match itself was a dud.

My Birthday happens to be Halloween, because of that and when my brother was born, Halloween Havoc and Wrestlmania happened to be the only PPVs we had a chance of getting our parents to actually order.  I wish I'd pulled the trigger on that sooner for 97 which is probably a more highly regarded event the two I did get to see.

I do overall still love Halloween Havoc 98 however. Bret vs Sting and Hall vs Nash did not disappoint, the Steiner stuff was a fun train-wreck and Goldberg vs DDP was probably the best actual match WCW put on in 98 as a Main Event (we were not one of the houses for whom it was cut off, we got the whole match).

But then I had the unfortunate luck to waste my last birthday of the 20th Century on the WCW debut of Vince Russo.  I understand a lot of the arguments Russo apologists make, WCW was already on a downward spiral before this, but I was excited for Heel Sting vs Hulkamania, it was the main thing I wanted to get that PPV for, and Ruso ruined it.

My unique Nostalgia for Halloween Havoc makes me annoyed it's not one of the WCW PPVs Vince has ever brought back. Clearly what to do for the October PPV is something they struggle with, making it the stupid annual Hell in a Cell PPV.

It's kind of too late now since The Undertaker has it seems truly retired for good, and he should.  What would have made a WWE Halloween Havoc in the Ruthless Aggression era great is seeing it headlined by the Wrestling Icon who most compliments it's premise.  It could have been home to a Taker vs Kane match, or some new rival for The Taker.

Who knows maybe in the future some new Halloween fitting gimmick will get over.

I decided not to wait for October to post this since I don't know if I'll still be in the Wrestling mood I am now.  If I am I'll remind people of it.

What is the actual goal of the Horror Genre?

Mother's Basement has recently added another video to the ongoing saga of AniTubers lamenting that Horror is one genre they feel Anime really has trouble with.  And I notice these critiques often act like Scaring the viewer is a horror story's only or primary goal, like something has to give them nightmares to be truly a success, but is it though?

When I made my Halloween Anime recommendations back in 2017 I defined myself as not a traditional horror fan since I've never been truly scared by any horror fiction or sought to be. I've been startled by jump scares, creeped out by things, and felt that spooky atmosphere, but never truly scared and certainly never had nightmares from them, and I've watched plenty of the classic staples of the genre.  But as I've thought about it more since then I've realized that's not so unusual, my brother says he's also never really been scared by any either, and if he isn't a hardcore horror fan I don't know who is.

So in fact I can't help but feel like most discussion of Horror Anime is really stilted by how it comes from people who are ultimately more into Anime then Horror.  So when someone says "Higurashi isn't scary, it's just Cute Girls being Creepy" I'm like "yeah, a lot of Western live action Horror is about cute little kids being creepy too", from Bad Seed to Children of The Corn.  Shows like Higurashi just merge that common form of Horror with Moe tropes.  Maybe that I'm one of the few people who kind of enjoyed Omen IV:The Awakening is another thing that foreshadowed by Otakuness.

I think the main appeal of the Slasher genre tends to be sadism, they're made for men who get off on watching women be brutally killed, and it's the same with the sub genre Saw and Hostile started, I have no intention of recommending what Anime to appeal to that impulse.  Which is why it's never been a genre I like much, but I do enjoy some Halloween movies and the first couple Child's Play films.

Classic Universal and Hammer monster movies are mainly about the Gothic Aesthetic, both done as a period piece and sometimes as being about the Gothic infecting the modern world.  Jason Colavito likes to try and distinguish Gothic from Horror as a Genre (he says American Horror Story is really Gothic not Horror) but the truth is Classic Horror was always mainly about the Gothic.

How do you translate that Gothic appeal into Anime?  There are two ways.  One is simply Anime depicting the same European Gothic aesthetic of those movies, a lot of Anime is inspired by Western media.  The other is to look at Japan's history and culture and figure out what the uniquely Japanese equivalent of Gothic Horror would be, and again I feel that is another thing Higurashi does perfectly.

And it is the importance Aesthetics plays in Horror that makes me totally reject this common assertion that the abstract nature of Animation is somehow an obstacle.  Do Black and White horror movies work because people think that color pallet is what the 20s-50s actually looked like?  Do Silent Horror films work because we think people didn't talk back then?  No of course not.

