Tasogare Otome x Amnesia OVA

This OVA was much sillier than I remember the show being. Maybe it’s because I remember all of the ghost stories, psychological investigations, and evil twins. Well, I’ve said before that I enjoy the psychological aspect of this show, so the stuff about the previous Paranormal Investigation Club (such as the guy making up Youko to help him ask a girl out) was pretty cool.

It sure has been a while…being Kirie is still suffering, I see. Yuuko’s much more shameless now that Teiichi has confessed to her. But seriously…she should have disappeared at the end of the show. But whatever…what am I gonna do? I guess it was still a decent experience when I look back (again…psychological stuff).

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia Final Episode

Sigh…I was jerked around again. Just like Ano Natsu, they build a really sad ending that you can accept as being better for the greater good and whatnot, only to violently interrupt it in the very final moments of the series. So they went with the Amidamaru-style ending after all…figured as much. Something they didn’t mention, though. You could almost think of Yuuko disappearing as sort of like an equalization. Think about it. When Teiichi dies, Yuuko will likely have to stand by him and watch as he disappears before her. So this is kinda like payback.

Although it’s not explicitly said, strong believers of the happy ending can choose to believe that Yuuko will disappear from the world when Teiichi dies, saving her from an eternity of suffering. Personally, I choose to believe this because it makes logical sense. She’s held here by strong emotions, so they would likely free her when he dies. Also, having children with a ghost is just pushing it, so she wouldn’t theoretically have a reason to linger after that (unlike Sophie in Tales of Graces if you know that story).

I had a working theory that maybe when Yuuko came back, it would set off another arc that tried to figure out why she was kept in the world, but I guess it was just the simple answer. It might have been interesting, though, would you agree? But alas, it is all over. A rather amusing series as a whole. As I said before, I liked how science is used in an attempt (I stress the word attempt) to rationalize the supernatural. I’ll try to review this soon.

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia Episode 11

So I’m really mad at myself for not realizing that Teiichi is Asa’s grandson. It explains why he’s able to see Yuuko (I assume Asa should be able to see her too). This episode pretty much went as expected…the whole accepting the Shadow Yuuko and gaining a Persona business. A note on what I said last week. Thinking back, Yukariko and Asa couldn’t have revealed the sacrifice because no one would believe them and the elders would just do something to them…plus, they eventually died anyway.

So that’s all over, right? But this isn’t the last episode. By the looks of it, because she’s finally gotten over her death and accepted her memories, Yuuko is starting to pass. There are two ways that this can go. First, we could do it Fate/Stay style where Teiichi accepts that Yuuko does not belong in this world and must pass on to finally find peace. Sad goodbyes, but theoretically the happier alternative (maybe Teiichi could rebound with Kirie). The second ending is Shaman King style, where Yuuko doesn’t end up passing because she becomes by to the world by her feelings for Teiichi (Amidamaru reference ftw). They can live a happy life together, but there’s the possibility that Yuuko would continue to stay after Teiichi dies, making it a sadder ending.

I guess there’s another option…I could be entirely wrong about Yuuko passing and she’s just having some troubles phasing. Either way, one more episode to go.

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia Episode 10

Say what you will…I found this episode to be pretty intriguing. The stuff about Yuuko’s life and the sacrifice were things I’d pretty much anticipated, but the episode as a whole made me think a bit. First off, we have the mystery of Yuuko’s ghost.

You would think that Asa or Yukariko would know something about it, but the true events seem to remain hidden. I wonder what happened that silenced them both. Even if they don’t know that Yuuko returned as a ghost, they still should have done something about the elders and their sacrifice.

The episode also explains why Yuuko sealed off her memories. Dying slowly while trapped in a hole is agonizing, so it makes sense to try and shield the mind from reliving it. I had originally suspected that Yuuko sealed her memories because of shame, but it’s just an understandable defense mechanism.

Still, I’d say the most interesting part of the episode was watching as Yuuko’s mind split into the part that hates the elders and Asa and the part that refuses to descend into that. By the looks of it, the walk down memory lane continues next week. I guess the show simply moves towards Teiichi understanding and forcing a reconciliation out of Shadow Yuuko? Still wonder if this is the anime original ending or intended manga ending.

 

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia Episode 9

Magical boobs of memory transfer this week? Yeesh…what’s up with this? Either way, pretty interesting stuff. Makes me wonder, though…how the heck did Yuuko ever have power over Shadow Yuuko? She’s always just been a shell of sorts while Shadow Yuuko held basically everything else.

Nonetheless, Yuuko showing emotion this week is interesting. Did Shadow Yuuko intentionally give her some emotions back with the memories of Teiichi? Or maybe she doesn’t have total control and the emotions just went back with the memories?

Either way, I was expecting Yuuko to be the one reliving her memories, but I guess Teiichi has to do it. After he sees what really happened, I guess he’ll try to reconcile the two Yuuko’s and force Yuuko to accept Shadow Yuuko, turning her into a card that she can- err…

Is this stuff all manga stuff or has this show done the classic move of diverging from the manga’s story? I wonder…help me out here >.>

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia Episode 8

Magic boob grab restores memories! Ehh….what? Sure, let’s go with that. Let me try to make sense of what happened. The memory loss and regain of Yuuko is pretty obvious, as well as the defeatism of Teiichi after being rejected by Yuuko that is later reversed when he realizes his feelings for her. What I’m more interested in is Shadow Yuuko, who seemed to be trying to keep Teiichi away from other girls due to inheriting Yuuko’s feelings for him.

