Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「Key -Phase 1-」 by 大輔小野 (Daisuke Ono)
Watch the OP!: Download, Streaming ▼
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「File 01: 開かずの間」 (File 01: Akazu no Ma)
“The Forbidden Room”
I never read the manga for an anime I’m going to watch, since it usually builds unwanted expectations. When I learned that Yakumo blew through over 120 pages of material in just one episode, I couldn’t help but take a gander at the manga. And now I really, really regret that I do. I mean, imagine having to cover 120 pages of manga material, over 40 pages per chapter, in just one 30 minute episode. Can it be done?
Shinrei Tantei Yakumo focuses on our main protagonist Saitou Yakumo (Ono Daisuke), who possesses the ability to see dead souls with his left eye, which is coincidentally red. At first he comes off as a rude jerk who doesn’t have any interest in anything. He is unkempt, is sleeping all the time, and even attempts to charge a cute girl for his “services” (some of which he can’t even provide). Not only does he try to charge her, he even has tax included in his total, wants money upfront, and provides the most snobby reasoning for charging her. On the other hand, our cute girl Ozawa Haruka (Fujimura Ayumi), who’s on the receiving end of Saitou’s harsh comments, also has problems of her own. She requires his help to save her best friend who’s been possessed after visiting a house rumored to be haunted. She is also not able to live with her past, as she feels responsible for her twin sister’s death then they were children. Feeling so guilty about what happened to her little sister, she hasn’t spoken to anyone about what had happened. And it’s right here, just as Haruka is about to leave, not able to stand Saitou’s personality, when Saitou begins blurting out details about Haruka’s twin sister. Not the most subtle way to express to a girl that you want to help her, but still super effective.
At this point, the story jumps into full blown “solve the mystery” mode. After Saitou visits Haruka’s friend Miki in the hospital, he see’s that she is actually being possessed by spirits. Spirits of girls who have been murdered inside of the haunted house. The only way to remove the spirit from Miki is to remove the cause of their deaths (In this case, the person who murdered them). And so the hunt for the killer begins. I’m going to hide the details inside a spoiler tag, since I hate when people ruin mystery stories. What I can say, is that by the end of the episode, Saitou’s inner nature is clearly revealed. Deep down, I feel that he is a caring person who enjoys helping others. While his outer shell would make it seem like he is the complete jerk, helping Haruka finally put her past to rest and saving her friend Miki really makes him seem like an outstanding person. Not to mention that he exhibits his super accurate skills of deduction and careful interpretation of facts. Then again, those dead souls probably give him all the help he needs.
As I’ve stated earlier, I never read the manga for any anime I’m currently watching (I also prefer to read physical copies), and while the first episode of Yakumo managed to blow through over 120 pages of material, removing different parts from the first case, and skipping over numerous sub-plots, I think the anime itself is still pretty good. If you think about it, you would never know anything was missing if you never read the manga, right? What I was hoping for more of, was more of a creepy feeling, like when the hairs on your back get stiff. Something which the manga delivers, but the anime doesn’t. The general idea of what was supposed to happen came across clearly, but the episode itself just seems a tad rushed. I mean, two characters died in one episode, the main culprit was arrested, and Haruka’s best friend was saved. While I’d hope for a slower pace, with such a tight schedule (13 episodes) to fit into, it looks like that it’s gonna be moving fast no matter what. Look at what the economy does to anime :(. On the voice acting side of things, I enjoy listening to Ono Daisuke, and with his serious voice, I think that he can sound pretty scary. With Fujimura Ayumi, I have never heard her until now, but I think her voice fits perfect with Haruka. She has this slight lisp which I love, and I think she just sounds cute. With the previews focusing on a creepy looking guy with shades, a little kid, and a mask wearing spirit, I really hope that Yakumo becomes more creepy as we get deeper into the story. That, and maybe pacing could be a bit better.
ED Sequence
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ED: 「Missing You」 by コミネ・リサ (Komine Lisa)
Watch the ED!: Download, Streaming ▼
I don’t have too much to say for the opening and ending sequences, other then the opening sequence does give me the creepy vibes that I want to get while watching Yakumo. The ending sequence isn’t anything special, but the song and lyrics are nice. With such a strong piano and violin combination, the song really gives off a warm vibe. (Kind of the opposite of what I’m trying to get from Yakumo, but I still like it none the less)
Preview
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am I… first? D:
Well this series seems a pretty interesting one!
I’m glad I chose this and Bakuman to watch this season.
I guess the fan base for Yakumo isnt that big as Bakuman.I mean I checked for the subbed episode at around Monday it was still not subbed (I didnt check it now.I posted without reading the summary coz it would spoil the fun).
Anyways I’ll be following your posts every week for these 2 🙂
Actually randomc has got so many viewers!I like the posts of Divine and Prooof!