Basically I reject even the starting premise of this debate that Anime has been less successful at Horror then other mediums.  Over the last 3-5 years the Anime versions have become my favorite versions of most genres, and Gothic/Horror is no different.  It's just Horror is the one genre where I still haven't seen as much yet.

And of course the Horror Fandom also includes people who love laughing at Campy Cheesy so Bad it's Good Horror, and the 90s and early 2000s avalanche of schlock dubbed by studios like Central Park Media and ADV that inevitably get riffed by Anime Abandon provide plenty to scratch that itch.

My advice to Universal for reviving it's Monster franchise

I did a post about my thoughts on where the Dark Universe could go last year called The Temptation of Frankenstein.  Now it seems like the Dark Universe is clearly dead.  So I have some new advice that complements that advice pretty well actually.

My advice for how to start a New Universal Monsters Shared Cinematic Universe is..... don't.

You don't need to start one, just make new movies in continuity with the classic 30s and 40s films.

I know you're concerned it won't be comparable to Marvel if it isn't pre-planned from the start, and those old monster movies don't have a flawlessly consistent continuity.  But the MCU does have continuity issues of it's own.

Universal should take advantage of the fact that they already have a popular shared Cinematic Universe.  Don't listen to the people who say DC failed cause it didn't start with Origin stories, DC's issues are deeper then that.  Plenty of fans are tired of Origin films.

"But won't following the canon of the 30s and 40s movies hinder the ability to make things more diverse?"  No it won't, I'm saying make new stories bringing that canon into the present.  There is still room for new characters including new Monsters.

You can actually address the fact that Lucy was never dealt with in Universal's Dracula movie.  And fix the issue of Karloff's monster being able to survive the end of Bride but not the titular Bride.  And you can bring back Dracula's Daughter and explore her psychology including Bisexuality even deeper. And this time cast actual Coptic actors to play the Egyptians in the Mummy movies including Kharis and/or Imhotep under those bandages.

I would be fine with having a new character be the Werewolf of this saga.  Lawrence Talbot is the one character where, in the same continuity, I'd have trouble with an actor other then Lon Chaney Jr. playing him.  Let Talbot keep his happy ending from House of Dracula.  The guy who wrote The Wolfman was an immigrant fleeing the Nazis and that influenced him allegorically.  So in a modern setting have the new Werewolf be Mexican.

This is kind of the same advice I'd give Toho now that they've announced plans to make an MCU style shared Universe after Legendary finishes theirs in 2020.  Don't start from scratch, Shin Godzilla was special but for the most part I liked them always at least keeping the original Gojira as canon.  But now I'd say go further then that and outright revive the Sowa Universe.  Or if you don't want to bring back a fully heroic Godzilla, make Godzilla Vs Mothra the break off point.

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 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.

When They Cry/Higurashi the ideal Horror Anime

Strictly speaking I'm not a Horror fan.  I've never been truly scared by any fiction I've consumed, nor have I ever sought that reaction.  So the presumed main appeal of Horror stories does not apply to me.

But I have enjoyed many stories in the Horror genre for other reasons.  I'm interested in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy elements they sometimes use, which overlaps with my interest in mythology and folklore, both real and fictional.  I enjoy mysteries and thrillers and Hitchcock style suspense.  And I can enjoy psychological horror because I like character pieces, I like exploring and developing interesting characters, and something like telling a story from the POV of someone slowly going insane from Paranoia can be an interesting way to do that.

But my lack of interest in most modern Horror tends to come from a deteriorating appreciation for the idea that "less is more".  I get tired of endless Jump Scares and gratuitous blood and gore.

I'm also someone who has spent the last few years increasingly turning almost exclusively to Anime for my entertainment media.  I haven't watched much Horror anime yet, a few that have horror elements but are still not chiefly about being horror, like Future Diary.  And yes even the Zombie anime I talked about last year was not really a horror story.

But this last week I decided to check out Higurashi no Naku Korro ni (sometimes just shortened to Higurashi) rendered in English as both When They Cry and The Moment the Cicades Cry.  This Anime has much of why I'm interested in Horror stories, and none of what commonly bugs me about them.  And It's also had positive reviews from people who are Horror fans much more so then I am.

