Episode 11 – Dark Gathering

One thing I haven’t mentioned about Dark Gathering is how its shonen-magazine origins and comparatively longer run as an anime adaptation have become apparent in its episode structures as of late. Specifically, episodes like this one start with a repeat of the last several minutes of the preceding episode, recapping the situation before bringing us to the installment’s actual plot some 3-5 minutes in. It’s not the most egregious element in the grand scheme of things, but it is noticeable. On the one hand, it’s an obvious time/resource-saving element. On the other hand, it can be argued as a useful tool for preserving the pacing of the episode’s plot properly, which is extra important in a series aiming for horror like this one.

That last point is good to bring up for this week’s episode since it’s going all-in on the show’s spookier elements, and pulling it off tightly. It does so by leveraging our experience with Dark Gathering up to this point as much as the characters’ expectations about how things have gone so far. Yayoi has tons of experience busting ghosts already; Hell, she claimed to have defeated a god before in last week’s episode. She and Keitaro’s working relationship has leveled up in terms of trust and reliance, with Keitaro himself being just a bit more composed in the face of all these freaks and creeps. And they’re gearing up to capture another deity-level threat anyway, so why shouldn’t they be able to confidently stride into the territory of an S-Rank apparition and expect to handle themselves just fine?

Overconfidence is the undoing of so many, but even before this episode makes it clear just how outclassed Keitaro and Yayoi are in this case, Dark Gathering succeeds at marking this excursion as “different” from their other adventures. They specifically don’t have Eiko along in any capacity, for one thing. Yayoi having Keitaro bring them to Castle H is something of an impulsive choice, and probably not the most sharply planned decision, in hindsight. So nothing is approaching any comic-relief banter between Keitaro and his goofy girlfriend, and the way his and Yayoi’s direct trust in each other has developed means their communication is decidedly more direct and serious this go-around as well. That’s how the presentation of the show makes the difference here apparent: There are virtually no jokes wild takes or goofy asides, only rising dread as we and our heroes wonder what they’ve walked into.

The show’s usual modest production values are making the most of themselves with this material. The monochrome shades of the woods in the dark of the night are extremely well-represented, as Yayoi and Keitaro wind up lost and separated among visions that continually leave them uncertain of where they were supposed to be going in the first place. But what drives up the atmosphere in this establishing stretch is the sound design. The episode makes terrific use of brief musical cues and stings that only serve to get our attention and then give way to some of the most audible, ominous silence I’ve heard utilized in a while in something like this. It is heavy in the way that was needed to convey the weight of the dread the characters feel in this place, communicating the vibes of how something is Wrong even before the just-established trust between Yayoi and Keitaro is mercilessly manipulated by the entity they’ve chosen to antagonize.

The context of Keitaro and Yayoi’s offensive approach and what the spirits they’re confronting are actually about is the other big, defining element of this one. As described by Yayoi at the beginning, the S-Rank apparitions of Castle H are extremely powerful, but generally benign in terms of coming after or cursing those who set foot in their domain. It thus speaks to Yayoi’s pragmatic, not-necessarily-nice approach to her work that she’s willing to try to entrap these spirits anyway, for the overall sake of saving those like Ai or her mother. Whether that’s right is, at this moment, left to some misgivings by Keitaro, which the ghosts of the castle readily exploit in their intimidation of him. The numerous violent visions and fake-outs he’s treated ring as scary because they are supposed to instill pure fear as a deterrent. That’s how outclassed our main characters are at this point: These spirits absolutely could decisively defeat Yayoi and Keitaro, and instead opt to scare the bejeezus out of them to make a point.

That is toyed with by the end. The scene Keitaro stumbles upon of Yayoi having been hung from a noose is some spectral setup, but it still drives home for Keitaro and us how in over their heads our heroes have gotten. Yes, we don’t doubt that the characters will ultimately survive this encounter, but there’s still that huge question of whether they’re going to succeed in their aim of defeating and trapping these spirits, or if they’ll end up having to retreat in the admission of their shortcomings, and the power of the meaning behind the sacrifices of the people at this castle. This is only the informal first stop on the planned long-running ghost tour of Tokyo, which sells the work the characters have cut out for them going forward. So it’s sufficiently scary for us thanks to the show’s audiovisual efforts. But it’s also scary in-story, for the characters, because it’s all making them think that maybe they never had a chance to begin with.

Rating:

Dark Gathering is currently streaming on
HIDIVE.

Chris knows that summer is the perfect time for spooky stories, and hopefully, it’s enough to distract him from this blistering Fresno heat wave. You can help distract him further by bothering him on his Twitter (for however much longer that lasts), or check out his less-scary musings over on his blog.