This is my first time (or second after reading Bakuman :P) reading your posts.
The only part where I feel a little disappointed is that all comments dont get feedback from the writers…well thats pretty much understandable since u get so many as 60 comments for most of the popular posts!
Thanks for the compliments (:
I’m glad that there are people even reading my posts, since I am a new writer and all. I am watching everything I’m covering raw and subbed. I’m not pro enough to do everything raw, yet (:
I love responding to comments since I love getting comments. It’s hard to respond to all of them, but I do read all of them! I’ll put in more of an effort though :p
The bloggers at RC do a great job of reading through comments and replying (although infrequently–understandable since there are so many comments!).
Might I suggest, Fai, if you like more interaction with the bloggers, to check out smaller aniblogs that have less readership? It might be a little difficult to find a smaller blog in which the shows you are interested in are followed…but if you do find one, it’ll be quite worth it. I’ve been following RC for about 2 years now (and it’s magnificent), but I also started following T.H.A.T Anime Blog and the amount of interaction I get with the bloggers is amazing! 🙂
I never said I dont enjoy reading the posts in here!
In fact RC is the only site till now (maybe after Star Crossed) which I have seen are so punctual with their posts!
Well yeah you are right about the interacting with bloggers part.Hmm..I am following lots of anime blogs (Sea Slugs,Star Crossed,Random Curiosity,Baka Raptor,Listless Ink,THAT and Kurogane).You pretty much pointed out correctly that all blogs wont blog about the series in which you are interested in!
Well I wasnt pointing out the mistake or something…its just that when your comment gets a feedback from the readers,it makes commenting enjoyable,which inspires you to make more comments that someone actually is reading your comment!
And @ Takaii
I saw the episode now!
It was great!I’m gonna see this series every week and as mentioned before,be a regular reader 🙂
Haha yeah I understand you do your best 🙂
I always take time to read the comments. I’m glad you liked the episode (:
I’m trying to get all my posts out within a few days of something airing, so I will try to be a punctual as possible for ya 😉
Ah btw do u watch it subbed or RAW?
Hm, was surprised to find out that this show is actually pretty good. While it did feel slightly rushed, overall, I do believe that the episode managed to convey the story well enough and yet gave both main characters sufficient characterization.
That little girl looks like that girl from H.o.T.d.
No wonder this looks so familiar when I first watched it.
I have read the manga. Well it’s pretty good considering they are to squeezing in like…3-4 manga chapters into 1 episode.
Well, anyway from what I have read so far (the manga), it actually isn’t scary at all. Well it’s usually some explanation on the supernatural stuffs and Yakumo finding ways to stop it while Haruka trying to help, usually ends up more as a bother. Still there IS a touch of romance here so it’s not that bad.
It’s that touch of romance that makes Saito feel like he’s a nice guy. :p
if u’ve never heard Ayumi Fujiwara and u think she’s cute in this one, u should go watch Kaichou wa Maid-sama XD.
second that!!!
now we really need a second season… feeling sad it is already over…
that show was one of my favorite last season 🙂
Divine actually recommended that one to me. I hear it’s very slice of life, with some really funny humor. There are so many things that I need to still watch 😐
But, for this week, there’s Bakuman, Soredemo Machi, (maybe Iron man? who knows :p) that I need to blog, and a whole bunch of others I want to watch.
I underestimated this one. Never going to judge an anime by fall picture preview only. pretty interesting though
well… since you said it… now I really want to know what happens in the 120 pages of manga…
but nonetheless, the episode itself wasn’t bad 🙂 In fact, I really like it
So the guy with both eyes red are supposed to be the villain here? It seems the show is trying to make a connection between that guy’s eyes and Yakumo’s …
I don’t know :/
I get the feeling that, he might actually not be a bad guy. Who knows. 12 more episodes to find out.
Argh. I read part of the manga a while ago, not expecting it to be made into an anime, and… ugh. Seriously awful. Thankfully the translation of the manga hit a standstill, so maybe I’ll be able to enjoy later episodes since I won’t know about the butchering of source material.
I also agree with you. I haven’t read its manga yet, but I was really expecting something creepier than what this episode had delivered. For example, during the potential tense moments victory-like music was playing which only made me facepalm. I think the impression that the opening sequence provides doesn’t stay throughout the whole episode. And I could feel that the whole case was rushed, it looked too simple and got resolved fast. But overall, I liked the episode, even though I was expecting more.
So there’s a novel, huh? I found out about it only today. Gotta read this one then…
I would have liked to to been creepier, but I mean, when you have a limited budget and a limited amount of episodes, you gotta sacrifice something.