This show has some of the most notoriously gory scenes in all of Anime.  But it uses those moments sparingly, building up to them and earning them.  And it has exactly 1 scene that could qualify as a Jump scare, and even that is perfectly executed.

I'm not the only one who was reminded of The Wicker Man at certain moments (the original, I haven't seen the remake).  And I suspect it has some Twin Peaks influence too.  It is very much the Japanese version of a Gothic Novel.  But it's also very creative and original, and non-linear.  It's a period piece set in June 1983 but not constantly throwing the 80s in your face the way western TV shows set in the 80s do.

And that is my Spoiler Free recommendation.




Spoiler Warning.



I'm someone who often doesn't mind being spoiled, I'll intentionally read a book's afterward before the actual story.  But if there is anything I've watched where I'm glad I wasn't spoiled going in it is this Anime.  Because I was born in 1985 people don't believe me when I say I was surprised by Vader begin Luke's father when I first watched Empire Strikes Back.  But my family didn't have access to the Internet till like 2000, and my parents were not into Star Wars, and I didn't have friends back then.  But I can say being surprised by that scene did not effect my overall enjoyment of that film nearly as much as not knowing what's going on in Higurashi matters.

So I'm going to give a second spoiler warning, if you think you don't mind being spoiled, think really hard about that before reading on.


Spoiler Alert.

Dracula may have been a descendent of Antiochus Epiphanes

Wladisiaus Dragwlya, more commonly known as Vlad III Dracula, Vlad Tepes and Vlad The Impaler, was one of four sons of Vlad II Dracul, who had that surname because of his membership in the Order of the Dragon.

He is best known in the west as the inspiration for the name of Bram Stoker's infamous Vampire, Count Dracula. I agree with those who view that connection as in name only, but that's not for here. He is very important to the history of Eastern Europe regardless of the Vampire connection.

Much gets made on the Internet every now and then about claiming certain individuals are modern descendants of Vlad Tepes. From Robert Pattinson (which is funny because he played a vampire in the simultaneous most loved and hated vampire franchise of the past decade, haha) and Queen Elizabeth II of England, Scotland, North Ireland, Canada, Australia, and a bunch of other countries.

The British Monarchs can claim Draculesti Basarab descent starting with Edward VIII and George VI through their mother Mary of Teck. From what I've seen double checking the line in question, Mary of Teck seems to descend from Vlad II Dracul through Vlad IV Calugarul (The Monk), rather then Tepes.

I decided in light of all that to look into the ancestry of Vlad Dracula. The Vampire of Stoker's novel brags of descent from Attila The Hun, to me that's another inconsistency with the actual character of Tepes personality wise, still the possibly of Hunnic descent for Vlad exists, but that's not what most intrigues me.

Vlad II Dracul was the son of Mircea I who was the son of Radu I and Lady Calinica, also known as Ana Calina, Elisabetta Ana Calea, who was born Caliphie. Another son of Radu I was Dan I, founder of the House of Danesti who were rivals of Dracul and Dracula.

The ancestry of Radu I doesn't reveal much interesting, but Lady Calinica is a mystery. She outlived her husband by 56 years, was apparently born in 1367, and is described as a Byzantine Princess but without any elaboration on exactly how she fits into Byzantine Royalty.

John V Palaiologos was Byzantine Emperor (on and off) from 1341-1391. Caliphie doesn't seem likely to be his daughter but possibly a granddaughter. His son Andronikos IV was born in 1348, and in 1355 married his wife Keratsa of Bulgaria. They had a son and two daughters, the two daughters nothing is known about,. John V's second son, Manuel II also had two daughters who's names are unknown. I think the odds are high that Caliphie is a descendant of John V, and if not almost certainly someone who shares grandparents with him.

Through Rita his grandmother John V is descended from the Hethumids of Cilician Armenia, who through Isabella of Armenia is descended from the Roupenians of Cilician Armenia. The Roupenians were a branch of the Bagratids of Armenia.  Isabelle also had descent from the Crusader Kings of Jerusalem who had their own connection to the Roupenians.

