Okamikakushi: Masque of the Wolf

Ookami Kakushi was written by Ryukishi07, best known for Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. That should pretty much tell you what to expect, since Ookami Kakushi is an obvious, shameless clone of its considerably superior ancestor. The premise goes as follows. Hiroshi Kuzumi, an unlikeable, spineless milquetoast, moves to a town known as Jouga with his occult fanatic father and annoying Tsundere sister, who is in a wheelchair for reasons that are never given passing explanation in the series. As they are moving in, Hiroshi meets the love interest, Isuzu Tsumuhana, who is supposed to be this series' Rena Ryuuguu despite having none of the likeabilityor humour that the Higurashi character possesses. For some bizarre reason, Isuzu is obsessed with Hiro, and the rest of Hiroshi's new class follows suit. However, one of them seems a little too attached, and begins to act strangely... then, we see a scene with him being killed by a girl with a scythe. The next morning, a girl who looks an awful lot like the girl with the scythe tells the class that he has "Transferred". Could it be that this town has a dark secret? If any of this is sounding familiar to you, then you've probably watched Higurashi, because this show is an absolute cut 'n' paste of it, only without any of the charm that made Higurashi great. It lacks the audience mindfuck that Higurashi gave us, completely misunderstands Higurashi's visual style, using all the creepy effects in all the wrong environments, and what seemed loveable there just feels stupid here. It doesn't help that almost every character here is completely unlikeable, being given little to no personality, backstory, or charisma, with only the villain having the latter trait making him somewhat likeable. And even that is hindered by the fact that his motivation is quite generic, and his plan makes no sense. On top of that, while Higurashi did a good job of tying up the loose ends (with only a couple of details left out, both of which were in the manga/VNs and relatively unimportant to the overall plot), Ookami Kakushi leaves several loose ends, for example, the aforementioned one with the wheelchair, and a character who is hinted to have some kind of disease that is never explained. The only thing that really redeem this show are the aforementioned antagonist, a relatively decent soundtrack, and the 12th episode, which is a random self-parody special taking place after all the plot is said and done. While it does come off as an enourmous BLAM Episode, it's still considerably more enjoyable than the remainder of this highly sub-par series. Final Words: A shameless ripoff of Higurashi, with none of what made Higurashi good. Animation/Graphics: 4/10 Story/Plot: 1/10 Music/Background: 7/10 Overall: 2/10 For Fans Of: Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, Umineko No Naku Koro Ni

I figured i'd give this a short review. Mainly because, I was very skeptical of checking this anime out because it has god awful reviews. Goes to show, I really can't trust weeaboos to have real opinions. Anyone who outright hates this anime, is a diehard WTC/Umineko fan. They expected a psychological thriller with some brutal gore. That really isn't what this anime was about, and thus...let the hate flow. Story: It's average. I had it pinned pretty quickly. It does start out slow at first, but it picks up in the later half. I can't say I was ever BORED though, it kept me interested or elseI would have just dropped it. If you take it for what it is, you'll probably like it. EDIT: By the way, this is definitely half Slice-of-life. Not your thing? Don't bother. You'll be bored. Not the animes fault, just a preference conflict. Music: I really enjoyed some of the soundtracks in this anime. A lot of anime loses emotion because of a lacking OST, but this anime doesn't suffer that problem. I could accept ANY insult towards this anime, except a shot at the OST. It was well done, that's a fact. Art: This is another one that struck me when I read reviews. People knocking the art. That surprised the hell out of me. I don't know what trashy streaming site people watched this anime on, but the 720p BD episodes I have look pretty fantastic. The art is smooth, the effects aren't lacking, and there's a decent amount of detail. For the time of release, the art is very solid. Characters: I don't have much to say on this one. Every character has a role, and they stick to it. Not a whole lot of "change" goes on, except for one character I suppose. For a short 11 (technically 12) episode anime, I don't expect much more. Characters don't need to go through immense change to be well done. Overall: A decent watch. I don't feel I wasted my time watching through the anime. If you take nothing else from this review, just go with this: F*** the haters, if you think you'd be interested in this anime, watch it and judge for yourself. Don't let a bunch of bias idiots dumping on this anime deter you, you may just enjoy it.

