The following contains spoilers for Episode 1 of Housing Complex C, “Optical Illusion,” now streaming onAdult Swim.
As October rolls around and things get more and more in the Halloween spirit, even the fall anime season is starting to take notice of the time of year. With its limited-run miniseriesHousing Complex C, [adult swim] is releasing a show that is both the perfect size for the October zeitgeist and a worth addition to the original programming onits time-tested Toonami block.
Serving as the first of a series of original anime produced by Toonami head Jason DeMarco,Housing Complex Cis a multifaceted mystery-horror produced by [adult swim] label Williams Street and anime studio Akatsuki. In the first of the limited series’ four episodes, characters are introduced and dynamics are set up for a miniseries that shows promise, if not a bit of tonal clash at times.
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Urban Horror
Housing Complex Cthus far centers around two young girls, Yuri and Kimi, who live in a run-down housing project on a small seaside town in Japan. Just as Yuri is arriving as the daughter of a work administrator and adapting to the odd new setting, Kimi witnesses the opening of a strange, abandoned part of the complex that houses somebizarre and terrifying secrets. The series is a combination of mystery and horror, and it uses its titular setting to create an uncanny, bizarre atmosphere.
Interesting Plot, Multifaceted Tones
While the series plot moves in a way that keeps things interesting, the first episode of the series shifts focus and tone in a way that can be at times disarming. The subdued horror feeling recalls elements ofBoogiepop Phantom, whereas the grisly, concrete setting almost lends itself towards the aesthetics of live-action J-horror likeDark Wateror the general oeuvre of its director Hideo Nakata. The gruff conversations between the older tenants of the housing complex feel cut short tonally by the cute demeanor of Kimi, signaled by an upbeat music change and complete with greater-than-less-than pictographic eyes and a saccharine cat-dress design feeling more at home withBee and Puppycatthan Junji Ito.
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The plot so far seems like it could almost work just as easily in live-action as it could in anime so far, though the anime-isms of music choice and expressive voice acting have a habit of guiding the tone moreso than the plot itself. At one point the tone and editing style are done in a way so as to make Kimi showing her friend Yuri a dead animal seem less unsettlingly dramatic than the two coming across some unsettling scribbles taped to a wall. At other times, the artist behind the scribbles—a NEET—is shown in a way that is edited and scored to build tension but, with the context given thus far, almost seems kind of goofy. The initial shots of the opening imply some sort of strangecult-like activityat some point, the characters see unnatural creatures out of the corners of their eyes, and the intuitions of the barely-seen NEET have their own Lovecraftian aesthetic.
What to Consider for the Rest of the Series
On the whole, despite some tonal hiccups and a wide set of influences and comparisons, the first episode ofHousing Complex Cdoes keep a good level of interest. The elements of the horror mystery are multifaceted, though definitely not predictable.
With its total runtime of four episodes clocking in at less than you would expect from a feature film (especially taking out the time for the OP and credits), the effective usage of time in these next episodes will make all the difference. There are a lot of balls in the air thus far, but that’s everything needed to set up something really interesting to stand againsta competitive fall anime season.