That's possibly not John V's only connection to the Roupenians, though the other is more disputed. He also descends from Stephen V of Hungry, the son of Bela IV of Hungry, the son of Andrew II of Hungry, the son of Agnes of Antioch, the daughter of Constance of Antioch, the daughter of Alice of Antioch. Who was the daughter of Baldwin II of Jerusalem and Morphia of Meliteni. Morphia was from Armenia and has possible descent from the Roupenians.

The Bagratid dynasty is famous for claiming descent from King David through the near relatives of Jesus of Nazareth. I've argued elsewhere that that claim could have more validity then people realize. But what's more interesting to me is the evidence (I've also discussed before) that the Bagratids are descended through the Arascids of Armenia and Parthia from the Seleucid Dynasty. The same dynasty Daniel 8 seems to link to The Antichrist via the person of Antiochus Epiphanes.

Baldwin II of Jerusalem was probably like most people born into French noble houses a descendant of Charlemagne, but I haven't been able to prove it yet, Wikipedia hasn't even taken his ancestry back to 1000 AD. A claim exists that he was a cousin of Baldwin I and Godfrey (who's descent from Charlemagne is well documented through two separate lines at least), but we have no way of knowing if that statement is true or just propaganda to support his taking the throne, and if true if the common ancestor in question would overlap with their descent from Charlemagne. It seems unlikely they were first cousins.

John V is also a descendant of Henry III of Barbant.  Who had descent from the counts of Flanders, Bolougne and Anjou.  As well as from Fredrick Barbarossa.

If Vlad Tepes is indeed a descendant of Charlemagne, then he is a descendant of the Seleucid dynasty, as I have documented Charlemagne's descent from the Seleucids.

For bonus reference I've decided to copy/paste below from material I saw on other sites about the genealogy of Vlad Tepes.

Windsor link to Vlad Dracula

Vlad the Impaler. Died 1507.

- Half brother of:

Vlad IV, known as Vlad the Monk. (1431 - 1495)

-Father of:

Radu IV Prince of Wallachia from (1495 – 1508)

- Father of:

Mircea the Shepherd. Prince of Wallachia. (1479 - 1560).

- Father of:

Princess Stanca Basarab of Wallachia. (1518 - 1601).

-Mother of:

Zamphira Logofat de Szazsebes. (Died 1602).

- Mother of:

Adam Racz de Galgo. (Living 1609).

- Father of:

Peter Racz de Galgo. (1583-1672).

- Father of:

Christina Racz de Galgo.

- Mother of:

Catherine (Katalin) Kuun de Osdola.

- Mother of:

Ágnes Kendeffy de Malmoviz (born 1727).

- Mother of:

Baron Gregor, Inczédy de Nagy-Várad (died 1816).

- Father of:

Baroness Ágnes Inczédy de Nagy-Várad (1788-1856).

- Mother of:

Countess Claudine Rhédey von Kis-Rhéde (1812-1841).

- Mother of:

Francis, Duke of Teck. (1837–1900).

- Father of:

Princess Mary of Teck, later the Queen consort of King George V (1867-1953).

- Mother of:

George VI (1895 –1952).

- Father of:

Queen Elizabeth II (1926).

- Mother of:

Prince Charles (1948)

According to the books written by Radu R. Florescu and Raymond T. McNally

(DRACULA, PRINCE OF MANY FACES and IN SEARCH OF DRACULA, Dracula's tree comes

from:

1. *Basarab the Great (1310-1352)....

2. *unknown (research needed)

3. *Mircea the Great (a descendant of Basarab) ruled from 1386-1418.

Married: Princess Maria of the Hungarian noble family of Tolmay. Maria

also related to the Cilli family. Barbara Cilli married Sigmund of

Luxemburg(she was his second wife), who was influencial in helping the

offspring of Mircea. In fact, the Count of Sigmund had Vlad live at his court

3. Radu. His son was Dan II.

4. Mihail - Mircea's only legitimate son.

4. Alexandru Aldea, Prince of Moldavia

4. *Vlad II, Dracul (The Devil) Born: before 1395 in Wallachia

Prince of Wallachia 1436-42; 1443-47

Educated in the court of Sigmund I of Luxembourg.

Married Princess Cnejna in 1425. Cnejna was the sister of Prince

Ilias Bogdan II, father of Stephen the Great.