Even if it was mind games, I’d be okay with that. Like with H.O.T.D, because the zombies just came out of nowhere, and it effected the whole world, it kept making me think “What if something like this happened in the real world?” Then, I would get nervous for a second and stop thinking about such stupid things -.-
There are two different versions of Shinrei Tantei Yakumo manga with the same story line. Shinrei Tantei Yakumo and Shinrei Tantei Yakumo -Akai hitomi wa shitteiru… O__o’
I don’t know too much about the mangas, except that the one I read was Akai Hitmoi wa shitteiru. Since it looks like that the anime generally followed that story line, I’m assuming it’s this one that they are gonna base it off of.
I just realized the one by Oda Suzuka is the one the anime is following. If you read that it’s actually a lot closer to the anime….
Ok i’m sold on this. Will hae to schedule watching this to check it out for real.
Wow Haruka was lucky she met Yakumo (whose name keeps reminding me of the School Rumble girl :p) while still alive or else she would be joining Yuri’s SSS. No bad, the fact Yakumo acknowledges the possibility of Haruka’s point of view shows true intellect
this series reminds me a LOT of “ghost hunt,” although less creepy as you mentioned, primarily because each case seems to be resolved in one episode rather than the 3 or 4 episodes ghost hunt used. yakumo strikes me as very much like naru – i didn’t see his explanation for charging haruka as snobby so much as pragmatic. it was true, after all – they were neither friends nor lovers, so why should he not charge her for his services? his price was maybe a bit steep, all things considered, but that’s all.
yakumo telling haruka what he knew about her twin sister came across to me as him proving his powers were authentic. she had just caught him cheating at the card trick, after all, and decided to leave thinking he was just a scam artist. so he proved he was the real deal by telling her something only she would know.
i actually got quite choked up by the last scene, and the opening and ending themes were good too. i can tell i’m really going to like this show.
I haven’t watched ghost hunt, so I can’t comment about him being like Naru. However, he just came off snobby when he insisted that – Yes, I want you to pay me. I even included tax, just for you! And, I want a down payment upfront. kthxbai.
When he revealed he could see spirits (and you know, not exorcise them or anything), that’s when I started to embrace his character more. And yeah, with the last scene, it was really touching. If it had followed the manga path, it’d probably have gotten more emotion out of me (and I’m a sucker for things like that).
Glad that you enjoyed the snow though (:
this and zakuro were surprisingly okay.
So, Kazuma(Ono Daisuke) and Ayano(Fujimura Ayumi)*Kaze no Stigma* combi again?
Oh hell yeah!
Anyway, it sure feels like Bee Train’s rushing through the material to fit what they want to cover in a 13-episode time frame. Unfortunately, a lot of the eery effect is lost in the process.
Also, in the current manga remake in publication, they changed who the culprit is in this first case.
I haven’t read the manga so I didn’t notice it was rushed so much. I enjoyed this 1st episode. It kind of reminds me of a darker Natsumi Yujincho. Both series feature a main character that can see spirits. Natsume Yujincho is a great series but is more easy going and not quite so drama filled. I’m hoping we get to see a 3rd season of Natsume.
Wow, I am so glad I picked out this anime to watch.
Guh.. now I’m scared of reading the manga in case I start ranting at every episode of this.
Creepy would have been nice. Personally, I think the spirit possession scene was pretty good with that, but the rest was just a major letdown. Sigh… well hopefully it’ll get better later. All I’m getting right now are some half-hearted action/mystery vibes, and nothing of the “HOLY CRAP WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!!?” variety 🙁
I just skimmed through the manga; however, I kind of like how this was pulled off in the anime. It’s too bad we never see the basement, that would have made it creepier. Other than that though, I don’t have much to complain about. The characters even seem more likable in this version.
Good post Takaii, I share your sentiments. Also, we can only hope for that one creepy/jarring show to be the ‘revolutionary’ one that comes along and makes you go “WTF?” and “COOL!”. Still too early to find out though. 😛
I’m glad i watched this, i enjoyed this first episode as much as bakuman.
hmm, not bad show from the position of someone who didnt read the manga
really liked the voice acting, the “cool guy” vibes of Yakumo are really excellent
I was going wtf, four or five girls go missing on the campus and police isnt doing anything?
the deceased sister watching over haruka was nice touch
I thought the soundtrack to this series was awesome. It reminds me of Devil May Cry. Also, does anyone know, is this series based more off the original novel or off the manga? or is there actually any difference between the novel and manga besides the medium itself?
So far this is the only series which disappointed me after reading the preview. It was a pathetic mystery. So pathetic I could immediately determine the culprit the very first time he appeared. And overall the pacing was far too rushed. What did they get trapped in a burning building for? Did they give that guy half an hour to prepare to burn that house down or what? And all that perfect evidence was just waiting to be found. I hope ep 2 will be a lot better or I’ll drop this series.
