Go for Broke: Corpse Party

Happy Halloween MWAHAHA! I will admit this is a bit in advance but it still is better than late isn’t it? Besides, my column is on Tuesdays, there is nothing much I can do if the day of Halloween itself is not on a Tuesday…

To stay in tune with the day we are today I am going to review a small anime, basically a collection of 5 OVAs, so it will not last you the whole night of Halloween. That being said, it is the story of people who are transported in another dimension where they will have to survive ghosts and various manifestation.

But first, a warning, I do not often give those because I often find it useless but this anime has very, very gory moments.

The first OVA is kind of a prequel to the actual mini series; the Missing Footage edition is only 11 minutes long, only enough to give you a taste of what is to come. I would obviously recommend to start with that. At least you will not have to bear through it too long if it really is not your thing. That being said, I think this first OVA was my favorite of the whole series. It definitely left me wanting more when I finished.

Except that when I got more I was disappointed.

It starts nicely enough. Our heroes are together in their high school classroom, they are telling horror stories to each other (and we all know this is usually a bad omen), but one of them is going to leave and they decide to perform the Sachiko doll ritual to prove their friendship and always think of each other. Again, we all know this is going to be troublesome.

And sure enough, the ritual is not performed correctly and something goes wrong. Then our heroes are transported into Heavenly Host Elementary School, the school that was once built in place of their high school. Sadly, this elementary school is not as welcoming as it once was ever since murders were committed. (Shown in graphic details with sounds included.)

Obviously again the events that are happening in this school are not exactly happy ones. The atmosphere is dark, very dark, you find corpses at every corner, sometimes blood, sometimes worse, you do not know who are your friends or not anymore, sometimes you are even left all alone in this maddening school. As an horror story, it was great, honestly great, the kind of horror you do not see often enough in anime.

As a mystery, because obviously someone wants to save all the souls trapped in there, and has to solve a mystery, it was not well written at all, not fun, nor interesting. Except it was the main story, and while the horror was well done that is all there was to Corpse Party.

I wish I could talk to you about the various characters but I found them to be pretty bland. They were scared, some wanted to save themselves, some wanted to save others but that is all there was to it. Nothing more. I did like the seiyuu performances though.

If you want something to watch for Halloween, watch Ghost Hunt instead. Corpse Party just does not compare.