5. Mircea B: 1428 in Germany D: 1447 (buried alive)

5. Dracula, Vlad Tepes "The Impaler"

B: in Wallachia

Prince of Wallachia 1448, 1456-1462, 1476

Married (1) a Transylvanian noblewoman ... who later committed

suicide when their home was captured by enemy forces.

(2) Ilona Szilagy, relative of Matthius Corvinus, King

of Hungary.

5. Radu III, The Handsome (1438/9-1500)

Prince of Wallachia 1462-75

5. Mircea, son by another mistress.

5. Vlad (Mircea) the Monk (?-1496) Son of Catluna, later Mother

Euphrasim, an Abbess. Vlad the Monk had a son Mircea (?-1486)

6(1) Mihnea :the Bad"(son of Vlad the Impaler)

Prince of Wallachia 1508-1510

M: (1) Smaranda (2) Voica

Children of 2nd marriage were: Milos and Mircea II.

6(2) Vlad Dracula, claimant to the Wallachian throne. His son was

Ladislas Dracula.

6(2) Unknown son who died in about 1482, and lived with the Bishop of

Oradea (no heirs)

7 Milos (son of Mihnea "the Bad") nothing is known about him.

7 Mircea II (son of Mihnea "the Bad") Ruled 1509-1510

co-regent with his father in 1509

M: Maria Despina

7 Ladislas Dracula(Son of Vlad Dracula, gson of Vlad the Impaler)

M: a member of Vass de Czege Family. They had land in Banat

8 Alexandru II Mircea (Son of Mircea II) Ruled from 1574-1577.

M: Catherine Salvarezi

8 Peter the Lame, Prince of Moldavia (Son of Mircea II) 1574-1577

M: (1) Maria Amirali

(2) Irina the Gypsy

Heir = Stefanita 

8 Ladislas, Dracula de Sintesti (son of Ladislas Dracula)

(patent of nobility 1535)

M: Anna Vas de Crege

8 John Dracula

M: ?

(patent of nobility 1535)

9 Mihnea II "the Islamized" (son of Alexandru II Mircea) Ruled from

1577-1583

M: (1) Neaga (2) Voica

9 Stefanita (daughter of Peter the Lame)

10 Radu Mihnea (son of Mihnea II "the Islamized)

ruled intermittently 1611-1623 in Wallachia and Moldavia

M: Arghia Minetti

10 John Dracula de Band (Had land in Szekler) 

M: Anna (no heirs)

10 Daughter of George Dracula

M: Getzi family, which kept the Dracula name. Had land in Borgo

Pass

This line dies out in the 17th century...

11 Alexandru "the Cocoon" (?-1632) (son of Radu Mihnea) Ruled 1623-1627

as 

Prince of Wallachia. Prince of Moldavia 1629-30.

D: 1632 without known heirs

M: Ruxandra Beglitzi

11 Mihail, Radu Gioan Bey (?-1660),(son of Radu Mihnea) 

Prince of Wallachia 1658-59

End of male line of Dracula

From Wikipedia

An article in a Romanian newspaper in the 1950s acknowledged the death of the last direct male descendant of Radu Mihnea Voda, Dumitru Radulescu(Radu)- a church, artist painter. However, it is not widely known that female descendents of Radu Mihnea do in fact still live in Bucharest. In fact, the bloodline extends as far as a 10th generation, through the continuing linage of the sister of Dumitru Radu, Rozalia Matilda Radulescu (Radu). She married a pharmacist Gheorghe Moraru and had five children out of which only two survived, Matilda Virginia and Maria-Florica.

Have a fun October, Halloween is approaching.

PLL Christmas Special reaction

The episode was fantastic, I loved it.

I'm certain Holbrook was not the one kissing Ali, that's a mislead, they're not gonna rehash the whole crooked Cop angle a third time.  I stand by the theory I posted not to long ago.

Heather's recap was cool as usual.

The whole thing about telling Ali she’s going to Hell really bothered me. Reminds me of what lats year I hated how AHS Coven ended and how TVD ended Katherine’s story-lines.

The Gothic horror of the 18th and 19th centuries was usually written by Universalists. I"m not a Universalist, but I simply prefer the horror in a horror story to end when the character dies, leave the after life out of it please.

I'm bugs me that Paige is being put on a Bus again.

The show was awesome over all because everything I love about PLL, everything Fevalian about it, was up to 11.