Requiem from the Darkness User Reviews

This was quite the fun and twisted little horror title. Requiem from the Darkness depicts an episodic series of feudal era horror stories depicting mysterious and brutal murders with an element of mystery as writer Momosuke and the trio of mysterious detectives known as the Ongyou are caught up in uncovering details on the murders. Each of the episodes give a decent amount of focus on the central characters of each episode for their background and their connections to the murders. In particular, the episodes feature a strong exploration on the more darker and uglier elements to humanity as each of the culprits revealed for being responsible for the murders depict crimes that present humanity at its worst such as cannibalism, lust, greed and implications of necrophilia. The visuals to the series are quite often on the bizarre side as normal looking character designs blend in with abstract background designs, rough looking camera work, grotesque-looking character designs and unusual use of color. This abstract style is very effective at depicting the horrific nature of the scenes of the culprits killing off their victims and showing just how twisted and dark that they can be for humans.

The prominent characters of this series, Momosuke and the Ongyou, do get their glimpses of focus at points throughout the series while the episodic tales of horror-mystery. While the Ongyou do come across as evil at first glance, they actually come across with shades of grey morality as more details concerning their involvement in the mysteries of this series are unveiled. Momosuke's desire to venture with the Ongyou lead him deeper into the darker reality of human behavior with the culprits who seemingly appear as well-mannered and friendly folk on the surface until he learns more about their dark pasts which lead him to question his own morality with how he judges said people after learning of their true nature.

The series does have some issues. While enough is explored on Momosuke's character to know about him and the nature of the Ongyou, the series never really delves into details on the individual pasts of two of the three members of the Ongyou. Ogin is the most fleshed out of the trio with some hints dropped about Nagamimi and nothing even revealed on Mataichi. The series also tosses in a mediocre linear plot development involving the superior of the Ongyou having his own dark plans which is a typical plot setup you would have seen enough of out of conventional anime titles.

Despite some gripes though, Requiem from the Darkness made for a solid horror/ mystery title with its abstract presentation being effective in enhancing the show's horrific moments and doing a solid focus in its exploration on the dark, twisted side of human morality.