Until the end I couldn’t decide whether to like or hate this anime so that’s why I gave it the average score, 5. Oh and by the way I'm only taking into concideration the first 11 episodes. Simply because the last one was a real big joke... unnecessary fanservice... Story – 6 The story is what drew me in at first. It did have this air of mystery and some traditional elements in the feel of it, so it initially was very promising. But in a few episodes it became pretty weird and I was somewhat appalled by the evolution of it. Until the end it doesn’t manageto become deeper or more detailed, on the contrary it just starts creating more “mysteries” which, as I unfortunately predicted, it patched up rather messily in the end. It’s a pity though because it felt like it had some really good ideas to work with, but they where rather poorly executed. Characters – 4 I was annoyed by almost every single one of the characters with the exception of this guy Sakaki which, though, didn’t have the airing time he deserved. I think the characters are memorable afterwards because of how annoying they are. Sound – 6 Nice music, but its one of those times that I wish that such a good song, as the opening one by FictionJunction, isn’t wasted in such a forgettable anime… overall the sound was fine. I didn't throw my hat off for the voice acting though... Art – 7 The art is what catches everyone’s eye. And I believe it’s the main reason for watching this anime. I loved the use of different tones of red which was a significant color for the story. Enjoyment -- 5 I just had something to wait for each week. It was good for passing the time, but I wasn't getting too hyper to watch it, sometimes it felt more like a chore. It could have done much much better with the original idea it holded, which was quite interesting nevertheless, but failed to persuade. This is one of those anime that you shouldn’t start unless you don’t have anything better to do, or just want to watch something without any deep thinking. I watched it while it was airing, otherwise, watching it all together, I might have dropped it somewhere in the middle…

A title created by the makers of Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni and Rozen Maiden. A great blockbuster? Rather pseudo horror without tension. Unused potential and destroyed dream about worthy successor of Higurashi. Hiroshi Kuzumi along with his sister and father took up residence in a small village called Jouga. The boy quickly befriend with his age-mates Isuzu and Kaname. He’s also popular with the rest of the class. The carefree atmosphere end, when Hiroshi noticed that some people from his surrounding suddenly disappears. The searches lead him and his friends to an old legend about local wolves and yearly festival named Hassaku. Moreover whenthe night falls mysterious figures and a girl with scythe roams in the village. All these strange events seems to have some connection with Hiroshi. Anime is based on a visual novel game which the script is written by Ryukishi07 who is the creator of Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. The characters are designed by group Peach-Pit who drew Rozen Maiden and Shugo Chara. That information itself can entrance and prepare for something original and interesting. Unfortunately. Although I can’t judge the game I haven’t play, the animation of Ookami Kakushi is very disappointing. All the expectations about this series were ruined and the hope about a worthy successor of Higurashi destroyed. Supposedly this title should be a horror but the creators messed up. We can ignore the fact that the characters looks very sweet, have cute big eyes and the colors are quite bright. For horrors we mostly expect tension. We wait and wait and wait for couple of episodes but it never appears. Since there’s no blood and no violence there should be some tension. There’s non. Even in the middle of the forest on night you can fall asleep watching this. In the beginning Ookami Kakushi was somehow interesting. Mysterious figures with masks and their leader, a girl with scythe who looks like a white wolf. Moreover a mystical red moon. The atmosphere could attract some people. The performance was less well than expected. What it needed was some anxious sounds, unexpected twists to use the series potential. That was nothing like that. We have a riddle to solve: people are disappearing without a trace. However we don’t have this feeling to find out the truth. The secret of Jouga village don’t draw attention. In truth many people will solve this secret after few minutes. The rest will yawn instead of analyze every scene. All the mysterious vibe disappears after few minutes and solving the affair don’t give any satisfaction. Ookami Kakushi is simply boring although posses some action. The characters don’t convince as well. They are bland, irritating or they don’t give them much attention. The main hero is not impressing. All the more as a protagonist of horror genre. He’s very fearful, avoiding troubles. In the role of a irritating character features Isuzu Tsumuhana who sticks to Hiroshi all the time. This type of character rather shows up in a harem anime than in a horror. Some interesting figures like the mysterious class president Nemuru Kushinada, or the doctor who wants to cure the villagers from a untypical illness didn’t get much attention or was introduced badly. Only two characters save this title. Shunichirou Sakaki who is interesting considering that he is the main antagonist with revenge and tragic past. This kind of thing were showed many times but with other characters which don’t have any motivation this is enough. The second person is Kaname Asagiri, Hiroshi’s classmate who is interested in occultism and novels. She has the role of a person that discovers the village secrets. She would definitely fit as a main hero. The graphics offers good standard. You can recognize characters design same as the one from Rozen Maiden or Shugo Chara.and although this isn’t a style that you would expect from a horror. Sometimes the characters faces looks very flat though. The backgrounds don’t impress this much but the Jouga village can enchain from some point. The music fit well and is interesting. You can’t call it groundbreaking but it manage to build up the atmosphere. We have some ominous and mysterious sound in the background. The best in it is the opening and ending, that shows how the anime should look like. Basically some people can be dragged by the story and secrets of Ookami Kakushi, which aren’t so bad. Frankly the realization is bad done. The general idea, although commonplace, could have attract people who like mysteries. The authors couldn’t fit neither the secret or the characters personality. I don’t know to who recommend this title, maybe to fans of the game? In the end one sentence, that sums up this title: the good idea isn’t enough, the more important thing is how it will be introduced.