All of that seems pretty plausible, but I wonder what happened to her in the final scene, where she approaches Kirie with the “who are you” line. Is this because Yuuko regaining her memories has made Shadow Yuuko lose her own? Doesn’t seem so likely. What if they both have the memories now and there’s a rivalry for Teiichi? But that last line still doesn’t make sense because Shadow Yuuko met Kirie before Yuuko’s memories were wiped.

Final theory: there’s a second Shadow Yuuko, who only has Yuuko’s feelings for Teiichi, meaning she wouldn’t know Kirie. Makes sense because Teiichi and Kirie couldn’t see this Shadow Yuuko until the very end, but that’s gonna be annoying to keep track. And what does that mean for the rest of the series? First Shadow Yuuko and Yuuko team up to re-assimilate New Shadow Yuuko into Yuuko? We’ll see, I guess.

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia Episode 7

Oh wow…that was pretty cool. I kinda expected the shadow to be some form of Yuuko, but I didn’t expect her to be so disgusted by it that she would sacrifice her feelings for Teiichi to reject it. Let’s see…a (S)hadow that holds her true feelings and she refuses to accept it..where have I seen this before? Must be my imagination.

I wonder about the plague and Yuuko’s death. While it’s obvious that she couldn’t simply be a voluntary sacrifice to stop the plague and it makes sense if she was ritualistically sacrificed (the talismans in the basement), why did it work and why was she chosen? I suppose no one “remembers” what happened to her because the truth became taboo, but a spell or offering to a god to stop an epidemic doesn’t suit a show with this much psychology to explain the supernatural.

Well, this show got really serious really fast. Maybe this is some sort of final arc to carry the series to the end? It seems pretty straightforward from here. Teiichi helps Yuuko recover her memories by accepting her dark half as part of herself. Who knows? Maybe they’ll come up with some interesting wrench to throw into it.

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia Episode 6

This week’s episode was certainly a lot more serious than normal. Similar to Another, it was an intriguing display of mass hysteria. We start off with the character Kirishima Yuuko, an unfortunate girl. Despite rejecting the possibility of the supernatural, she is constantly pulled back in due to her name. In retaliation, she tries to squash the story of Yuuko to return a sense of normalcy to her life. But unfortunately, this backfires when everyone believes her too much. She desperately tries to tell the truth, but fear of each student has compounded with fear of each other student, turning her lie into reality for them. She finds out the hard way that the only way to fight back is to use the supernatural, not reason (because that’s just how people are).

Lots of light vs dark stuff going on here.

 The episode ends on an even more intriguing cliffhanger, though, as Kirie once again sees the evil spirit that she mistook for Yuuko. This time, it can’t be so easily set aside as it was before with the spirit sitting in the room with the sleeping girls. Either Kirie pretends it didn’t happen and Teiichi finds out or Kirie tells everyone and they investigate. What do you know? It looks like the overarching story might be kicking up soon. Should be interesting. I really like this show’s approach to the supernatural.

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia Episode 5

Strangely enough, this isn't Yuuko

This week’s episode is an interesting Kirie-focused episode. On the minor side, we see that Kirie really doesn’t scream like a normal person when scared, instead breaking down into tears…a cuter alternative. More though, the episode was about her accepting herself and getting over that jealousy she has of Yuuko (at least, I think). She also comes out of that solitary attitude and becomes friends with Momoe (even touching Yuuko for the first time). Her experience in the “haunted house” was particularly interesting.

I suspected originally that the Yuuko Kirie saw was not the real one, but I had thought it to be a manifestation of the evil spirit from last week…instead, it was a return of the psychological, a manifestation of her fears and insecurities. The real Yuuko, although she was in the same room, didn’t have to say anything to Kirie because her mind in the fear state exaggerated parts of the room to create the conversation that we see in the episode. Next week…well, the preview sounded pretty dark, but I have no clue what’s gonna happen. They kinda forgot about the evil spirit thing…wonder when that’s coming into play.

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia Episode 4

This week’s episode felt like another setup episode. In fact, it felt like something that had to happen. With the team assembled, Yuuko would naturally start to feel lonely as Teiichi spent more time with the others. Still, I thought it was pretty funny that she put Teiichi’s name on the cursed stone to troll him. As for the actual story, Kirie confirms my suspicion of the second spirit, briefly shown last week and given a couple of appearances this week. I wonder if they’ll go with the obvious conclusion that the spirit was the one that trapped Yuuko in this world, or if they’ll try to make it more interesting (maybe it’s some other form of Yuuko or something…it had a female-ish appearance and voice, I guess).

Not that much of the psychological analysis this week, though…kinda depressing. That stuff about creating a curse and subconsciously believing it wasn’t all that interesting, comparatively. Kirie shows off a bit of scared side again…not to mention a little bit of jealousy towards Yuuko. I have no idea what’s going to happen next week…despite the stuff about the second spirit. It was in the room with Kirie and Momoe, but that didn’t look like something that will be continued next week. Will it be more randomness? Or will the investigation begin?