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December 31, 2009

Kakurenbo




Kakurenbo was an interesting OVA to watch. The animation style was very reminiscent of Ghost in the Shell and Akira. It had that eerie sort of seriousness to it in the use of dark colours and semi-3D effects. All of the sound effects and music were used well to provide the atmosphere to explain the story to the viewer. 

Essentially the whole story is based on this high stakes game of hide and seek. There is this sort of scavenger hunt that kids play at night were they find the gate to the this hide and seek game. Seven kids are allowed to play the game (as you can tell from the poster above, there are 8 kids on the cover). The existence of an eighth player is used to develop the story. When kids begin playing this game they are trying not to get caught by five demons who use the kids to light up their abandoned ghost town with the neon lights. Basically this is a life or death game of hide and seek for these kids.

The best part about this short (25 min) OVA is that the entire story was explained. There were no empty guess holes at the end which we tend to find in so many of the newer anime series. The story on a whole was well written. It was not too complex to follow but also no too easy that you get bored 10 minutes into it.

If you are a fan of Akira, Ghost in the Shell or Ninja Scroll style anime then this is a show that you will want to check out. 

3 comments:

  1. Akira got very strange towards the end, but the first half of the film I loved. The bikes, the city, the look and feel was awesome. This one I will have to try and check out.

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  2. I just watched this one. The idea was different and that was cool. I do really like the animation style. I liked The Samurai a lot for what it was and what it tried to be, but it had that simplier animation style. This had detail and color and realism in its look.

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  3. The strongest point of this OVA was the use of color and the animation style for sure. The story was not too bad, but left a lot of questions at the end. Even the types of demons developed for this film were very creative. The writers and animators for this one really brought a lot to the table for such a short film.

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