JDrama Review: 100 Tales of Horror

1, 2, 3... shall we start?

By the way, no. It's not a hundred-episode drama. Don't want to tempt fate and actually invoke a spirit at the hundredth now, do we? I'm not sure I want to see a Sadako-like creature crawling out my screen.

		100 Tales of Horror Kaidan Hyaku Monogatari  怪談百物語 Episodes:11 Broadcast: 2002, Tuesdays, Aug-13 to Dec-03 Network: Fuji TV Directors: Kawake Shunsaku Hayashi Toru Kobayashi Kazuhiro Tsuruta Norio Tajima Daisuke	Rating:

Period drama = samurai, geta, andon and no-wind-can-ruin-my-hair. Those plus a touch of eeriness and I'm sold.

Kaidan Hyaku Monogatari is a collection of some of the most popular “ghost tales” from Japan. The title is from a popular game where people take turns telling supernatural stories and extinguishing a candle after each. As the room gets darker and darker, the atmosphere becomes more inviting for spirits to join in. It is believed that after the last candle is put-out, spirits present will be seen if they are willing. That's putting it mildly considering some say ancient samurai loved using the game as a test of courage. *smirk*

The 11 stories feature a central character played by Naoto Takenaka, who I found absolutely commendable. He can really act the part of Dosan, an onmyouji. He, together with his daughter and, in some episodes, his disciple Jinta, finds himself involved or a witness in the stories.

<3 

Though the tales are popular, the re-telling here put some very nice twists. Some became more cruel, some became more sentimental. I found them more endearing than most adaptations.  

Rolling-in my list of stuff that captured my attention... I'll assume the stories are already familiar so the following shouldn't really be considered spoilers. I think.

Hell is Waiting (or at least a soul-shredder)

Shotaro in Ugetsu Monogatari

My main problem with him is nobody forced him to marry Isora AND to swear to heavens he'll take care of her forever, but he did both...and then he replaced her with another woman. After all her sacrifices, he left because he accuses Isora of faking her kindness and making his lover leave, without telling him. Yeah,she should've made a letter to what she did. Pssh. There are major differences here compared to the other versions of Pot at Kibitsu I've read before and one of those is that they made Shotaro more relatable with his struggle between doing good and doing what makes him a jerk, I mean happy. As much as I value fidelity, I rarely hate a person for deciding to leave. Here, I hated Shotaro. I didn't understand how his weakness overtook him when his wife is portrayed loving and kind..even to his mistress.

Anime Review: Le Portrait de Petit Cossette

♪♫♪ ...Keep bleeding, keep keep bleeding in love. ♪♫♪

The whole experience of watching this anime for me was, in one word, disturbing. Yet, with all of what didn't seem right, I loved it.

Le Portrait de Petit Cossette (コゼットの肖像) Kozetto no Shōzō Number of Episodes: 3 Directed by: Akiyuki Shinbo Studio: Daume Released: April 11, 2004 Soundtrack: 18 tracks by Yuki Kajiura

Rating:

I usually watch popular/mainstream anime because they're easier to come by. But because this one had been in my list of recommendations for so long, I picked-up Cossette. It is a first for me to watch a gothic anime despite my love for creepy things. However, it surprised me of how amazed I was with the atmosphere of the story.

Le Portrait de Petit Cossette is about Eiri Kurahashi and his obsession (or love, as romantics prefer) to a  female ghost, who, he believes, is haunting a wineglass in the antique shop he works in. There, he sees the girl's life unfold as if it was the present. Eiri later finds out that her name is Cossette d'Auvergne. It later becomes more obvious that loving Cossette is not so simple. The soul of her former fiance and beloved, the artist Marcello Orlando, is linked to Eiri's soul. This should've been a cause for celebration. Unfortunately, it isn't... because Marcello was also Cossette's murderer.

Some argue that the art is ugly but I was left admiring it. My favorites were the scenes where they played with the angles and the light and shadows. I kept thinking of how awkward the flow of characters' movements were at first. But as I took in the story, I realized the style was most suitable.

The way the intensity of emotions (as in the grudge and obsession) are presented left me in awe. I didn't find them overly done because those emotions are excessive by definition. I couldn't get enough of the psychedelics.

If there was anything I loved more than the art, it was the music/sound effects. It set the whole mood perfectly. I smiled when Cossette sat down and the whoosh of her skirt was heard. I swooned over the ballad and the ending song.

