Anime: Kyougoku Natsuhiko: Kousetsu Hyaku Monogatari

Animation

First and foremost, it’s been a long time since I’ve ever seen a style of animation that manages to be completely different from anything before it. With bizarre character designs, a very large emphasis on shadows, weird points of view, and some very strange use of color, nothing that I've seen really comes close to the look of this show. The finished project is unexpectedly impressive, considering the numerous shortcuts that are taken throughout the show. Even though later on the animation is marred by bad cgi, stuttering movement and the fact that the characters don’t “fit” well into their backgrounds, I was nonetheless pleased with the visuals as a whole.

Sound

I seem to have a weakness for catchy synthpop; I enjoyed the opening theme immensely, despite some pretty nonsensical Engrish lyrics and a relatively simplistic tune. The rest of the music is serviceable, and the voice acting holds its own as well.

Story

Each episode plays out as sort of a mystery, even though it’s often easy to figure out the culprit. Just about every episode will feature some sort of grisly murder(s) and some corrupted and wretched individual behind the murder. The somewhat flimsy structure actually works out surprisingly well, as often the incredibly gruesome events (combined with some surprisingly effective fanservice) are enough to entertain by themselves.

Unfortunately, near the end, the anime tries to tie together its episodic plot, and the results are relatively dull and disappointing. In fact, the last three episodes are almost not worth watching at all, especially when compared to the quality of the first few episodes. Oh well.

Character

There are three recurring characters that regularly interact with the protagonist, and all of them manage to be immensely cool; I liked them despite the fact that they weren’t really developed at all. The actual main character is borderline annoying at times, but doesn’t hurt the anime substantially. All of the rest of the supporting characters are interesting, although it should be noted that I didn’t really care about any of them.

Overall

In my review of Hitsuji no Uta (which also happens to be an obscure horror anime), I mentioned that sometimes a certain sense of style could make an otherwise bad anime enjoyable. While usually I firmly believe that things like a decent animation budget, a compelling storyline, or developed characters are essential to a respectable series, these qualities can occasionally be made up for by sheer glitz. Unexpectedly, this applies even more to Hundred Stories than Hitsuji no Uta. To quote Yakikorosu of animenfo, Hundred Stories is "a highly original anime that could have used a bit more substance to go with its style, but still manages to entertain even when it has to do it on style alone."

a great series with a very unique design.

animation
as stated above this series is quite different from the "normal" anime series when it comes to animation and design. the colours are very strong and quite dark. there are very few straight lines as the whole desing is wrapped and rough. same goes for the minor supporting charaters. they are drawn quite simplified and a crude. this has the effect that the attention is concentrated on the characters that are important for the story since they differ in design quite a bit from the side characters. they are drawn more "normal" and way more detailed but still fit into the surroundings very good. the movements of the characters are smoth and seem very realistic and alive. the same goes for the faces. emotions are displaed very good and intense. all this leads to a very suspenseful mood that supports the story very much. another positive aspect is that the used cg does not disturb the animation but blends into it very nice. you might see it is used but it doesn´t disturb you.

overall i give it a 9 mainly because it´s the uniqueness.

sound
first of all i have to mention the very good voice acting. the seiyuu were very good chosen and did a really great job. (i was impressed most by wakamoto norio as nagamimi chouji). the other sound effects were good too created the the right backround for the story together with the ost though most of it was more like supporting sounds then real music. the most notable exceptions are the opening and ending wich are swinglike and reminded me a bit of eva´s ending fly me to the moon. (here i have to mention that, though i watched this series in two evenings, i listend to them allmost every time what i don´t do in most other cases) imo they were very fitting and adjusted the mind very good for the coming episode.

my rating here is a 9 too.

story
the story is maybe the only "weakness" of this series imo. it is about a writer that wants to write a book with ghost storys and on his journey to collect material meets a group of three poeple how deal with such matters in thier own quite special way. in the beginning the ep´s are quite stand alone. as it goes on a backround storyline evolves but only really surfaces in the last 4 ep´s. because of this there are quite some questions that are left open as in most cases there are only hints towards the backround of the characters and thier motivation. but don´t worry there is a real ending even if not nearly everything is disclosed. though if you can´t stand it when many questions about the main characters are not answered straight and only hints are given in many cases, you might not like this side of it. but i could live with it quite good and enjoyed every episode and the ending. (even if i whished for another one, but that is no real disadvantage imo)

rating? hard... a 7 maybe.

character
they are great. even if somtimes you might wish for a little more backround information one the main figures they are all well designed and have quite unique personalities. especially the character development of yamaoka hyakusuke is done great. the mental struggles he has to go through while he enters a totaly different world are displayed good and it is very nice that his way through these struggles is not linear but has ups and downs. all in all a very realistic character developement. the other three main persons do not go through such a great change but that is ok since they were allready used to the world they live in quite a while. though they are not left unchanged by thier encounter with yamaoka hyakusuke.

since some sideeffects of the lacking information from the story imo a 8 is ok.

value & enjoyment
for me i can say for sure that i´ll rewatch this one. i had great fun the first time i watched it and i´m sure i´ll discover many details that i missed the first time when i´ll watch it again. i only watched it in two days because i started too late on the first day to finish it. i was really hooked.

therefor i´ll give it a 8 in value and a 9 in enjoyment.

i can recomend this anime for everyone who is not afraid of the very unique styling and has a hunch for the mystery genre. but this is nothing for someone who is for example serching for kawaii girls that are normally found in many (mystery) series (though i must admit i had a little crush on ogin but she is not kawaii) .

i hope this is a little help.
this was my first serious review so if you have any suggestions/critics please speak up so i can do better next time (or adjust this one). thx