Did you not see he was pouring gasoline before he lit the place on fire? He ran away, during this time Yakumo was untying the girl. This left ample time for him to empty a canister of gasoline on the floor. And then, in case you don’t know anything about fires, fire spreads out across the whole building easily and quickly. And naturally evidence has to be somewhere the main character can find, otherwise he wouldn’t find it and it’d be a boring mystery show. That’s basic for any media. Your complaints so like you’re just looking for any reason to hate the show
Oh I did see it, however no way that measly littly container could burn the building down that quickly. Nor would they take nearly as long to get out. It was just a forced plotdevice.
Same with the evidence. Oh look there are these tracks on otherwise pristine ground and they lead straight to all the evidence which is really just waiting there to be found. Totally forced.
My complaints are because this show failed really bad at that. I have seen mysteries do a good thing at these things and this first episode just fell short in comparison.
I became a fan of this series thanks to the Akai Hitomi wa Shitteiru 2-volume manga. So after hearing that Yakumo was going to be turned into an anime, I was mostly excited about watching this and Bakuman for the Fall season. Tho… not knowing much about the novel series (since the anime is suppose to be based off the novel series), I hope it’s not going to be toooo rushed per episode. There were different changes between all the medias for Yakumo (*is currently reading the Oda version of the ongoing manga*), but the first episode wasn’t tooo bad. I enjoyed it.. especially the voice acting and the characters that didn’t appear in Akai Hitomi wa Shitteiru volumes.
if they didn’t want a tight schedule, they should stop making so many 13 episode anime. o_o
Anyway, I thought it was okay. Since I’m a big fan of analyzation and cases, I wish this were slower paced enough for me to see that side of the case.
Since it skipped over that, which I thought was really important to any detective show, I’m going to say this episode was way to rushed. I’m disappointed, and I’ve never even read the manga.
Beh so this is based on the remake version. I didn’t read that. No wonder I didn’t recognize that creepy combi at the end of the episode. If I recalled correctly, the next arc should be about this ghost who died in a tunnel. >.<
The tunnel one is gonna be episode 3, Syncrhonicity. Anime don’t usually follow the chain of events left in manga/novels.
I actually found this episode to be quite creepy, although I definitely felt that Shiki was creepier.
I feel like I’ve read this manga a while back, but I guess it didn’t really leave a strong impression. Maybe the anime will spark my interest in it again–seems pretty generic atm.
Thanks for the review, Takaii!
I usually watch the first episode first and then dive right into the manga ’cause I don’t wanna wait. lol I.. am probably gonna do that with this one. XD I’m especially curious to see what they left out.. o:
I also felt like the first episode was kinda rushed when I watched it a couple of days ago. Even though I was disappointed by the way Bee Train executed the first episode, I’m hopeful that next will be better. I wouldn’t mind if they span two episodes to solve a case and leave a nice cliffhanger to the first episode so that fans who have yet to read the manga would come back for more. Well, that’s my opinion anyway. (But seeing this series is only a one cour series, I know why they wanted to cover everything and leave the sub-plot behind).
To be honest, I like the first adaptation of the manga better. Maybe because Haruka looks a bit josei-ish. Lol. But Yakumo in the second adaptation is more good looking. I found both manga to be quite creepy at times and as you pointed out, the anime doesn’t give the same creepy vibes. Let’s just hope that the rest of the series won’t turn up as a cheesy ghost hunt (and I don’t mean the series Ghost Hunt).
I’ll wait to see what the final word is about the show. :] I don’t wanna be disappointed. I can’t really see this (right now) as a show anywhere close to being as creepy and skin crawling as Ghost Hound. –shivers– If it is though, I’m down.
ok im literally back from doing a real speedy “tachi-yomi” lol and I noticed how Divine said that it was really different from the anime, and boy he sure is right. Even haruka’s sister looked different. It really showed how the creepiness got washed away.bummer. I miss ghost hunt…
ooohh finally yakumo! I just read the manga and really love this series. so when I saw this on fall anime preview I went “wuuuutt!?” XD XD this episode is kinda rushed but that’s fine though I did enjoy it.
Isn’t this a shoujo?
Only problem I had with the episode was, quite frankly, the motive of the killer. Why did he kill? And how did he know people were entering that haunted building? Is it his home or something?
What also bothered me was how overly obvious the stuff from the girls murdered before were just there, left behind only half buried. And a nice visible trail to guide you there. I mean, what the fuck? Couldn’t this killer be a bit more careful for something THAT obvious leading to stuff that has his and the murdered girls’ fingerprints on it?
Besides that, all was fine. Perhaps the animation could be less plain, but that’s just nitpicking.
There’s hardly any lick of originality in this, but it does have it’s good parts. It shall be my time-waster of the Fall season.