“Right now,
I want to thaw your heart
With pain instead of gentleness”
--Jewel

The only thing that held back a heart was the Character-ensemble. Well, the story is simple so there's no room for them to do anything more interesting. I even hated Shoko in the...nevermind. I didn't like her ever. As tragic as the plot is, the anime is something that could've occupied only two days of your life. So beyond the Eiri-Cossette relationship,substance from the other characters might have been confusing. The anime centered on Eiri and Cosette's interaction and everything else was paid little attention.

Maybe I didn't rate Le Portrait de Petit Cossette the way I ordinarily rate anime. I thought of it like a short poem, organized so right that even if it might have been written in broken cadences or without real rhythm, I can't help but say it's beautiful.

Well, Cossette isn't for general audience with all its blood and semi-nudity. It's also not for when you're impatient and looking for some life-changing story. But if you're looking for something haunting and different, this one will do more than satisfy you.

Book Review: Anna Dressed in Blood

Anna Dressed in Blood 
by Kendare Blake

Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people  story...

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.  So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay. When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home. 
And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.

Personal Fave Punch: “Yes. Smashing. You’ll be just like those four chaps in the movie. You know the one, with the oversized marshmallow.”
Movement after reading: Glaring at my closed door, mentally daring something to open it.
Bit on Bits: Despite being all scary and dark, there's light humor.

Let me get this one out first: I loved the book. I might get overexcited and forget to include how I feel about it clearly. Anna Dressed in Blood was able to frighten me a little bit. And no, it wasn't the bloody dress. Or even Anna.

I read a lot of horror books so when I first got this book, I was already half in-love with it. Both the cover and the bluntness of the title made me do a mental ballet twirl. But as a habit, I put-off reading it until I was in the mood for it. When I find a book that I think will be good, I set it aside for a time when I can devour it without distraction.

The story is told by the awesomely-named hero, Theseus Cassio Lowood. He broods in a confident way that may actually strike some people as arrogance. I didn't even think brooding and confidence can go together and result in something good.  Cas, as he prefers calling himself, believes that hunting and striking ghosts with the athame his father once used is his legacy so his life is mainly travelling from country to country. I found this part a bit similar with the life of the Winchesters' in Supernatural. Except, of course, Cas travels with his mother and Tybalt the cat. The routine brought them to Thunder Bay, Ontario, following a tip from a trusted contact about a murderous ghost: Anna Korlov, or more known as Anna dressed in blood.

“She doesn’t wear her death wounds like other ghosts do. They say her throat was cut, and this girl’s throat is long and white. But there is the dress. It’s wet, and red, and constantly moving. It drips onto the ground.”

From hugging my pillow tight, I moved on to burrowing myself in all my other pillows. Cas's thinking and behavior are better understood when his bouts with Anna begin. His character even grows a little bit as the story progresses. He is able to form friendships despite his stubborn self-tirade to remain alone in his so-called darkness. (*laughs*) Among them is Thomas, who would probably be one of my bestfriends if we went to the same highschool. I have a thing for glasses and black magic. Carmel reminded me of why I refuse to hate popular girls despite all the hype to stereotype them as wicked. The voodoo, scrying bowl and Cas's mother pressing a wet thumb on her son's forehead sealed my love for the book.

I (abruptly and needlessly) profess my loyalty to Anna. She is murderous and sweet. It was strange how her little dialogue felt like something I would say.

"Having no choice doesn’t seem fair,” she says, seeming to read my mind. “But having all of them isn’t really easier.”

I shouldn't be giving away huge spoilers but aside from Tybalt the cat, she's the one who made the whole story more interesting for me. Well, she is the main highlight...right? *wink*

Maybe there were parts I wish Kendare Blake made more detailed (or more bloody, whichever works better) but there is no doubt that the storytelling is quite good. I recommend this for readers who love a good story with a scary edge. It's more than the gore, though those parts are enjoyable too. It's also a story of why, oftentimes, we should question our own motivation.

There's a sequel coming out VERY SOON, like a week from now. Anna Dressed in Blood could've done very good even as a standalone. But as a favor to Cas and because I love Anna, yes please... bring on the scenes from hell, Blake! I'm ready for more flesh-tearing and sewn eyes.

Rating: